# My Grape-Nuts are bugging me out!! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 13, 2004, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-grape-nuts-are-bugging-me-out/228955 "2004-02-13T01:14:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![wobg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90ced4/32.png) [@wobg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wobg)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-grape-nuts-are-bugging-me-out/228955/21 "2004-02-13T23:03:31Z")
As an aside, your grandmother had flour sifters which served two purposes–one to make to flour finer and–well you can guess what the other purpose was. > [@UnclePoo](#): > > About a year ago I came home late from a night of drinking with a bad case of the munchies. I had nothing better to eat so I poured myself a nice big-ole bowl of Grape-Nuts cereal. > No problem!! > The next morning when I awoke, I poured myself another bowl for breakfast. Problem!! > Thanks to the light of day I noticed that quite a few of my Grape-Nuts were floating. > Hmmmmmm… > Upon further review I realized that they were not floating pieces of cereal but nasty little ant-like BUGS!! > I quickly dumped the bowl in the toilet and threw the box outside into the garbage to only later realize later in the day that I must have swallowed about 50 of those suckers the night before… Awwgh!! > Since then I have always made sure to keep one of those oversized “BAG CLIPS” on all of my cereal and I always do a pre bug check on any box of cereal that sits more than a week. What can I say…? That freaked me out!! > Last night while getting ready to eat another bowl of Grape-Nuts and regardless of my “BAG CLIP”, guess what I found floating in there again??? > There is no way that over a hundred more bugs could have Houdinied their way past my defenses. > What gives? > I checked all of the other cereal boxes and other foodstuffs in the area and all came up uncontaminated. > Has anyone else had unwanted friends over for a Grape-Nut breakfast?? > I find it real odd that with all of the cereal I eat this has happened to me twice with the same product. ---
**Author:** ![GopherGod72](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f0a364/32.png) [@GopherGod72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GopherGod72)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-grape-nuts-are-bugging-me-out/228955/22 "2004-02-13T23:19:22Z")
red flour beetle (Tribolium castaneum) most likely. …yes the eggs were already there. They are in most grain products and its unavoidable. I had a college biology class where we raised them for a study on nothing but wheat flour. If you notice beetles… look closer theres probably hundreds more almost microsopic translucent larve that look like miniature maggots. ---
**Author:** ![Kneepants\_Erasmus\_the\_Humanist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/54ee81/32.png) [@Kneepants\_Erasmus\_the\_Humanist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kneepants_Erasmus_the_Humanist)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2004, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-grape-nuts-are-bugging-me-out/228955/23 "2004-02-14T02:13:16Z")
I used to LOVE Grape-Nuts…until I noticed those little black bugs. They weren’t moving around or anything, but like was mentioned, just floated up to the top. Upon closer inspection…bugs. That has happened with every box of Grape-Nuts I can recall eating. I find bugs…resolve to never eat that crap again…awhile later forgot why I had stopped eating them-“wow I haven’t had grape nuts in a long time…yum”-same damn bugs. I have not had this problem with any other cereal. The only other gross food related story I have is: living in the southeast u.s., there are pecan trees everywhere…I loved grabbing handfuls off the ground until I opened one and a maggot crawled out…after I already ate half of it (the pecan, not the maggot…luckily) That was the last time I ate a pecan I found on the ground. Thanks **Q.E.D.** …I had read that before and forced myself to forget it. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![VernWinterbottom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/c67d28/32.png) [@VernWinterbottom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VernWinterbottom)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2004, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-grape-nuts-are-bugging-me-out/228955/24 "2004-02-14T03:39:38Z")
Hey gang, Most of us eat chicken (and their eggs), steers, lambs, pigs, fish, mollusks, crustaceans and sundry other critters. We also drink animals’ milk and eat products created by the breaking down of that milk by “live cultures,” enzymes and other stuff. Do you folks know what Jell-O is made of? What’s the big deal here? It makes the ceral part of a balanced breakfast. ---
**Author:** ![VernWinterbottom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/c67d28/32.png) [@VernWinterbottom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VernWinterbottom)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2004, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-grape-nuts-are-bugging-me-out/228955/25 "2004-02-14T03:41:02Z")
That would be _cereal_ . . . ---
**Author:** ![Meeko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Meeko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meeko)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2004, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-grape-nuts-are-bugging-me-out/228955/26 "2004-02-14T08:39:41Z")
Am I the only one who wants to buy a box a Grape nuts now, for the first time, just to check this out? If Rice Krispies go snap crackle pop… ---
**Author:** ![Eleusis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Eleusis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleusis)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2004, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-grape-nuts-are-bugging-me-out/228955/27 "2004-02-14T09:08:01Z")
> [@pilot141](#): > > I was in college and on some weekend morning I was scrounging for food. I looked at the box of Grape Nuts and said “Sure, I’ll be healthy this morning after all those beers last night”. I poured myself a bowl and before I put in the milk I noticed something strange. > > Was I seeing things? Was I still drunk? No and no. My Grape Nuts were MOVING. The pile of pebbles was animate! Upon closer inspection I noticed that it was the many, many small maggot-like life-forms infesting my bowl that were moving. Tiny, white three-millimeter long worms. I then looked into the box and sure enough the Grape Nuts in the box had also been endowed with life. That the worms were _big enough to see **in the box** , and **moving** _, is a big sign to me that you woke up on _ **LSD** _. Not that you would do that sort of thing normally, but maybe somebody _dosed you_. How could Grape Nuts have even enough moisture to support MAGGOTS? Did the box get rained in? I respect you, and enjoy your posts, **pilot141**. I just hope that you’re wrong, and I’m right. If not, maybe you can just _pretend_ I’m right and live happy without that image forever haunting your brain. ---
**Author:** ![pilot141](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e0b2c6/32.png) [@pilot141](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pilot141)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2004, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-grape-nuts-are-bugging-me-out/228955/28 "2004-02-14T14:30:36Z")
**Eleusis** I’ve spent most of my adult life trying to erase that image from my mind. Considering that stories tend to “grow” over time and many retellings, I re-read my post. It’s still true, although somewhat dramatic. Whatever was in my cereal was alive and squirming. When one of the things moved, it caused all the Grape Nuts around it to move as well. It’s not like there were hundreds of the things - there were maybe ten or fifteen in the bowl and fewer than that visible in the box. I did look at the bowl several times to convince myself that the things were, in fact, alive. I lost my appetite and spent the rest of the day trying to get rid of that creepy, heebie-jeebie feeling (unsuccessfully, I might add). I have no explanation for what was in my cereal, and never tried to figure out what it was at the time. I DO remember that it was a fall semester and I’d moved into a house with two other people. Since I was the typical poor college student it’s entirely possible that the box of Grape Nuts spent the summer in a cardboard box with other dried foods, clothes, books or whatever else I thought worthy of keeping. Concern for said box over the summer ranged from “Where can I store this?” to “Where did I put that?” (in other words - not much). I’m going with a reasoning of long storage in less-than optimum conditions (with the plastic already opened, BTW) as the cause of the infestation. At least that allows me to sleep at night. Now, if someone dosed me with LSD wouldn’t I see melting walls and hear purple music and all that stuff? 🙂 I doubt that I could use that story anyway - what would you think if you boarded an airliner and you overheard one of the pilots saying “Yeah, well once when I was on LSD I thought my Grape Nuts were ALIVE, dude! It was wild - moving cereal!” Thanks for the concern, though. BTW, there’s a box of Grape Nuts in the cupboard right now that is probably doomed to go uneaten. ---
**Author:** ![fluiddruid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fluiddruid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fluiddruid)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2004, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-grape-nuts-are-bugging-me-out/228955/29 "2004-02-14T17:46:31Z")
Regarding the OP: I had the SAME experience with Grape-Nuts many years ago with the tiny floating bugs! I eat a lot of cereal, but there’s a quick turnaround and nothing else got buggy but the Grape-Nuts. I’ve never had as major bug problem with another cereal - 30 of the dang things floating to the surface. This actually happened more than once, so as much as I like them, I don’t eat Grape-Nuts anymore because of the strong association I have with those floating bugs. Maybe it’s the shape - they easily allow the floating bugs to the surface of the milk? ---
**Author:** ![UnclePoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/edb3f5/32.png) [@UnclePoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UnclePoo)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2004, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-grape-nuts-are-bugging-me-out/228955/30 "2004-02-14T17:55:24Z")
Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!! Some corroborating evidence!! Thanks people. I knew that my cupboards were not harboring raiding parties. I know that bugs are all over the place but it is a dreadful thought to think about just how much they are (unwillingly) part of our diet. I don’t think that I want to know exactly how contaminated our foodstuffs really must be. While in college I worked part time at a seafood counter in a supermarket. Part of my job was to cut the parasites out of the Swordfish steaks and to pull the worms off of the Cod filets (nasty little white ones). I guess they are just all over the freakin place!! Damn!! I wish I hadn’t asked now!! ---
**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2004, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-grape-nuts-are-bugging-me-out/228955/31 "2004-02-14T20:17:44Z")
Why can’t they just gamma ray the hell out of the food? Will that ruin its healthiness or something, or is it too expensive? While the FDA might not mind, I’d have to say the association of seeing live grubs in my cereal bowl would make me a non-customer, no matter how much I knew that those suckers are all over everything I eat anyway. Thankfully, this hasn’t happened to me with Grape Nuts. But I once opened a very, very old box of Cheerios… ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2004, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-grape-nuts-are-bugging-me-out/228955/32 "2004-02-14T20:23:26Z")
> [@erislover](#): > > Why can’t they just gamma ray the hell out of the food? Will that ruin its healthiness or something…? Gamma is highly ionizing. Such treatment would likely destroy a significant amount of the nutritive value of both the food and the bugs therein. ---
**Author:** ![cookeze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19b73/32.png) [@cookeze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cookeze)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2004, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-grape-nuts-are-bugging-me-out/228955/33 "2004-02-15T03:18:56Z")
Do you have a magnifying glass? Go here to check out some of the critters you might have been dining on: [http://www.hydrexheat.com/pests/pantry.html](http://www.hydrexheat.com/pests/pantry.html) When I took up bread baking I got an infestation of Indian meal moths in my flours and grains. I threw most of everything out, vacuumed the storage area, and got plastic containers. That gets rid of them all, but if you want them to stay away you should spread bay leaves wherever you keep any dry goods—pet foods, bird seed, cereals, peanuts, spices, grains, beans, flour, crackers, etc. In case you’re interested, it’s red wine with the dark bugs, white with the light ones. \ ---
**Author:** ![Madness2MyMethod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Madness2MyMethod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Madness2MyMethod)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2004, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-grape-nuts-are-bugging-me-out/228955/34 "2004-02-15T04:55:56Z")
I will never eat grape nuts again. **Never.** [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-grape-nuts-are-bugging-me-out/228955.md?page=1)