Weevils

Post by Tigger2 from our forum:

Weevils

Where do they come from? How do they get in your food?

You just bought a bag of beans. You looked at that bag and did not see any weevils. You put that bag of beans up for six months. You come back to look again and you got weevils or bugs. The female weevil bores a small hole(think microscopic) in the bean while the bean is still on the vine. She lays her eggs in that hole. The hole is way too small to see.
When you bring the beans, flour or corn meal home, the food gets warm and warmth is what the weevil eggs need to hatch. The weevils are not there but the eggs are.
The eggs hatch and then you got baby weevils. Soon after that you got adult weevils.
You need to treat the dry food that you store up. This includes dry beans, flour and corn meal. If you don't treat the food the eggs will hatch and spread like wild fire. The weevils will go to your pasta and everything else.
There are two ways to treat the stored food: freezing and heating. If applied properly, either cold or heat will kill the weevil eggs. I have found from working with it that freezing is the easier method. I just throw my beans, flour and corn meal in the freezer for at least 72 hours. Most modern freezers are set at around 0 degrees F. That is enough cold to do the job. The job is killing the eggs not getting rid of them. There is no way that I know of to get rid of the weevil eggs. Your goal is to treat the food so the eggs don't hatch. Most of the time, I forget and leave the food in the freezer anywhere from two weeks to a month.
Dry beans are the worst culprit for weevils. They are washed off(maybe) and put in a bag. That is weevil heaven. Those eggs are just waiting for some warmth to hatch. And they will.
Flour and corn meal are both made from grinding a seed into a fin dust that we call flour. The grinding process without a doubt kills most of the eggs but some will survive. And then they hatch.
Pasta is made from flour that has been cooked with heat. That heat will kill the weevil eggs. So, if you got weevils in your pasta, they probably migrated from another food supply.
Now, let me get back to the other way of treating your food, heat. You can use heat to kill the weevil eggs. I have tried it and it is a pain in the butt. Heat is hard to regulate or control. Too much heat and you will burn your food. Not enough heat and you are wasting your time and energy. Stoves are pretty much useless. Sun light does not get hot enough. The easiest way that I have found to use heat as a treatment for weevil eggs is a food dehydrator. I have 2 food dryers. They get up to about 150 degrees F. That is hot enough to kill the eggs. It takes time. There are not that many articles on how long it takes to kill the eggs with heat. There is no way that I can tell you how long it will take. My best guess would be 12-24 hours with a standard pre-set food dehydrator.
The bottom line is that if you don't want weevils in your food, you got to treat the food. You treat the food with cold or heat. You want to kill the eggs so they don't hatch. There is not really much you can do about the eggs. They are there. If you have ate beans, you have probably ate weevil eggs. Just don't think about it.

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Why Store Food?

The Basics of Being Prepared with Food & Why We Should Do It

In this country, we have become used to a certain way of living. We don’t have to hunt for food any more, our time is taken up with making or spending money and we have time for leisure activities and hobbies. Time for household chores has been cut dramatically, and cooking can be as quick as you want it. You can “drive thru”, go to a restaurant, cook on the bbq, create a home made masterpiece or “nuke” a hot pocket. Your local grocer has everything you could ever want to feed your family.

There are several problems with this.

The first is especially obvious in these current times, and that is the economy. Food prices are rising, nothing goes down…well, unless you believe in Wal Mart’s “roll back” pricing signs! Our very paycheck is at risk these days with such high unemployment. The prices go up even more when gas prices increase, which brings us to reason #2.

Our lovely, fully stocked grocer is only 3-7 days away from being almost empty! Your grocer (drug store, gas station, home depot) depends on a delivery to remain stocked. Raise the price of transport, raise the price of groceries. Stop the transport (due to a flu pandemic, an electrical outage, a natural disaster etc) and stop the groceries.

Nasty stuff is out there…we’ve heard of the poisonings and illnesses created by eating contaminated food. The government has the controls in place to prevent much of that, but they’d rather create more restrictive bills that will have us relying on big agribusiness. (another rant and a debate for another time lol). However, from time to time, things will slip by FDA and inspectors. Much of the problem is because we are spoiled and continue to demand food from other countries, out of season. We can add to that, our needs are so great that farms use chemicals to ensure the demand is met. This all can be solved by following what is called “The Hundred Mile Diet”. Eat food that is locally grown! Not only are you supporting local economy, you are eating food that is better adapted to your body. It’s also more likely to be less contaminated with harsh chemicals. Better yet, grow your own! A by-product of our eating habits is that we don’t always make meals that were once considered wholesome, hearty and healthy. We view them as too plain or fattening. This need not be true! All we need to do is make appropriate substitutions. But by fixing your own food from scratch, you definitely help with a variety of issues. Not to mention that your family will be very happy.

So, what does this have to do with Being Prepared? Well, the first thing that you need if something goes wrong, is food. FEMA, Homeland Security, Ready.gov, every state in the country, and even the White House suggest that every family be prepared for an emergency/interruption of services with food and water for 72 hours. However, that wouldn’t have done the people stranded in Katrina much good! The NEW suggestion is that you have at least 2 weeks worth of food, if not 30 days. That is the beginning of your basic food “preps” (preparations/emergency supplies).

So, how do you go about getting 2 weeks to 30 days worth of food? Do you have to resort to buying MRE’s (meals ready to eat like Army rations)? Are you going to turn into one of those wierdo’s that lives in a bunker with a thousand cans of Spam? Of course not, and it’s easy to do!

I follow the principle of “storing what I eat and eating what I store”. It’s kind of like having my own grocery store. It’s what used to be known as a full pantry in the old days.

Every time I go grocery shopping, when something I use is on sale, I get as many of that item as I can afford. For instance, we eat spaghetti often. When pasta is on sale, I pick up 10 boxes instead of two. When spaghetti sauce is on sale, I pick up 10 cans/jars. The shelf life of pasta (properly stored) is about 10 years. The shelf life of your canned/jarred sauce is about 5 years. I know that I have enough food for 10 meals without my family noticing that I haven’t been to the store! Of course, I do the same with tuna and mayo, flour and sugar and many other things. Make a menu for three meals a day for a week. All the stuff you would normally make, include comfort foods like brownie stuff) and then multiply the ingredients by 4 and then as the items go on sale, you can purchase enough. Soon, you will have enough to feed the family for a month with no hassles.

Consider why this might come in handy:
Economic/unemployment
Flu/quarantine (yes, the government CAN quarantine you for 2 weeks! NO trips to the store)
Natural disaster (hurricane, earthquake, fire)
Civil unrest (probably due to unemployment and high taxes lol)
Martial Law
Terror Attack

Your first responsibility to yourself and your family is to feed them, then defend them…can’t defend, can’t start a new life, can’t wait till the problem is solved if you starve to death!) You can’t be a Patriot and fight the government when they have food and you don’t.

Author: HerbalPagan
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