{"id":4612,"date":"2013-11-21T14:42:21","date_gmt":"2013-11-21T19:42:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/home-and-garden-ipm\/?page_id=4612"},"modified":"2025-03-31T14:27:49","modified_gmt":"2025-03-31T18:27:49","slug":"indian-meal-moth","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/home-and-garden-ipm\/fact-sheets\/common-name-listing\/indian-meal-moth\/","title":{"rendered":"Flour Moth \/ Pantry Moth \/ Indian Meal Moth"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Flour\/Pantry\/Indian Meal Moth<\/strong> (Plodia interpunctella<\/em>) is a very common kitchen and pantry pest of a great many sorts of dried foodstuffs, including pet food (dried dog and cat food, hamster and guinea pig food, bird seed, etc.), stored grains, cereals, breads, pasta, rice, flour, cornmeal, spices, dried fruits and nuts, rodenticide pellets (first photo below), and also–reportedly–chocolate, cocoa beans, and cookies.\u00a0 Its more commonly known name stems from the 1800s, when cornmeal was referred to as “Indian meal.”\u00a0 It is sometimes spelled with the first two words joined together (Indianmeal), and it has several common names in total: North American High-flyer<\/strong>, Weevil Moth<\/strong>, Pantry Moth<\/strong>, Flour Moth<\/strong> or Grain Moth<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The larvae of this small moth spin silken threads as they crawl around, causing the infested food to look as though it has been webbed together. Newly-hatched larvae are very small, so are difficult to see, but are about \u00bd” in length when fully mature, and range in color anywhere from yellow, to green, to pink, but with a brownish head. Aided by the webbing they spin, the larvae may be found climbing walls or even crawling on ceilings.<\/p>\n\n\t\t