Pantry Raid

Although I live in a tropical climate, I've always managed to avoid bug problems in my home; aside from the occasional sugar ants. Several weeks ago I was intrigued by a couple of small, strange bugs around a new plant  next to my pantry. Assuming the bugs were coming from the plant I put it on my lanai. But the bugs stayed.

I gave my pantry a quick look, but saw nothing unusual. Then I got that feeling in my gut. After moving some items around for closer inspection, I found a canvas bag of rice, infested with Maize Weevils. The site made me sick to my stomach, made my skin crawl. So logically, I cursed them out; before, during and after putting a trash bag over the mess and taking it to the dumpster. I killed any residual bugs, poked around a little more and sighed in relief that the ordeal was over.

Bad assumption. After returning from a weekend getaway in Miami, those damn weevils were still hanging around. Round two: I REALLY tore my pantry apart, shelf by shelf, finding them in anything that wasn't sealed airtight, including a bag of chick peas. I was tossing food left and right, even more mad at the bugs for causing such waste.

When I first found the weevils, I took tissues, gently crushing their tiny bodies, wrapping them up and putting them in the trash. But once I saw the assault on my rice, it was all out war. The weevils have no guts, literally. When squashed, they are like powder, so I bypassed the tissue for speed and put my index finger to work.

With their food supply cut-off, the weevils made a run for it, more like a slow crawl. Since I don't stash food under my bed, in linen closet or anywhere else, they eventually parished. I found those little bastards in the corners of my guest room, my office and even my bathroom.

Down to my last trash bag and a bruised finger, I poured myself a glass of wine and collapsed into my favorite chair. I called on The Great One, The Creator of all things, including bugs. Dear God, please stop the carnage, return peace to my pantry. Please end the senseless waste of food. And for the sake of the bugs, make them leave so the massacre will end.

Weeks later I'm still finding dead weevils in obscure places, my rice is in the refrigerator and my pantry is better organized than it's ever been; ready to be re-stocked with hurricane supplies.