2017 December 21

December Solstice – welcome to winter!

 

   Val George writes:  Here is a photo of one of the Indian Meal Moths Plodia interpunctella that we were discussing.  As I mentioned to you, we’ve had a plague of these guys in our house in Oak Bay for the past several months.  I think my daughter brought them in, either as eggs or larvae, in a bag of flour she bought.  Fortunately, the one in the photo seems to be one of the last.  Today I found a larva in my bird seed which I keep outside the house.  Looks like a larval Indian Meal Moth to me.  I guess one or more of the adult moths from the house must have got into the birdseed.

 

Jeremy Tatum writes:  They could well have come in with the bag of flour, but in case your daughter pleads not guilty, the Indian Meal Moth is quite common in houses here – we get them in our apartment building from time to time – so it is possible that she is quite innocent!  I don’t know where the species originally came from, but I don’t think it was necessarily India.  The name arises because the caterpillar is supposed to eat Indian Meal (whatever that might be) as well as other stored grains.  Also, while I can’t be absolutely 100 percent certain, I agree that the larva from your birdseed is almost certainly that of an Indian Meal Moth.

 

Indian Meal Moth Plodia interpunctella (Lep.: Pyralidae)  Val George

Indian Meal Moth Plodia interpunctella (Lep.: Pyralidae)  Val George