Tuesday, October 7, 2008

nothing will happen to me if i accidentally eat moth eggs, right?

so remember the day i killed dozens of spiders that i also killed a bunch of bugs and threw out their shells? well, while in london, i discovered what they were.

it wasn't until days after i left london that i realized the impact of what elaine had told me. she was telling me how great her cleaning lady is and as an example she told me about their moth problem. for a few months, they would discover dozens of moths in their kitchen. the landlord didn't believe it - said they had a problem with moths in their closets, but her and her roommate did not have any holes in any of their clothes. they called an exterminator (well, a few - and eventually they found one who knew what the problem was) who explained that many grocery stores keep food in warehouses before they hit the grocery store shelves. in these warehouses, dry-food eating moths may lay eggs on packages of dry food. any unsuspecting person could buy this food, take it home, not notice the moths coming out of the eggs, then lay eggs in the kitchen for more moths to arrive.

elaine and her roommate have this problem no more and now they check all their food for moth eggs.

when i got back to berlin, i realized that that must be the same problem i had - and it makes sense. i threw out many packages of rice and grain from stefan's cupboard that had dead moths in them.

there are fewer moths now, except i did kill two this morning. the only dry food that i have brought in is a bag of pretzels every now and then. i looked for moth eggs on the outside but didn't see any. now i am worried that a moth got inside the bag and laid an egg, then flew out of the bag before i could see it.

and this brings one question: how could stefan live with so many moths and moths in his rice bag??

3 comments:

  1. Oh my god! Gross! The moth eggs thing made me gag a little. Now I have another thing to be paranoid about with food.

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  2. i know SERIOUSLY. i constantly overcook my chicken so its dry because i'm so afraid of salmonella or whatever thing you get from uncooked chicken. just check the bags - i feel like american warehouses are better. either way, you'll notice the moths flying around.

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