Methods to prevent rice and flour from getting infested with insects

Many times, we don’t eat the food we buy immediately, so when the food is left in the air, it is easy for it to spoil or get infested with insects. Especially for raw grains such as rice and flour, if you are not careful, many rice weevils will appear in them. So, is there any way to prevent rice and flour from being infested with insects? Here are a few tips that you can try.

1. Wash and dry the various bottles you use at home, such as cooking oil barrels, large Coke bottles, etc., and fill them with rice and beans. Then tighten the lids to isolate the air, so that the food will not be infested with insects and can be easily stored.

2. Some items with special smells in daily life can prevent rice and flour from being infested with insects. For example, garlic, dried grapefruit peel and tangerine peel, putting them into the rice and flour jar can effectively prevent the generation of insects.

3. Prepare some peppercorns and pack them into some small gauze bags. Put a bag of peppercorns at each of the four corners of the bottom of the rice bucket. After the bucket is filled with rice, add a few more peppercorn bags on top. If you use bags to store rice, you can put the bags directly into the boiled pepper water to soak them and dry them. This will prevent insects from growing in the bags when you put rice in them.

4. The volatile ethanol in the white wine has the effect of killing insects and sterilizing. Put a clean bottle filled with white wine into the rice storage container, with the bottle mouth higher than the rice surface, without adding a lid, and then cover the container tightly.

5. Prepare a few pieces of dried kelp. Dried kelp is a seafood that has a good moisture-absorbing effect. Put the kelp in the rice, take it out after a week, dry it in the sun, and put it in again. Repeat this several times to achieve a good insect-proof effect.

How to prevent insects?

1. Provide ventilation in time to prevent moisture and heat. Whether in supermarkets, vegetable markets or homes, rice should be stored in a cool, dry and ventilated place as much as possible in summer to prevent moisture and heat.

2 Controlled atmosphere storage: For packaged or bulk rice, seal it with plastic film and use the respiration of rice and microorganisms in the grain pile to naturally reduce oxygen, or fill it with carbon dioxide or nitrogen for storage, which has good insecticidal and antibacterial effects. It can also be stored in small packages for "hibernation storage". Each bag contains 3 to 5 kg of rice and is filled with carbon dioxide for fresh-keeping. It can be safely stored for more than 1 year.

3. Sichuan pepper repels insects: Sichuan pepper is a natural antioxidant with a special aroma. Rice weevils are very sensitive to smells and avoid this special smell as much as possible. The specific method is: prepare several small pieces of clean gauze, wrap a little pepper shell on each piece, tie them up and place them in the rice or noodles, and place them in different positions of the bag to ensure that they work on the whole bag of rice and noodles. In addition, you can also soak the rice bag in boiled pepper juice for 10 minutes, dry it, and then use it to hold rice, which can also effectively prevent insects. It is best to use newly bought peppercorns, which have a stronger smell. After a period of time, when the flavor of the peppercorns becomes lighter, replace the gauze bag with a new one.