Mites

This was the worst infestation I have ever experienced in my life. I hope I never have to do this again!! Growing up in California I was pretty used to lots of bugs. And yes, I have had my fair share of weevils, moths, ants etc in the food and pantry but never have I ever heard of FLOUR MITES. And never have I experienced infestations of bugs like we have here in PR! I started noticing white specks around our pancake mix but just thought it was spilt flour or sugar. It wasn't for a while until I realized they were multiplying and everywhere, no longer just around the mix. I stopped and stared at the specks for a while and realized they were moving. I had to google and research things out to finally figure out what it was and how to get rid of them. They are so hard to get rid of. I immediatley threw out all the food in all of my cabinets. They had spread so fast and there was nothing that they did not get through. Literally I had noodles in a plastic bag that was in a sealed plastic container and they were in them. I spent all day working and bleaching my cabinets out. I carried loads of heavy trash down the 5 flights of stairs. Poor Afton and Emery had to watch tv and entertain themselves the whole day. After hours I was done and felt better.

I got up the next day to wipe and bleach out the cabinets again and noticed that there were little white specks all over the utensils in the drawers, then I looked underneath and sure enough they were in all the dishes, pans, in all the ziploc baggies, on the picture frames and letters above the cabinets, all over my cookbooks, in all our medicine and first aid stuff. They didn't just stick to the food. They were in the drawers and all the underneath cabinets as well. It was a disaster and Logan couldn't help at all because of school and some big exams. Luckily Krissy and Heather saved the day. Krissy came over to help clean and Heather watched Afton. I couldn't have done it without them. I was already exhausted from the day before. It took us hours and like 5 bathtubs full of hot bleach water to clean everything out. We had to deep freeze anything that could not be washed and throw out all the rest. Then for 5 days I repeated the process of wiping out the cabinets with bleach water. Just now I'm starting to put things back but I jut can't bring myself to put any food back in there. I'm way too afraid that they will come back. I never ever ever want to have to do that again!!

There was a lot of crying those 2 days. No i did not leave Emery on the floor next to all those choking hazards... But yes I did have to let her cry a little bit so that I could get some things done. I may have shed a few tears myself... it was that aweful!




We had to lay out towels to put all the bleached items on. We still haven't fully recovered from our house being so torn apart for that whole week.

All the cabinets bleached out.