I finally did it!! We were at Costco the other day, and I finally committed myself to buying a really large bag of flour. 25 lb. to be exact, and that wasn’t even the biggest size they had!! I just figured, I go through enough flour that it warrants not having to run to the grocery store all the time to get the little 5 pound bag. Time to start buying my stuff in bulk. But while I was prepping my stuff for storage, it occurred to me, I don’t think I’ve ever shared with you guys my secret of how to keep bugs, pests out of your flour.
You all are gonna think I’m crazy, but I’ve been doing this for about 7 years now, and not once have I gotten a singe weevil or any other type of creepy crawly in my flour or rice. This is full proof. The secret is, broken china. I know, you think I’ve lost it, but I’m serious. For whatever reason, bugs do not like this stuff and you will never again have a problem if you put a couple of broken pieces in with your flour.
It doesn’t have to be your fancy china if you have any, unless you have a piece that got chipped that you were just gonna throw away anyways. But if you’re like me and don’t have china, just go down to Goodwill and get something cheep there. Or I’ve seen really cheap plates at Walmart, but it just needs to be china (Not made in china, but made of china). You’ll be able to tell on some stuff cause it will say china on the bottom. Like shown above.
Here’s what you need:
1 plate or bowl made of china
4 sheets paper towels
1 gallon size zip lock bag
1 medium size towel
A hammer
Fine grit sandpaper, (I used 180A grit)
First, choose your dish. I like something with a little thicker edge cause it makes later steps a little easier, but anything will work (just as long as it’s made of china).
Rap dish in paper towels.
Place in a zip lock bag to keep all pieces contained.
Rap zip lock in a cloth towel, and using a hammer, break up the dish on a hard surface. Do not do this on a tile flour. It’s better if you do it on concrete. You want pieces to be about 1 to 1.5 inches square.
Carefully remove pieces from bag. Discard any pieces that are jagged or chipping.
You want pieces that have clean lines like these.
Using a small piece of sandpaper sand against the sharp edges of the broken dish. Again be careful when you do this cause the edges are sharp. You do this step for two reasons. To smooth out edges and make them so they aren’t sharp, but also to get rid of any chips or loose pieces of china.
After sanding, wash and dry pieces thoroughly. Place two to three pieces of china on top of flour and seal container closed. It is best if you store flour in air tight container, but either way, the china will keep all the bugs away.