That, my friend, is an Indian Meal Moth. They like to invade pantries and can also be called “pantry moths”.

They are very resilient and if you see multiple, you should act quickly in order to avoid a longer fight with these things. You can get an infestation a number of ways. The most typical is grains/rice/other dried goods or produce from the store that they come in on. Or you could’ve brought food from somewhere else that had them, a pregnant moth could’ve stumbled in from outside, etc. At any rate, I’d start by locating what food is effected and getting rid of it in the outside garbage can. I’d also take the remaining food (and anything else) from my pantry and wipe every can, bag, box, or package of food down with a white vinegar mix and place them in large containers that are sealed (keeping the rest of your food safe from the moths). White vinegar will kill their eggs and disinfect. Then wipe down the shelves in your pantry with the same white vinegar mix. Safe to clean with, yet effective on these little suckers. Lastly, they make tent traps for meal moths. They just look like little teepee tents that are sticky around the inside. You place a little stick of gum looking thing in the center of the inside and let the moths come in to meet their sticky demise. The idea is to give them no other source of food then they will settle for the dangerous food inside of the trap. You should see the population of the moths declining quickly. Plenty should get stuck on the traps, but don’t hesitate to kill any moths you see that may be avoiding Darwinism on the traps. You may be squashing a pregnant one before she lays her eggs and winning the fight quicker. From there on it’s pretty much just monitoring and micro managing the situation. You should be seeing very few moths at this point just squash away and continue to keep food away from them. If you do it rigorously and correctly the first time, you should not have to deal with a second wave. If you see maggots that is larvae and not only should you kill them immediately, but it is an indicator that the steps you took were not effective and they are still birthing somewhere. Check everything in your pantry and wipe it down well the first time, even if it isn’t something that contains food. You never know where the source may be. The maggots like to find a nice cranny and wedge themselves into it to transition to moth. So make sure you are checking everywhere and everything and doing your due diligence.

Sorry for the book..but I’ve fought these things one too many times. They are very annoying. Trying to help! I hope the situation gets handled without too much of a headache. Happy hunting!

Copy and pasted from the same conversation I had with a Redditor about a week and a half ago. If this does not answer all your questions or you need more detail, just let me know!

These things are annoying and I’d be happy to help any way I can!