Bugs growing in dried chili ?

[rotuts]

from time to time , w both red and green dried chili

 

I get some sort of bug over growth .

 

I cant see the bugs , but there is a fine lattice through out the mix :

 

 

what is this  ?

 

in this case its very unfortunate as Tj's no longer carries the green dried chili.

 

Ive gotten 8 oz of dried hatch chili , as an eventual sub.

 

I like dried green hot chili , and they dont need to be Hatch , which is a ' named ' chili

 

just geen hot , rather than red.

 

when I open the 8 oz new one ;

 

 

Ill keep it in the frig , orfreeze it from time to time.

 

has this infestation visited you ?

[Tropicalsenior]

8 minutes ago, rotuts said:

has this infestation visited you

Living in the tropics, I've had every infestation known to man and this is one of the worst. Immediately throw out that jar and check everything stored around it. Those little critters are hard to get rid of and they can burrow into seemingly sealed jars and chew right through plastic bags. That web that you see is kind of like a nesting environment and that means that they are reproducing, rapidly.

One sure way of killing them is to put them in the freezer for about a week. Then store the container in the refrigerator.

There was a time here that they got an infestation in the distribution company's storage warehouses. Any dry goods that I bought had to be put in the freezer before it could be stored or used.

[rotuts]

this sort of thing , for me

 

has only been in dried chili.

 

as leat that's what I recall .

[Smithy]

9 minutes ago, Tropicalsenior said:

Living in the tropics, I've had every infestation known to man and this is one of the worst. Immediately throw out that jar and check everything stored around it. Those little critters are hard to get rid of and they can burrow into seemingly sealed jars and chew right through plastic bags. That web that you see is kind of like a nesting environment and that means that they are reproducing, rapidly.

One sure way of killing them is to put them in the freezer for about a week. Then store the container in the refrigerator.

There was a time here that they got an infestation in the distribution company's storage warehouses. Any dry goods that I bought had to be put in the freezer before it could be stored or used.

 

I'd add to that: if possible, burn those contents to make sure the bugs are really, truly dead. That may not be practical where you are, given that your pellet smoker is probably snowed under. I found a bunch of bugs in some seeds I'd brought back from Egypt, and tossed the entire contents into the fire. After that I made a point of freezing spices, as suggested above.

 

I that jar glass or plastic? Can you destroy it along with the contents? If not, then freeze it all for a week as suggested above before throwing it all away. 

[rotuts]

@Smithy

 

its plastic .  Ive tossed it out.

 

for me , this has only been chili,

 

so , w my new fancy pants refrigerator , Ill keep the dried chili in the 36 F refrig.

 

I have one more unopened  Tj's green chili

 

and put that in the freezer until I start to use it , the the refrig.

 

this has not affected any other spice mixture Ive had , as far as I can recuall.

[Shel_B]

Thanks for the reminder about bugs.  A lot of my spices and herbs are put into the freezer for a while before using them. I'llchange "a lot" to all, if I can remember to do so.

 

Generally speaking, bug infestations don't exist at Casa Shel ... I can recall only one, maybe seven-eight years ago, where some chipotle chiles were infested with some flying thing, and every now and then I get fruit flies (but only when the produce has come from one market, which I now mostly avoid).  I've been lucky in this regard.

[rotuts]

as an added note of caution

 

Ive put all my Spice Trekkers  and Hot Mama ( ? ) spice blends 

 

both  ***  delightful ***   products from Canada .

 

in the freezer  .  to think about

 

their situation here.  as a precaution .

Edited 9 hours ago by rotuts (log)

[Tropicalsenior]

2 minutes ago, rotuts said:

as a precaution

As a further word of warning, they love any flour products, pastas, and anything stored in cardboard boxes. Breakfast cereal and oatmeal are particular favorites. Oh, and any kind of dried bean or legume. Come to think of it, about the only thing they haven't tried to get into was vinegar.

[Shel_B]

12 minutes ago, Tropicalsenior said:

As a further word of warning, they love any flour products, pastas, and anything stored in cardboard boxes. Breakfast cereal and oatmeal are particular favorites. Oh, and any kind of dried bean or legume. Come to think of it, about the only thing they haven't tried to get into was vinegar.

That was a lesson learned decades ago.  My flour stays tightly sealed in the freezer.  Never had a problem with pasta or cereal.

 

It's been my understanding that flouroften comes with included insect larvae ... something to do with the product and how it's processed.

[C. sapidus]

I have found bugs in dried Mexican chiles once or twice over many years. A spell in the freezer seemed to cure the problem.

 

The only time we had a more widespread infestation was from fresh fruit stored ambient. But that was human error on our end.