Little cocoons on walls and ceiling

afbengochea

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Jul 4, 2008
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Hi guys, Ive been living in Santo Domingo for almost a year now and have always wondered what kind of bugs these are. They have some sort of whitish flat-diamond shaped cocoons and are usually up high near the ceiling on the walls. Sometimes they are dangling from the ceiling too. Any ideas on what they can be?
 

jrhartley

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Sep 10, 2008
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ahaaaa....I asked the same question months ago....but everyone was keeping quite about the secretive worm, so now we know
 

mountainannie

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Dec 11, 2003
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Moths in the pasta?

Now that you have solved the worms in the plaster question, can you help me out with the moths in the cupboard issue? They seem to prefer the pasta.Actually, I think that they COME in the pasta. OK. Now reasonably I just need to get ziplocks or bins and keep the food all enclosed, THAT part I know..And periodically we (my blessed Rosaria and I) will do full sweep and get everything all tidy and clean...... and things will be calm for a while...

and then.... voila... one morning, I will open up the cupboard to a full fluttering of wings.

What do they come in on?

I know, they don't eat much.... And I don't have any other pets except for the birds on my balcony. I would just like to know more about them.
 

dv8

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Sep 27, 2006
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there is nothing that works on those bastardos, i'm sorry to say. i keep rice, pasta, flour and all edible things (save for cans and unopened jars) in the fridge. makes it look like well stocked :)
 

mike l

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Sep 4, 2007
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What is interesting about all of this, is it seems that each problem is individual and isolated from the norm or location on the Island.

I have brown sugar in a double zip lock on a shelf and yet the ants go for a fallen green bean.

Have not seen a spider in 6 months.....where did they go?

Have not seen too many lizards lately but more ants.

I am starting to think the mouse posion I put out may have changed the balance of nature in our mini rain forest.

From now on I will use sticky Traps
 

dv8

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we had cucarachas coming from neighbours - you know, those small, nasty ones? (yeah, that can refer to both neighbours and cucarachas) powder poison worked well on that. some chinese stuff, smelling like crashed cookies, i almost fell a victim to that fragrance myself.
then we had ants, big, black vicious dudes stealing cat's food. i put those small mata hormigas traps. worked. did not do anything for tiny red ants that show deep interest in cat's bowl and dive into his water by dozens.
big cucarachas - cat takes care of them but i would appreciate if he did not place their small stiff carcasses where i step on them with a loud CRUNCH...
lizards are smart - they stay out of range of cat's paws. less luck for big spiders, yesterday i saw one with 5 legs only. either the cat or the maid was too energetic with her mop.
in any case - i don't feel sorry for those little buggers. there is more them than us, no?
 

mountainannie

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Dec 11, 2003
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Well, I am happy because a lizard moved up into the cabinet and there are no more moths. Of course, it gives me a bit of a scare when I open the door and see his shadow, as I think he may be the biggest cucaracha ever seen, but no more moths. I can't put all that stuff in fridge because my fridge is the smallest supposed full sized fridge I have ever seen and is full of half full jars of things that have to be in there... And La Cadena has been out of Ziplocks for a month... GO LIZARD!!
 
A

apostropheman

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Now that you have solved the worms in the plaster question, can you help me out with the moths in the cupboard issue? They seem to prefer the pasta.Actually, I think that they COME in the pasta. OK. Now reasonably I just need to get ziplocks or bins and keep the food all enclosed, THAT part I know..And periodically we (my blessed Rosaria and I) will do full sweep and get everything all tidy and clean...... and things will be calm for a while...

and then.... voila... one morning, I will open up the cupboard to a full fluttering of wings.

What do they come in on?

I know, they don't eat much.... And I don't have any other pets except for the birds on my balcony. I would just like to know more about them.
I had moths arrive at my home in a bag of rice.

Indian Meal Moth

eb1396 Meal Moths

Pantry Moths - Indian Meal Moth, Grain Moths, Meal

Moths, Flour Moths, Kitchen Moths

Once they were loose in my kitchen I tried everything I could think of and finally solved the problem...by getting rid of the rice (isolating and removing the source), keeping everything else in sealed containers (removing other possible homes and food sources) and hanging pest strips/fly paper until they were all gone.
485465908_a8c611ce83.jpg

or Meal moth treatment advisory

This also works if you are fortunate enough to be blessed with fruit flies :D:bunny::bunny:
 
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Lambada

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Mar 4, 2004
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GO LIZARD!!

Lizards are indispensable - they also eat the flying termites which swarm from time to time after rain showers. We have a lizard which lives under the cooker - hours of entertainment when flying termites swarm. While we are eating our supper the floor show is the lizard catching his.

The pasta moths leave behind webs where I presume the baby pasta moths are born. If your lizard doesn't actually get into your pasta & eat these, it might be best to clear these out and not cook the pasta with the webs hanging off it. :cheeky:
 

mountainannie

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Dec 11, 2003
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Thanks so much!

Apostropheman! for all the great information -after reading which I am totally and completely grossed out......But - oddly -

MY moths don't actually look like THOSE moths. Mine are little white moths. But perhaps it is the low light florescent bulbs?!?

Anyway, it was interesting to note that these guys can eat through both cardboard and PLASTIC! WOW! And explains why the baggies were not an effective deterrant. And makes me feel better knowing that they probably just dug right into some of the cereal boxes, etc etc.

OK so since the Lizard is clearly not up to this task, I am going to go out and buy another complete set of lock down plastic boxes. The Rosaria the Wonderful and I will attack and clean.

Geez- they looked so -- well-- sorta cute. But I know better now!

out with you! Out OUT Damned Moth!
 

mountainannie

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Dec 11, 2003
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Hard to see the scale of him---

aristelligerlar1.JPG

my advice is to get a larger lizard - may I suggest the giant Hispaniolan Gecko

Well, one was hoping that with all those myths to consume the lizard would have done the right thing and reproduced and there wuld be lots of lizardettes crawling about consuming.... As it is, s/he appears to remain solitary but larger indeed, quite frightening me with a large shadow scampering about the cupboard....

once you see in the last oh so cosy little studio apartment there were these rodents who should have been perfectly contented to stay downstairs in their own restaurant where they had lots to eat but were seduced and enamored by the smell of my eggplant parm -- and invaded.... norway rats... giant ones..

blessed Rosaria with nerves of steel - tramped on them screaming as all the poisons and traps seemed to fail...

i lay frightened in my bed... hearing them gnaw.... haunted by my mother's ghost saying something like "this is not quite completely what we had envisioned for you"

the landlord, ever the sweet dominican, could not stop them.. and agreed that I would have to move --- and helped me move my books.

so i welcome the lizards... and, come to think of it -- moths ain't so bad!