Weevils

[Jim Brady]

Some of you must've sailed on ships with weevil infestation.I can understand them getting into the barley,,rice and flour,but how the hell did the little mites get inside the cereals?On the Cotopaxi we had a weevil problem,when you put your Corn Flakes onto the dish then topped it up with milk the weevils would float to the top.How did they get inside the sealed wax bag that was in a sealed box?
I was pantry man when we had soup with barley or rice in the recipe the weevils would be floating on top.I had a toilet roll and I would keep skimming the top of the soup to get rid of them,that was for the twelve passengers sake I was'nt bothered if the Officers or Engineers were served with them on top,any complaints the stock answer would be "Not everyone gets fresh meat"
Regards.
Jim.B.

[Doc Vernon]

Hi Jim
As i once worked at a Flour Mill in Durban,and had lots to do with Weevils,(we used to get lots of them in the Flour Bags etc and caused a lot of work fumigating etc) but anyway these critters actually manifest themselves in any form of Flour,Grain,Barley,Rice etc,it is usually very common especially in warmer places!
So to put it plainly,yes they actually grow in these things ,and dont ask how!!
Cheers

[Joe Doyle]

In some cases the weevils were the best part of the meal?? Cheers Joe

[happy daze john in oz]

Had it not been for weevils many a man may have starved for lack of meat in the days of the old sailing ships.

[Doc Vernon]

True i suppose,but did you know that there are over 60,000 Species!
Now that is a lot of Meat haha!
Cheers

From Wekpedia!

A weevil is any beetle from the Curculionoidea superfamily. They are usually small, less than 6 millimetres (0.24 in), and herbivorous. There are over 60,000 species in several families, mostly in the family Curculionidae (the true weevils). Some other beetles, although not closely related, bear the name "weevil", such as the biscuit weevil (Stegobium paniceum), which belongs to the family Anobiidae.
Weevils are often found in dry foods including nuts and seeds, cereal and grain products, such as pancake mix. In the domestic setting, they are most likely to be observed when a bag of flour is opened. Their presence is often indicated by the granules of the infested item sticking together in strings, as if caught in a cobweb.That is the way(highlighted) i remember seeing if there were Weevils in the Flour Bags!
Used a Stainless Steel Probe with a hole to take samples!

[Jim Brady]

Hi Vernon, I thought there must've been cross contamination.I thought say a sack of rice came aboard with weevils in this would be the source of the problem then from there onwards anything coming aboard would be cross contaminated.Having said that the whole store room would have tobe emptied out and dumped,the store room fumigated and start again from scratch with new stores.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[Albert Bishop]

Remember well the evil weevil, But understood the problem was greatly lessened when wooden shelves in store rooms were replaced with metal. Cheers, Albi

[alf corbyn]

my daughter bought home a picture she had made that was made of various types of pasta. after some weeksof hanging on the wall it gradually disapeared leaving behind askeleton of threads that slightly resembeled the picture alf

[Doc Vernon]

Yes as stated when the Millers at the Flour Mills manufactured the Flour,it was always very well checked and when bagged,again checked for Weevils!
However in the Heat of the Warehouses in Durban especially,after a time i used to again go through many Stacks of Flour taking samples!
Amazing there always were the ones that contained those critters!
So no cross contamination,just plain manifestation by itself! Still to this day i am stumped!
Cheers

[Bob Hollis]

On some Blue Star boats it was our only source of fresh meat!!!