My nephew was grousing about finding bugs in an unopened box of cereal and a package of something else the other day.
I got to wondering, why couldn’t an airtight container or trailer load of beans or whatever be flooded with CO2 under pressure for a length of time then vacuumed off to recover it. Wouldn’t that kill the bug infestation? Could the CO2 be recovered and reused?
Just curious. BTW, I don’t like sharing my food with bugs either.

Some of the long-term storage of dry goods for preppers includes using dry ice for the CO2 for foods that go in mylar sealed bags inside of buckets.

For example, here is an article on storing grain

While it may kill live bugs, it likely won't kill insect eggs.

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:
Some of the long-term storage of dry goods for preppers includes using dry ice for the CO2 for foods that go in mylar sealed bags inside of buckets.

For example, here is an article on storing grain

The CO2 into mylar is primarily to displace the oxygen from the bag I think.

quote:

Originally posted by Aeteocles:
While it may kill live bugs, it likely won't kill insect eggs.

That's why the article I linked put the grains in the freezer for 72 hours prior to putting into CO2 storage.

I’d go with nitrogen. It’ll keep the tree huggers happy and it’s abundant.

When I took I an entomology course in college, that is how we killed them - with CO2.
A little dry ice in the bottom of the container and wait a few minutes.

quote:

Originally posted by WaterburyBob:
When I took I an entomology course in college, that is how we killed them - with CO2.
A little dry ice in the bottom of the container and wait a few minutes.

Did it kill the eggs? If not, it’d just be a matter of time until you’d have a new crop of bugs.

Radiation is used to kill bacteria. If you've ever seen milk in the store that wasn't refrigerated then it was nuked. I know ethylene oxide is used for disinfecting some products that are not food.

Food plants do heat ups to kill bugs and eggs as long as it does not affect product. Our plant would totally shut down, usually in mid August, do a very thorough cleaning of everything. Then we would install large portable steam powered heaters and raise the temperature of the rooms to over 165 degrees F and hold it there for 8 hours. We monitored the temperature in the middle of walls to make sure the heat had totally soaked in. This procedure wipes out everything, you wouldn't see any creepy crawlies for a very long time. We used August because it is one of our warmest months and closer to the upcoming colder weather. It is not pleasant to do the rounds to check the thermometers and you have to work in pairs. Gloves are required if you have to touch anything once target temp is reached. The place kind of looked like the scene in ET where the house was enveloped.

quote:

Originally posted by Sportshooter:

quote:

Originally posted by WaterburyBob:
When I took I an entomology course in college, that is how we killed them - with CO2.
A little dry ice in the bottom of the container and wait a few minutes.

Did it kill the eggs? If not, it’d just be a matter of time until you’d have a new crop of bugs.

I can't say for sure, but eggs are alive and have to metabolize oxygen, too - so I would expect CO2 to kill them, also. It might just take a little longer.

Story time,

I remember sorting some weevils out of my oatmeal before adding hot water to it one day while at sea. We had been underway for about 45-50 days and were running out of a lot of stuff. We were in the Caribbean and the water is hot, so dry stores were , umm, changing…We usually pulled in after a month and had stores taken aboard before sailing again for another month…one morning the CO walked up behind me and asked what I was doing…when I explained to him he was flabbergasted. When I asked him if they were serving poppy seed covered rolls in the wardroom, he said that yes they were…for the last week or so. I told him that’s the cooks hiding the weevils in your flour….he walked away….the very next day we pulled alongside a big ass Navy ship and we did what’s called UNREP, or underway replenishment, it was a glorious day that day. Fresh meats, fresh salads, fresh everything.

The CO and the officers didn’t suffer like we did, and hadnt been having to eat salad bar addings like beets and sweet peas(from a can) and what not for our meals…grilled cheese had been the meal of the day for over a week by that point…

Funny you should mention an incident from your seagoing past.
Bugs at sea seems to be a common problem for sailors.
Here are two sailing related articles about the problem.
Not sure why the guy pressurized the soda bottles plus he failed to mention that not everything that will go into a bottle will come out as easily. Interesting CO2 delivery system though.

Kill Bugs, Preserve Food With Carbon Dioxide
(food supply on a boat)
https://youtu.be/qd2Gj3cDEHo

Combating Weevils
https://www.practical-sailor.c...y/combatting-weevils

I've always wondered why we don't have CO2 filling the vegetable drawer of a refrigerator. Why no aerosol cans of CO2 to spray into ziplog bags to better preserve foods?

Lots of dry goods get run through a large scale radiation device. Kills everything without leaving anything behind.

I microwave our flour, haven’t had an issue with related bugs ever since.

Why not just put the packages in the freezer for a week or so?

My wife bought a cool old dresser several years ago and refinished it - it looked really good. When I went to move it inside some wood granules fell out (it had been cleaned well before refinishing so they were new) and on further inspection it clearly had termites. Thankfully it was still in the garage at the time.

I bought a cheap plastic love seat cover (basically a big plastic bag) and put a couple of chunks of dry ice in a container on top of the dresser, covered it with the bag, and weighted down the edges. Left it for a couple of days then moved it in. No sign of termites in the following several years.

Whats to stop that bug from flying into the packaging during processing? Processing facilities are not sterile environments. Do we have the capabilities to remove every bug in a bag of salad mix? Even if you pumped CO2 in you would still have dead bugs that need to be removed.

The occasional bug isn’t the problem. It’s the population explosion in a big bag of something from Sam’s club that takes a while to consume.