Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Anyone else ever had this?
I had halved/dried small chickpeas (channa)
soaked them, noticed small black dots in the centers of some.
Opened 'em up, and found cute tiny beetles, one nested in each half with a black speck.
Gross.
Anyone else had problems with lil creepers in dried legumes?

nope

I assume it means these particular beans are pesticide free.
Which is good.
But I don't really wanna eat beetles.

Wow, weird.

I had this happen in a bag of store bought pre-bagged chickpeas. I think in my case and likely from being left on the shelf too long. Either way, it was totally gross and I ended up loosing most of my appetite that night.

Happened to me too, from a bulk bin at a natural foods store many years ago. I didn't notice until after I had cooked some (which I then composted.) I took the rest back to the store for a refund.

I remember a friend showing me this before after she bought some dried chickpeas at "great deal". Unfortunately, there were little bugs in just enough of the chickpeas that she had to throw them out - or hand pick through ever dang little legume. I just looked it up again right now and these are the bugs my friend showed me:
http://cropgenebank.sgrp.cgiar.org/inde ... Itemid=670

Is it a match?

Yup, I think that's them. Mine were tiny little things, but same red hue.

I had black bugs in some red lentils which I bought at a shifty ethic store, because all the good stores were already closed. Definitely screws with your appetite.

Eww, no!

Great, now I feel compelled to check all of my lentils and chickpeas.

Oh gross, that makes me feel all weird.
I couldn't eat any kind of cereal with layers (like shredded wheat/chex/shreddies for example) for about 5 years because I once had an image of them being filled with beetles. Note this didn't ever happen! It was just a thought I had and that was enough to put me off.
My friend calls Cream of Wheat cereal "Cream of Weevils" because he once opened a box and found an infestation of little bugs.

Ewwww ewww ewww. Thank god Scotland is too cold for many bugs.

I have to say this now makes me nervous as I have a big bowl of chickpeas soaking right now

I have to say this now makes me nervous as I have a big bowl of chickpeas soaking right now

I will be checking my legumes when I get home *shiver*

ewewewew

This year I have had bug infestations in my pantry. Little moths. We cleaned, scrubbed, threw out, etc. but they keep coming back. This last time I found them they were in my Channa. Time before that they were in a Luna bar. One that I had partially eaten.

Blah. it was so gross.

And once you get an infestation like this, it is SO hard to get rid of them. If you even leave one little larve left in your pantry, it will start all over again. I have been through this like 4x in the past year. and my pantry is SPARKLING. everything in tupperware and/or double ziplock bags. I wash every item (cans, tupperware, insides of cabinets) with clorox, and still they come back every few months.

Now I am going to look at all my dried beans for little black dots. Ugh. More bugs to worry about!

I've had that before in other beans as well as in my rye kernels.
Doesn't mean it's pesticide free though, I don't think.
I used to buy those Nigerian brown beans that I loved because they tasted a bit like chestnuts.
The second bag I got had this and I threw them out.
I've often wondered if the first bag I had also had them and I just didn't notice.
There goes veganism...

Chicki - I had a similar problem at my in-laws house in Japan. I started sealing everything inside ziplock bags inside tupperware. And yet I still found a larva in my Trek bar. How the fork do they get through sealed packages?! The saddest thing was having to throw away three bars of chocolate. There is no domestic vegan chocolate in Japan so I didn't have any for my last few months. Depressing.

I ate a Luna bar for the first time yesterday since BugGate. I kept checking it for bugs. Couldnt even really enjoy it.

so sad no chocolate in Japan! that is a travesty!

I haven't eaten a Trek bar since my own BugGate (haha) and fear I might not be able to ever again. *shudder*
And the Japan chocolate situation is a travesty! Foreign import stores carry a few European brand vegan chocolate bars so I could get it easily when I lived in the city but my last few months were spent in bumblefork nowhere :( Quite a few tantrums were had.

This thread totally messed with my head yesterday, I was eating leftover chickpea salad and everytime I would see a fleck of pepper I'd have a mini freak out and think that it was a beetle.

You just put the fear of god in me.