Sometime over the summer, our home was invaded by some unwelcome visitors. The pests took up residence in one of our cupboards, which admittedly wasn’t as clean as it should be. There was a lot of stuff in there that needed to be thrown out a long time ago. And while I don’t actually go into that cabinet much myself, I know Bill does… and sometimes he doesn’t close things as tightly as he should, or use the airtight OXO canisters I bought the last time we got an infestation of flying and crawling pests.

While Bill was away on business, I was killing all of the pests I could see, and throwing out anything that was clearly infested. Although the population was diminishing, I was still seeing what I identified as tiny moths parked on the walls and ceiling, as well as in the cupboard. It was driving me nuts, but on the positive side, I was taking out a lot of my frustrations with the flyswatter. We need a new one now, because the business end is now kind of busted, due to my fury!

When Bill got home, we discussed the “invasion”, and somehow Facebook knew. They sent him an ad for a German product sold by Plantura. Because we’re not wanting to breathe or ingest poisons, it’s important to us to use non-toxic pest control whenever possible. That’s why Bill was excited to learn about “parasitic wasps” that would vanquish the annoying food moths that have taken up residence in our kitchen.

The way the product works is that you clean out your infested cupboard(s) with vinegar and water, throwing out any food that is obviously contaminated. Then, you put this card in the cabinet. It contains about 3000 tiny parasitic wasps, which are the natural predators of food moths.

The tiny wasps pose no danger to people or pets, but they consume the moth eggs, ensuring that no more can hatch. Eventually, the moths die off as the wasps eat or otherwise destroy their eggs. Because the wasps have a shorter lifecycle than the moths do, it’s necessary to replace the cards at regular three week intervals. Then, once all of the moths have died, the wasps die off and become dust.

The cards don’t have an odor, nor have I actually seen the wasps, which are supposedly in different stages of development. But they are so tiny, that they’re not very noticeable. When most of us hear of wasps, we think of the pesky little flying bastards that bother us when we’re drinking beer in the backyard during the summer months. But these Plantura wasps are benevolent.

This method of pest control takes some time, which might be a drawback for some people. I know in the United States, a lot of people would rather just nuke the cabinets with poison and be done with it. But we really prefer to use methods that are less harmful to the environment and less risky to our health. Besides, this is just kind of a cool, low tech method of getting rid of the moths. It’s like having a Wild Kingdom moment in our kitchen! It’s the circle of life, don’tcha know?

Plantura is a “young” company in Munich. Besides organic pest control, they also sell plants for indoors and outdoors, soil, and fertilizers. They sent us our wasps very promptly through German mail. Bill purchased the recommended order: 12 cards delivered in three timed shipments. This product gets very high ratings from satisfied customers. According to Plantura’s site, 9 out of 10 customers would recommend this method.

We’ll see how it goes for us. Either way, it’s kind of an interesting science experiment. It makes me wish Bill’s grandchildren lived closer so we could show it to them. For more U.S. based reading on this, click here.

Edited to add: Today, we received another package from Plantura. It’s basically sticky paper impregnated with pheromones, which attract the adult moths. They are attached to the sides of the cabinet, to be replaced every few weeks.