Diatomaceous earth in rice to kill bugs

[BarksaLot]

Anybody mix the food quality DE in your dry rice? I remember Sabine telling me a long time ago about putting it in the rice when I bought big bags, but I don't remember how much DE to use, if there's a formula of how much to mix in. We are having a really hard time lately with bugs in the bags of rice we bring home. I thought for awhile it was buying from wharehouse type stores, product sitting around to long, but we get them from the supermarket and have even gotten them in new bags from Whole Foods. We had to clean out the pantry, throw out stuff they had gotten into. I empty items into glass jars as much as I can to keep the bugs out. We bought sticky pantry traps to catch the moths, but the things are starting to get into box items again. I was making soup earlier today and had planned to put barley in it, but poured it into a dish first to check it wasn't infested, but it was crawling with them, so out that went to the trash. It's been a pain making rice for dog food, I try and fish the bugs out - the bugs float to the top in the boiling water when I cook, then I skim the bugs off, so gross! Poor Smokey I tried to make white bug free for him, but he probably still had some. They probably don't hurt the dogs in the cooked rice, but it grosses me out. I keep flour etc. in the freezer and put the latest bag of rice in the freezer, I think it kills them, I'll just rinse it before use in a strainer and hopefully wash the bugs out. Anybody else have the same problem? What have you tried?

[emmas_mom]

I haven't mixed the DE in with the rice, but I did have a similar problem with bugs in everything - Indian meal moths, specifically. I threw all the non-canned food out,even if it had never been opened, and emptied every single kitchen cupboard, removed all the shelves where possible (so nothing could hide in the crack between the back or side of the shelf and the frame of the cupboards), disinfected everything, etc. Then I dusted the cupboards in DE, and put bay leaves on all the shelves (they apparently help deter bugs). For canned goods, I removed all the labels and threw the labels away (anything paper or cardboard had to go as it can harbour the eggs), washed each can, and just wrote on the cans with indelible pen so I'd know what was in it. Every new food item that came into the house in cardboard or paper packaging was placed in the freezer for 48 hours (inside ziplock backs), and then the contents were put in glass containers.
I also, by chance, discovered the source of the problem did not travel in on food - they had come in inside a cable box which had just been installed - I was vacuuming the living room a day or two after noticing bugs in the pantry, and saw the worms crawling out of the box en masse! I sprayed the thing with insect killer and insisted cable come and remove it. I later read they sometimes nest in the cardboard packaging, so if you recently got anything new in cardboard boxes - computers, tv, etc - be sure to check around that area. They hatch out into worms, then moths, make their way to the food cupboards and lay more eggs.
I still freeze every food item that I buy in paper or cardboard - flour, sugar, boxed goods, etc - for 48 hours before emptying the contents into glass jars, and I refresh the dried bay leaves every month or so, and have had no further problem.

[BarksaLot]

Oh gosh, never thought about canned goods labels. We took all the drawers out, washed all with a bleach solution. It seems were reinfecting with new items. Will have to put more items in the freezer, rice packages are the worst with tiny little black bugs that turn into moths