How To Get Rid Of Weevils In My Bedroom? 6 Effective Solutions

Did you find some black, seed-like bugs crawling all over your bed? These are likely to be weevils, especially if you have regularly been eating in bed. In this article, we will talk about how to get rid of them.

Having any pest in your bedroom can be unsettling, and it’s especially true when we’re talking about small, black insects that infest in large numbers. 

Yes, we are talking about weevils – the pest well-known for destroying large volumes of stored food. There are more than 60,000 types of weevils worldwide, and most of them are notorious for invading homes. 

If these pests have somehow made their way to your bedroom, we’ll help you figure out how to get rid of them.

What Are Weevils?

Commonly known as flour bugs, weevils belong to the Curculionidae family of insects. The elongated snout of a weevil is its most prominent identifying feature. 

They use these elongated snouts, or rostrums, to feed on plant matter by boring through their tough protective coverings.

The most common types of weevils are the ones that infest pantries to feed on stored grains. They’re named after their preferred food grains, such as rice weevils, maize weevils, and so on. 

Collectively, these weevils are all categorized as grain weevils. 

There are other types, such as fruit weevils or vine weevils, but those are unlikely to come into your bedroom, so we will not consider them in this article.

A female weevil lays its eggs inside foodgrains and covers them up with a sticky substance, making it hard to find where she injected the eggs.

This explains why you can sometimes find these pests, even in packaged food. The eggs may hatch after a few days, and you will suddenly find weevils running around in your food.

How Do Weevils Come In The Bedroom?

Considering weevils are primarily drawn to stored food and grains, finding them in the bedroom might seem a bit unusual. 

It’s normal for weevils to invade kitchens, but why would they want to stay in your bedroom? Well, there are several ways how they might have ended up there:

Eating in the Bedroom

While enjoying snacks in bed can be fun, it has a serious downside to it. Food particles falling on the bed can attract pests, especially weevils and ants. 

Only a few weevils need to follow the smell of food to your bed for the others to follow. This is possibly the most common reason behind weevil infestations in bedrooms.

Open ingredients in the Kitchen

Another bad habit that can easily result in a weevil infestation is leaving food ingredients open in the kitchen. 

Open ingredients, especially food grains, are a clear invitation to weevils. It won’t take long for the infestation to spread to your bedroom, especially if the previous reason is applicable too.

Weevils came in from an infested garden.

Maybe there’s a garden right next to your bedroom? Apart from food grains, weevils also feed on plants by infesting gardens. 

As winter begins to set in, they start seeking sanctuary in warm indoor spaces. You may also get weevils in your bedroom from houseplants kept on an adjoining balcony.

Weevils came in with beddings aired in the garden

Airing your beddings out under the sunshine is a great idea unless there are weevils around. 

Especially if your beddings have small bits of food on them, they can quickly attract weevils lurking around in your garden. Once you take them back indoors, you carry the pests along with them.

How To Prevent Weevils In The Bedroom

So now that you know why and how weevils can end up in your bedroom, let’s find out how you can prevent them from doing so. 

It doesn’t take a lot of effort to keep your bedroom weevil-free; just a bit of precaution should be enough to keep these pests out.

Don’t Eat In Your Bed

Given that eating in bed is the biggest reason behind most weevil infestations in the bedroom, the most obvious solution is to get rid of this habit. 

As long as you don’t eat in bed, you don’t have to worry much about dropping food debris that might attract those pests. 

Note that weevils are attracted to pet food as well, so no feeding your dog near the bed.

Clean Your Bed Daily

You should clean your bed every day regardless of whether there are any weevils or not. 

However, the risk of a weevil infestation makes it even more important. Even if you don’t eat in bed, food particles may sometimes end up there. 

Simply taking a few minutes every day to clean your bed will help keep it free of any food debris that weevils would find attractive.

Deep Clean Your Room and Bedding Once a Week

Just like cleaning your bed daily, you should deep clean your room and bedding every week just for the sake of cleanliness alone. 

However, if you don’t find this reason important enough, you should remember that a weekly deep cleaning will help you prevent weevil infestations. 

Besides removing food particles from the corners of your room, you can also get rid of the few weevils that might be present already.

Check Your Kitchen For Weevils And Keep It Weevil Free

You may have come to this page only to find out how to get rid of weevils in the bedroom, but it’s important first to rid your kitchen of these weevils. 

Remember, your kitchen is likely at the heart of the infestation. That is where most of them are holed up, destroying your food and multiplying in numbers. 

Here are some tips on keeping these pests out of your pantry:

Inspect all packed food grains

If you find any weevils at home, go and check your kitchen thoroughly. Inspect all your bags of stored grains and other foods that they might infest. Finding the source will help you end the infestation at a budding stage.

Salvage whatever you can, and throw away the rest

The best way to deal with weevil-infested rice is to throw it away. However, if the infestation isn’t too bad and you don’t want all the rice to go to waste, you can salvage it. 

Keep the rice in the sunlight for a couple of days – the heat will drive out the weevils. Washing the rice in water will cause the weevils to float up, too, making them easy to remove.    

Don’t hoard grains

Don’t hoard large volumes of foodgrains in your kitchen – it will only increase the likelihood of a weevil infestation. Especially if you start finding weevils, buy food in smaller quantities, and use airtight containers for storage.

Regular, deep cleaning

Like your bedroom, you should also clean your kitchen regularly to keep it free of weevils, cockroaches, ants, rodents, and other pests.

Cover up wall voids and cracks

Weevils prefer dark hiding places and such holes are perfect for this purpose. Cover up holes in the walls or the furniture in your kitchen.

Although cleaning and checking your kitchen might feel like a hassle, it will take far less effort than dealing with a weevil infestation later.

How To Get Rid of Rice Weevils In The House

You now know how to prevent weevil infestations, but what if it is too late? Well, if a major infestation is already underway, follow these steps to eliminate the weevils:

Diatomaceous Earth

Diatomaceous earth works very well against a wide variety of pests, including weevils. Take some food-grade DE and sprinkle it on the cabinet shelves after removing all the food. 

Leave it that way for a couple of days, after which you can vacuum the DE and continue using the shelves again.

Bay Leaves

If you’d prefer an organic solution against weevils, bay leaves can also act as a weevil deterrent. 

Hanging bay leaves in your pantry or placing them in packages of stored grains can help repel weevils. 

You may even place them under your pillow or the bed sheet to keep your bed free of weevils.

Traps

Setting up weevil traps in your home can help you capture and eliminate these bugs in large numbers. 

These sticky traps use pheromones to attract weevils, who then fly into the trap and get stuck in the glue. You can place the trap in strategic positions near your pantry cupboards. 

Once they fill up with weevils, you can replace them with new traps.

Neem Oil & Other Organic Methods

Essential oils extracted from certain plants are good ways to control weevils organically too. 

You can dilute neem oil with water and spray the solution on weevil-infested areas. Wipe your cabinet shelves clean with neem oil while cleaning. 

A 50-50 mixture of vinegar and eucalyptus oil can deliver amazing results and kill weevils quickly.

Soapy Water

When cleaning your pantry, you may also use soapy water to wash and wipe storage cabinets to repel those pesky weevils. 

Soapy water is toxic and deadly to adult weevils because it corrodes their hard exoskeleton. 

If you find a corner or a wall crevice where the bugs have holed up, you can spray some soapy water in there to kill them. It will be especially effective if you use warm water.

Chemical Insecticides

Chemical insecticides should always be a last resort, especially if you’re dealing with house pests. However, if you’re dealing with a heavy weevil infestation and your kitchen is overrun with these bugs, you may not have much choice. 

All you can do is stick to non-toxic insecticides to eliminate the chances of accidentally poisoning food ingredients or inhaling toxic chemicals. 

Remember, you should use chemical insecticides only if there’s a huge number of weevils and other methods aren’t working.

How To Get Rid Of Weevils In The Bathroom?

Although finding a weevil infestation in your bathroom might seem even weirder than finding these bugs in the bedroom, it does happen. 

Sometimes, weevils hole up in the bathroom to overwinter during the cold months, as the bathroom offers a relatively undisturbed, dark, and damp environment. 

In summer, weevils infest bathrooms to take shelter from the heat. Here’s how you can get rid of weevils in the bathroom:

• Cleaning: Like when dealing with weevil infestations in the kitchen, cleaning the bathroom is the most important step. Vacuum up the bugs, empty the bin and remove weevil-infested plants.
• Organic solution: Use a solution of vinegar and water when cleaning the bathroom to kill or repel weevils.
• Soapy water: Create a warm soapy water mixture and spray it on the weevils in your bathroom. Insecticidal soap can deliver even better results.

Besides these, you may also make use of previously discussed solutions like DE, glue traps, and pesticides.

Wrap Up

As long as there’s dry food in your pantry, you can’t rule out the risk of a weevil infestation. As these bugs are sometimes present even in sealed packets of food, they can easily make it to your pantry. 

If they have a food source, they can thrive and multiply fast. However, as long as you follow the tips we have listed in this article, you can end the infestation before it gets out of hand.

Make sure to always deep clean your kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom regularly, as that is the best defense against these pests.

Thank you for reading!