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01:30 PM

Sunday 10 April 2022

I wrote – Amira Helmy

Wrong practices related to the food and drink we eat, which many do without realizing that they harm health and infect the body with many diseases.

Dr. Sherine Ali Zaki, head of the Food Safety and Field Follow-up Committee at the General Syndicate of Veterinarians, warned against a habit that many do, as a “poison” that we make with our own hands without knowing.

She said, via a live broadcast on the awareness group “Jet in the Bit” on “Facebook”, that some suffer from rice weevils stored in bags, and resort to many wrong habits that threaten our health, believing that they expel weevils, or avoid rice from this insect.

She added that this habit is to spray insecticides on rice or legumes that you buy in large quantities, warning against this habit because its harm is very great, as some types of pesticides have an oil base, and even if the legumes are washed and boiled, this pesticide will not come out, and therefore you eat this poison.

Also, some people in the villages put grains of yield between rice bags and sacks, and this means the end of life, because only 3 milligrams is enough to end the life of a child or teenager in a few seconds.

What is a grain yield:

The yield pill, which is a tablet of aluminum phosphide compounds, as an insecticide in order to preserve the different yields from decay, is sold in pesticide shops in the countryside, and the price of the disc is 1 EGP.

What do you do in the body?

The grains of the yield, as soon as they enter the person’s stomach, interact with water and gastric juice and produce in the body the highly toxic phosphine gas. There are no clear clinical symptoms for this gas. Therefore, the apparent symptoms are dealt with immediately, and that is why doctors call yield pills and phosphine gas the silent killer.

The correct way to get rid of legume mites:

If the amount of mites is very small, they can be eliminated in several ways:

Put a bunch of green mint and sprinkle a little black pepper “love”, which works to expel the mite from the place where it is located.

– Wash the amount of rice present, then filter it from the water and leave it to dry and put it in a cloth bag, preferably cotton, then put 3 sliced ​​garlic cloves and sprinkle an amount of coarse salt, stir well and put it in the refrigerator or a well-ventilated place.

Changing the temperature on rice by cooling it either in the refrigerator or freezer, which affects the mite in a direct way and works to kill it.

– Storage by placing it on a tray and leaving it in the sun until it works to expel mites, but in winter this method is difficult and therefore the cooling method can be followed.

– Put baking soda (carbonato) in small pieces of cloth so that it is a navel and put it to protect the rice from weevils.

Dried black lemon, whose pungent smell works to expel weevils from legumes, without killing them.

– Bay leaves by distributing it over the amount of rice stock, which works to expel weevils.

Chili pepper and freshly ground turmeric, put in a navel-shaped piece of cloth and put in the storage until it works to expel weevils.

mite flour

Flour mites are so small that they may not be seen with the naked eye, and they can be detected by observing a brown-colored dust-like substance at the bottom of the flour bag and the top of the flour.

How do you find out?

– A little flour is rubbed and if a mint-like smell appears, it means that there is a mite, or a flat quantity is spread by hand with a soft layer, and if you see that the surface is rough, this means that there is movement and that insects have begun to form inside it.

– Put a transparent tape in the storage bag, and if there is this insect, it will stick to the tape.

Get rid of it by:

– Put it in the freezer from 4 to 7 days, and it is best to store the flour in the freezer in general in airtight bags or airtight glass containers.

– Disinfection of places and cans that had legumes or flour containing mites, by washing with very hot water, then drying them very well.

What if the amount of mites is large and widespread?

If the mite is in a large quantity, there is only one solution is to get rid of rice or flour completely, by placing it in bags and throwing it, because eating it may cause negative health effects such as allergies in the respiratory system, skin and eyes, since this insect belongs to the family of beetles.

How do you protect yourself from mites?

The storage area should be dry, clean and well ventilated, even if it is a freezer or refrigerator.

– Store flour, grains, rice and foods in clean, airtight containers.

Avoid light plastic bags because weevils can puncture them, unlike airtight containers.

Buying small quantities not to exceed a month, so as to protect the storage from insects and worms, especially weevils, whose life cycle does not exceed 6 months.

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