What's hiding in your spices?

Last night I was making dinner when I had one of the most disturbing experiences I've ever had in the kitchen. I pulled out my Hungarian Sweet Paprika, poured it into a teaspoon and almost had a heart attack when I saw the spices crawling around on the spoon. YUCK!

Upon further inspection and some research, I found that grain beetles are quite common in not only grains, but also in dried spices. It turns out that they are a good indicator that your spice could be moldy and old and needs to be thrown out anyway. I methodically went through each of my spices to make sure I didn't have any others and found them in my chipotle chili pepper, which I recently purchased and was almost gone, so that too instantly went into the trash. I even went as far as dumping out entire containers of Old Bay to make sure they are completely clear of anything gross and was happy that I had no additional issues.

How can you prevent these gross little bugs? It turns out that some people recommend keeping red spices in the fridge/freezer, just like your grains. I already keep most of my grains and various flours in the freezer, but I had never heard of keeping red spices there too. From now on, if you are at my house and looking for a red spice, you can bet it will be in the fridge! I also learned that you can avoid the beetles with air tight containers and making sure the area is kept clean. There is still a chance that you can bring an infested product into your house, so make sure to check all your grains, flours, and spices before you use them!