Mysterious flies, a dark sack, and an unpleasant surprise

[Reb Williams]

We've been noticing loads of tiny fruit-fly type flies all over the place lately, in the house.

My bloke went to get a couple of taters for dinner, from the sack we keep in the dark cupboard under the stairs.

He put his hand in the sack. His hand closed on something....wriggling.

The potatoes had turned to mush and the wriggling was maggots. (I can't think of anything more horrible to find in a sack)

I've never come across this problem with stored potatoes before but when mentioning it to my mum, who has an allotment a few plots over from ours, she said the same had happened to her.

Anyone else had this problem this year? I'm not even sure which variety of tatties it was, unfortunately, because the remains didn't offer many clues...

Reb
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Read about our Good Life style adventures: Grow Your Own Cows, the perfect pressie for an allotmenteer

[Glutton4...]

Yeuch! My sympathies. Sorry can't help - mine are in the lounge!

[HayleyB]

Yeuch! My sympathies. Sorry can't help - mine are in the lounge!

What... with the rat

[Shadylane]

That's just eww. Maybe the cupboard's a bit warm. We're keeping ours in the garage which is attached to the house. It's quite chilly in there now but not freezing. Maybe one or two tatties were already going rotten and passed the rot on. Did you check them before storing and use up the damged ones first? Also did you by any chance wash them before storing?

EDIT: hm maybe ignore that, just re read your post and I missed the bit about the fact that you've stored tatties before with no probs, so you've probably already considered all that. Um, sorry not much help.

[Brengirl]

What is it with these little b*ggers. You can't leave anything tasty around, even hidden, and they will surely find it.

[Reb Williams]

T Maybe the cupboard's a bit warm.

you're right that we've not had probs before, but this autumn was very warm here in Oxon so could be the flies were around and active at a time they normally are, um, hibernating? or whatever flies do.
The fact that it only happened to one set of potatoes also makes me wonder if it was related to the variety. The other potatoes are fine. Could be a combo of variety and weather. ahghghghhh anyway. YUK YUK YUK


Reb
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Read about our Good Life style adventures: Grow Your Own Cows the perfect pressie for an allotmenteer

[Glutton4...]

What... with the rat

Nope - Roland has gone - and thanks to bait blocks most of his relatives have too! The holes have been blocked up too!

[lottyrep]

Seems a shame to lose your tatties in this manner. Best advice is to NOT wash them but store in a cool room/garage in paper or hessian sacks. I empty each sack out at least once a month to check that none have gone bad and remove any that have gone soft or are sprouting too quickly. Probably grandmother and eggs comes to mind but good luck
Alan