So... You Find 2 Gnats Floating in Your Tea. What Do You Do? WHAT DO YOU DO?!

[seoulsearch]

Hey Everyone,

Not long ago, I had my hot water kettle going while I was gathering a large stack of bookwork and receipts (tax time in the USA, you know!) Since I'm trying to cut out most caffeine and have also found I'm sensitive to the tannins in many herbal teas, I settled on plain old chamomile, then got the tea bag steeping while I gathered a few more supplies.

Being a bit of a tea novice, I had read that steeping it too long can make the tea bitter, so now I set timers for the recommended amount of time. I dutifully set the timer for 5 minutes, then started sorting all my papers into stacks and categories.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! As soon as the timer went off, I went to fetch my tea -- lest it marinate too long and become a little bit too potent.

I went to check my clear glass tea cup -- WHICH HAD BEEN TOTALLY FINE JUST 5 MINUTES AGO -- and promptly found that there was not one, but TWO stupid gnats floating in my cup!

Now anyone with indoor houseplants will know that a big pitfall that come with enjoying indoor greenery is that you're bound to have a few gnats lurking, no matter how many vinegar and/or sticky traps you set (I have both.)

What I couldn't understand though was why, with all the scrumptious, yummy (to them, at least) pans of apple juice, vinegar, and dish soap traps I have discreetly planted around the room, WHY ON EARTH DID THEY HAVE TO PICK MY TEA INSTEAD -- then apparently dive-bomb right into it??!!!

And this was all within 5 minutes!! Have mercy!!! The other thing was that the tea was so hot, you could see the steam was rolling right off it -- couldn't these little buggers TELL it was HOT -- and basically the equivalent of flying into a volcano?!!

Maybe they were just cold and looking for a sauna... I don't know.

All I knew was that I now had two tiny insects floating around in my what-was-supposed-to-be relaxing beverage.

WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF IT WERE YOU?!

I've read that insects are found in all grain products, so apparently, the US government has a limit on what percentage of bugs can be found in breakfast cereals -- in other words, a certain number of insects in your morning Corn Flakes is allowed, and pretty much always present. (Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.)

Seeing as I've eaten more than my fair share of breakfast cereal over the years, I figured I've eaten a lot worse things -- and therefore, scooped out that 2 gnats with a spoon -- then went on to sip my tea.

This proved to be more work than I thought, as one of the poor gnat's remains separated as soon as it was moved, meaning, the body was floating around separately from the wings.

ARGH! You probably think it's ridiculous that I even tried to salvage the tea, but I guess, having frugality ingrained into me as a way of life, and knowing how expensive everything is, I didn't want to waste even this one tea bag!!

And now it's YOUR turn...

If you saw an insect (or two) floating in your beverage, what would YOU do???


I'm going to write a poll that will be multiple choice and just for fun, we'll get to see what answers people choose. I may choose more than one answer because I might do things differently if there's a next time! (Thankfully, so far, this morning's tea is in the clear.)

The poll only allows about 10 choices, so I'll do my best with what I'm given.

Please come back to the thread and tell us WHY you chose the answers you did, and be sure to add any other replies that weren't on the list.

And may all your drinks be insect-free!

 

[seoulsearch]

Update: 2nd pot of tea appears to be gnat-free and all is well.

 

[Lanolin]

gnats or weevils.
I once found weevils in an old box of herbal tea bags, I think it was detox one. Lucky I noticed before I brewed it and didn't drink the tea.

I had to do a chuck-out of expired food last week, and get my aunty to come and help, because most of it was Chinese preserves and well, I can't read Chinese or know what everything was. I know salty tea eggs can last a thousand years, but...dried food can keep, if stored correctly things will last...like herbs and spices, but not other things.

Anyway Jesus said if the salt loses it's savour, it's better to chuck it out. So if He did it, so can we.

 

[Lanolin]

btw that tea was not chinese herbal tea (real tea!) but German imitation. It was dandelions or something I don't know.
Also Chinese never use tea bags...that's more of an English or Indian thing. The other thing is tea bags can be wasteful. Plus tea is never good ground into a powder. I mean that is what a tea strainer is for....OR you leave the tea leaves at the bottom, like how it's supposed to be drunk.

I dunno---thousands of years of culinary tradition...down the drain. Fast food eh?

 

[Billyd]

This reminded me of the time while I was serving on a Navy ship. Some how weevils got into the entire flour supply. The cooks just made rolls with the flour. A young sailor took one of the rolls to the ships medical officer and complained about the safety of the rolls. The medical officer took a big bite out of the roll and returned it to the sailor. He told the sailor that the rolls were baked and any harmful weevils were well done.

Needless to say, the swill was always full of bread.

 

[Tall_Timbers]

I would just fish the bugs out and drink the beverage. Unless it was a moth or butterfly since then all the fuzzy stuff from their wings would remain in the drink.

I freeze the bags of flour I buy in the hopes that that will kill anything in the bag that might hatch later.

Many, many years ago at a Pizza Hut restaurant we shook some Parmesan cheese onto the pizza and immediately noticed that the Parmesan cheese was moving around on top of the pizza. We brought it to the manager's attention and they replaced our pizza.

If I'm at a restaurant and I'm served a plate with a piece of hair or some other undesirable thing, generally speaking, I just remove the offensive item and eat my meal.

The worst experiences I've had in bug eating is when you're riding a motorcycle and a bug flies right into your mouth... yuck. If it's a big bug, double yuck.

 

[Gideon300]

Hey Everyone,

Not long ago, I had my hot water kettle going while I was gathering a large stack of bookwork and receipts (tax time in the USA, you know!) Since I'm trying to cut out most caffeine and have also found I'm sensitive to the tannins in many herbal teas, I settled on plain old chamomile, then got the tea bag steeping while I gathered a few more supplies.

Being a bit of a tea novice, I had read that steeping it too long can make the tea bitter, so now I set timers for the recommended amount of time. I dutifully set the timer for 5 minutes, then started sorting all my papers into stacks and categories.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! As soon as the timer went off, I went to fetch my tea -- lest it marinate too long and become a little bit too potent.

I went to check my clear glass tea cup -- WHICH HAD BEEN TOTALLY FINE JUST 5 MINUTES AGO -- and promptly found that there was not one, but TWO stupid gnats floating in my cup!

Now anyone with indoor houseplants will know that a big pitfall that come with enjoying indoor greenery is that you're bound to have a few gnats lurking, no matter how many vinegar and/or sticky traps you set (I have both.)

What I couldn't understand though was why, with all the scrumptious, yummy (to them, at least) pans of apple juice, vinegar, and dish soap traps I have discreetly planted around the room, WHY ON EARTH DID THEY HAVE TO PICK MY TEA INSTEAD -- then apparently dive-bomb right into it??!!!

And this was all within 5 minutes!! Have mercy!!! The other thing was that the tea was so hot, you could see the steam was rolling right off it -- couldn't these little buggers TELL it was HOT -- and basically the equivalent of flying into a volcano?!!

Maybe they were just cold and looking for a sauna... I don't know.

All I knew was that I now had two tiny insects floating around in my what-was-supposed-to-be relaxing beverage.

WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF IT WERE YOU?!

I've read that insects are found in all grain products, so apparently, the US government has a limit on what percentage of bugs can be found in breakfast cereals -- in other words, a certain number of insects in your morning Corn Flakes is allowed, and pretty much always present. (Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.)

Seeing as I've eaten more than my fair share of breakfast cereal over the years, I figured I've eaten a lot worse things -- and therefore, scooped out that 2 gnats with a spoon -- then went on to sip my tea.

This proved to be more work than I thought, as one of the poor gnat's remains separated as soon as it was moved, meaning, the body was floating around separately from the wings.

ARGH! You probably think it's ridiculous that I even tried to salvage the tea, but I guess, having frugality ingrained into me as a way of life, and knowing how expensive everything is, I didn't want to waste even this one tea bag!!

And now it's YOUR turn...

If you saw an insect (or two) floating in your beverage, what would YOU do???


I'm going to write a poll that will be multiple choice and just for fun, we'll get to see what answers people choose. I may choose more than one answer because I might do things differently if there's a next time! (Thankfully, so far, this morning's tea is in the clear.)

The poll only allows about 10 choices, so I'll do my best with what I'm given.

Please come back to the thread and tell us WHY you chose the answers you did, and be sure to add any other replies that weren't on the list.

And may all your drinks be insect-free!

Throw them a lifebelt.

 

[Lanolin]

I have a Venus fly trap plant that's not very good at catching flies. I need to swat them first and then feed it to the plant.