Found - Rice Weevil Control

The rice weevil (Sitophilus oryzae) is a serious stored product pest which attacks several crops, including wheat, rice, and maize. These little pest can be seen usually in your tub of rice or other grains. It's main targets are grains so its not as annoying as Ants that almost go for every other thing. However it's still irritating enough especially if you have an outbreak of them like me.

My whole rice container is filled with them.

Rice Weevil

It gets to you when they starts to crawl out of the container and into the house. You can find them in the cupboards or the floor. Not wanting to waste food by throwing the whole container away, I start to find out how I can get rid of them. Most of the advice are more for deterrents rather than cure. e.g. Bay leaves and  Cloves are mention to be a good deterrents for Rice Weevil. Nothing was mention what I can do when I already have them until now.

Found an article on how to solve this. One method would be to place them in deep freeze and freeze them to death. But then this involved packing the rice into a bag and place it in the freezer, set to as cold as possible for 4 days. This will kill them all. I only got the following concerns:

1. Not space in the freezer for such a big pack of rice
2. The thought of having Rice Weevil invade my freeze give me the creeps.

This solution was out. Next suggestion was something that I like . Heat treatment of the affected rice. It was said to place the rice in the oven and heat it and it will eliminate all the Rice Weevil, Larvae and eggs.

Parchment Paper

1. Firstly place a piece of Parchment Paper on the baking tray.

Pre heat oven

2. Pre heat the oven with 60 degree Celsius using top and bottom mode for 10 mins.

Baking the rice

3. Spread a reasonable amount of rice on the Parchment Paper and place into the oven for baking. Set the temp to 60 degree Celsius using top and bottom mode for 30 mins. Do not use fan mode as it will blow the rice all over the place. 

Cooked Rice Weevil

4. After 30 mins, remove the baking tray and pour the rice into a clean container. One additional step you might want to add would be to sift the rice to remove the dead Weevil and the Larvae. If not you can keep everything back into a clean container and waste the rice cleanly the next time.

I find that this is the best solution has it make sure the Rice Weevil from all stages are eliminated.

For those who faces the same issue as me can try this out. It works and now I do not face the little black guys moving around my kitchen and house. 

Found - WaterProof Camera

These days people usually talk about DSLR or the recent rave of Micro 4/3. However there are one more class of camera that is slowly picking up. It's like your wish list all cramped into 1 camera. It's like jack of all trade but master of none but then this part its improving more and more.

After a recent dive trip, my interest was renewed for a rugged camera that I can bring underwater. Was looking through all the models and these 3 caught my attention the most.

 

 Courtesy of individual brands

They are the Sony Cyber-shot TX30, Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS5 and Olympus Stylus Tough TG-2. The TX30 can go under 10m while the TG-2 can go down to a staggering 15m. Before you jump the gun and grab a TG-2, you should really look at individual specs and see what really interest you. Some are better in mega pixels, some got better features while others have better image quality. It really very much depends on what draws your interest and also your budget.

One thing to note before you grab one of these camera and start jumping into the waters. Though it says they are water proof camera, it's not 100% to a certain extend. Like the Tx30, it's being mention upfront that it can only be underwater no more than 60 minutes. You also need to make sure the O rings are well maintained.

If you are those who want to bring the camera down for diving, getting a marine case if highly recommended. It will increase your depth to 40m and waterproofing is much better. You will never know how deep you might need to go.

Nevertheless, having a rugged camera has its advantages. Swimming pool shots of your kids, a day at the beach or simply just a normal shot, these camera has it covered. Check out the camera and who knows you might get 1 for yourself.

Found - SodaStream

Have you ever had those fizzy drinks crave that you just got to have some drinks with gas inside. It can be a Cola or carbonated bottled water? Looking out for a good burp after the drink. At the same time, the thought of the amount of sugar contain in each bottle or can will make you pause for awhile. Sometimes we walk away but usually we gave in. Other times we simply do not have one can in the fridge when you need one.  Worse will be you have half a can but the gas are all gone and the drink tasted like concentrated syrup.

What if I tell you that you can actually make your own Soda as and when you want? Yes, as and when you want and have the flavors that you want without occupying all the available spaces in your fridge. 

Soda Stream

Soda Stream is what I am talking about. I was pretty amaze when I saw this in one of the Expo. Well I know of capsule coffee but Sodas, that's another level.

Soda Stream Syrups Range

Cola Syrups

Fruits Syrups

Just look at the range of the kind of flavors available and some familiar packaging. Each bottle is just almost the height of your regular can but you can have 12 liters worth of Soda. This means that you can have so much flavor in one shelf where usually you need to flood the fridge. If there is guest, you will almost have a free flow of Sodas until the syrup run out that is. Oh or the carbonated bottle.

Soda Carbonators

One big bottle can make you 130 liters of Soda. That's a lot of Soda. So if you are those who would like to have Soda as and when you like or hope that you somehow can control the sugar content, this is just for you. You can just reduced the amount of syrup that's recommended. Taste blender but feel healthier? No one stopping you if you are so concern into health.

Do keep a look out the next time you go shopping. This might be your next buy.