Our guest Jill departs tomorrow so, with an early start at 5.30 am next day, we decide on a celebratory dinner Italian-style - some good wine, something with pasta and a finale of coffee and a 'stomach settler' of Marsala with a crisp biscotti....

Leaving Jill and William chatting in the cockpit I go to the galley and start to prepare the feast and, at first, the black specs in William's gluten free rice pasta don't worry me until they started to move - and then it becomes clear I am watching a mass movement of snout beetles, aka weevils!

In the old days life aboard boats was anything but comfortable - rats gnawed through anything, food spoiled or became infested, freshwater turned foul, food became scarce and seaman would often eat their food in the dark to avoid seeing the weevils that infested their biscuits....... Not tonight!

I put on every light I can and debate with the crew whether they would prefer something else for dinner as my spatula goes splat! splat! splat! chasing bugs over the work surface. They wont hear of it, after all weevils aren't poisonous, they are vegetarian, and once they hit boiling water will float to the surface and can be skimmed off. So, pasta was served - any black specks and crunchy bits being put down to my use of dried herbs.

I learn later that weevils can be present in any grain or rice products that you buy from supermarkets because manufacturing and packaging factories are never clear of them. They can eat through cardboard, plastic bags, including the liners in cereal boxes, and once they are in your pantry or storage cupboard can move to other similar products that you have in store and lay their eggs..

My pic is a bit deceiving, they aren't huge, but extremely tiny bugs - almost attractive, with a long pointy nose - and it's not too difficult to get rid of them.