My son's gun club in Merced County, CA discovered a big problem. 38,000 rounds of ammo had to all get cleaned when they discovered that the foam inserts inside the individual cardboard boxes of ammo had been getting munched by ants over time. They turned the foam into little piles of powder and ant eggs. Since the insect eggs have moisture, this started corrosion on the individual cartridges. This foam is based on cellulose - a known food source for multiple insects, including ants, moths, and others. Other manufacturers use petroleum-based foam inserts that hold the individual rounds. Beware.

I wonder if that is some sort of eco-friendly California requirement or if the cellulose based foam is cheaper.

I have never met someone that based their ammo choice on biodegradable packaging.

I've talked about this before I think. Remember when you bought a box of 50 rounds of ammo like 22lr or 38spl... even a box of 20 30-30...and the rounds came in a cardboard box... which fit in your pocket. Now you get some plastic or foam inserts or dividers.. just more non-biodegradable waste.

I went to an estate sale years ago. It wasn't mentioned in the listing, but the guy who passed away apparently owned Art's gun shop. He had a nice piece of wooded land with a small house and several out buildings.

Inside the pole barn were industrial shelving units filled with all kinds of goodies. I found a full case of SARCO round .30 caliber cleaning patches (17,000 pcs). One box was filled with zippered pistol rugs marked "Art's Gun Shop". Another box was filled with NOS cleaning supplies. There were several more boxes filled with old ammo and some of it was really good stuff (CIL .455 ball & .44-40 shotshells, Norma .223, .357 & .44 Mag, etc...). I bought all the gun related items for a song, loaded my truck and headed home!

It was a nice day and I decided to inspect all the treasures in my garage with the door up. That turned out to be a really smart move. One ammo box I opened had a nest of Carpenter ants inside and they weren't happy about being disturbed! I dumped the contents onto the floor, stomped away and grabbed some ant spray. I thoroughly went through everything before bringing it into the house. That experience gave me a good case of the heebie-jeebies and taught me a valuable lesson!

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"I also cook."

California ants are so poor they have to eat styrofoam now - or they are specially bred to be anti gun ants. After they finish the styrofoam, they will be programmed to eat the ammo too. LOL

The plastic or foam inserts must be cheaper in long run from the mechanical packaging standpoint.