Food storage areas are common sites of pest infestations, and discovering a crop of weevils or meal moths in your pantry can easily ruin your appetite. Unfortunately, pests can breed rapidly in your food storage area and an infestation becomes a major headache when you must throw out large quantities of food.
A proactive approach is best for addressing pantry pests since many problems are preventable with proper food storage and cleaning methods. As you work on ridding your home of pests, use these tips to keep your kitchen cabinets and pantry shelves free of these unwelcome food raiders.
Be Careful What You Bring Home
Many infestations begin when a person brings infested food into their home. Always check food items carefully before you purchase them at the store. Avoid boxes that appear to have holes in them or any packages that seem to be open. Broken seals increase the risk of an insect being able to access the contents of a package.
Use Proper Food Storage Methods
Insects such as merchant grain beetles have flat bodies that can easily squeeze between the cracks of a package, and some pests such as rodents can chew through cardboard.
When you get home, transfer your dry goods to airtight plastic or metal containers that prevent pests from being able to get inside. As you do, avoid combining new and old ingredients such as flour because this can allow a new infestation to spread.
Clean the Pantry Area Regularly
Over time, it is common for food to get spilled on the pantry shelves, or a container may inadvertently be left open. Try to clean up spills as soon as they occur, and make plans to deep clean your pantry every three to six months so that you can pick up any crumbs that you miss.
During your deep cleaning, remove each food item from the shelf, and use a vacuum to remove food that gets stuck in the cracks between shelves and the wall as well as the corners. Then, wipe each shelf down with soap and water, and allow them to dry before placing the food containers back on the shelf.
Watch for Signs of an Infestation
Early pest infestations are easier to treat so watch out for signs that you have unsavory visitors in your pantry. For instance, you may notice cocoons or shed skin that are left behind by moths, or you may detect rodent droppings in the back corners of shelves.
In some instances, you may see actual insects in the food. For example, weevils will look like small brown specks, or you may discover larva left by flies in wet food that is left out in an open container. While this may be upsetting, the good news is that professional pest treatments quickly eliminate these problems.
Practice Exclusion
In addition to watching what you bring home from the store, you should also try to keep your house sealed so that insects and rodents do not come inside. Keep doors closed as much as possible, and make sure that your windows are properly sealed.
Arrange for Regular Treatments
It only takes a single moth to turn into a major pantry infestation. For this reason, minimizing the amount of insects and rodents that live in and out of your house helps to keep your food storage pest-free. Work out a schedule for treatments that works for your houses needs so that pests in general are kept away.
At Area-Wide Exterminators, we offer professional inspections along with several different treatment plans to keep your food storage areas pestfree. Contact us at the first sign of a pest problem so that we can help you end the infestation.
