Seeing your groceries devoured by bugs and rodents can be extremely disturbing. Pests are the worst kind of uninvited guests that eat all of your food and expose you to serious disease-causing bacteria such as salmonella, E.coli, and listeria. Residential pest control services are sometimes essential to keep pantry pests at bay.
Pests usually take small bites of your staples but they put your family’s health at great risk. This is because the mere existence of pests around your food can contaminate it. Pests carry several microorganisms that can make your food unfit for consumption; their feces and cocoons can also spoil stored foods.
Where do pantry pests come from?
After seeing bugs in our pantry the first question that comes to our mind is, “Where did they come from?” We clean your house regularly and do periodic cockroach control at home, but still, these pests seep their way through our house and invade our pantry.
Pests can come from outside, but they mostly come from the packaged food that we buy from the grocery store. Weevils, for example, are infamous for being present in grains and pulses. It’s rare to find them outside our house or in the store, so where do they come from? One of the possibilities is… female weevils lay eggs on pulses and grains before they are packed. By the time these products reach our kitchen, the eggs would have developed into baby weevils.
How to keep pantry pests at bay
Having pests around is extremely unsanitary, especially if they have made their way to your pantry. You can follow the below-listed home pest control practices to prevent the entry of pantry pests into your kitchen:
- Cinnamon: Insects like ants despise cinnamon! They can’t stand the smell of it. Sprinkle some cinnamon around the entrance of your pantry. If you feel like this could be messy, place cinnamon in small bowls around your pantry. This can keep bugs at bay to a great extent.
- Proper storage: Sealed storage can help prevent bugs from contaminating your groceries. This ensures that if there’s an infestation in one food item, other items are safe. Use air-tight jars to safeguard your food from pests.
- Expiration date: Regularly check the expiration date of the food items in your pantry. Discard the items that have expired. Keeping rotten perishable items like potatoes will only attract pests in huge numbers.
- Clean regularly: Try your best to clean the pantry regularly. Get rid of any item that contains bugs. Throw it away in a sealed trash can and make sure that the garbage is disposed of instantly. After removing the trash, vacuum and clean the pantry with soap to make it squeaky clean. Cleaning and taking out your garbage is essential for cockroach control at home.
- Bay leaves: Bay leaves act like natural pest repellents. Dried bay leaves can help keep pests like ants, cockroaches, and moths away from your pantry. They are safe and do not consist of harmful toxins that you may find in store-bought pest repellents.
Following these habits religiously can help keep pests out of your pantry forever. If you feel like the pest situation at your place requires professional help, contact Armour Pest World for the best residential pest control services.