Pest Control For Your Pantry

If you have packaged foods in your house, you could very well be housing a few bugs too. Your house doesn't have to be messy to have bugs; the meticulously clean houses have beetles, moths, roaches and gnats too. They come in through cracks, open doors, open windows, or even a bag of groceries. However, pantry pest control is not undoable, and doesn’t necessarily require a lot of money.

Let’s start with grain and flour beetles. They're little brownish things, and they very small -- less than half an inch long.Obviously, they feed on fgrains, and that means any grains: cereal, oatmeal, rice, you name it. They like candy and pet food as well.

They do a lot of reproducing, too. They can multiply ten times over in a matter of days. When you open a container they’re feeding in, they scurry. Their numbers are made pretty evident during these mass exoduses.

Let’s move on to Indian meal moths. These are bigger pests -- almost an inch long with a gray band around the base of the wings. The outer parts of their wings are spotted with red.

Here's where it gets yucky; the females lay their eggs their food source (your cereal). Worm-like larvae emerge from the hatched eggs. The larvae will eat the same grain-based food products beetles do.These worms spin sinewy webs on top of the food. At some point, they voyage across your walls or ceilings to find a place where they can complete their transformation. In a couple of days, the moths come out.

Ants, gnats and roaches are game to eat whatever's lying around. Gnats seem to be particularly interested in fruit and untidy garbage disposals. Use an everyday cleaner like 409 to clean out your cabinets to reduce the numbers of these pests.

Pantry pest control is not quantum physics, but it can a take a lot of elbow grease, and you may have to put aside a couple of hours to get it done.

Even though it’s not necessarily cleanliness that keeps the bugs at bay, a tidy cabinet does discourage pest infestation. Be sure to get the corners and cracks, too. When you finish vacuuming, remove the used bag from the appliance and dispose of it, because the bugs are still in there; and you don’t want them escaping and finding their ways back to your food. Your freezer can be your best friend when it comes to bugs.  If you have bread you know you won’t be using for a week or more, put it in the freezer.  It’ll keep better, and bugs won’t know it’s there.

Pantry Pest Control

• Don't buy an excessive amount of grain products.
• Examine each food package under artificial light (some of these things are tiny)
• Webs are big indicator of infestation
• Steer clear of crushed or opened packages
• Keep your eyes open for spills, and clean them up immediately if you rind one.
• Take bleach or natural cleanser to food-storage areas annually.