Pantry pests Control
It can be very distressing to find pests at the places you store food. Many pests can spread severe infectious diseases and may also be very dangerous to eat food that has been in contact with pantry pests, or stored product pests.
Pantries and cupboards may be especially prone to infestation with pests as we prefer not to too much pass their contents around. It makes it perfect for unseen lying rodents, rising in numbers, until the day you take out an old bag of flour and get a nasty surprise.
Popular pests in pantry
When you find gnawed holes in your food containers, the common house mouse is most likely to be the culprit. They will happily nibble on grains and have a special fondness for something like rice, biscuits and cheese that is sweet or fatty.
A plethora of commercial solutions are available to evacuate an errant biscuit-thieving rodent or two. If you think that the issue could be serious, a professional pest control firm will help you get rid of it.
But, when we talk about pantry pests, we're talking primarily to the little bugs that will infest leftover baking ingredients, dried grains and other foodstuffs.
Such ragged-crawlies are far from uncommon. It's possible that the vast majority of people will inevitably come into contact with one or two so you shouldn't worry that your kitchen is "dirty."
The following list is not comprehensive but it covers the most frequently found insects in stored food products:
1. Larder Beetles
2. Flat Grain Beetle
3. Indian Meal Moths
4. Sawtoothed Grain Beetles
5. Flour Beetles
6. Spider Beetles
7. Flour Mites
8. Cheese Mites
9. Weevils (many varieties)
10.Dermestid Beetles
11.Cigarette Beetles
An Infestation Symptoms
You're not going to know in certain situations that you have pantry pests until you go to use the food they claim as their own. On your work surfaces, on cupboard shelves and around any cracks or crevices near your food storage, you may find tiny brown beetles, worms or moths though.
Many symptoms are very subtle, but can include flour discolouration, small holes in packages and grains, moulding flour and grain, and tiny traces of flour caused by insects traveling between food sources.
When you see something like this, a thorough inspection of your pantry and the food inside is necessary. Only unopened items can get infested, and if excited enough, the insects will chew through paper, cardboard and even foil.
Getting rid of pests
If you notice bugs in any box, seal them in a plastic bag immediately, and throw them away in an external bin. If you throw it into your kitchen bin, you run the risk of the bugs returning easily.
Thoroughly scrub the shelves and cupboard or pantry doors, paying particular attention to any food spillages. Stored product insects can survive without exposure to food for a few weeks, so you must continue to carry out inspections even after eliminating all obvious signs of the infestation.
Take time to transfer your dried foods into sturdy plastic or glass containers that have secure seals so that the insects can not easily access any food sources to prevent the problem from recurring.
Since pantry pests can be so tenacious and omnipresent, many people would want to contact an experienced pest control officer. Other practitioners may offer specialized guidance and longer term therapies. A successful pest-control company will also be performing follow-up inspections to ensure the problem is removed.
Less common pests
Many less commonly found pantry pests include the granary weevil, Angoumois grain moth, bean weevil, and lesser grain borer. These insects are mainly internal feeders for whole grain items such as rice weevil and are thus seldom seen before the adults come out of the grain.
The remainder of the stored products pests are either primary feeders or scavengers that feed on grain only after the seed coat has been split either mechanically or by some other insect, or secondary pests that feed only on materials that are out of shape, damp or have some mold on them.These plagues include the Mediterranean flour moth, confused flour beetle, red flour beetle, cigarette beetle, drugstore beetle, spider beetle, black carpet beetle, larder beetle, cadelle, yellow mealworm, grain mite, psocid and others.