You don’t want to have pests in your home during any time of year, but especially right now during the holiday season. This is the best time of year for spending time with family and friends, enjoying the season, getting together and eating delicious food. There is nothing better than bringing out the pots, pans, cookie sheets, mixers, and ingredients to enjoy some time in the kitchen with the kids for those special occasions.
There is one thing that could bring all of these wonderful holiday plans to a screeching halt, and that would be pests in your kitchen or pantry. All of the contaminated food will need to be thrown away, everything will need to be cleaned out and most importantly you’ll need to find the intruders and find out how they got into your home in the first place. Usually, these pantry pests consist of Indian meal moths, cigarette beetles, drugstore beetles, and sawtooth grain beetles. Each is known to invade food items like any grain-based items, cereals, beans, rice, and flour. Most of the time pantry pests will be introduced when you buy food products from the grocery store that have been previously infested.
Most of these pests are not harmful to humans or pets by way of disease, bite or sting. However, as we said previously, all food that has been contaminated by pests should be thrown out. Pantry pests are difficult to eradicate due to their ability to reproduce extremely quickly, making it difficult to find them all, let alone eradicate the entire population. It will take the help of a trained professional to inspect, locate and successfully remove the entire infestation.
If you find evidence of a pantry pest in food that you have just purchased, you should place in an airtight bag to be discarded. You should also inspect all items that were nearby the contaminated food, and throw out any other contaminated goods. All other foods should be packaged in heavy-duty resealable bags or airtight containers. To clean out cupboards and shelves, you will need to vacuum every inch of them, especially the corners where eggs or pupae may be hidings, wash the entire area with a mild detergent and warm water. It is very important that the entire infestation is removed before using the pantry for food storage again. Food that is highly prone to pests can be kept in the refrigerator if you have room. Make sure you clean up all food and drink spills right away so that pests will be discouraged from congregating in your kitchen. Carefully inspect all purchased items and avoid any foods that are in damaged packaging.
Pantry pests problems are usually unavoidable, which makes year-round pest control a great solution. Year-round pest control will continually monitor for pests so that you don’t have to worry about pests in the pantry during your fun holiday baking. You won’t have to worry about going to your cabinet and finding pests in your bakeware or food. That is one way to have worry-free, pest-free, happy holidays.
In New York, the experts at Parkway Pest Services know how important it is to get rid of pest problems right away. We work hard to respond as soon as possible and have both emergency and same day services. We use Integrated Pest Management techniques and are “Green Pest Control,” keeping your family’s safety in mind and complete protection from most of the pest commonly found in NYC areas, including Nassau and Suffolk. Contact us today at Parkway Pest Services for more information.