7 Tips To Prevent Pantry Pests

The pantry is one of the best rooms in the house, food is everywhere, it’s the best especially if it’s filled with all of your favorite goodies. But imagine if you’re at work and you have a dinner party with friends, you need to cook food for the party, but as you arrive home, when you get to your pantry, you see insects, rats, or mice scavenging on your food. Having pests in your pantry could really be a big problem. They can not only ruin get-together or parties, they can also give a problem with your health.

Rats, mice, cockroaches and other pests can spread bacteria rapidly, they can spread by having a taste of some of the foods you have, or simply just by touching it. Some of these diseases can automatically lead to death. That is why it is always better to keep in mind the safety of your home first, and one category under that is your house pests. Always keep in mind of keeping them away from your home. But we’re here to talk about your pantry. So here are some tips for preventing pests going in your pantry.

Proper storage of supplies
One of the most common targets of pests are your baking ingredients, they are usually packed in a box or plastic making it easy for them to open. What you do is you should store them properly. In the market, there are sealed glass bottles or containers available. Invest in them and store your food there. You can store food like sugar, powdered milk, nuts, rice, cookies, and many more. There are also large plastic box containers on the market, in those containers you can store food with large packaging.

Inspect your groceries
Sometimes the market can be really dirty, and pests could have started an infestation there too. So sometimes we bring in the pests in our pantry. That’s why before entering the pantry, inspect all your grocery bags first and make sure there are no insects. Because once they’re in they could reproduce fast, especially insects.

Be smart
As much as possible, it is better to buy food packed in can or jars. Rats and mice can easily chew on cardboard boxes or plastics. But if the type of food you want to buy is not available in can or jar, you can always proceed to tip #1 which is to store them in a sealed container.

Clean up!
Make sure to always clean your pantry. Keep it clean all the time. Make sure there are no crumbs left since it could attract pests. Always provide cleaning materials in your pantry.

Make use of bay leaves
Designate containers with bay leaves around your pantry, they can act as a repellent with their pungent scent. Most homeowners find this effective.

Install pest traps
There are a lot of pest traps you can make, you can use organical or with a chemical. Or you can just purchase in the grocery store if you want to. An example of a trap for ants is a sugar and baking soda mixture, fuse equal parts of baking soda and sugar together and put it in a container, after you can put the container anywhere in your pantry. There are many more pests traps you can make just do the research.

A pantry doesn’t need a garbage bin
Don’t put a garbage bin in a pantry, a pantry doesn’t need it. It could also be a feeding ground for pests since you might sometimes throw away food.