While German cockroaches are notorious for eating items like toothpaste and shampoo, moths are notorious for eating fabric in clothes, curtains, and carpets.
But the most common item that every pest feeds on while staying within any residential or commercial premises is food. Ants, cockroaches, flies, rats, and other pests that invade your house or workplace will first look for food. In fact, pests attack only those properties where they are assured of having security regarding food and water.
Therefore, pest control Gold Coast becomes even more important for areas like the pantry, where a large amount of food is stored throughout the year. Pantries are present in both residential and commercial buildings. Offices, factories, showrooms, and other commercial buildings have pantries for staff.
You must stay beware of pests that you may not have known lurking in your pantry. It is important to be able to identify the pests that can attack the stored products so that you can properly eliminate them from your home. Please continue reading to know more about such pests.
Which Pests Attack Food Stored in a Pantry?
Pests that attack food stored in a pantry are known as ‘pantry pests’ or ‘stored product pests’. These pests feed on the staple food in your home. Beetles, moths, weevils, and bores are some of these pests. The length of pantry pest can range from a sixteenth of an inch to a quarter-inch, depending on the particular type and species of the pest. These pests vary in colour, but it’s worth mentioning here that the colour of most of them is brownish to black.
These stored product pests are dangerous because they can not only contaminate your food but also damage the clothing and furniture present in your home. They usually eat a variety of things, such as herbs, books, sofas, clothes, dried fruit, and cereals. Pests in cupboards can easily enter the packaging materials of food items. These pests can be commonly found in kitchen cabinets and cupboards.
Moths, beetles, and mites can feed on whole grains as well as processed foods stored in different cabinets of your pantry. The first sign of trouble is the appearance of small insects crawling all over your table, moths flying around the room, and caterpillars crawling on the walls behind closets or across the ceiling.
What Kind of Damage Do Pantry Pests Cause?
Other pests that are found in the pantry eat whole nuts. These pests are usually the granary weevil, rice weevil, and Angoumois corn moths. The common food pests that attack pantries eat barley, oats, rye, and corn. Due to these pests, storing grains and other food items in a pantry becomes difficult.
Most cupboard insect pests feed on refined grains, crushed nuts, as well as spices. Common offenders include red and confused beetles, grain beetles, drugstore beetles, cigarette beetles, and Indian flour moths. Visible meal beetles and tooth beetles cannot attack whole or undamaged grains, so they eat a variety of refined grains such as flour and meal in addition to dried fruit, dry dog food, dried meat, candy, medicinal plants, and tobacco.
What Should You Do for Removing Pantry Pests?
In general, the more pests you find in the closet, the older the infestation. This means that the original source of infestation could be parts of the boxes or bags of staple foods that were forgotten on the back of shelves and cupboards.
The pest infestation usually spreads from this primary source to find new food sources over time. When examining your cabinets for possible sources of the problem, look for all kinds of decorative kitchen items like vintage corns and pet food bags.
The best and quickest way to clean your cupboards of these pests is to remove food sources. You should find and destroy infested products where pests live. You need to wipe or vacuum the shelves in the area to make sure you have cleaned everything properly. Disposal of infested material is the best pest control method for pest storage products.
However, removing pests is not enough. You should also prevent the occurrence of pest infestation in the future. The best way to prevent pests is to place all long-term staple food items, such as cereals, condiments, baked goods, dried fruit, and pet food, in airtight containers or zip lock bags.
Most of the people are not experts in removing or preventing pests in the pantry and other areas of their property. They end up causing more harm than good. Therefore, instead of trying to do it yourself, you should approach a pest control company.
Conclusion
In order to keep your pantry safe from pests for maintaining the hygiene level in your premises, you should rely on a professional pest removal firm.
