A GUIDE TO PEST-PROOFING YOUR PANTRY

Regardless of whether you love to cook or entertain in your kitchen, discovering pests in your pantry will spoil anyone’s desire to be in their kitchen, let alone cook in it.

There are simple and effective things you can do to help prevent your pantry from being a private buffet for pests like moths, weevils, and small beetles.

We’ve pulled together a mini guide below, that comprises of 5 expert tips from our pantry pest control experts here at Environmental Pest Control, which will help you:

• Pest proof your pantry
• Protect your stored products (which can be very expensive to replace)
• Prevent a minor issue from turning to a full-blown infestation.

5 Ways to Pest-Proof Your Pantry

1. Inspect Before You Buy & Bring Home
   • While it is true that pantry pests can enter homes through exterior cracks and gaps, in most cases they are brought into homes unknowingly. Things like baking supplies, dry pasta, spices, sugary cereal and grains can be already infested at the time of purchase.  The original source of infestation could have been the food processing plant/manufacturing facility, warehouse, or even the store you purchased them at.
   • When purchasing items for your pantry, ALWAYS check the packaging for rips, tears, gnawing marks, stains, odd smells, and any signs of insects (live or dead) or droppings. If you find any of the above, do not buy it, and let a worker at the store know so that they can take action.

2. Have a Regular Cleaning Routine
   • Maintaining a clutter-free and organized pantry is important but ensuring that it is clean is essential in pest prevention.
   • Make it a habit to promptly clean up crumbs and spills (wet, sticky, or dry) as soon as you discover them to eliminate potential food sources for pests.
   • A good cleaning routine should include cleaning shelves (all sides), wiping down cupboard doors (both sides and hardware) and wiping down containers covered in any sticky residue or dry powder.
   • As you come across spills, it’s good practice to try to identify what it is and what caused it. For example, if you find a few chocolate chips on the shelf, is the bag sealed closed beside it, or has it been knocked over and chewed through? If the bag is sealed up, a member of your family was likely sneaking chocolate chips, and a few spilled out. If the bag has chew marks on it or has any tears in it, this could be signs that a pest chewed through it, and that a closer inspection is needed to determine if the chocolate chips are still good to keep or need to be tossed.
   • All expired or spoiled items you discover should be promptly disposed of, directly in either your outside compost, green bin or garbage can. Having a tight-fitting lid on these receptacles is ideal as you want to avoid attracting outside pests to your home’s exterior.

3. Organization Matters
   • Having a well stocked pantry is great, but when it’s cramped and cluttered it can make pest infestations easier to happen and enable them to go on unnoticed for longer periods of time.
   • You can tell if your pantry is cluttered and cramped if it’s hard to see the various individual items or see all the way to the back (i.e. everything is touching or squished together or stacked on top of one another). Another sign is if you have to remove a lot of items from the cupboard or shelves and dig your way to the back to find something.
   • When stored products are arranged so that there is space around the various stored item, and not everything is touching or stacked on top of one another, you can more easily see in your pantry…and also more easily see signs of an infestation.

4. Invest in Airtight Containers
   • Store your dry goods in airtight containers made of glass or plastic that have tight-fitting lids and strong seals.
   • Using these types of storage containers helps you keep your pasta, flours, processed food, cereal, spices, and more, ‘fresher’ longer, prevent them from spoiling early AND they provide a solid barrier from pantry pests seeking something to snack on.
   • Airtight containers are also ideal for storing dry pet foods, as panty pests (and other pests) find pet food just as delicious as human food.

5. Deep Clean/Inspect 4 Times a Years
   • The longer a product sits in your pantry, the higher the likelihood of it spoiling or becoming contaminated.
   • The start of every new season is a wonderful time to do a deep and thorough cleaning (and inspection) of your pantry.
   • This type of deep clean is when you take all the items out of your pantry so you can clean and disinfect the entire pantry space, especially those hard-to-reach corners. Be sure to also wipe down all containers to ensure they are free from wet, dry or sicky residues.
   • By taking all items out of the panty, you will have the opportunity to re-organize, replace containers, toss out missed or forgotten items that have spoiled, and more thoroughly check for pantry pests.

Natural Repellents to Deter Pantry Pests

We’ve heard from customers that putting things like peppermint oil, cinnamon sticks, cloves, bay leaves and even dryer sheets in their pantry, can help deter certain pests. The idea is that they create a fragrance barrier that some types of pests find very unappealing and will therefore avoid that space.

There are mixed opinions on whether they work, and they definitely should not be used in place of the advice we’ve just shared. The decision to add natural repellants to help pest proof your pantry is a personal choice, and at the very least, using them will help make your pantry smell ‘homey’ and delicious.

Effective Pantry Pest Prevention

When it comes to pantry pests, the most effective way to keep them out of your home, and especially out of your kitchen, is to be proactive using the effective tips we’ve just shared.

For more information about panty pests and tips for getting rid of pantry pests, visit our helpful Pest Library.

Happy pantry pest-proofing!