Pantry Pest | Pest Control Services

It’s safe to say that just about the last place you want any pest crawling, living, or laying eggs is in or near your food. Neither products stored in your refrigerator or pantry are 100% safe from stored-product pests. To keep them from your home, you have to take proper preventive measures. If you suspect a problem or want help with prevention, contact Clint Miller Exterminating right away. “Stored-product-pests”, or sometimes known as “Pantry Pests”, vary and require different methods of elimination. There’s one certainty however. No matter what type of pest is invading your food, be sure to save a sample so we can quickly identify your specific attack. Our professionals exterminators offer pest control in Monroe, as well as Concord, Harrisburg, Albemarle, Norwood, Charlotte, Kannapolis, Locust, Matthews and the surrounding areas for pantry pests. Be sure to send it to [email protected].

 

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Prevention

When it comes to prevention of stored-product, sanitation, stock rotation and proper storage are the keys.

 

Keep Food Areas Clean

Simple and easy. Allowing food debris and messes to be around your stored items is more likely to cause mold. And mold is what attracts a good amount of stored-product pests. If you have a spill in your fridge, clean it up. If a jar breaks in the pantry, make sure you thoroughly clean clear the spill and properly sanitize. We recommend vacuuming as the best way to get up loose foodstuffs, no matter where they are. Otherwise you might later find something growing behind a box or in a corner that’s more costly than a simple “clean up” would have been in the first place.

Rotate stock “First in first Out”

Go for Sealed Containers

It’s not uncommon for people to store flour in the original packaging? If you’re one of those people, you risk small pests making that bag home. To avoid pests, you need to store your flour in a tightly-sealed glass or plastic container. Flour doesn’t stand alone either.

Listed below are other products you should store in tightly sealed glass or plastic containers:

• Dry pet food (very common place for all kinds of pests!)
• Cereal and oatmeal
• All dry grains
• Dried fruits
• Dried meats (like beef jerky)
• Dry beans
• Sugar
• Pasta
• Rice
• Spices are not out of harm’s way in the containers they come in. Make sure they are tightly sealed or placed in sealed containers!

 

Detection

You may first notice stored product pests in other areas of your home. You’ll occasionally first see them in the pantry. However, it’s important that you remember to save a sample so we can quickly identify your pest and know which stored food products to inspect.
Here is a list of stored-product pests that you are most likely to find:

Sawtooth Grain Beetle

These bugs are brown with a flattened body and can be found in all kinds of grains, especially cereals, bread, chocolate, nuts, sugar.

Flour Beetle 

You may end up smelling these reddish brown pests before you see them – as they can emit a disagreeable odor (and taste) to the flour they infest. If they are in your flour, it is due to the high moisture content. In addition to flour, you may find them in other grain products, as well as beans, spices, dried fruit, and milk chocolate. They can also fly and are attracted to light.

Confused Flour Beetle 

These are reddish brown and looks almost identical to the flour beetle (that’s where their “Confused” name comes from). It’s also the most common invader of the flour beetles in the Greater Metrolina area. The key difference from the flour beetle that you may notice is that the Confused species doesn’t fly. Besides that, they invade the same types of products as the floor beetles and emit a disagreeable odor and all as well.

Drugstore Beetle 

This tiny brown beetle can get into just about anything you’ve got and can even be found outside the kitchen in leather items and in your medicine cabinet. They are most commonly found in bread flour, and breakfast items.

Indian Meal Moth 

This pest leaves behind a “webbing” in the food it attacks (usually dried goods like grain products, dried fruit, crackers). Be wary, as the actual site they nest and rest will be away from any food products. If you find the webbing, we can assist with locating the nest and getting rid of the problem.

 

What We Do

Major use of pesticides is not practical when it comes to most stored-product pests. By following the sanitation and storage practices called for above, you should be able to keep out a lot of these bugs. But if you feel you’ve encountered something that’s too hard to handle or you’re not sure what you have, please contact Clint Miller Exterminating as soon as possible. If you have infested food products, store a sample in a seal-able container and dispose of the If you like, please take a picture your bug sample and email it to us for faster identification.