Storing your pantry items in glass mason jars does more than just provide a neat-looking pantry; it just might be what you need to prevent pantry pests! They love to infest dry foods like rice, beans, flour, raisins, and dog food. A visit from your Hilton Head exterminator can help identify the source of the problem and stamp it out!
Don’t feel bad if you have pantry pests already. They usually infest the food product at the factory. What you can do is throw away the ruined food and get our Beaufort County pest control technicians to find hidden eggs and nests so the problem doesn’t keep coming back to bite you.
Types of Pantry Pests
Certain species of moths, weevils, and beetles fall into the category of pantry pest. In South Carolina, some of the more common pantry pests include:
– Cigarette beetles
– Drugstore beetles
– Rice weevils
– Indian mealmoths
While not exactly a scientific term, a pantry pest can mean any such insect that hides in dry goods. The distinguishing factor is that they lay eggs in or near their food source, staying close by if not inside the container. In a home pantry, they will move on to another unsealed food container as needed if you don’t get a Hilton Head exterminator to help end the matter.
How Did I Get Insects in My Pantry?
In the time it takes for grains, beans, and other dried foods to be processed, packaged, shipped, and eaten, there’s plenty of opportunity for insects to discover the food source and latch on.
You might be seeing an adult beetle in the bag of rice or moths hovering around your sack of kitty kibble, but the problem started with tiny eggs or pupae. Like a needle in a haystack, it’s all too easy for insect eggs to go unnoticed. Before you finish off the cereal or beans, the young pests grow into a full infestation.
Getting Rid of Pantry Pests in South Carolina
Tight-lidded jars serve as a great defense, so at least the pests cannot spread to all your other food. Ever notice that bags of dry beans instruct you to “sort” the beans and look out for debris? That’s a recommendation to take seriously.
The Purdue University Department of Entomology (from which all of our technicians at Island Pest Control receive an 18-month distance education certificate) has more specific recommendations for pantry pest control:
– Locating the source is the necessary first step.
– Remember to look for them in tea, herbs, chocolate, dried fruit, and other pantry goods.
– Clean pantry shelves, walls, ceilings, floors, baseboards, etc.
– Seal wall cracks and other tiny hiding places.
– Be safe and use professional pest control services—don’t just spray insecticide near your groceries or your pet’s food!
Your Hilton Head Exterminator for Safe Pantry Pest Removal
Finding bugs in your food can be disturbing and stomach-turning, but it inevitably happens even in very clean and organized households.
As your Hilton Head exterminator, Island Pest Control serves Okatie, Bluffton, and the surrounding Lowcountry area with safe, thorough removal of cereal pests and other kitchen nightmares!
Our free inspection includes a 58-point checklist that is absolutely critical to root out and eliminate pantry pests, because we need to eradicate them at the source. Otherwise, your next batch of groceries will simply be infested by pests already hiding in your pantry.
Getting rid of pantry pests does not have to mean hosing down your kitchen with harmful chemicals. We know how to identify the specific pest you have, so that we can use a more targeted approach for quick, effective removal.
If you’ve spotted moths near the pantry light, beetles crawling on cupboard shelves, or insects in your cat or dog food containers, be sure to call Island Pest Control for indoor pest removal by a licensed, certified Hilton Head exterminator.
