How to Get Rid of Pantry Bugs Naturally

Do you have any insects in the pantry? Do you want to eliminate them but aren’t sure how to do them? Bugs may be found wherever there are stored foods. And Pests may destroy food kept in the pantry, and you need to spend a lot of money and time on them if left uncontrolled. These pests can infect the food after they touch it, causing you to harm the health. Let’s look at ways to get the pantry bugs out of your house.

What are Pantry Bugs?

Pantry bugs are a common name for a family of pests that are known for entering the sealed dry goods and then polluting them by eating habits.

There are many different pests that might be classified as pantry bugs, such as red flour beetles, confused flour beetles, Indian meal moths, drugstore beetles, grain bores, grain moths, granary weevils, rice weevils, and more.

What are tiny brown bugs in the kitchen?

Sawtoothed grain beetles are typical home bugs that prefer to congregate around sugar or spilled flour, as well as in cereal boxes. These tiny brown pests are about 0.1 inches long. And the six sawtoothed spines on the side make them different.

How to Identify Pantry Bugs

Before you start treating your pantry, make sure you’re coping with pantry bugs and not anything else. Misidentification can result in a loss of time and money due to poor and erroneous treatment approaches. Pantry pests come in a variety of types, and many pests are mistaken for pantry pests. It’s easy to spot the pantry bugs by looking at the places where they’ve infected.

The Indian Meal Moth is the most popular pantry bug indoors. Indian meal moths and Flour moths are roughly 1/2 inch long and can be found crawling near the pantries and over the kitchen. Rice Weevils and Grain Beetles are much smaller, measuring 2-3 mm long and ranging in color from brown to black.

You can find the weevils, small beetles, and moths that may be pantry bugs in the pantries and the kitchen. If you’re having trouble identifying the species of pantry pest, we can help you to deal with it.

Why do you have a pantry bug problem?

Adult pantry bugs frequently penetrate buildings in search of breeding places. Weevils, beetles, and adult moths may enter the houses and other structures, using the areas around open screens, doors and windows, and other tiny openings. Furthermore, some adult pantry bugs are drawn to the light outside, enticing them to the houses.

The most typical method pantry bugs get into the houses is through the stored pantry goods that have already been contaminated with pantry bug larvae or eggs after being bought from a retailer.

Types Of Pantry Bugs

There are a variety of pests that may be found in the pantry. Ants, weevils, beetles, and moths are all common bugs. Moths and ants, for example, can find their way to the food and lay the eggs on it.

Some pantry pests, such as weevils, may already have the eggs in the food when you purchase it. While this information may make you feel sick, it poses no danger to your health.

Cockroaches and spiders are two more critters that might get into the pantry. Fortunately, these pests are less likely to cause a pantry infestation.

If you discover a pantry bug infestation that you need to take action at once, the quickest way is to contact a bug control professional. A good exterminator can check and solve the problem by identifying and using a strategy to remove the bug and make a solution to avoid the pantry pest infestations in the future.

When you have a pantry bug infestation in your home, it is very important to identify the type of the bugs in your house so that you can use the proper solution to kill them. After you know what bugs you’re coping with, you may try your best to remove them and prevent them from infesting again. To repel the pests, you need to store your food well. So it is a good method to remove the bugs that are to store the food in the pantry.

Do You Need to Throw Out the Flour With Weevils?

Do you need to throw all food away if these pests aren’t dangerous? It’s inconvenient to have to throw away all flour due to the infestation of many weevils.

Weevils can be safely consumed if it is a mild infestation. However, if it is a severe infestation, it is suggested that you discard the flour because consuming the amounts of weevils might be harmful to your health.

If you’re concerned about weevils in the flour, you may always heat or freeze them. But, you can’t put your flour in the microwave to heat directly because this might cause a fire.

Are Pantry Pests Harmful If Eaten?

Although you may eat a bug in your food, there is no evidence whether it is harmful to your health to eat the pantry pests. We don’t know whether Pantry pests (like weevils and pantry moths) can transmit poisons, diseases, or parasites.

How to Eliminate Pantry Bugs Naturally

One thing you want to do first when you discover pests in your pantry is to keep them out. So follow these ways to make sure you don’t have any unwelcome visitors in your pantry.

• Remove infested foods

Our professional advised us to clean the cabinets, check the rice and flour, which are common breeding areas for grain beetles, and discard any infested food.

• Clean and Clear the cabinets

Then, you can vacuum and wash out the cabinets with a soapy sponge to eliminate everything there. A bleach or vinegar solution will also help you kill them. In addition, our exterminator sprayed pesticide in the cabinets.

• Throw out the trash at once

And you need to tie the garbage bag and throw it from your home. If you don’t remove the garbage quickly, the bugs may come back and re-infest the pantry. After you’ve removed your garbage, make sure to clean your trash can. If you drop food down your garbage disposal, wash it for at least one minute with hot water.

• Use A Natural Insect Trap

You may purchase a good sticky trap for some pantry pests, such as pantry moths. And these traps can remove pantry moth infestations by releasing pheromones that attract male moths. It can prevent the male moths from reproducing and laying their eggs.

How to Prevent Pantry Bug Infestations

After getting rid of the bugs from the pantry, you might need to know how you can prevent them from coming back. There are a few things you need to keep pantry bugs out of your pantry in the future.

• Maintain a Clean Pantry

All spilled food in the pantry should be cleaned up quickly. Another infestation will be less likely if you do so. Every 3-6 months, you should clean your pantry thoroughly once in at least three months. It will guarantee that all bugs are removed before they may become an issue.

• Use Natural Pest Repellents

There are many natural pest repellents that you may make your pantry less appealing to the pests. The bug-repelling smells like lavender, rosemary, cedar chips, or bay leaves can be used. And essential oils can also be used as an insect repellent spray. Essential oils having insect repellent properties include catnip, tea tree, eucalyptus, peppermint, citrus, lemongrass, and lavender. Add 25 to 30 drops of the essential oil to one cup of the water. Fill a spray container with this mixture and then use it in the infested areas.

• Use Tupperware

You know that Purchasing a lot of the new airtight containers could be expensive. You might want to know if the Tupperware containers can prevent the pantry moths.

The container must be sealed to keep the pests out. While the Tupperware is airtight, many Tupperware containers might distort in dishwashers.

Just make a try to know whether your Tupperware is completely airtight. Fill your Tupperware with a substance that will be visible when wet, such as sugar or flour. You need to soak the Tupperware into the water to test whether any water can come in. Pests won’t be able to come in if the Tupperware doesn’t have any water. So you can use your Tupperware to prevent the pantry bugs.

• Store Food Properly

Burlap, plastic, cardboard, and paper can be chewed by some pantry pests. Food should be stored in the sealed containers to prevent pests from getting in. Dried fruits, pet food, spices, nuts, cereals, and grains are the food that is most prone to be contaminated. So, you should carefully store these kinds of food.

If you don’t need to keep all food in the sealed containers, store it in a dry, cold area. Purchase just some packages for storing the food in at least two months. The longer food you put in the pantry, the more chance is to get infested with the pests.

You may also keep the food in the freezer if you have enough space. And this will prevent pests from entering your pantry.