The food in your pantry can turn into a buffet for critters in your home. The last thing you want is to open a box of cereal with droppings inside. Consistent pest control will eliminate most of the problems, but there are other steps you can take to protect yourself even more. Here are four products to protect your pantry from pests.
Plastic Containers
Try to put your cereal, pasta, sugar, and other loose items in sealed plastic containers. This will contain the odor so that mice and insects cannot detect food in the pantry. Canned items should be fine on their own. The ones in boxes are what you need to worry about.
Rubber Seals
For some cabinets, you can put a rubber seal between the door and the cabinet, similar to what you have on your refrigerator door. This will block out the tiny bugs that can crawl into the pantry. Not all doors have enough room to put something like this down, so make sure you test one door before you go crazy throughout the kitchen.
Cleaning Products
Keeping your cabinets clean of crumbs is a big part of pest prevention. You may not think about cleaning out your pantry because you have a lot of stuff in there. Once a month, take everything out of one shelf and clean off all the crumbs on it. Wipe it down with a disinfecting wipe to get rid of the germs and mask the smell at the same time. Try not to use any cleaning products that smell like lemon or orange. They may be better for your nose, but they could draw in some unwanted guests.
Note that you can also take this time to throw away items that you no longer need in your pantry, either because they are expired or you just don’t want to eat them anymore. Take care of two problems at the same time.
Child Safety Locks
You can put child safety locks on your pantry doors to make them difficult to open. This will not stop something small like a spider, but it may keep mice and other large critters away. You could also think about making your doors magnetic so that they suck shut whenever you close them. You will still be able to get in when you need to, but your pests will have a difficult time.
Use the products above in your kitchen, and you will be able to keep your food safe and sound.
