As careful and clean as you try to be, there is a possibility of bringing a bug-infested box of pasta home. If you don't have enough containers, wrap each box in a plastic bag and seal tightly. This will prevent the infested box from spoiling other foods in your pantry.
I hate bugs so I use my freezer to keep away the pantry pests. I mark the date and then freeze all of the cereal, flour, pasta, rice, etc that comes in the house for at least 3 days.
Clean up spills in your cabinet quickly. Store food in air tight plastic, glass or metal containers. Clean food storage areas at least once a year and inspect packaging for leaks.
Tips for preventing mealy bugs. Post your ideas.
The best thing I have ever found to keep pantry moths or any other pest from getting in your food is to put a bay leaf in the box or package after it is opened. There is something about a bay leaf that they hate.
I find beetles and bugs infesting a dietary product containing whole grain cereals like barley, green gram, millet, wheat, and fenugreek even in well sealed packs. How can this be prevented? Can roasting the cereals before packing prevent infestation? Should I try washing, drying in sun and then roasting before packing them?
By srikumar
I have similar problems here in Spain.My solution is to put the unopened packet in the freezer for a few days.This works for me. Any bugs and weevils don't have a chance to develop.
While it won't do anything about any little hitchhikers already in your food, bugs absolutely hate cedar, so sprinkling a few shavings or hanging up a little bag of it in your pantry may discourage anything investigating the place from hanging around.
This is a page about keeping weevils out of stored food. Weevils can hitchhike into your pantry in boxed dry goods.
They look like a black, round, small seed. How do I get rid of them?
By Dorte
I have kitchen supplies (some spices like onion seeds, fenugreek seeds, chilly powder, cinnamon, pepper, etc.) stored in plastic containers. Different items are separately packaged and stored away in these containers, but I keep having these tiny thick-skinned brown bugs in the container, ruining almost "all" the items. I disposed off the old supplies, cleaned and disinfected the containers and put in new supplies. Lo and behold! They are back in another month and have ruined my supplies again. Strange thing, I don't even know what to call them. Help needed badly!
By Rita
We have very, tiny black bugs that have infested our pantry. They look like a speck of dirt until they move. They have infested our cereals and dry foods, such as soup mix. They move very slowly. What are they, and how the heck do we get rid of them? I've tried emptying and cleaning out the pantry once, but they came back.
By Kym H.
I have what look like little brown worms in my wooden salad bowl. I rarely use it, but when I do I either find one alive or the shell of what was there. What is it? How do I get rid of them? Are they harmful?
By Connie W. from Spokane, WA
I have been told that leaves from eucalyptus trees on the shelves and in containers will keeps bugs out of food. Is this true? I'm sorry. I don't know how to do photos on the computer.
By Tera B
I have a professional company do my lawn, inside the house, and termite control. I have so many pests and they are treating my home for these. Recently I found a very small brown oval bug. The technician said it is a pantry pest. You can almost "see" them.
By Joyce from Tavares, FL
These bugs I have are not any bug I can find on any web-site. They have been found in pasta, cereal, pancake and Bisquik batter, but not in or around the flour which they possibly could get into also. They are in all rooms, the basement included. We have even found them in Hidden Valley powdered seasoning mix.
When they are crushed, they leave a chalky residue. I think I may have brought them into the house in an infested dry dog food package which I took back as soon as I noticed them, but I think the damage was already done. We have hung up fly strips by lights we leave on all nite and they end up just loaded with these bugs. Help please!
When you see bugs in your jars of dry goods in the pantry, generally either the jar is not airtight, or the bugs hatched after your purchase. This is a page about bugs appearing in airtight flour jars.
The last thing you want to discover when you go to make breakfast is bugs in your pancake mix. This page offers advice about how to avoid bugs in your pancake mix.
Pantry pests can be a disgusting problem in your home. This article looks at some of the most common pantry pests and how to eliminate them.
