How To Get Rid Of Palm Harbor Pantry Pests

Pantry pests…or bugs in your food are not something most people like to see. Most Palm Harbor residents have at some time come into contact with bugs in their food. Yep-gross.

My name is Dusty Showers and I am the owner of Creepy Creatures Termite and Pest Control located in Palm Harbor, Florida. I have been in the pest business in and around Palm Harbor for nearly 30 years. When it comes to pest control, we not only have a 100% guarantee, we have a 110% GUARANTEE! That means that if you are not happy with your service, we will come back out at no charge. And we will keep coming back until you are happy. If you are STILL are not happy, we will refund every penny you paid PLUS an additional $25 for your time and trouble. That’s how confident I am in our service!

When it comes to pest control and bugs in your spices and other foods, pantry pests are a bit different than your usual bugs. While sometimes you actually see bugs in your food, more commonly you will see bugs flying or crawling around. There are also those times when you open up some food and are surprised to find your food has turned to powder or you even see spider webs. 

To find out what is going on, a through pest analysis is often necessary. Many times pantry pest can be diagnosed over the phone but in some cases, our FREE 58 Point Pest Analysis is what is called for.

Various types of pantry pests include weevils, drugstore beetles, grain beetles and confused flour beetles. Depending on when and where you see them, they may look like worms, they may be flying, they be be crawling or you just may see the telltale webbing. 

How To Get Rid Of Pantry Pests

People are sometimes disappointed to hear that the best solution for pantry pests is to find the food in which they are living and remove the food from the home. It is impractical and irresponsible to treat pantry pests with pesticides. It does not matter how much insecticide you spray around the home; if the insects are living in the dog food or paprika, the problem is never going to go away.

Where To Look First For Pantry Pests

First, look to see if there is any dry dog or cat food that may be housing the pests. If that is a no go, check the spice cabinet. I’d go straight to paprika first then pasta. Knowing exactly what kind of pest you are dealing with can help you narrow down where to look and that is where Creepy Creatures Termite and Pest Control’s expertise comes in!

Call or Text For Our FREE 58 Point Pest Analysis 727-488-4657

Anyone that has been in pest control long enough knows that things are not always as they seem. I recall a time a customer was frustrated because they were seeing weevils. Weevils LOVE to eat many items you find in your pantry. They also love dog food. In this case, the customer kept her dog food tightly sealed in a high-quality container and it would be impossible for weevils to enter. But yet, she still had weevils. She was driving herself crazy, tearing her pantry apart trying to find anything else where they could be coming from.

I went out to do an inspection and see if I could figure out what was going on. I had searched everything in the pantry and nothing was to be found. She had mentioned that she also thought she had a rat problem. I decided to check out what was going on with the rat situation. That caused me to pull out the stove to see if there were any rat droppings. Rats often come down inside the wall and chew a larger hole in the wall where the stove’s electrical cord comes out. To my surprise there was a pile of dog stashed behind the stove…and it was infested with weevils! 

The little bugs in the picture below are drugstore beetles. A lady that kept insisting we come out to her home and “spray for the bugs.” I told her that what she was describing sounded like a pantry pest and the pantry needs to be inspected. She told me she had thoroughly checked everything and there were no pantry pests.

Finally, she was able to text me a picture of the bugs and we were able to confirm they were drugstore beetles, a pantry pest. 

Drugstore beetles
Drugstore beetles found crawling across a carpet.

How To Prevent Pantry Pests

Pantry pests have nothing to do with filth and will infest even the cleanest homes. They will most commonly come in as a “hanger on-er”; they may have been in the dog food or something else you brought home from the grocery store. There is little you can do to stop them from coming home with you from the store. But at home, it is important it is to keep food either sealed up or locked up in the refrigerator or freezer. 

It grosses many people out but if you are not too picky, if you find pantry pests infesting something, you can simply put that food item in the freezer for a week to kill the offending bugs. After a week, you are free to eat your food, dead bugs and all!

Call or Text Today for your FREE 58 Point Pest Analysis 727-488-5657!