What’s in my food?

Have you ever opened a brand-new box of pasta, a bag of flour, or even a sealed bottle of paprika and found bugs inside?

Stored products pests or pantry pests are beetles, moths, or mites that readily infest thousands of everyday food products! Eggs can be deposited directly in food products during production or infest products at the store or in your home. Weevils, for example, drill a hole into a grain or corn kernel and lay an egg.

We literally eat thousands of insect fragments, eggs, and other animal debris every year! In fact, the FDA publishes allowable tolerances for things like insect fragments and rodent hair in food products.

We can’t do too much about consuming some insect parts, but we can make a difference in keeping active infestations from taking over our kitchen!

• First – we start on a search-and-destroy mission: find the infested product and discard it.
• Next, vacuum food debris from shelves, drawers, and pantries.
• Store paper bags and cardboard boxes in containers with tight-fitting lids.
• Purge your pantry – check the use-by date. The longer a product sits undisturbed, the greater the chance eggs will hatch.
• If you can’t find the infested product, look for the old bag of bird seed or dog food stored in the garage.
• Finally, seek the help of a professional pest control expert

If you have pantry pests or other pests in your home, it’s time to give us a call! 

Our qualified Pest Management Professionals are ready to treat areas, remove nests, seal entrance holes, etc. Contact us to answer any of your pest control questions.
Email sales@nopests.com or call (833)-261-9003

About the Author: Greg Ten Hoeve is the Technical Director of Safety at JP McHale. He has been in the pest management industry for 43 years and is in charge of the day-to-day safety operations for the fleet and personnel. Greg is also responsible for technical training, technical services, and regulatory issues.