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If you are challenged with pest attacks in your home, we have brought you preventive measures against their devastating effects. A common place that attracts all kinds of pests is the kitchen.
Whether rodents or insects, the kitchen attracts them all because of their search for food and water, which are very necessary for their survival.
Hence, in their quest to find their daily bread, they tend to cause damage and are a constant danger to your health. However, these pests can be prevented, as we’ll be highlighting the most common preventive measures against them.
In this article, we will be talking about how to prevent pest infestation in kitchen and control them, all while maintaining sanity and keeping your health in check.
Let’s get started!
Why Must You Deal With Pests In Your Kitchen?
Pests are very problematic and aren’t a good thing to have in your kitchen or any area of your home, and there are several reasons you must prevent or get rid of them.
Apart from the fact that they are not welcome around food, two of the most common reasons are:
- Most of these pests are infectious, as they carry diseases. For instance, pests like mice and insects roam with Hantavirus, a disease that is released into the air. If pests touch your food, they contaminate it and need to be discarded. Hantavirus can also contaminate your food.
- Secondary, you’ll find it difficult to tidy a kitchen completely when bugs and rodents roam about. Hence, getting rid of these pests out of your kitchen helps to tidy up the area while preventing germs and diseases
See Also: Different Types of Ladybugs
How Do You Know You Have Pests In Your Kitchen?
Since we have successfully highlighted the various pests that can affect your kitchen, we can head towards discussing the signs of a pest infestation before we go into their preventive measures.
Besides, if you were wondering how to prevent pests in your kitchen, it would help if you know the common signs that indicate their presence.
They include;
- Destruction of Food Packaging: One of the most common signs of pest infestation is damage to food packaging. It ranges from discovering holes in cardboard storage boxes or shredded packaging. Any food packaging that has been tampered with indicates mice or rats around your home.
- Seeing Live or Dead Insects: If you find insects, either dead or alive around your home or kitchen, it shows that there’s an ongoing pest infestation. These dead insects could be inside your cupboards and other places in your kitchen. Whether they are dead or alive, you must ensure you give close attention to other possible indications of infestation.
- Rodent Droppings: Whenever you see notice mice or rats stooling around your kitchen, it is an obvious sign of rodents hiding somewhere in your kitchen. You can find this on the floor, in pantries, or even in drawers. Ensure you wipe them off as soon as possible to avoid any potential disease it could spread through these droppings.
- Physical Destruction of Structures: You might be wondering how insects or rodents can cause physical damage to the stricture of your kitchen, given how small they are. But in the actual sense, they can. By chewing through almost everything like wiring, plastic, and even the walls, rodents can cause damage to the structure of your home. Again, carpenter ants can also destroy by eating up wood including cabinets and walls.
- Rodent Nests: Finally, if you find rodent nests in your kitchen, it is also an indication of pest infestation. Rats and mice enjoy nesting in dark and quiet places and are largely undisturbed by humans. You will see nests in the form of shredded paper, stuffing from pillowcases and blankets, and so on. Hence, demands the utmost attention as soon as possible.
How To Prevent Pest Infestation In Kitchen
The following are ways to prevent pest infestation in your kitchen. These measures are very important to keep pests distanced from your home, especially the kitchen areas.
1. Determine the Type of Pests
It is very essential to find out the type of pests that are attacking your kitchen before knowing the best preventive measures against them.
For instance, just like there could be different preventive and control measures for ants, rodents, and cockroaches. If you are unsure of what to do, you can contact a professional pest control company.
2. Locate the Source of Food & Water for These Pests
Another common preventive measure is to find the possible food and water source that can attract these pests, and duly remove them. Ensure your home have no pipe leakages under your kitchen sink.
Again, it would help if you address leaks in the ceiling of your food, as it will help to prevent and control pest infestation.
3. Seal Your Food Containers Properly & Tightly
If you are fond of leaving your stored food loosed, you can expect a visit from roaches and other pests. Several pests can force their way into even the tightest of space in a cardboard box; therefore, ensure you use something airtight.
Whenever you open any food container, ensure you always store the leftovers inside an airtight plastic bag, Mason jar, Tupperware, or other tightly sealed containers.
Food packages like cereal, chips, cookies and other snacks are some of the most common food packages that people can leave open without adequate storage. Hence, you must put all of their leftovers on lockdown to prevent bug troubles.
4. Tidy Your Sink and Empty Them Properly
If you like leaving your dishes to soak in your sink; you stand a high chance of attracting several kinds of pests. It might sound freaky, but water attracts a lot of pests, and they can even swim. So, if your sink has water that has stayed for too long, it could serve as a roach pool party for pests.
In other words, you must stop stacking dishes inside the sink and throughout the night and avoid leaving water inside the sink.
Endeavor to keep your sink empty and as tidy as possible, as it will help to prevent any form of pest that will make your home a paradise for them.
5. Eat at the Table
You are not eating alone, as there are pests that can sniff out your crumbs and food particles from distance, especially when you eat snacks in the living room, bedroom, or kitchen.
It would be best if you eat at a table to enable you to clean up quickly and easily, and it will help to keep your crumbs off the floor and further away from pests.
It would also help if create a habit of only eating at a table or counter in your kitchen, and it will help you to stop sprinkling beacons for pests in every area of your home.
6. Use a Trash Can with a Lid
Given that so many of your food particles and waste end up in your trash, it would be best to use a trash can that has a lid. Several people store trash can that has no lid, yet still keep them underneath their sink; it would be an invitation for pests.
Therefore, the best thing to do is to get a trash can with a tightly closed can. As such, pests wouldn’t find it easier to sniff out your trash can and the food in it. It might sound easier, yet it is a very necessary thing to do if you want to keep pests out of your kitchen.
7. Clean Up Food Immediately
For those living a busy life, especially if you have kids or several kinds of people over for parties, tidying up spilled food immediately can be quite tricky.
Yet spilled food can draw pests a lot faster than you’d imagine. Whenever any guest, child, or pet inadvertently spills food or drink, clean it up completely immediately.
Learning to keep to this preventive measure will do you a whole lot of good, as it will prevent many pests in your kitchen and other areas.
Don’t forget pests enjoy food and crumbs; therefore, you must keep your food properly stored, cleaned up, and avoid standing water.
What Types of Pests Will Attack Your Kitchen?
Before we go into the preventive measures against kitchen pests, we would quickly highlight the possible pests that can take over or attack your kitchen. If you find your kitchen taken over by your unwanted guests, you will be almost certain to find the following;
1. Ants
Ants are one of the most unwanted pests you can ever find in the kitchen. Almost every home complains of ants attacks in their kitchen. Ants have different species such as carpenter ants and fire ants.
There are certain preventive and control measures against ant infestations in your kitchen.
2. Cockroaches
The sight of a cockroach running around your kitchen is an awful sight and nobody likes to see them around their homes. Unfortunately, it is one of the most common insects that you’ll find in your home, including your kitchen, as they sought for crumbs.
They are different types including German and American cockroaches.
3. Mice
Do you have food that is easily accessible? Then the most likely visitor to your kitchen is mice. The infestation could be caused by a single mouse or a group of mice. Whichever way, it would be best to get rid of them from your kitchen as soon as you can.
4. Rats
Finally, the rat is another common pest you can find in most kitchens. What makes rats difficult to control is their tendency to hide in different places including holes, either the ones they create or the ones available.
Rats can destroy the structural integrity of your kitchen, like cabinets and walls.
Conclusion
These tips on how to prevent pest infestation in the kitchen are effective, even though they might sometimes be hard to get right.
However, with a great deal of personal discipline with your little efforts, you will keep your home (kitchen especially) away from potential pest attacks. You must not live it too late for them to destroy something before you take urgent action.
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