How to Ant-proof Your Food Storage

If the last few years have taught you anything, it’s that you need to have a food storage. Remember the great toilet paper shortage? Now, it seems things like cream cheese are at a premium. You’ve spent good money building a stockpile for your family to ensure that you won’t go hungry, but you’re not the only one excited about the surplus of food that you’ve gathered.

Source: Purdue University

There’s lots of insects and vermin that are just waiting for an opportunity to glut on your smorgasbord of nutrition, but you must be one step ahead of them. Buying in bulk comes with many benefits but also some risks. Ask anyone who works in a warehouse, and they will tell you that pest control is a constant issue.

Thankfully, you can be proactive and keep ants out of your pantry and kitchen. Taking some time to secure things now can save you money on pest control in the long run.

Keeping Ants Out of Food Storage

Source: The University of Wisconsin–Madison

The busy ant is always working and scrounging for food to bring back to the colony. When they find a source that will nourish them, they call all their fellow workers to help harvest the stock. The problem with ants is that they’re so small, so they can easily slip into places that other insects might have issues. 

While your food storage may be mouse and rat proof, making sure it’s ant proof takes things to a whole other level. Generally, the best measure for pest control is to be proactive. This means that you want to ensure that you don’t have a problem in the first place, but it requires you to do your due diligence.

If you’re ready to protect your investment, here are some things you can do to keep ants at bay:

1. Seal Cracks

Even if you have a state-of-the-art temperature-controlled room for your food, there’s still going to be cracks. Most people just have an area in or around their kitchen to keep their surplus. Check around the door, in the seams of the room, and around the ceiling for any entry points. These are the areas where an ant can easily slip in for a midnight feast.

2. Don’t Allow Dirty Dishes to Pile in The Sink or Counters

Source: Clemson University

If you want ants or any other kind of pests, leaving dirty dishes sitting out is like putting out a welcome mat. Some of the biggest problems that pest control professionals observe are keeping skillets of grease, sinks overflowing with food-covered dishes, and crumbs all around.

Ensure you rinse and put the dishes in the dishwasher, even if you don’t run the machine immediately. Ants, and other pests, will make a feast on the debris of food left behind from a meal, and it’s a recipe for disaster.

3. Leave No Crumbs Behind

Your teenager goes to the food pantry to grab some cereal. They fill their bowl and put the bag loosely inside the box. The problem is that they’ve left the bag half-open, and they spilled a few flakes on the shelf.

As a kid, they don’t think much about a spill here or a crumb there, but the ant can smell a dinner for their family. Did you know that an ant can smell food in your home anywhere from 3-10 meters away? Okay, it doesn’t sound like a big number, but a roach can’t smell nearly that far.

The ants are almost always the first ones to show up to the party, and they will bring lots of uninvited guests with them. So, the best way to combat these issues is to make sure everything is sealed tight.

4. Use Airtight Containers

Food storage has become quite sophisticated these days, so it’s best to invest in the proper equipment to keep things clean. Airtight containers not only protect your food from moisture, but it also keeps insects like the ant away. Sure, you’re not going to need this stuff for canned foods, but once you open a sealed package, you need to protect that food.

The biggest mistake that most people make is assuming those flimsy snap and seal, re-closable bags are pest-proof. It’s just too easy to leave a section unsealed and invite trouble.

5. Use Bay Leaves and Cinnamon

There are many herbs that detour pests as they cannot stand the smell. Cinnamon is one that ants particularly hate. They also dislike lavender, peppermint, coffee grounds, and eucalyptus. Get a spray bottle with water and mix some herbs into the liquid.

Spray the entryways and around the room. You’ll need to repeat this process about once a month to ensure that the scent stays strong. Ground cinnamon is excellent to put out in bowls or sprinkle around shelves. Their sense of smell and pheromones will identify this is one area to avoid.

Calling in the Pros

Sometimes, you still have issues with pests, no matter what you do. Part of the problem is that there are so many distinct species that one may be able to stand a smell or get into something that another one cannot. It’s a unique problem because while all these little critters have commonalities, they’re not the same. 

Having a pest control expert to help you can prove beneficial, especially since you don’t know what type of ants has invaded your food storage. Some of the most common ants in New Jersey area include:

• Carpenter 
• House
• Acrobat
• Crazy
• Pavement
• Argentine 

You want a company with plenty of experience handling the various types of ants. You certainly don’t treat the carpenter ant in the same manner that you would a traditional house variety. Did you know that many people try to handle the problem on their own with sprays bought from the local hardware store? These folks are either embarrassed, think they’re saving money, or don’t feel they have a significant issue.

Rest assured, when you call in the professionals, they’ve seen worse than what you’re dealing with, and they want to help. We use a non-judgmental approach to assisting our customers, and using up-to-date technology and equipment, we tackle this problem head-on.

When you have a great deal of money invested in food storage to secure your family’s future, it’s best to have someone with experience and the right tools to take care of things for you. Is your pantry ant proof?

More comparison articles: