As a business owner in Illinois, you know that keeping things sanitary is a constant priority, especially if you work in food production or distribution. However, it’s not always so easy to keep pests out of your store or warehouse. Stored-item pests, also known as pantry pests, have a way of sneaking into boxed and bagged goods and getting shipped to or bought by your customers. When pests infiltrate your products, it could have devastating effects on your business.
Common Stored-Item Pests
Whether it’s a cereal box or a bag of flour, stored-item pests will infest your products at the first chance. They enjoy the same foods that we do; however, their presence causes substantial damage and contamination as they feed on the product, cast their skins in the container and leave behind fecal matter. It’s important to have an exterminator intervene before an infestation gets out of hand and hurts your profits. Some of the most common pantry pests include:
- Bean weevils
- Flour beetles
- Granary and rice weevils
- Indian meal moths
- Saw-toothed grain beetles
How to Identify Stored-Item Pests
Depending on their life stages, you might find it difficult to identify the various pests in your products. These pests go through larval and immature stages as they grow into adults and continue feeding on flour, breakfast cereals, rice and other stored goods. Without regular pest control, a few pantry pests could lead to a widespread infestation. Let’s take a look at a few of the more common pantry pests and what you can expect to see.
- Indian meal moths have a coppery appearance with darker bands on their wings. Less than an inch long, they rest on the inside walls of boxed goods. The larvae appear white with various hues of brown, green or yellow, and they reach the same length as the adults before pupating inside silk cocoons.
- Saw-toothed grain beetles are found in a variety of products such as breakfast cereal, macaroni, oatmeal and birdseed; their 1/4-inch bodies appear brownish-red as adults. The females lay their eggs in the food source, where they will eventually hatch into yellowish larvae.
- Flour beetles have a reddish-brown appearance and feed on cake mixes, chocolate powder, spices and cracked grains. They grow less than 1/4 of an inch in length and can be seen scavenging for a food source on counters, shelves, and the floor.
How to Prevent Stored-Item Pests
Thoroughly inspecting both stored and incoming products is an effective way to prevent an infestation. Protecting the goods is the next step if everything passes the inspection. Clean up spills as they happen, avoid storing items in high-moisture areas and practice good sanitation around your products. When all else fails, an exterminator from Anderson Pest Solutions will be glad to help.
Our technicians use the latest integrated pest management techniques to ensure pest-free facilities throughout Illinois. We’ll not only provide a thorough inspection inside and outside of your business, but we can identify concerns, develop preventative methods and apply an effective treatment as necessary. We’ll also follow up on treatment and create a pest control plan that protec
