Protecting Holiday Treats from Pantry Pests: A Seasonal Homeowners Guide

Winter is a festive time with many important religious and secular holidays occurring during the season.  Winter is also when a great deal of pest activity moves into our homes, with pests in search of warmth, food and shelter. One place that is particularly vulnerable, especially during the holidays, is your pantry where you store a lot of the food that goes into making the holidays special. In today’s blog we will be providing a helpful guide on how you can protect your holiday treats from pantry pests.

Prevent Entry

One of the best ways to ensure that pests don’t invade your pantry is to prevent them from entering your house in the first place. You can do this by inspecting your home in the fall and looking for any cracks or entry points on the exterior of your home and sealing them up. Remember that most pests need very little room to gain entry to your home, so no crack is too small to be dealt with.

Securely Store Food

Food is one the main things that attracts pests to a given area and there is plenty of food to be found during the busy holiday season. One of the best ways to prevent pests from invading and damaging your food supply is to keep your food sealed in durable, airtight plastic containers. This both prevents pests from accessing the food and keeps the food smells at a minimum, so pests aren’t attracted to the area. During the holidays you should be especially vigilant of holiday treats being left out and uncovered, their sweet smells drawing all manner of unwelcome admirers.

Clean Regularly

Regular Cleaning is one thing that can occasionally fall by the wayside during the busy holiday season but can lead to pests invading the various areas of your home. Be particularly wary of food debris and spills as these are major pest attractants. You should also make use of garbage bins with tight fitting lids and take the trash out regularly to keep it from attracting pests. Lastly be sure to avoid any clutter, especially in your pantry, as this can give pests places to hide so they can continue plundering your holiday treats with impunity.

We hope we have been able to show you the ways you can help protect your holiday treats from unwelcome pests. If you have any questions about pests or professional pest control, please feel free to contact us.

Gilpin’s Pest Control is a family-owned business operating on the Lower Mainland in Greater Vancouver and the BC Interior including Kamloops, Revelstoke, and Sicamous. After 35 years in the business, we do a stellar job and are proud of our rapid response time. 

If you have any questions about this article or you would like to talk to us about pest control needs, please call us toll-free at (800) 770-2428.