5 Tips For Pest-Free Thanksgiving Preparation
Happy Thanksgiving from Pointe Pest Control! There are plenty of traditions that come with this holiday: a float-filled parade, professional football games, long conversations with friends and family, and more food than anyone can eat in one day. The food itself is arguably the star of the show on this holiday, and the talented home chefs who are responsible for preparing this meal will be the first to tell you how much work goes into cooking Thanksgiving dinner. A good portion of the prep work can be done throughout the week, which means that a lot of food will be resting until its shining moment on the big day. Unfortunately, this gives invasive pests multiple opportunities to ruin the food before the Thanksgiving table is even set. Let’s discuss the five most efficient ways to prevent pests from finding your delicious holiday dishes and taking over the stocked kitchen.
Check Food Packages
Before the ingredients even leave their packages, they are at risk of being sought after by hungry pests. Pantry pests — Indian meal moths, flour beetles, ants, sawtoothed grain beetles, etc. — are tiny insects that commonly invade packaged foods. They can chew through or slip into flimsy packaging without being detected due to their small size. Cardboard, plastic bags, and cellophane are all frequently infiltrated by pantry pests.
When it comes to preventing pantry pests, it starts in the grocery store. Check each ingredient that you choose before purchasing, taking extra care to inspect for any holes or gaps in the packaging. It’s also a good idea to do a quick scan of each packaged item before using it once you begin cooking. The longer that dried goods sit in the pantry or cabinets, the more likely that pantry pests will invade at least one item. On that note, if you find any random crumbs or spills inside your food storage area, find the source of it as soon as possible. Throw away the leaking food item and completely clean the spilled food.
Store Ingredients Properly
Speaking of food storage, the easiest way to keep pests out of your vital Thanksgiving ingredients is to store them properly in the first place. By this, we mean keeping everything in airtight containers and putting stronger barriers between the food and potential pests. Solid containers are especially important for pantry staples that you won’t use up. Some of the most common leftover ingredients are flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, breadcrumbs, nuts, cornstarch, and cornmeal.
Instead of keeping these ingredients in their original flimsy packaging, we strongly recommend transferring them to airtight containers. The specific containers are your choice and depend on the storage capabilities of your kitchen, so the only true requirement is that they have an airtight seal and are not easily torn. If you know that you will use the ingredient up soon, a zip-top plastic bag will suffice. You can also store certain items in the fridge or freezer in order to completely seal it off from pests, but make sure to check the labels on each ingredient first to be certain that this will not damage the food.
Sanitize The Kitchen
Proper sanitation is essential when cooking for a crowd, hence the need for health inspectors in food-serving businesses. But did you know that keeping a clean kitchen is also crucial for preventing pests from invading your home? Pests generally love clutter, dust, and crumbs. Some species can survive on these overlooked food sources, with ants, roaches, and rodents being some of the most common. If the kitchen and pantry are cluttered with containers haphazardly placed everywhere, smaller pests have an endless amount of hiding spots.
First of all, try to keep the kitchen as tidy as possible in the days leading up to Thanksgiving (and, honestly, the rest of the year). This is a tougher task when you’re storing all kinds of ingredients for the big dinner, but as long as you keep everything in neat rows or stacks, you can still eliminate hiding spots for pests. Secondly, sanitize the surfaces as you prepare the dishes. Clean up any crumbs and spills immediately, then sanitize the spot to remove any lingering stains. At the end of each day, sanitize all of the used counters with an antibacterial wipe or spray. This eliminates food smells and sticky spots that would otherwise attract all kinds of pests.
Do The Dishes
It may be one of the most tedious chores in the house, but washing the dishes in a timely manner is unfortunately important in preventing pests. When dirty dishes with food remnants sit in the sink for days on end, hungry pests will be attracted to the idle food sources. Roaches, ants, and flies typically invade dirty dishes because of the reliable food sources and surrounding moisture. The dishes and pans used for cooking are enough of an attraction as it is, but the plethora of dishes that are to come with actual Thanksgiving dinner will be even more of an attraction if they aren’t washed immediately.
If you don’t want to fully wash the dishes right away (we get it), rinsing everything before leaving the dishes in the sink is still helpful in preventing pests from invading this space. Or, if you prefer to leave the kitchen with all of the dishes completely clean, it’s less overwhelming to wash the dishes as you go than to save them for the end. When you finish doing the dishes, give the sink a quick cleaning to remove any lingering food scraps and stains. A clean sink is a pest-free sink!
Have Proper Trash Management
All it takes is one look at the fly-infested trash cans in the local park to know that pests love garbage way more than we do. In fact, some pests can source their three life essentials (food, water, shelter) from a full trash can! With this disgusting detail in mind, it’s crucial to have good trash management in the kitchen. Every piece of trash — food-related or not — should make it into the garbage can. As the trash can continues to fill with food scraps, wrappers, and paper towels, the bag will inevitably become too full to leave in the can.
Taking out the trash is a pretty mindless chore, but it is an important one. If you allow the can to overflow onto the floor, it just makes it that much easier for hungry pests to invade your trash and set up shop in the kitchen. Ants, roaches, rodents, and flies all enjoy full trash cans, especially when the garbage is left alone for days at a time. Make sure to take out the trash before it overflows, and tie up the garbage bag securely to keep it all contained. As for the large outdoor garbage cans, keep the lids completely closed when not in use. Thanksgiving food trash will be irresistible to countless pests, so keeping the provided barrier between the pests and your trash is essential in maintaining a pest-free home long after the holiday ends.
Schedule Services With Pointe Pest Control
Whether you’re looking to prevent invasive pests or you’ve been steadily researching for a solution to your ongoing pest problem, Pointe Pest Control is here to help! Our technicians are all fully trained and experienced in solving dozens of local pest issues. We begin every service with a complete inspection of the property in order to assess the areas of pest activity and determine the species involved. All of our findings then inform the customized treatment plan that we create on site. We leave no stone unturned in our dedication to solving each pest issue as efficiently as possible. You deserve to enjoy this food-filled holiday without worrying about hungry pests inviting themselves to the table. For a free quote on the most reliable pest control services around, contact our team today!
Citations
Alongi, D. (2014, November 26). Four ways to create pest-free baking for the holidays. LinkedIn. Available at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141126192409-260865881-four-ways-to-create-pest-free-baking-for-the-holidays (Accessed on November 15, 2023).
How to keep pests away from your Thanksgiving dinner. (n.d.). Champion Termite and Pest Control. Retrieved November 15, 2023, from https://www.championtermiteandpestcontrol.com/how-to-keep-pests-away-from-your-thanksgiving-dinner/
