Pests..

[meredith14]

I thought it might be great if we told what we do to keep bugs and mice away from our food storages for those who don't have a clue.
I know that we all live in different areas and there are different kinds of pests and problems that effect that area and so it might help to make a master list of sorts.

I live in the NW and we get lots of mice here in the country. So we keep packets of "Just one Bite" under the shelving against the walls where they might run. I check on them about once a month and if it has been eaten then I step it up but most of the time this keeps things under control. When we have a choice between bag or can (cannery) we always take the can....mice chew into the mylar bags.

We also get little moths from the flour ect...I keep a fly strip up and keep an eye on it and if there is a moth in it then I know that somewhere I have a problem and most of time it's the last thing I brought in and then I get rid of the problem.

What about you...what do you do?

[Loudmouth_Mormon]

We keep barn cats. Other than the occasional little 'present' our cats will leave for us, we haven't seen a mouse in years.

[LarryKJ7YM]

At the beginning of every summer for more that 15 years the ants come a marching into our home in the Sonora desert located in the Southwestern United States. They go for all the usual suspects, Cereals, Corn Chips, Sugar, Instant Potato Flakes, and any and all other foods stored insecurely in boxes or paper or any opened bag or container. Sometimes even chewing through fairly thick boxes, it's just amazing! We usually wind up throwing away at least $20 worth of food.

So each year the policing up items in the cupboards begins anew, with many items placed in the refrigerator just for safety. (It gets pretty crowded in there). Then we begin the spraying of poisons hoping it gets them before it gets us or our dog Orbit.

Well this year I decided to bite the bullet. You see I know they will not come in all those numbers if they cant find food. So expensive though it was we finally went out to our local survival supply store (Walmart) aand purchased a large quantity of those plastic containers made just for pantry stuff. You know there is one for cereals, and another for sugar, as well as ones for Pasta and all kinds of items. My wife was very worried that we would no longer have enough space left on our shelves once we started putting these large containers in there. ( I must admit I was worried as well)

To our surprise we found 2 others items of bennifit besides ending the normally weeks long struggle we have with the ants each year. First let me say there is not an ant to be seen anywhere now.

But the second surprise was that we actually gained a lot of space in our cupboards. A large amount! I can only surmise that once we started using the tall containers a lot of our items went vertical instead of being spread out.

The next pleasant surprise is that we now have a much finer method of keeping inventory. I can discover at a glance how our supplies are doing on many items, as the containers are see through.

I discovered that I had no spaghetti in there at all when I thought I had a lot. I also discovered that I had multiples of some items that I only thought I had one of. This really helps a lot. Buying and organizing was pretty much an entire Saturday, and was fairly expensive, but I must say it is time and money well spent. And in just a few years the savings in food will more than pay for the containers. Then it will be like they are making us money!

[cintiejo]

I had problems in my pantry and I had read somewhere that if you open a pack of doublemint gum, leave the sticks wrapped in the wraper, and place them around the shelves you won't have bugs. I didn't believe but I that what the heck. So I bought several packages and placed them around the shelves. It worked! I haven't had bugs in two years. I change the gum every three months. I am bug free.