It’s warming up in Greater Cincinnati, time to take a look at your kitchen pantry and check out our household tips. That’s because warm weather tends to bring out some of the most undesirable characters around, weevils. And they typically love nothing more than to put down roots in Ohio homes.

There are many different types of pantry pests that usually gravitate towards Cincinnati residents’ homes. The more common ones are confused flour beetles, rice weevils, Indian meal moths, red flour beetles, and seed weevils. Their microscopic eggs often enter homes hidden in dry goods such as split peas, flour, rice, and cornmeal.

Once inside, they’ll initially eat and mate within the confines of the home’s pantry. However, they will eventually spread out to other areas of the kitchen. Getting rid of them requires altering shopping and storage habits as well as engaging in a thorough deep cleaning session. Let’s talk about shopping and storage tips first.

How to rid your pantry of bugs 

During the warm weather, try and keep your dry goods purchases down to the bare minimum. Items that you do buy should sport damage-free packaging and reasonable expiration dates. Once you get the items home, place them into the freezer for at least four days. The cold temperatures should help to kill off any microscopic pests.

Afterward, place the dry goods into sanitary, moisture-resistant, re-sealable containers. Once the infestation has been taken care of the containers may be safely stored in the pantry, freezer or refrigerator. This brings us to the next important task, the deep cleaning session.

Throwing out all of the infested food and hiring a maid service is the easiest way to approach the problem. The maid service’s staff can professionally clean and sanitize the entire kitchen, which should discourage the pests from returning. They can also provide periodic cleaning services throughout the year to help keep the rest of the home insect-free.

To learn more about hiring a professional cleaning service in the Greater Cincinnati area, please contact us by calling (513) 871-6243.