Top Kitchen Pests in Your Mississippi Home

It’s widely known that your kitchen can quickly become a home for many pests to reside in, which poses a massive problem. However, understanding the most significant pest threats to your Mississippi kitchen can be you formulate a proactive approach to this type of pest control. It can prevent your family from coming into contact with pest-borne diseases. 

With that being said, you do get many different types of kitchen pests in your Mississippi home. These various kitchen pests require different plans of action when it comes to controlling such problems. For this reason, kitchen bug identification plays a crucial role in the pest control process. Here are the top kitchen pests that can be found in your Mississippi home, as well as some of the best treatment plans for that particular kitchen pest: 

Indian Meal Moth (Pantry Moth)

Indian Meal Moths, as known as pantry moths, are seen as being the most troublesome pest that’s known to infest homes in Mississippi. An Indian Meal Moth is known for attack all whole grain, cereal, nuts, dried milk, birdseed, pet foods, and dried fruit products. The damage caused by an Indian Meal Moth is from the larvae spinning silken threads as the pests crawl and feed, which work to web particles of food together. 

These Indian Meal Moths are likely introduced into a home through groceries and packaged goods purchased at the store. To prevent this from occurring, you should start by inspecting your food before buying it in the store. You can do this by looking for small holes in the packaging or webbing around it. After this, you should transfer your food into tightly sealed containers, clean up any food spills, and vacuum any possible problem areas in your kitchen. 

In some cases, it is possible to remove your pantry moth infestation without the use of pesticides. However, this isn’t always the recommended option, as the majority of these infestations need a treatment plan that involves chemicals. The reason behind this is that you want to make sure that these infestations don’t return, which is why a professional treatment plan and execution are always recommended. 

Weevils

Weevils are widely known as being ugly-looking, snout-nosed bugs that can mainly be found in cornmeal, flour, and rice. You get a wide variety of weevils, including seed weevils, rice weevils, maize weevils, grain/granary weevils, and pea (bean) weevils. 

These weevils are also named flour bugs. This is because these pests are frequently located in flour products in your kitchen. Weevils (or flour bugs) are a type of beetle that have an elongated snout, which differentiates from other types of beetles. Within the weevil species, you can get more than 97,000 kinds of flour bugs. 

These weevils are similar to other pantry and kitchen pests, as flour bugs feast and infest on rice and whole grains, as well as seeds, cereals, beans, nuts, and other types of food. However, one significant difference is that these weevils and different kinds of beetles are that beetles live and feed on foods. Weevils, or flour bugs, live and provide inside this food. The female is known to chew a whole inside a grain kernel or seed and places her eggs inside, and seals the opening. The eggs then hatch inside the seed or grain and feed on it until these pests are fully grown.  

A useful type if you have a weevil infestation is to use cloves or bay leaves, as these products work as a natural repellent against flour bugs. You can start this process by placing a few bay leaves in your dried food containers and leave a number of garlic cloves around your pantry and kitchen to prevent these pests from coming into contact with the food. In addition to this, white vinegar also holds the reputation of killing off pesky flour bugs. 

Ants 

Ants are irritating pests that can be found almost anyone, and the worse part about these pests is that they never seem to travel alone. When you find one, you come across an entire army. Ants in kitchens are one of the most common areas where you can find these creatures. What attracts these pests to a specific area is a food source, which is why a kitchen is favorited over other destinations. 

With that being said, you can follow some processes to remove these ants from your kitchen. If you come across ants in your kitchen, you can start by wiping these creatures away with a solution that’s made with half water and half vinegar. Otherwise, you can also use straight vinegar. 

White vinegar is an excellent tool because it not only kills these ants but also repels these pests. If you find yourself with an ant infestation in your home, the best thing to do would be to use diluted vinegar to clean any hard surfaces of your kitchen. These include countertops and floors. 

Cockroaches 

There’s no doubt that cockroaches are the most common types of crawling pests that are known to make your kitchen their home. These pests cause massive problems in your kitchen because of the size of these pests, which provides these creatures with the ability to hide in small spaces. However, other issues are from the pests’ varied diet, diseases these creatures carry, and rapid reproduction. 

In addition to this, cockroaches are mainly nocturnal creatures that shelter in the daytime and make appearances at night to search for food and other locations for shelter. These cockroaches also harbor in dark places, which are generally hard to reach when cleaning. 

Although cockroaches are a massive issue, this problem is preventable with the incorporation of acceptable sanitation practices. In addition to this, storing your food in airtight containers and maintaining drainage while implementing a consistent cleaning schedule also serves as being effective solutions in preventing a cockroach infestation. 

In some cases, the preventative measure isn’t the right approach if you already have a cockroach infestation in your home. With that being said, you shouldn’t fear as there is a multitude of commercial solutions that are available for controlling cockroaches, such as bait, dust, aerosols, and sprays.