Pantry Beetles: What to Know About These Unusual Pests

To ensure that your family has everything they need, you might purchase and store various goods in your cabinets and pantry for safekeeping. Although your baking flours, grains, and other goods should be relatively safe in your cabinets and pantry, some pests can still contaminate your items, including pantry beetles.

Learn more about pantry beetles, including how to remove and keep them out of your goods.

What Are Pantry Beetles?

Most homeowners keep a watchful eye out for rats and mice during the cold season. However, you also want to watch out for pantry beetles. Many types of beetles can invade pantries, including warehouse beetles, red flour beetles, drugstore beetles, confused flour beetles, and cigarette beetles.

Pantry beetles, also known as stored product pests, can infect almost any type of food, including cereal grains, baking flours, and legumes. Some species of pantry beetles consume spices, dried peas, and cocoa-based products. The drugstore beetle, in particular, can eat just about anything you store in your kitchen.

Beetles can enter your home through the products you buy, such as bulk bags of beans, cereal, and rice, or pests can enter your home from the great outdoors. Food products can contain eggs, juveniles (larvae), adults, or all three. You may or may not find different species of beetles in the same products.

The colors of pantry beetles can vary from species to species. For instance, red flour beetles and confused flour beetles are reddish-brown with flat, oval-shaped bodies, while warehouse beetles are brown with yellow patterns on their bodies. Cigarette and drugstore beetles generally have cylinder-shaped bodies that appear lightish-brown in color.

Color and body shape aren't the only things you should watch for when searching for pantry beetles. You can also detect the pests by the things they do to your food and packages. For instance, some beetles lay their eggs inside food, such as grains and nuts. Larvae will tunnel through the items once they hatch from their eggs.

Some beetles lay eggs on the surfaces of packages to encourage them to hatch. You might also find tiny cocoon-like objects inside infected packages of grains, cornmeal, and flour.

It doesn't matter what type of pantry beetle you have in your stored food — remove the pest as soon as you can.

How Do You Remove and Prevent Pantry Beetles?

Eating food contaminated by pantry beetles can be dangerous for some adults and children. Beetles can leave frass, body hair, and other byproducts in your items over time. If you prepare your holiday dinners and other meals with contaminated food, you may place your loved ones at risk for health problems.

First, discard every item in your pantry and cabinets that appears contaminated with beetles. If you see holes in your packages, discard them as well. Next, contact pest control services for further instruction and help.

Pantry beetles can live and survive without sustenance for a number of weeks. The pests may hide somewhere inside your pantry or cabinets until they have an opportunity to infect your food again. Some beetles can take flight when needed. The pests may fly to an area of the kitchen you may not access easily.

Pest control can go through your pantry, cabinets, and other vulnerable areas and remove any pests they find from them. Pest control may also find other stored product insects inside your home that may potentially infect your food, including mealworms, moths, and mites. These flying insects can live inside homes throughout the year.

In addition to solving your current pest issues, pest control can help you keep your pantry and cabinets free of beetles in the future. Pest control may offer a long-term inspection and preventative program to you. If you wish to learn more about your inspection program or learn more about your options, consult pest control right away.

You also want to take steps to protect your pantry and cabinets from beetles. Always inspect your cornmeal, flour, and other organic items before you store them. You can do so by sifting your meal and flour thoroughly. If you notice cocoon-like structures, larvae, or eggs inside the packages, throw them away.

Also, try to purchase items with clear or easy-to-see-through packaging. You may be able to see live beetles crawling around the products. If you have doubts about the items, leave them at the store.

If possible, purchase spices that come in seal-tight containers. If you buy organic or whole spices, shake the containers thoroughly. If beetles are inside the containers, the shaking action may disturb them.

Finally, contact pest control for any questions or concerns you have about pantry beetles. Pest control contractors can discuss additional treatments you might need to control or prevent beetle infestations.

Don't hesitate to reach out to our contractors at Paffy's Pest Control for the pest control solutions you need today.