Eating a bowl of your favorite cereal and being greeted by strange bugs swimming in your milk in an unpleasant surprise, especially after you have taken a bite or two. Unfortunately, whether we are aware of it or not, it is more likely than not that by the time you have reached adulthood, you have likely consumed some sort of pantry pest. It is even more likely that most everyone who has consumed dry food products have consumed the eggs, larvae, shed skins, and feces of pantry pests. Most people of course do so without even noticing that they are eating such things. Some people who have sensitive immune systems may suffer mild to severe affects as a result of pantry pests.
Pantry pests can arrive at a home or business at any time. These tiny critters do not creep inside from your neighbor’s home or hitch a ride in luggage or purses like bed bugs do. Instead, in most cases, pantry pests begin their journey far down the food distribution chain. Pantry pests often wind their way in from the raw materials supplier, to the manufacturer, to the grocery story, and then to your home or to a restaurant.
These tiny pests lay their eggs in a wide variety of grain, flour, cereal, legumes, and other stored food products. They live undetected and protected as they are encased in all types of food packaging materials. Once encapsulated in food products such as a bag of flour, rice, cake mixes, popcorn, oatmeal, bread mixes, cookie mixes, crackers, pasta, corn meal, cereal, etc., the pantry pest will feed off of the food, lay eggs, and live its lifecycle.
Please check back on Friday for the conclusion.