Bugs in the kitchen: how to get rid of uninvited guests. How to get rid of bugs in the kitchen: step-by-step instructions, prevention of occurrence

How to get rid of flour bugs in the kitchen? This question arises in the mind of every housewife when she discovers numerous small insects that have occupied the food supplies in the closet. A rather unpleasant sight threatens not only a spoiled mood, but also a partial or complete separation from damaged cereals. You can, of course, try to save at least something by sifting through a sieve, but... Only adult individuals are “sorted”, but the eggs they lay, tiny and similar to grains of flour, will easily pass through the holes in the sieve mesh.

Therefore, it is better to look for another solution to a complex and unpleasant question: “How to get rid of it once and for all?”

Who lives on kitchen shelves?

If bugs appear in the kitchen, how to get rid of them quickly and effectively? You should know that there are plenty of contenders for the contents of kitchen cabinets: bread grinders, red flour eaters. Each of these species, once in favorable conditions, significantly spoils food and actively reproduces. How to get rid of bugs in the kitchen cabinet?

Bread grinders are small bugs (up to 3.7 mm in length), characterized by incredible vitality and fertility. They have a black-brown body and a small, completely armored head. Adults do not feed: the larvae cause damage to kitchen supplies.

Penetrating into the nutrient substrate, they make numerous passages in it. They also pupate there, first gnawing out cradles in feeding areas. The specimens living in the flour glue its particles into balls and wait in them for the period of transformation into adults. Over the course of a year, approximately 3-4 generations of bread grinders develop, which can only be found in kitchen supplies, on windows, walls, and the floor of a room if there is a large accumulation of them. In small numbers, insects remain hidden in the food substrate and do not show themselves outside. Bread grinders do not disdain tea, coffee, medicinal plants, book bindings, animal feed, crushed grain mixtures; They leave many passages in them and deposit waste products.

Ways of bugs getting into the kitchen

How does it get into the kitchen? Most often, it is brought by the owners themselves in bags with purchased products. Most likely, the cereals on store shelves were initially contaminated due to the manufacturer’s failure to comply with sanitary and hygienic standards for processing and storing products. Thus, having traveled a long way from the warehouse to the store, the bugs that end up in the same bag with the cereal reach the end consumer. How to get rid of flour bugs in the kitchen?

Red flour beetle - harmful to kitchen supplies

The red flour eater doesn't mind taking inventory of the kitchen cabinets - small insect(1.5-2.5 mm in length) rusty-yellow in color, characterized by hard wings, a body covered with silky hairs and widely spaced thread-like antennae. Like the bread grinder, he prefers to “work” in industrial scale and lives in mills, cereal and feed factories, bakeries, and pasta factories. It feeds on cereals, rotting flour and grain, provided that the moisture content of the latter is not lower than 15%. Within a year, under favorable conditions, 4 generations can develop. The lifespan of adults is 6 months. Gathering in groups, the flour beetle increases the moisture content of food and contaminates it with excrement and shells from larvae. How to get rid of flour bugs in the kitchen?

Flour beetle: habitat features

The most common inhabitant of the kitchen area is (otherwise known as the flour beetle) - a reddish-red beetle characterized by small (3-4 mm) sizes, short antennae, a durable shell that protects the back and head, and small underdeveloped wings.

At a favorable temperature of +23-25 ​​o C, a female beetle is capable of producing 4 generations in a year, laying 300-350 eggs at a time. In the most fertile individuals, this figure can reach 1000. Mealworm eggs (short oval, white) are quite difficult to detect in cereals, since they are covered with a sticky liquid that quickly absorbs particles of flour and dust. Although the female is so fertile that she lays eggs wherever possible: on food, fabrics, in the crevices of cabinets. The hatched larvae immediately crawl away in search of food, easily gnaw through bags and settle in stocks of cereals and flour - the most preferred product. It is somewhat encouraging that this type of insect independently regulates its numbers. When it increases significantly, adults and larvae eat eggs and pupae.

Clusters of mucoeds can significantly spoil food supplies. For example, when flour is massively infested, it acquires a dirty color, becomes lumpy, smells bad, tastes unpleasant and is generally unsuitable for consumption. Products damaged by beetleworm are dangerous to human health and can cause an allergic reaction, dysbacteriosis and even poisoning. How to get rid of bugs in the kitchen?

How to get rid of food moths?

An unpleasant surprise in the kitchen is the discovery that food does not spread as actively as its “colleagues”, but lays eggs in the most unexpected, often hard-to-reach places.

The presence of a winged pest can be determined by a thorough inspection of the premises. Gray-brown cocoons can be seen on the walls and under the ceiling; It is easy to see pinkish caterpillars in contaminated flour and cereals. Such products are unsuitable for consumption, so you will have to part with them. You should also say goodbye to food moths using one of the methods below.

Flour bugs in the kitchen: ways to fight them

If small pests are found in cereals and flour, measures should be taken immediately to destroy them, without giving time for the reproduction and development of hatched individuals. How to get rid of bugs in cereals and flour in the kitchen?

One of effective ways The best way to kill the pest is to freeze contaminated products in the freezer. Not severely damaged cereals can be calcined in the oven at a temperature of 100-110 o C for 10-15 minutes, after sifting them. For prevention purposes, it is recommended to heat any purchased cereals in the oven, as they may already be infected with the pest. It's easy to remove bugs from beans and peas by soaking them in salt water for a few minutes. When the insects float to the surface, drain the water and dry the clean legumes on a dry cloth. If the damage is severe, it is better to throw away the products. How to get rid of bugs in other ways?

About order in kitchen cabinets

The operation to get rid of bugs will be considered completely completed if you clean up the kitchen cabinets. To do this, all shelves should be completely emptied of contents, the remains of spilled cereals should be removed, the cracks should be filled with boiling water, and the surfaces should be wiped with a vinegar solution (a tablespoon of vinegar per liter of water). Then it is recommended to leave the cabinets for a day to dry. In the meantime, it is necessary to tidy up the cereal containers: wash them with a solution based on laundry soap, then treat with boiling water. Fabric bags in which cereals were stored should be treated with a salt solution and dried without rinsing.

Pyrethrum to the rescue

How to get rid of flour bugs in the kitchen? To avoid re-infestation with bugs, it is recommended to sprinkle cabinet shelves with pyrethrum powder - a natural organic insecticide that is safe for humans and pets, but is a deadly poison for insects. Produced from Dolmat chamomile, this remedy blocks the movement of nerve impulses, causing insects to quickly become paralyzed and die. Problem surfaces can also be treated using a spray bottle, into which pour pyrethrum dissolved in water. The advantage of a natural product is its pervasiveness: the powder is easy to deliver to hard to reach places. Its only drawback is its inability to destroy insect eggs. Therefore, it is recommended to carry out repeated treatments aimed at getting rid of the hatched generation.

How to get rid of flour bugs in the kitchen using traditional methods?

Common garlic and bay leaves are good repellents for kitchen bugs. It is enough to simply place them on the shelves of cabinets or in containers with cereals and flour.

Insects also cannot tolerate the aroma of nutmeg, so it is recommended to sprinkle the seasoning on an adhesive plaster and attach it to the inner walls of the cabinet.

Preventive measures

Cereal bugs are quite difficult to fight, so it is better to prevent their invasion of the kitchen area. In order to prevent pests such as bread grinder, red flour beetle, flour beetle, it is recommended to constantly keep the kitchen clean, regularly ventilate the room and ensure that the air humidity is moderate. After all, moisture is an ideal environment for breeding bugs.

Cereals are a product that every housewife always tries to buy in stock. It is consumed slowly and is rarely checked for integrity and purity. And at this time, harmful bugs can multiply and develop in it.

Therefore, it is not recommended to purchase flour and cereals in large quantities. Immediately after purchase, you should check the products for the presence of beetles, cool them in the freezer for 24 hours, and only then pour them into hermetically sealed containers. It is not recommended to store cereals in bags, because bugs can easily gnaw them.

It is advisable to keep dried fruits and nuts in the refrigerator. Periodically, cereals and flour should be checked for the presence of insects in them, and poured onto a dry surface for ventilation. When washing, scald the dishes in which cereals are stored with boiling water and wipe dry.

– every housewife knows firsthand. These harmful insects appear unexpectedly and out of nowhere. In addition to the fact that they spoil food, bugs cause a lot of unpleasant sensations and leave behind traces of their vital activity.

Bugs in the kitchen are contradictory sanitary standards and home aesthetics

Reasons for bugs appearing in food and cupboards

The reason for bugs in the cabinet is food brought from outside (from a store, market, neighbor, etc.). The risk of introducing insects increases if bulk products are sold by weight. IN in this case the seller is at fault when the quality of the goods is not controlled and the terms and conditions of storage are violated.

But home conditions can also be a source of infection. These are unsuitable containers and storage conditions:

  • plastic or paper bags;
  • increased air humidity;
  • inappropriate room temperature.

Thanks to them, the reproduction of cereal beetles occurs in geometric progression.

Another reason that insects appear in cereals is the purchase of food for future use in large quantities.

What bugs are found in cereals, flour

The following food bugs settle in bulk products:

  1. . A small bug up to 3 cm long, dark brown. Its habitat is cereals, dried fruits, flour, crackers, dried berries. The female's eggs can be found in crevices furniture cabinets, seams of burlap, folds of packaging bags and other surfaces. The flour bug settles in unsealed packages of products that have expired.
  2. Red flour eater. in granaries, bakeries, cereal and feed warehouses. His food is grain, cereals, flour, the moisture content of which exceeds 15%. Once in dry bulk products, the bug will not find food and will die. It is brought into the apartment with low-quality products.
  3. . Omnivorous bug brown, whose length reaches 4 mm, is considered an extremely voracious pest. He eats cereals, flour products, dried fruits, beans, nuts and even wood.

These bugs feel at ease and multiply quickly in a warm room. They are very tenacious. The destructive temperature for pests is +500C and above or -150C and below. When unfavorable living conditions are created, they move to more acceptable habitats.

If there are bugs in the house, but it was not possible to get rid of them immediately upon detection, then there is a possibility that they will quickly populate the kitchen area and it will be very difficult to get rid of them.

If there are bugs in the house, then you need to get rid of them as follows:


If there are bugs in the rice, but they were discovered in time, then the cereal must be processed immediately. This way, “uninvited guests” will not have time to migrate to new food supplies. The cereal must be washed and filled with water. Add a little there citric acid. Let stand for two hours and rinse well. running water. Unfortunately, such rice will no longer make pilaf, but it can be used to prepare porridges, salads, puddings, etc.

It is necessary to store cereals, flour, dried fruits, nuts and pasta in large quantities very carefully. Very effective method protection against bugs for such a case - use steel wire or nails. They are put directly into bags. The smell of metal repels bugs.

Preventive measures in the kitchen

No one is safe from purchasing products spoiled by insects. Therefore, before purchasing cereals or pasta, you need to pay attention to the following:

  • shelf life of the product;
  • strange impurities in the packaging;
  • the presence of moving insects inside the package;
  • integrity of the packaging.

Returning from the store, you need to open the bag of cereal and sort out the cereal. At the slightest suspicion of pests, the contents of the package must be washed and dried (dried fruits) or heated at high temperatures (cereals, pasta, etc.). Then pour the bulk supplies into a glass container and cover with a lid. It is not advisable to store them in bags. You'll have to keep an eye on the banks for two to three weeks. If there are pests in bulk products, then crawling bugs in the cereal will be noticeable through the glass. Then you will have to take measures to eliminate them.

Every housewife should know one thing important rule– you cannot store expired cereals and flour. Once every 3 months, it is useful to review all stocks of bulk products and get rid of those that have expired. This action will be a good prevention of pests in the kitchen.

There is no need to throw away grains that are unfit for food. It is better to make bird food from them.

The indoor microclimate plays an important role in storing food supplies. Dampness and high temperature contribute to the appearance of small black bugs in the kitchen. Under favorable conditions for the reproduction of insects, hundreds of crawling bugs will hatch from the larvae in just one day. Therefore, regular ventilation of the room and properly functioning ventilation will become effective. preventive measures. The ideal place to store cereals is a glass container with a screw-on lid and a pantry.

Conclusion

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Bugs in flour and other foodstuffs are an unpleasant phenomenon. But you should not contact the relevant organizations. By listening to the advice above, you can independently expel all harmful insects from the kitchen and take measures against secondary infestation.

First of all, you need to understand that if you have food in your kitchen, then bugs can appear in any case, no matter how hard you try to maintain order.


Cereals receive bugs while still in the warehouse.

There may be several sources of infection:

Pay attention! Even one spotted bug is a reason to be wary and take treatment and prevention measures. Therefore, carefully monitor the condition of your kitchen and do not neglect processing cereals after purchasing them.

In addition, many bugs love animal food, so it is better to put it in the pantry or refrigerator.

Types of bugs

It is important to understand that depending on the type of new kitchen inhabitants you have, methods of dealing with them may vary significantly. And sometimes they are not needed at all: for example, small (less than one millimeter) white bugs that can occasionally be seen in the kitchen are ordinary wood bugs. They feed on dust from your furniture, are non-toxic and do not harm human health.


White bugs: not a very pleasant, but harmless neighborhood.

True, there is another side to this - they can serve as food for other bugs with more unpleasant behavior. Therefore, we recommend that you read the information below and try to determine who you are up against and what products you may have to throw away.

We define: Musty smell and holes cut into the grains.

The mealworm is much more dangerous for humans. A brown bug up to three millimeters in size has a mustache and powerful mandibles. You can find it in stocks of flour or potato starch, but there are also not too whimsical individuals for which any crumbly product will suit.


Not only destroys food, but also harms health.

It is noteworthy that they do not strive to completely eat even their favorite flour - as soon as it begins to smell unpleasant, the entire colony migrates to the next container.

Their danger lies in the fact that the waste products of the flour beetle are dangerous to humans and can cause serious poisoning.

We define: Products collect in lumps and acquire a damp smell.

The peculiarity of the bread grinder is its incredible gluttony. The four-millimeter bug is ready to eat any food that can be found in your kitchen cabinets: flour and pasta, cereals, beans, coffee, tea, nuts, dried fruits and even tobacco.


A small bug can drain all your supplies.

There is no particular harm from it, but a few bugs can ruin a significant amount of stock.

We define: They usually don’t hide much, so they are immediately visible.

It should be noted that some people prefer to classify food moths as bugs in the kitchen. This is fundamentally incorrect: moths are a completely different species and need to be dealt with using other methods. We wrote more about how to get rid of food moths in.

Are bugs in the kitchen dangerous?

It is difficult to unequivocally assess the harm from the presence of bugs in the kitchen for human health: if you do not eat them directly, they do not seem to be able to do much harm.


Eating such foods is not only unpleasant, but also dangerous.

On the other hand, the taste also leaves much to be desired: bugs give all products an unpleasant musty taste, as they eat away their core, leaving only the shell.


The bugs will have no chance of getting into the container.

So get yourself some beautiful ceramic, metal or glass containers. In them, food will be preserved much longer, and bugs will not be able to reach it. Unless, of course, you forget to close the lid.

The desire to stock up is a good thing. However, should they all be stored in the kitchen? For most cereals best place storage will be a refrigerator or even a freezer.


Bugs can't stand it low temperatures.

Low temperatures will not give the bugs the slightest chance to reproduce, and will not spoil the taste of the food.


Place the selected ingredient in fabric bags and place it on the shelves between containers with bulk products.

It is not at all necessary to pour it into food: we doubt that this will make rice or oatmeal tastier. But once a week, wiping the shelves with a weak vinegar solution won’t hurt: this way you will remove the eggs and larvae of bugs, preventing them from multiplying.


Vinegar will remove bugs, larvae, and eggs.

Important! Be sure to wipe the shelves dry after treatment if you don’t want to enjoy the aroma of vinegar for a couple more days.


Scent bomb to fight bugs.

Step 1: Where there might be bugs in the kitchen

If your kitchen is already infested, the first step is to identify the source of infestation. To do this, you will have to review all products.


Radical methods will not be required if you listen to our advice.

Consider the following nuances:

After inspection, you may or may not find an obvious source of infection. Radical way- throw away all food supplies, clean the kitchen and buy new ones. However, not everyone will like this approach: products are expensive, so throwing away absolutely everything is quite wasteful.

Pay attention! You still have to get rid of obviously contaminated cereals and groceries, so throw them away without sparing.

If any product is in doubt, test it heat treatment. You have two options.


If you bake cereal in the oven, the bugs are guaranteed to die.

The first is the most gentle on the taste of the product. Just put the cereal in the freezer for a day and put it on minimum temperature. This will be enough for the bugs, larvae and eggs to die. Then carefully sort the grains and sift the flour through a fine sieve.

The second will take less time and is considered more effective: preheat the oven and pour the cereal onto a baking sheet. At a temperature of 50-60 degrees, keep it there for one hour.

However, reviews note that this method of fighting bugs has its drawbacks - the taste of the cereal will change slightly, and it will take longer to prepare. But you are guaranteed to get crumbly porridge.


Be sure to sift the grains upon completion of cleaning work.

And yet, if you are not sure whether your products are clean, it is better to throw them away: it is much safer for your health to spend a couple of thousand rubles on restocking supplies than to later treat toxicological poisoning from frozen or baked remains of bugs.

Small nasty bugs in flour and cereals can be a real disaster. And such a misfortune occurs not only among slobs and lazy people; not a single decent housewife or clean person is immune from this.

You just need to know a few basic rules and a couple of little tricks in order to eat calmly and not suffer from the presence of these small, ubiquitous bugs, which, by the way, can seriously damage not only your nerves, but also your health.

What bugs are found in cereals and flour?


Ways to get rid of bugs

To get rid of bugs, it is necessary to carry out a whole range of measures to destroy not only them themselves, but also their offspring, waste products. And first of all, this is, of course, to carry out high-quality cleaning. Armed with rags and sponges, you will have to open everything kitchen cabinets and empty and sanitize all shelves and drawers.

It is necessary to carefully sweep away any remaining grains that may have spilled out and simply wipe everything with a dry or slightly damp cloth. After this you can proceed to processing:


Now let's move on to storage containers:

After the main shelters of the bugs have been eliminated and processed, it is worth moving on to the remaining items. It is advisable to wipe everything with vinegar solutions: refrigerator, microwave and other appliances and furniture:

  • Pyrethrum helps well; it is a flower powder that is made from Caucasian chamomile, absolutely organic and safe for humans and pets. It should be sprayed carefully in cabinets. To do this, you can simply pour a little onto a dry palm and blow gently in the direction of the shelf you need. Make sure that the powder gets into the cracks and joints.
  • If your a pest food moth, then to the procedures described above, it is necessary to add processing by any chemical agent from ordinary moths. Moreover, you also need to spray carpets, rugs, upholstered furniture, if there is one.
If you choose glass or plastic containers for storage, then you need to not only wash them, but also thoroughly rinse them with boiling water, which will kill the bug eggs

How to get rid of bugs forever

You won't be able to get rid of bugs forever. Every time you return from the store with another bag of cereal or flour, with a new freshly baked loaf, you risk bringing insects into your house.

You can only prevent their occurrence as much as possible by following simple recommendations. And reduce the risk of contamination of all products in the kitchen, as well as the proliferation and prosperity of uninvited guests.

There is no 100% way to protect yourself from bringing contaminated grains into your kitchen. The risk is somewhat reduced by the fact that the goods are packaged in sealed bags; such bugs can get into them mainly at the stage of manufacturing and packaging of the goods.


Every time you return from the store with another bag of cereal or flour, with a new freshly baked loaf, you risk bringing insects into your home

Reasons for the appearance of bugs in cereals and flour

Bugs themselves do not appear out of nowhere, and they almost never enter a person’s home:

Prevention of bugs

In order not to fight pests, it is better to protect yourself from their appearance and reproduction in advance. General advice– maintain cleanliness and ensure that cabinets are periodically ventilated.

You cannot eat contaminated cereals and flour together with bugs. But after processing the products, it is possible, although, most likely, it will simply be unpleasant for you. Here you need to understand that even if you sort or sift the cereal, you still cannot get rid of larvae, waste products, excrement and insect scales.

All these particles in small doses for healthy person not dangerous. But for a child or simply a weakened body, weak immunity can have consequences in the form of intoxication. This can result in stomach upset, vomiting and fever.

If there are no health problems, then you can remove the psychological aspect and eat it after certain processing. We are talking about freezing or heating.

Almost all bugs and their offspring die when frozen to -15 degrees or heated to more than +50:

  • To freeze, place a bag of cereal in freezer for a day, or if the process occurs in winter, then take the food outside or onto the balcony, just keep in mind that the temperature should not be more than -15 degrees.
  • Pour the cereal onto a baking sheet and spread evenly over the entire surface and place in the oven for half an hour at a temperature of 180-200 degrees.
  • After freezing or warming up, flour can be sifted through a fine sieve. By the way, the sieve holds not only the bodies of the bugs, but also their larvae, and even eggs. Therefore, flour, after all the manipulations carried out, can be safely consumed.

  • The main advice is, of course, cleanliness complete with a few little tricks.
  • When buying cereal or flour, do not rush to immediately pour it into a jar and put it in the cupboard. It is better to put the bag in the freezer overnight, or even for a day. If the cereal is infected, then this, of course, will not get rid of the bugs. But at low temperatures they will die, like their larvae and eggs, which means they will not reproduce and move to your other reserves.
  • Make it a rule, when cleaning cabinets, to wipe them with a vinegar or water-salt solution. Dilute 9% vinegar with water 1:1 or add a spoonful of regular baking soda and salt to 1 liter of water.
  • Nutmeg is a very aromatic remedy. Grind the nut as much as possible using a grater or mortar and to prevent it from scattering all over the surface, take wide tape and sprinkle evenly thin layer onto its strips the resulting nut powder. Then shake off the excess from the strips and cut into the amount you need. Place these nutmeg strips of scotch tape in the boxes. An effective and pleasant means of preventing bugs. You can also sprinkle already ground onto the scotch tape. nutmeg, from bags.
  • Lavender is another fragrant and simple remedy. Simply place the dried herbs on the shelves.

Bugs in the kitchen are dangerous because they destroy food supplies. There are many types of these insects, however, almost all of them differ small in size, making them difficult to detect. With a significant increase in the population, small bugs become noticeable, as the quality of the products deteriorates: the structure changes, and lumpy inclusions may appear.

Common insects that populate the kitchen: beetleworm, grinder, flour beetle, weevil, white bugs. They are all small, but they do a lot of harm. Acceptable living conditions for them are a temperature of +30 degrees. However, pests also feel comfortable at temperatures of +15 degrees.

Small Khrushchak

Size – up to 3 mm. The antennae are short. These little ones brown bugs live in the kitchen, preferring flour and starch. Together with such products, insects are brought into the house, then they spread throughout the room. The main sign of the presence of beetleworm is the formation of lumps in bulk products.

Products spoiled by small beetles become lumpy

Red mukoed

Small bugs related to this species, are characterized by a reddish-brown color. The size of insects is 2 mm. Unlike the Khrushchak, the Mukoed's antennae are quite long. Pests primarily appear in products with a moisture level of 15% or higher, which usually occurs when stored improperly.

Red flour beetles are very small; they can ruin not only food, but also utensils

Insects in the kitchen can also be represented by this species. These are omnivorous pests, as evidenced by their ability to feed not only on bulk products (cereals, legumes, flour and flour products, nuts, pet food), but also on tobacco, tea, and coffee.

Bread grinders are particularly voracious and can even grow in tobacco

The body of the beetles is oblong, color is brown. Their size is slightly larger than that of other insects and is 4 mm.

If there are few insects, they hide and are unnoticeable in the kitchen. As the colony population increases, the pests spread, so they can even appear on windowsills.

Insects of this species infect pasta, flour and cereals. The granary weevil can be found on the territory of human habitation. His distinguishing feature– elongated rostrum. The body size reaches 4 mm, the color is dark brown. The barn weevil cannot fly due to underdeveloped wings.

The beetle prefers grains of wheat, barley (barley), rye, rice, and less often damages corn and buckwheat.

Ways to enter the house

Small black bugs or their brown counterparts can get into the home in one way - they are brought in with food (usually flour or cereals). Initially, pests infest cereals in production, the reason for this is non-compliance with storage conditions or violation technical specifications in production. Due to poor quality processing of grain during the production of cereals, it becomes infected.

Bread affected by bread grinders

Bugs also appear in the kitchen if you buy a loose product. They can start under the conditions that were discussed above, however, insects move to clean cereals from a nearby uncovered container with loose product.

When the degree of contamination of food with insects is high, it is better to throw away such cereals and not eat them.

If a bug was found in flour, rice, or millet, it means that pests have already been there and probably multiplied. By consuming such a product, a person risks being poisoned, since insect excrement remains in the contaminated cereal. Such food is not beneficial for another reason - there are practically no nutrients left in it.

Pest control measures

If you find bugs in your kitchen, how to get rid of them? We need to check all food supplies. If they are severely infested, they are thrown away. If the insects do not have time to reproduce, the following measures are taken:

Temperature treatment

They influence beetles using temperature conditions. Low temperatures (-5...-11 degrees) have a negative effect. The rules apply: the higher the value of this parameter, the better. If there are bugs in the kitchen in winter, food supplies are taken outside to the balcony. At other times, cereals, nuts, dried fruits, flour, etc. are placed in the freezer. It is recommended to leave food there for several hours, or even for 2-3 days.

Use an increase in temperature. The higher the value of this parameter, the faster the pests will die. You can send the food to the oven and set the temperature within +50...+60 degrees.

Surface treatment

All cabinets and other furniture need to be cleaned. Then the surfaces are treated first with soap and then with vinegar solution.

Storing food in containers

You need to get rid of insects taking into account their characteristics. Despite the rather powerful oral apparatus, which allows pests to grind hard food and penetrate food bags, they will not be able to crawl into a tightly closed container. This means that it is recommended to store cereals, flour and other bulk products in closed jars (ceramics, tin or glass).

Check the tightness of the lids on jars and containers, and make sure that the plastic containers are intact.

Useful video: How to get rid of bugs in cereals?

Prevention

You should not wait until insects appear in your apartment; you can prevent their appearance. In this case, you need to rely on the following rules:

  • Coming home, bulk products are processed (cereals, flour), sending them to the oven at temperature conditions from +50 above, or in the freezer. This will destroy the offspring of insects if they have already managed to penetrate the product at the production stage.
  • From time to time, stocks are inspected for pests.
  • Inside the furniture, repellents are laid out on each shelf: bay leaf, garlic. Among other things, it is allowed to place them inside containers where bulk products are stored.
  • It is recommended to always store dried fruits and nuts in the refrigerator. If there is enough space, do the same with cereals.
  • All lockers are sanitized from time to time. They are wiped with vinegar solution.
  • Crevices in furniture and areas near baseboards are treated with hot steam or boiling water.
  • Despite precautions, house bugs can still appear. To avoid this, you do not need to store food in large quantities. It is enough to purchase a supply for 2-3 months.

Thus, if small bugs have been living in the kitchen for a long time, the damage they cause will be significant. Insects undermine grain, cereals and nuts, and settle in flour, coffee, tea and even tobacco. Feeding habits are determined by the type of pest.