Who’s Been Eating Your Cereal? | Common Food Loving Pests

Nothing is worse than going to pour yourself, or your children, a bowl of cereal, and realizing that the box is empty. This will likely make you wonder, who’s been eating your cereal. Maybe you can point the finger at that sneaky family member in your home, or perhaps it’s not as evident as to where it all went. Unfortunately, cereal is not just a beloved staple in our diets, pests and rodents also find it enjoyable. Before you start accusing someone of eating your cereal, you should read on to understand who else may be enjoying your home’s food.

Who’s Been Eating Your Cereal?

Arizona pests and rodents typically make their way into homes in search of food, water, and shelter. Your pantry may be just the thing they are looking for. These unwanted food loving pantry visitors come in all types of shapes, sizes, and species and seek out easy to find food sources, particularly flour, grains, pasta, rice, and cereal. Because the average American consumes 160 bowls of cereal each year, you are likely to have a cereal box, or more, somewhere throughout your home, and if not, you likely have another food worthy of pest consumption.

What pests or rodents might be eating your cereal may vary. Mice, flies, ants, roaches, and spiders are usually the most common invaders. Not only do these pantry pest leave you with empty and damaged boxes, they can also contaminate your food and bring health risks and spread disease to you and your family.

What Can you do to Prevent Pantry Pests?

Many food seeking insects are brought into your home within the actual food items themselves, so those can be hard to catch; however, there are some things you can do to prevent a larger infestation and to help you avoid having to wonder who is eating your cereal.

Inspect Items Before Bringing them Home: Check your food items and containers for any signs of damage before leaving the store. Rips, holes, or tears could be an indication that there are pests inside the food. These pests also enjoy eating pet food, so be sure to check that as well.
Buy Limited Quantities and Things that will be Consumed Quickly: The longer an item sits in your home, the more opportunity there is for a pest or rodent infestation. It is recommended that you buy small quantities of items, so they will be replaced with new more often.
Keep your Space Clean: You should clean up spills and crumbs as they happen. Pests and rodents will make their way into your home if they know there are plenty of food sources. Leaving a feast for them, is simply an open invitation for them to frequent your space and food.
Properly Store Food: Storing your food and pet food in airtight containers, can help to prevent pests from making a meal out of your cereal and other food items. Try to keep food in mason jars, plastic or glass containers, or use other storage options that pests and rodents are unable to chew through. Never leave food open and unsealed.

What Are Some Signs that you may have Pests and Rodents Eating Your Food?

Before you grab an empty container of food, there are some indications that you may have unwanted eaters in your pantry. Let’s review.

Container Marks: Rodents and pests enjoy to chew or gnaw through the actual box or bag food is in. Look on the outside of food items for distinctive teeth marks around the edges.
You See them in the Food: One of the most obvious ways to indicate a problem, is if you find one or more of these pests in your food. If you happen to see something that looks like tiny grains of brown rice in your food, you likely have a problem.
Recalled Items: Many pantry pests start at the manufacturer or the store where you purchased the product. Watch for recalls on items that you have. Rarely do cereal insects infiltrate you home from outdoors.

If there is something out of the normal in your food, discard it and look at other items throughout your Arizona pantry and kitchen. Pests and rodents typically are not picky when it comes to their food choices, and will likely not stick to just munching on one item.

If you find yourself wondering who’s eating your cereal or other food items, you likely already have a pest or rodent problem.

When you have an Arizona pest problem, you can’t wait days to have it fixed. At Bucksworth Home Services, we offer a 24-Hour Promise, which means we will be to your home in under 24 hours to fix your pest problem. We stand by our service so much that if you have another intrusion, we will come back and fix it for free. Having a pest-free home should be easy and you shouldn’t have to worry about pests coming back.