4 Common Foods That Attract Pests In Your Home

When it comes to food we all have our weaknesses and household pests are no different. Almost all household pests seem to be on a mission to consume the foods they enjoy and they definitely enjoy certain types. Here is a list of 4 common foods that attract pests in your home and which pests have a particular draw to them.

1. Peanut Butter And Cockroaches…Ewww

Who doesn’t like peanut butter?! Cockroaches certainly do and that leaves your pantry vulnerable to cockroach infestations. Peanut butter is a common food that attracts pests in your home, consisting of fats and proteins that cockroaches love and the smell makes it easy to find. This is one of the reasons peanut butter is often used as a bait. A common homemade remedy in getting rid of cockroaches is peanut butter mixed with borax in hopes that the cockroaches will eat it and die off in time. Peanut butter itself will not kill roaches but the boric acid is known to kill them if ingested. The most effective way in dealing with cockroaches is taking preventive measures to ensure you don’t attract them in the first place. Keeping the peanut butter lid sealed tight and wiping down the jar when needed is a good start because who wants peanut butter and cockroaches….ewww.

2. All The Crumbs And All The Ants

It’s no wonder these six legged pests love all the crumbs. We see them in our homes carrying them back to their nests in military like format; leaving us feeling like our pantries were just raided. Typically seen during the spring and summer months in preparation for winter, these pests have no problem finding their way into our homes. With all the crumbs comes all the ants and it’s next to impossible to keep every crumb off the floor. Ants love sweets but they will eat just about anything and crumbs make the perfect edible to easily carry back to their colonies. If you have an ant problem the best way to deal with it is to locate the colony and eradicate it from there, otherwise, the odds are good that common foods like crumbs will attract these pests in your home again.

3. Produce And Wine Brings On The Flies

Produce and wine brings on the flies and we’re talking about fruit flies! Fruit flies seem to come out of nowhere. Unlike regular household flies, these flies tend to show up when we leave out fresh fruit or pour ourselves a glass of wine but where do they actually come from? Unfortunately, for some, this answer can be disturbing. Fruit flies are known to reproduce and develop quite quickly. If left alone they can produce up to 500 eggs at a time As their name suggests, the female fruit flies lay their eggs on ripening fruit, in trash receptacles or in drains where bits of spoiled food sit and produce microorganisms that the flies feed off of. Fully developing in less than a week, these flies will grow quickly in numbers which is part of why they seem to come out of nowhere. Though they do not come out of the fruit itself, ripening or rotting produce attracts fruit flies as a food source and as a breeding ground. Common foods that attract pests in your home, like wine, are highly attractive to fruit flies’ senses to which they will quickly swarm your glass to get a drink. So when it comes to these pests be sure to keep your drains cleared, trash cans taken out regularly and keep that produce from going to waste!

4. Weevils And Beetles Oh, My!

It’s not exactly a comforting thought to think that tiny little pests are lurking around your dry goods. Especially, if they happen to have gone unnoticed and are ingested. When it comes to common foods that attract pests in your home, you may find yourself coming across some weevils or beetles. Flour Beetles, Grain Beetles, Rice and Wheat Weevils are just some of these tiny pests that are attracted to foods like rice, flour and grains found in your pantry. Most of the time they are simply seen as a nuisance but it’s still recommended that you don’t voluntarily eat them or the food items they’ve infested. Keeping everything in air tight containers is a practical preventive measure to keep these pests out. Checking your spice cupboard is also a good idea as these pests will easily go after spices as well. Expired dry goods, open containers or forgotten about spices can leave you saying “weevils and beetles oh, my!”

You don’t have to get rid of these 4 common foods that attract pests in your home in order to deal with your pests. The best way to get rid of them is to make sure your food storage is cleaned out regularly, packages are properly sealed if not placed in airtight containers and that you get rid of expired goods. Some pests are known to chew through cardboard packaging and even the plastic inside of them so glass storage jars are recommended. Properly storing the common foods that attract pests in your home is a great prevention method in keeping pests out!