During December, there’s a good chance you’ll be entertaining family and friends. Even if no guests are coming over, you and your family members will be enjoying treats associated with holidays like Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve. Each time you break out the food, there is the potential for crumbs to get on the floor, which are a favourite of ants and roaches.
Try these tips for keeping your kitchen, pantry, and dining room clean to prevent pests from taking up residence and ruining your holiday fun:
- Look for spills and crumbs and clean them up. Remnants of parties and big family meals are easy to find on furniture, cabinets, counters, and floors. Some crumbs land on window sills and door jambs and in cabinets and pantry floors.
- Pay special attention to storing foods in airtight containers in cabinets, the refrigerator, and the pantry. Bugs can follow a sweet or sticky trail and inhabit food containers. If you don’t use flour regularly except for holiday baking, you could easily miss the evidence.
- Empty the garbage regularly and take it to the outside receptacle. Keep garbage cans away from the house’s exterior walls.
- Inspect food containers at the store before you buy them. If they are damaged, they can leak or attract bugs.
- Inspect fresh fruit and vegetables daily. It’s easy to let apples, oranges, and bananas, for example, to sit out in a fruit dish and forget they are over-ripened. Fruit can attract fruit flies and other bugs.
- Wash the dirty dishes before you move on to your next activity.
- Run the dishwasher and the garbage disposal regularly, so food scraps aren’t sitting out and attracting pests.
- Empty your pet food and water bowls, so they aren’t attracting bugs.
- Don’t let your sink drain or garbage disposal get clogged.
- Don’t leave standing water in sinks or buckets because pests love moisture.
- Fix leaks that would allow moisture buildup in the kitchen.
- Don’t allow your refrigerator to collect excess condensation and cause mold or mildew on the floors or surrounding walls.
Your family and guests will appreciate a clean kitchen during the hectic month of December and throughout the year. If you believe pests are bothering your family or you want to schedule annual pest control treatment, please contact us at Advantage Pest Control for a free estimate. Our exterminators service Toronto and the GTA to keep your homes pest-free this holiday season!
