If you ever forget to clean up the crumbs, your family won’t be the last ones to use the dining table at night. A family of cockroaches and ants get ready to say grace and feast on whatever you’ve left behind, and their table manners aren’t even half as great as your worst guest. The Des Moines pest control experts have a few tips to show your pests that they aren’t invited to dinner.

Oh, Crumbs!
To us, crumbs are just insignificant little particles of food, but to something a fraction of our size, a crumb is as big as a cantaloupe. It seems obvious to clean the crumbs off the table when you’re done eating, but the worst offenders are the crumbs that fall onto the floor and get trapped in your carpet. After meals, consider vacuuming the carpet or sweeping the floor to catch any sneaky bits of food.

No Stinky Sinks
It’s easy to throw dishes in the sink and forget about them for a few hours, but all this does is attract creatures to your kitchen and create a popular breeding ground. Make sure to frequently clean not only your dishes but the sink and garbage disposal as well.

Seal Your Meals
If you’re not putting a certain food item in the fridge, make sure that it’s sealed in airtight or Ziploc containers. This will keep the ants from marching on in and dirtying grandma’s cookies, and better yet, they won’t even be able to smell their way to them! Did you know that ants have four to five times better odor receptors than humans? It’s best to not give them any leads to where you keep your food.

Fresh Fridge
From mold in the cheese shelf to a questionable liquid in the meat drawer, keeping your fridge smelling fresh and clean is an assured way to not intrigue your pests. Check expiration dates often, sanitize your fridge shelves at least once a week to control odors, and throw out bad food before it smells, or worse, oozes all over your fridge!

Remembering these tips will save you a lot of time and frustration in the future. Don’t let the pests use your kitchen more than you do. Des Moines pest control experts don’t want you to suffer through an out of hand situation in your kitchen. Contact or call us at (515) 279-7378; we’re eager to show pests the door and give your kitchen back to you!