Your kitchen cupboard should be one of the most sanitised areas of your home since it is where you’ll keep many of your ingredients, food and even ready-to-use food containers. But, for this very reason, your cupboard can also be vulnerable to unwanted visitors – such as cockroaches.
Cockroaches that linger in your cupboard can leave disease-causing bacteria behind, through their saliva and waste, which could contaminate food and lead to food poisoning and diarrhoea. The problem is that because cockroaches are nocturnal creatures, you are unlikely to see them during the day. Besides, you are likely to be keeping your cupboard closed, making it impossible for you to track down the cockroaches whenever they are around.
Avoiding the Roaches
This does not mean though that you can’t keep your cupboard free from cockroaches. Here are tips from Defence Pest Management on how you can stop these pests from invading your cupboard and entire kitchen.
Store food in containers and in the fridge
The reason why your cupboard is a delightful place for roaches and possibly even other pests is because it provides them with a food supply. Avoid keeping any leftovers in the cupboard if you can and store them in the fridge instead. If you have to keep food inside the cupboard, then make sure to seal it in air-tight containers.
Keep your ingredients sealed
It could also be the ingredients you store that are attracting the roaches into the cupboard. Pasta and other starches that cannot be stored in the fridge are best kept in sealed containers. This goes the same for flour, sugar and even spices and herbs.
Don’t use cardboard boxes as containers
Food and ingredients stored in cardboard boxes can be easier to detect, and it will be even much easier for cockroaches to destroy the container or sneak into small openings. Any edible item you have kept in cardboard boxes should be moved to glass or metal containers.
Regularly empty and clean up the cupboard
Do an inventory of the items inside your cupboard; anything that you will no longer need should be taken out. The entire cupboard must be thoroughly cleaned; water, sponge and soap should do the trick. Be sure that you look into every corner and also pay attention to any cracks that might be used by pests as their entry point, as well as any other damage that needs repairing.
If the Roaches Persist
If you notice that the roaches keep on coming and going even after you have tried all the tips above, then it’s probably high time that a pest inspection is conducted in your property. Defence Pest Management can help you find hidden cockroach infestations, which might be the reason why you are seeing roaches in broad daylight even after cleaning up your home.
