No pests are particularly nice. They cause damage or spread disease – or both. The worst kinds of pests, though, are food pests, as these can cause serious health issues. They also create waste and contaminate things they come into contact with. Whether you are a homeowner or working with in the food industry, food pests are a threat you should be aware of and deal with as soon as you know there’s a problem.

Part of being able to deal with the problem of food pests though, is understanding which ones are the biggest threat.

In the following post, we are going to look at three of these pests, and why they are a such a problem.

Rodents

It won’t surprise you, we suspect, to learn that rodents like mice and rats are one of the most common groups of pests when it comes to food. Rodents are attracted to food, mainly because they need to and want to eat it. They aren’t particularly picky and are quite messy eaters.

Once a rat or mouse has been in your cupboards, you definitely need to remove anything they have come into contact with, even if they’ve not actually chewed at it. You don’t know how often they’ve walked over the food items or packaging, spreading the dirt, grime, urine and harmful bacteria from their paws and mouths on your produce.

Cockroaches

Another common food pest is the disgusting and – in all fairness, incredibly resilient – cockroach. They are resilient because of just how robust and durable they are. But, disgusting all the same. They carry lots of bacteria and diseases, that fortunately for them, don’t harm themselves.

However, as carriers, they infect and contaminate food items when they crawling all over them and when they defecate. Of all the food pests, cockroaches have the worst reputation. This is because they are renowned for causing food poisoning

Ants: Food Pests that don’t Spread Disease

Interestingly, as problematic as ants are for both domestic kitchens and the food industry, these are one type of food pest that don’t spread dangerous diseases. However, because they are attracted to food, they are responsible for wasting a lot of food waste.

That being said, because they they’ve picked all manner of up nasty things from walking over contaminated surfaces and substances, you probably still wouldn’t want to use food they’ve been in or on.

Regardless of what food pests you may have been contending with, the focus should always be the same – to get rid of them as soon as you can, using a professional service. There is responsibility to your family and their health.

There is also perhaps an even stronger onus on you if you run a food business. Food pests can compromise your ability to only sell and provide fresh and safe to eat products and ingredients to your customers.