Why can't I find where these pantry pests are coming from?
Pantry pests keep showing up around the kitchen walls and counters, but searching and cleaning everywhere fails to reveal where they are originating. This leaves people endlessly vacuuming larvae and losing their minds trying to figure out if the food source or even the wooden structure itself is hiding the infestation.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1cleaning all over the kitchen
- 2checking general pantry goods like flour, rice, pasta, nuts, and baking mixes
- 3Squishing them
- 4Vacuuming daily
- 5Cleaning out the wooden pantry near the stove
- 6Dusting Diatomaceous Earth on the shelves
- 7Cleaning out spices, rice, beans, and oats
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I have seen them mostly around the kitchen area and have been cleaning all over my kitchen, but can’t seem to find where they are coming from.”source ↗
“For the last few weeks (I’m in Florida), I’ve been absolutely losing my mind with these appearing more and more in my kitchen!”source ↗
“Every morning I go to look hoping they’ll be gone but I of course seem them hanging out on the walls again and I find more larvae to vacuum.”source ↗
“May I ask- have you heard/had experience with the type of wood a pantry is made out to be the culprit for keeping these around?”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 16How do I find where pests are getting into my house?
- 60What are these tiny red beads in my house?
- 113How do I identify if these bugs are bed bugs?
- 5Why am I finding cockroaches in a clean house?
- 5Exterminators won't treat cluttered or unsanitary homes
- 4What to do if there is glass in your restaurant food