Bay leaves are cost effective all natural way of repelling bugs from the areas that you store your food.
You can place bay leaves on the shelves or add them inside food grade five gallon buckets with tight fitting lids that you store rice, flour, bean or pasta. ( 2 bay leaves per buckets )( 10 – 18 bay leaves spread among your shelves )
Check the outside of your food grade buckets for damage before each use or monthly for any signs of rodents trying to gnaw through the plastic.
2nd Tip:
Before adding Flour to your food storage, you should freeze it for one to two weeks.
Why ?
All flour has Weevils larvae in it that can not be see by the naked eye until they hatch but you can kill them with extreme cold. Bay leaves do not repel weevils – only freezing kills them.
Yikes, I felt the same way when I first heard this fact !
By freezing your flour, you can stop introducing bugs into your food storage area.
If you do see live weevils in your flour, throw it out.
Keeping your food storage area clean is important towards the reducing the amount of bugs attracted to the area.
It is recommended to thoroughly clean food storage area twice a year.
Suggestions:
Sweeping or/and vacuuming up any debris – it also reduces dust.
Using a slightly damp wash rag, remove dust from tops of cans and mason jars.
Washing the outside of food grade five gallon buckets with warm, soapy water.
