Happy Valentine’s Day from Pointe Pest Control! Whether you’re celebrating today with your sweetheart, best friends, family, or your closest friend (yourself!), there are all kinds of ways to spend this love-filled day. Most of the popular activities involve doing something fun that is too time-consuming or expensive to do every day.
Although humans are the only species that can express our love with complex words, we are not the only ones who like to celebrate Valentine’s Day — well, sort of. Pests may not understand the meaning of this holiday, but they have no problem invading our celebratory activities! Let’s discuss which pests are most likely to invade our favorite Valentine’s pastimes and how to prevent these creepy-crawlies from ruining your love-filled day.
Dinner Date
Potential Pests: flies, ants, roaches, rodents
First, the classic favorite: dinner at a restaurant. A meal at a “fancy” restaurant is the classic move, but there’s nothing wrong with hitting the drive-thru at your favorite fast food place and enjoying those treats in the comfort of your home. No matter which one you choose, the delicious food is unfortunately appealing to nearby pests. There won’t be a swarm of hungry insects the second that your food arrives (thank goodness), but even the smallest crumbs can attract pests if the food sits out for long enough.
Many food-loving pests carry dangerous pathogens that they pick up from the disgusting places they visit, like garbage dumps and sewers. The bacteria collects on the pests’ bodies and spreads to every surface they touch afterwards. If a person eats food that was touched by a contaminated pest, they are at risk of contracting a food-borne illness from the bacteria. Salmonella, E. Coli, and cholera are frequently spread by pests that claim our food as their own.
The most efficient ways to prevent pests from ruining your Valentine’s dinner are:
- Clean Up: This is more applicable for meals eaten at home, but a clean restaurant is certainly the best kind! If you’re eating at a restaurant, brush off your clothes and bag before leaving to make sure you aren’t taking any crumbs home with you. After a meal, clean your counters and table with your antibacterial cleaner of choice to make sure there aren’t any stray crumbs or spills.
- Store Leftovers: After a delectable meal that barely leaves you with any room for dessert, it’s time to pack up leftovers to enjoy as your lunch the next day. Takeout containers from restaurants aren’t the most secure, but they work fine if they are immediately put in the fridge and used within 24 hours. If you want to completely protect your leftovers, keep the food in airtight containers with secure lids and store in the fridge.
Baking Sweet Treats
Potential Pests: pantry pests, ants, flies, roaches
Speaking of delicious food, Valentine’s Day is also a popular time to enjoy our favorite sweets. Chocolates, candy, and ice cream are essentials of a good V-Day, but homemade desserts are on an entirely new level. Baking treats on this holiday has multiple benefits. It’s not only a great way to spend time with your significant other or loved ones, it also has a deliciously sweet end result! But even baking has a pest-related downside, as it can attract the attention of hungry pests if the baked goods aren’t protected.
Believe it or not, preventing pests from ruining your baking experience starts with proper storage of the ingredients. There is an entire group of pests — pantry pests — dedicated to invading pantry staples at any stage of the manufacturing and storing processes. These insects will live their entire lives inside a food package since they need the nutrients to lay eggs. The most common species are Indian meal moths, sawtoothed grain beetles, and flour beetles. Pantry pests can chew through most types of food packaging and are small enough to hide within the food.
The best ways to protect your Valentine’s desserts from hungry pests are:
- Safely store ingredients: This is likely the first thing on your mind after reading about pantry pests. Transferring basic pantry staples into airtight containers (glass or acrylic) with secure lids is the best way to keep your food fresh and protected. The most important ingredients to take out of their original flimsy containers are flour, sugar, nuts, seeds, and pasta.
- Tidy up the kitchen: Cleaning the kitchen isn’t the most fun Valentine’s activity unless you love cleaning, á la Monica Geller from Friends. For the average Joe, it’s important to make the effort to clean the kitchen after baking or cooking so that every crumb and spill is removed before the pests find them. The most important chores include sanitizing the counters, storing the desserts in airtight containers, washing the dishes, and putting trash in the garbage can.
At The Movies
Potential Pests: bed bugs, roaches, ants, gnats, carpet beetles, flies
Finally, going to the movie theater is a fun yet easy way to celebrate St. Valentine’s Day. Whether you’re seeing the latest rom-com with your partner, the exciting action flick with your best friends, or the critically-acclaimed movie by yourself, the possibilities are endless with this setting. The buttery popcorn and expansive candy selection are major appeals for this activity. However — you probably know where we’re going with this — people are not the only ones drawn to the cinema because there’s also plenty for pests to love here.
The food-loving pests on this list have an obvious reason why they love the movie theater. Between the popcorn that falls from the buckets with every step we take and the dropped candy pieces that are lost to the seat crevices, hungry pests have plenty of food sources to choose from if the theater isn’t properly cleaned. Bed bugs and carpet beetles may seem like random choices, but they are disgustingly common in theaters. Bed bugs will hide in the seats until a new food source (our blood) presents itself and the pests have a ride out of the theater to continue their feeding journey.
The easiest ways to ensure you aren’t accidentally taking home any movie theater pests are:
- Keep your belongings close: An important factor of movie-viewing is our comfort level, starting when we settle into those cushioned seats for the first time. Any belongings that you bring with you and aren’t attached to your person — bags, big jackets, hats — should not be placed on the floor. This would make it incredibly easy for bed bugs and other pests to hitch a ride home. Instead, keep everything on the seat with you and give it all a quick inspection before leaving.
- Throw all garbage away: Not only is this effective at keeping pests away, it’s also courteous to your local movie theater employees! Make sure that all the trash from your movie snacks make it into the garbage cans and aren’t shoved into your bag to be forgotten later. Pests are dedicated to finding safe hiding spots with reliable food sources, so they aren’t afraid to crawl in our trash or bags to get what they want.
Share The Love With Pointe’s Efficient Services
Pest problems aren’t fun at any time, never mind on the holiday all about love. That’s why the experienced technicians of Pointe Pest Control are prepared to stop infestations and prevent pests in every season. We use a customized combination of products to safely solve each pest issue because pest control is not a “one-size-fits-all” experience. Our team is highly-trained in the most efficient treatment methods for all of the common pest issues that plague the Pacific Northwest. Contact us today to learn more about our effective solutions and how Pointe will ensure that the only bugs you see today are love bugs!
Citations
Bed bugs find their way into theaters free of charge. (n.d.). Terminix. Retrieved January 30, 2024, from https://www.terminix.com/blog/commercial/bed-bugs-find-their-ways-into-theaters-free-of-charge/
Bole, D.K. (2022, June 20). Common pests in restaurants and how to deal with them — part 1. Food Safety Magazine. Available at https://www.food-safety.com/articles/7828-common-pests-in-restaurants-and-how-to-deal-with-thempart-1 (Accessed on January 30, 2024).
Common food pests every restaurant owner needs to know. (n.d.). Terminix. Retrieved January 30, 2024, from https://www.terminix.com/blog/commercial/common-restaurant-pests/
Preventing pantry pests. (n.d.). Pest World. Retrieved January 30, 2024, from https://www.pestworld.org/news-hub/pest-articles/preventing-pantry-pests/
McMillan, R. (2018, November 6). VIDEO: Tiny bugs crawl all over carpet at AMC Theatres in southern California’s Ontario Mills Mall. ABC 7 News. Available at https://abc7news.com/movie-theater-bugs-amc-on-floor-carpet-theatre-ontario-mills-mall/4632570/ (Accessed on January 30, 2024).
