Food storage and other kitchen issues - Advice/wisdom for a Northerner?
 

Hello!

I'm moving in next week and my thoughts have turned to the storing of pantry items.

Up north, I thought nothing of storing my flour in the original bag, in the pantry....pasta, cornmeal, dried dog food....same.

I'm led to believe that I must re-think my strategy, here.

I am lucky to have purchased a place that has a large upright freezer in the garage.

Would it be wise to store flour, etc, there?

Or is it sufficient to find and use good quality airtight containers, and leave that sort of thing in the pantry?

Any thoughts on this....or any other kitchen-related Florida issues that might blindside a new arrival....will be deeply appreciated.

Thanks, in advance

Assuming you have air conditioning, I don't see any difference between food storage in Florida and other locations.

That was my first thought....just trying to get local wisdom, in case I'm approaching the issue in an "innocently ignorant" way.

In our pantry, we store our flour and sugar in containers that have a great seal. The top has a push button in the top that provides that expands the seal so that nothing gets into the inside. Look up OXO soft works POP container. It also helps to have good bug protection for the house on the outside of the house.

Welcome to The Villages. Hope you have great time here!

I paid Massey for pest treatment for several years and never saw a bug in the house. But, I cancelled the service about 4 years ago, and I still have not seen a bug.

I use my garage fridge for storage of pasta, crackers, flour. We had flour bugs in my pantry and I freaked out. Now, nothing that isnt sealed goes into the fridge. Did they come in from the grocery store? Probably. I paid closer attention while grocery shopping and found bugs in a pasta box at Winn Dixie. At least they wont be multiplying in my house.

I believe the reason people get bugs in flour and pasta is there are already eggs inside. Our food supply is clean but not sterile. The eggs are there from the beginning (During harvesting). They hatch from the warmth, not because some outside critter made their way into the package after it arrives in our homes. I was taught to freeze everything first. Flour goes into the freezer 48 hours and then moved to the pantry. The freezing kills the eggs so they never hatch. Perhaps this is an old wives tale but it is a rule I always follow, even when I lived up north.

We use these "up north" for rice, pasta, and dog treats. They work great. A little bit of effort to really thoroughly clean - lots of nooks that take a couple days on the counter to completely dry out, but they are effective.

We have had good success storing flour and rice in our pantry but did get an infestation once or twice, probably package came with them.

Never thought of freezing packages when we got home. Did the flour clump together?

We have a small upright freezer in our garage for meat, breads etc. We also have a small pantry cupboard inside our house. Early on we found bugs in the pantry (probably came with the dry-goods stored in it). NOW, everything like flour etc. goes in storage containers and we've had NO issues since then. The containers are those with covers....similar to Tupperware. You can find them at Walmart, TJMaxx (back where they have all the kitchen items....and similar stores. We moved here from Wisconsin too.

We are the same way. Found bugs, used containers for a few things. Found that was insufficient. Now use containers for anything that isn't sealed, particularly flour, rice, and pasta. No problem since doing that.

Nice advantage of the containers - they are far more stackable than the random pasta box or half-empty bag of flour or sugar.

I keep our dry goods (flour, sugar,) in airtight sealed containers. No room for them in freezer. Keeps anything inside from the store or from the harvesting away from other products. Keeps anything in the house from contaminating them.

We occasionally get ants in the house. They are those teeny tiny, almost can't see them ants. I think the locals call them ghost ants. Impossible to see on the counter until they move. Don't want them in my food. Don't want my food attracting them.

A northern with southern upbringing, here is our past experience on a preowned home, in TV. Never saw any pests until we did. If one isn’t nocturnal you will never think you have a problem. Cockroach’s love cool and dark, so under sinks, dishwasher, fridge, washer. Drawer with utensils and pans (think cool to the touch).

About a week after moving some items in I got up 2am, I don’t turn on any lights, cockroaches scurrying in the bathroom, kitchen, pantry utility room. Since I have never had the horror of this in the north, or our other 3 New Homes in TV.

Deans was at my front door at 9am after frantic call, Justine our tech for 6 years at our other homes took over. As she inspected, set bait, and traps. Would return in am. Next day Sticky traps held 10 adult/ juveniles. Then proceeded to show me inside drawers and steel mounts where they live, next to water supply.

So in our pantry they went after bagged cat/dog food. Ate cardboard, anything in paper. I have always kept flour and rice in the fridge/freezer so not never a worry.

Took close to 30 days to get house completely pest free. Then had a company come in to do a thorough deep clean. Thankfully we hadn’t moved in much.

Since this is a preowned you have no idea what or if pest was contaminated. Hopefully previous owners were far better at keeping a clean house and pest control.

You will never see pests during the daytime, only in the dark quiet of the night

Well....THAT was nightmare fuel....

But thanks for the insight....just what I was seeking.

So advice from my Deans Expert, especially in any preowned home.
Buy mesh to cover drains ( won’t dry up drain, but they can’t crawl in where they hide) and painters tape, and tape screen on all drains or you can just painter tape on all drains, cover toilets not in use, completely with plastic and tape, so pests can’t get to any water source.

Cockroaches can live for 30 days without Food.

But without Water they won’t survive after 3-4 days. That’s how most of our invasion died. Death by lack of moisture.