Favorite Christmas Cookies – Without the Pantry Pests

Many families dust off their cookie sheets, pull their stand up mixers out of storage, and whip up batch after batch of Christmas cookies during the holiday season. Baking Christmas cookies is a tradition for many families; and not only do you get to enjoy the fruits (well, cookies!) of your labor, but you are creating treasured memories with your family.

Some of the most commonly made Christmas cookies include:

• Sugar cookies

• Snickerdoodles

• Chocolate Thumbprint cookies

• Gingerbread cookies

For ingredient lists and full recipes for the top 10 Christmas Cookies of all time, visit TasteofHome.com. If your ingredient lists contain sugar, flour, spices, or oatmeal – you may be surprised to find some pantry pests enjoying a holiday feast in your pantry or cupboards.

Look out for Pantry Pests

As you are getting all of the ingredients you need to make your favorite cookies, keep an eye out for pantry pests. Some of the most common problems in Maryland kitchens include flour beetles, cigarette beetles, Indian meal moths, sawtooth grain beetles, and the rice weevils. Pantry insects can be brought into the home in contaminated packages which escaped quality assurance detection. Once in your kitchen, they will spread from one package to another in your cupboards and pantries.

The Indian meal moth can cause serious problems in your pantry. They lay 300 eggs at a time which can quickly contaminate your baking ingredients, cupboards, drawers, and pantry.

You will want to take a look at your ingredients before you start dumping them into your cookie batter, especially if you don’t use them very often. If you find worm-like insects crawling around inside your spices, flour, or other pantry goods – throw it out. If you see actual insects flying around the pantry items, then you need to inspect all packages in your pantry or cupboards carefully, vacuum your shelves and drawers to ensure larvae or insect eggs have not been laid there, and wash everything with warm soapy water. Never use insecticides around food.

When purchasing new ingredients to make your favorite Christmas cookies, be sure you inspect packages carefully. If there is any damage to the packaging, look for a different package to purchase to reduce the potential of buying ingredients that are already infested with pests. Instead of buying large volume packages of ingredients you only use once or twice a year, look for smaller packages so they won’t remain on your shelves as long.

For more information on Maryland pest control of pantry pests, give American Pest a call today. We can help you get rid of pantry pests and any other pests (except for the in-laws!) that are inviting themselves into your home for the holiday season.