The Art of a Pest-Free Thanksgiving

Happy early Thanksgiving from Green Pest Services! If you’re hosting the big dinner this Thursday, you have probably been preparing for quite a while now. There is plenty to think about when it comes to hosting a holiday dinner: buying ingredients, cleaning the house, inviting guests, setting the table, planning out the meal, and so on. With all of this holiday-related stress, it would be nice if pests gave everyone a break from their troublemaking tendencies, but this is unfortunately not the case. Pest invasions are common this time of year, especially from hungry pests like ants, roaches, rodents, and pantry pests. But rest assured: there are plenty of ways to protect your home from annoying pests, even if you are hosting a whole crowd of loved ones this Thursday. Let’s discuss some of the most efficient ways to prevent pests from ruining your Thanksgiving meal and to make your hosting job a bit easier.

Clean & Inspect Beforehand

This is one of the most obvious tips of the bunch, seeing as how just about everyone likes to clean their house before having people over. It’s undoubtedly an important step, not only for the comfort of your guests, but also to ensure that there aren’t any potential entry points or beginning pest problems hidden somewhere in the house. If you do a good cleaning of your home before having everyone over, you can essentially start with a clean slate in terms of ensuring that you are currently pest-free. Some of the most important chores are cleaning the floors (vacuuming, mopping, or sweeping), dusting large surfaces, and sanitizing the main bathroom. As you go about your cleaning routine, keep an eye out for any signs of pest activity or access points. If you find any cracks or gaps in the house walls, seal them with caulk to keep pests out. And if you do happen to find any actual pests somewhere in the home, contact your local pest control professionals (aka Green) to schedule a service as soon as possible.

Store Ingredients Properly

No matter what you’re serving for Thanksgiving dinner, there are undoubtedly a lot of ingredients taking up space in your kitchen right now. Each dish uses so many ingredients that it can feel like you need an entirely new pantry just to hold the Thanksgiving items! Although these groceries aren’t made into fresh dishes just yet, they can still attract pests. Some of the most notorious kitchen pests are capable of eating through the packaging of processed foods. Rats, mice, roaches, and pantry pests are the most common invaders of stored pantry items. For the ingredients that will have leftovers after you use them for Thanksgiving, we highly recommend transferring them into airtight containers before storing them. This includes flour, sugar, nuts, pasta, rice, and other pantry staples. You can also utilize the fridge and freezer for the items that need to stay in their original packaging, but check the packaging to ensure that you can freeze the item before utilizing that option.

Do Yard Work

You probably didn’t expect to see an outdoor task on a list of Thanksgiving chores, but here we are. It’s actually essential to keep a relatively tidy yard for this holiday (and all year long) in order to prevent pests. Every kind of pest can easily hide in an overgrown yard, so taking care of your greenery and garden eliminates countless hiding spots for these small species. This can be done earlier than some of the other Thanksgiving preparations since the yard will look basically the same by the time Thursday arrives. The key to maintaining a yard that discourages pest infestations is cutting back everything that grows. This includes mowing the lawn, trimming bushes and shrubs, picking weeds, and cutting tree branches back from the house. Also, if you haven’t already, make sure to rake all of the leaves that collect on the lawn. Many pests — spiders, rodents, ticks, etc. — like to hide under idle leaf piles, so it’s essential to eliminate this hiding spot as well. 

Repair Any Imperfections

In addition to any cracks that you fill with caulk, we also recommend making any minor repairs to household features before the holiday. In addition to looking great for your guests, it also provides extra security against invasive pests. Many pest species are so small that they can slip into houses unnoticed, so even the tiniest of holes and cracks matter. Check all of your window and door screens for any rips, tears, and holes. Even if you don’t open up the house during the holiday — it is late November, after all — any insects and spiders that enter through these gaps will seek out a better hiding spot in the house. You can repair screens by patching the holes with extra screen material. Also, inspect around any doors, windows, and pipes for any cracks that need to be filled.  Make sure each door and window closes properly and doesn’t leave a gap that sneaky pests could utilize. 

Clean As You Go

We are now arriving at the tasks to do during the actual cooking process of Thanksgiving dinner. This can be an intimidating enough of a task due to the expectations that come with a meal-based holiday such as this one, so it’s helpful to note that the pest prevention tips here are much simpler than the other tasks on this list. In short, “clean as you go” just means to tidy up after yourself throughout the cooking process. Throw trash into the garbage can, put used dishes in the sink, and clean up any spills and large crumbs as soon as possible. There are all kinds of pests that love our food scraps, so doing some light cleaning as you progress will help you stay pest-free later on. The main cleaning process should still take place after the dinner is over and the guests leave since there will be more food-related cleanup than before.

Cover Food Throughout the Process

As you produce more and more finished dishes throughout the day, you need someplace to put them! In an ideal world, everything will finish cooking around the same time and be on the dining room table right at dinner time. Since this perfect scenario is almost never the case, it’s a good idea to protect all of your delicious menu items once they are ready. For foods that are in containers with lids, keep those lids on until it’s time to serve everyone. The lids do double duty in keeping the food warm and preventing any flying pests from landing right in the middle of the dish. As for the menu items that are housed in containers without provided lids, simply cover them with foil or plastic wrap. These materials protect the food from the cold air and pests, so they are still useful tools. Later, when transferring all of the leftovers into containers, make sure that everything has a cover of some kind and is refrigerated for extra protection. 

Use Proper Trash Management

Every year, it’s somehow surprising just how much trash is produced from cooking and eating a single meal. The kitchen trash can is frequently visited throughout the night and will likely need to be taken out at least once before the holiday is over. That being said, it’s a good idea to make the trash can completely available to your guests all throughout the gathering so that their trash is disposed of in a timely manner. Food scraps and kitchen trash are common attractors for most pests, so keeping it all contained in a covered trash can is the best possible way to keep the creepy-crawlies away. Once the trash can is completely full, take the bag out to the large garbage can before it overflows. As a side note, make sure to keep the lids to the outdoor garbage cans closed when not in use. It’s all well and good to prevent pests from invading your kitchen, but it will be in vain if rodents and raccoons have easy access to your outdoor trash!

Do the Dishes

Finally, the most dreaded Thanksgiving chore of all: washing the dishes. Depending on the number of people attending your dinner, it can feel like every dish you own is being used for this one meal. As tedious as it is, washing the dishes at the end of the day is important. Pests love dirty dishes for all of the food remnants and crumbs that are left on them. Ants and roaches are two of the worst pests in terms of invading a kitchen purely for the dirty dishes. For the dishwasher-safe items, rinse them off and place them in the dishwasher at the end of the evening. Even if you don’t run the dishwasher immediately, those dishes are safer in there overnight than out on the counter. As for those pesky hand-wash-only dishes, you have two options. One is to completely wash all of them before heading to bed Thanksgiving night, but this process is best suited for those who still somehow have energy after hosting. The other (more realistic) option is to leave the dishes for the next day. We recommend still rinsing off every dish well before leaving it in the sink overnight so that there aren’t any tempting food scraps for the hungry pests.

Go Green This Thanksgiving!

All of these tasks are easy ways to enjoy a pest-free Thanksgiving, but the best way to prevent pests from invading your home all year year long is to receive professional pest control. The highly-trained technicians of Green Pest Services are dedicated to keeping local homes and businesses pest-free with our targeted treatments and thorough inspections. We create a customized treatment plan for each client because we firmly believe that pest control should never be a “one-size-fits-all” process. By tailoring our treatment methods and non-toxic products to fit the specific pest problems at hand, we can solve each one as efficiently as possible. Our team provides both preventative and responsive services, so we are prepared to address your pest issues in any stage. Contact us today for more information on our reliable services that will eliminate any greedy pests taking up space at your Thanksgiving table.

Citations

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Homeowners guide to a pest-free Thanksgiving. (2019, November 25). Roberts Termite and Pest Control. Retrieved November 7, 2023, from https://www.robertspestcontrol.com/blog/post/homeowners-guide-to-a-pest-free-thanksgiving 

Pest prevention tips for this Thanksgiving. (n.d.). Any Pest. Retrieved November 7, 2023, from https://anypest.com/blog/pest-prevention-tips-for-this-thanksgiving/ 

Seshadri, A. (2023, July 3). Experts share tips on keeping your home pest-free this summer. WSAV. Available at https://www.wsav.com/reviews/br/home-br/experts-share-tips-on-keeping-your-home-pest-free-this-summer/ (Accessed on November 7, 2023).

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Williams, C. & Sanci, E. (2022, November 18). How to make your Thanksgiving cleanup easier. New York Times Wirecutter. Available at https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/guides/how-to-make-thanksgiving-cleanup-easier/ (Accessed on November 7, 2023).