Rats and mice can be a problem in urban, suburban and rural areas since these rodents eat practically anything humans eat. Rats create serious problems for business. They eat food and contaminate it with urine and excrement. They gnaw into materials such as paper, books, wood or upholstery which they use as nest material. They also gnaw plastic, cinder blocks, soft metals such as lead and aluminum, and wiring which may cause a fire hazard.

Rats occasionally bite people and may kill small animals. They, or the parasites they carry, (such as fleas, mites and worms) spread many diseases.

A female rat can have up to 84 young in her life span, which averages about a year in the wild. They can burrow long distances from nest to food sources, reducing their exposure to predators. The tunnels may extend 4 vertical feet into the earth. They can scale walls and walk across telephone wires with ease. They are excellent swimmers--capable of navigating a half mile through open water. They are amazingly resilient, easily surviving falls up to 50 feet.

House mice do not pose as serious a problem as rats, but they can be quite a nuisance. They also eat and contaminate food with their urine and droppings; may gnaw on wiring creating a fire hazard, and they can transmit some diseases.

Insect damage to food (post harvest) amounts to about 9% in the United States. There are also indirect losses to manufacturers, processing plants, as well as the consumer Once a stored grain insect has established its presence in your business, control measures must be taken to avoid the spread and destruction of other stored products.

The following are the most common stored grain products Insects:

The Indian Meal Moth is one of the most common stored grain insects. They are found in pet foods, dried fruits, bird seed, nuts, and cereal.

The confused flour beetle is a tiny beetle capable of entering many types of containers or chewing through bags of flour, rice, cereal, etc. They are unable to feed on whole grain, and therefore often infest after rice weevils or lesser grain beetles. Flour is their main preference, but will infest dried foods, pet foods, etc. These pests are common in flour mills and they are able to breed throughout the year and live up to three years as adults.

The Red flour beetle looks almost identical except they can fly.

The cigarette beetle is most commonly known for infesting stored tobacco.. Cigarette Beetles also feed on books, cotton, rice, dried flowers, furniture, and a variety of other materials. They at times become overabundant in warehouses, and the adults, who are strong fliers, will invade neighborhoods from the warehouses by the thousands. They do not bite, but are a major annoyance and infest food supplies.

House Fly, Cluster Fly,& Blow Flies

The common house fly, is a pest throughout the world. Each adult female begins laying eggs a few days after hatching, laying a total of five to six batches of 75 to 100 small, white oval eggs. In warm weather these hatch in 12 to 24 hours into cream-colored larvae which burrow into the food material on which they hatched… House fly eggs are laid in almost any warm moist material which will furnish suitable food for the growing larvae. Animal manure, human excrement, garbage, decaying vegetable material and ground contaminated with such organic matter are suitable materials. In addition to being a nuisance, flies contaminate food with bacteria and other disease carrying organisms.

Small Fly Control

Fruit flies are common in, restaurants, supermarkets and wherever else food is allowed to ferment. Fruit flies lay their eggs near the surface of fermenting foods or other moist, organic materials. Upon emerging, the tiny larvae continue to feed near the surface of the fermenting mass.. The reproductive potential of fruit flies is enormous. Given the opportunity, they will lay about 500 eggs. The entire lifecycle from egg to adult can be completed in about a week.

Fruit flies are especially attracted to ripened fruits and vegetables in the kitchen, but they also will breed in drains, garbage disposals, empty bottles and cans, trash containers, mops and cleaning rags. All that is needed for development is a moist film of fermenting material. Fruit flies are primarily nuisance pests. However, they also have the potential to contaminate food with bacteria.