Watch Wild Wild Pest Control demonstrate how to prep food before a fumigation
You’ve got unwanted houseguests. Perhaps a couple hundred thousand of them chewing you out of house and home…literally. Drywood termites are a pain, and they can cause lots of damage to the wood structures in your home. In fact, termites across the United States cause billions of dollars in damage every year. Once you find termites, it is time to get rid of them! If you have drywood termites (as opposed to the other popular home invaders, subterranean termites), the best option is probably to fumigate.
You’ve probably seen houses in your neighborhoods or even buildings downtown draped in colorful, stripped tents. These are fumigation tents that help keep toxic chemicals in the home so that it can seep into every nook and cranny and kill all those pesky termites. A lot of homeowners worry about whether or not the chemicals are dangerous, especially to food left in the home. You may be wondering this yourself, especially if you have a fumigation scheduled. Do you need to take all of your food with you? Is it safe for your family to eat if it stays in the house during the fumigation?
How to Prepare Your Food Items During Fumigation
First, at Wild Wild Pest Control, we use a chemical fumigant called Vikane®. It is deadly to termites, but it will disperse. By the time you and your family return to the home, you will be completely safe. But what about your food? Vikane is a potent chemical, which is why it is so good at getting rid of termites. If certain food items are left un-protected, they may no longer be safe for your family to consume.
That is why we use special Nylofume® bags , per government regulations, that are made specifically to protect food items during fumigation. A Nylofume bag is a thick, plastic bag that won’t allow fumigant through.
You must double-bag all food items in your home except for a few exceptions. This includes your pet’s food too!
Things You Don’t Have to Bag
Any food item that comes in a glass, plastic, or metal bottle, jar, or can that still has the manufacture’s seal does NOT need to be bagged. For instance, if you have an unopened can of soup in your pantry, an unopened plastic bottle of soda, or an unopened glass jar of pickles or olives in the fridge, you don’t have to bag up these items. If they have been opened (even if you put the lid tightly back on), it needs to be bagged.
Unopened wine bottles do not need to be bagged, but make sure to lay all wine bottles with corks on their side. If you are at all unsure whether or not something needs to be bagged, then just bag it to be safe.
Securing the Bags
Always secure each bag individually. Fill up your Nylofume bag (you can put as many different food items in it as can fit) and then seal it with a twisty tie or a piece of tape. Then slip it into another bag and seal that bag the same way. Your food should then be safe and sound during the fumigation process.
Let Us Help You Safely Seal Your Food
At Wild Wild Pest Control, we want to make sure every fumigation process is as safe and stress-free as possible for our clients. That’s why our team gladly assists homeowners with bagging. We show you how to bag, what to bag, and pitch in if you need our help. We also do a careful walkthrough of the home before fumigation to make sure everything that needs to be bagged is.
As far as we know, no other termite company in the country does this. Most other termite companies will hand out bags and an instruction sheet and leave families to do all the bagging work on their own. If you’d rather work with a termite company focused on your safety that will help you every step of the way to prepare your home for fumigation, give Wild Wild Pest Control a call