Rat Proof Your Food Storage Pantry in 5 Easy Steps

Rodents are the worst! They eat our food, carry diseases and are a nuisance in the prepper world. In a disaster situation where have to rely on your stored food supply, we want our food pantry and supply to be free of insects and pests.

Take a few proactive steps in protecting your food investment to ensure that your food preps are stored in the best environment possible.

Rat Proofing in 5 Easy Steps

1. Keep rodents and other pests away by ensuring that the food storage area is kept clean. If any food hits the floor it could attract rodents that will look for more.
2. Keep possible entry points that rodents might use to enter the home as inaccessible as possible. Rodents are very creative, and they can enter through the smallest areas of the home, including pipes and cables. Ensure that these are patched with portland cement and vents are covered in heavy hardware cloth.
3. Keep food containers off of the floor, away from walls and where it’s not easily accessed. For instance, I have my plastic storage buckets on wooden slats 18 inches off of the floor. My other food storage sits on shelving that rodents can’t get on top of. The shelves are also not easily reached from anything nearby that a rodent could use to work their way up to shelf height or higher. Ensure that the shelves are far enough away from the wall so that rodents cannot wedge themselves in between and work their way up.
4. The best way to prepare for rodent infestations is through traps. This is a better investment option compared to poisons. In my opinion, poisons are not safe to have around food and for those of us who have small children or pets. Not to mention, if a mouse or rat ingests poison they will run off to die – and that usually involves dying inside your walls. After a week, the stench alone would be a horrible way to sit out a SHTF scenario. Traps will take care of the problem, and the benefit of having them, is they can be re-used.
5. Also, some preppers have even put their stored food storage containers in galvanized trash cans with lids on top. This could also be a way to avoid rodent infestations.

By Tess Pennington

Tess Pennington is the author of The Prepper’s Cookbook: 300 Recipes to Turn Your Emergency Food into Nutritious, Delicious, Life-Saving Meals. When a catastrophic collapse cripples society, grocery store shelves will empty within days. But if you follow this book’s plan for stocking, organizing and maintaining a proper emergency food supply, your family will have plenty to eat for weeks, months or even years. Visit her web site at ReadyNutrition.com.