How Do U Store Opened Bags of Rice/Pasta?

[jean3738]

Please be patient with me this is my first post. With mice you are better off using glass or metal containers. They love to chew plastic to get to your food. If you can find where they are entering you can fill the hole with steel wool. They can't chew through it. Good luck with this problem. Now if it were only Mickey Mouse that would be fun.

Jean

 

[Purseval]

We bought unprocessed brown rice once, about 20 bags of it, and kept it in a pantry. After a few months I started noticing little moths around the house. Then one day I cooked some rice and I thought some kernels didn't cook. It turned out to be worms. All the rice was loaded with them and the moths had gotten into all of the pasta too, we had to completely clean out the pantry and throw anything that wasn't canned away. Now we store rice and pasta in the freezer.

 

[mamaLori05]

The tupperware containers made specifically for you pantry work best for us. They even have one just for the long spaghetti noodles.

 

[ohlas]

Don't worry about being embarrassed! Those critters can find their way in to just about anywhere. Several years ago, when we were living in our old house (which had a large field accross the street) I didn't know we had a mouse problem. One day I was sitting in the floor pulling out boxes of cereal to organize a bottom cabinet with my dd (2 at the time) in my lap and my cat sitting right beside us. Well, one of the boxes fell over and a mouse ran out of it right in front of us! I was shocked and the cat never moved, so I guess he was a little taken off guard as well (or maybe just too well fed ). It was years before I could eat cereal again. I now use Tupperware type containers to store cereal in so I can see exactly what is inside.

We soon found out that mice had eaten through our HVAC duct work underneath our house and were coming up through the vents. We were losing a lot of heat/AC which I know cost us on our electric bills. In addition, it ended up costing us several thousand dollars to have all of the duct work replaced. (In our new house, I insisted on the hard ducts hoping we wouldn't have to go through that again!)

Hope you can figure out how to keep them out of your house!

Cats like omg what was that im not chaseing that food it moves to fast... ty that was too funny

In the spring time look around to see where they are coming in from...

We get snap traps they love peanut butter Yuck, but it gets rid of them till the next batch try to live in the house happens every winter no lazy cat here

hard plastic bins for all bagged food like flour and rice

 

[dfchelbay]

Don't forget to seal up the dryer vent too with a screen. Also seal where the air condition unit comes into the house. Just walk around and see your house like a mouse would. Look for any and all crevices that you know they will eventually find.

As soon as we buy any pasta that is not plastic sealed, i.e. in a box, it goes into those large Rubbermaid plastic jugs. Same with rice, it goes straight into a sealed canister. My fear is not a mouse, but of any kind of bug getting into the food, so it gets sealed up immediately. I read an article about how easily bugs get into dried goods in boxes and leg eggs right on the pasta, and the same color as the pasta...and well that was enough for me. I open the pasta immediately from the store, inspect it on a plate, then seal it up in the plastic bins. It may be a bit overboard, but it eases my mind...not a fan of bugs!

 

[rapriebe]

Tupperware is the way to go. They have neat pasta containers that I believe they call Modular Mates. They come in deep sizes so they are skinny and come in various heights. They stack very nicely in the cabinets and you can see what type of pasta is in each container. I have probably 8-10 different Modular Mates in all different sizes and it works great for keeping your cabinets organized. As soon as I get home from the grocery store, the boxes get emptied into these containers.

 

[patsal]

I store it all in Tupperware modular mates. They are pricey but worth the investment. Food stays fresh and dry for a long time and I never get unwelcome visitors. I really do not like when I have a box of cornmeal and need only a little and go back to it to find it has found some friends to feast on it. Ever since I bought the modular mates I have no little bug friends and it keeps the bigger critters away also. Because they stack neatly, it is easy to organize and fit more in the cupboards too.

 

[RooRach0906]

I have mice in my house as well it has been an on going problem all winter for us and we have already caught 3 on glue traps and are still having issues. (We think there is only one left)
I had to move all my spices, muffin mix bags (never opened) etc to my top cabinets bc the mouse got in my lazy susan and ate threw the bags of muffin mix. So moving things to top cabinets is a good idea.
Also for other things including bread I got more Tupperware (FridgeSmart for the bread so you can vent it). I love Tupperware anyway but I know the mouse can not and does not eat thru it... I had one of the lazy susan with brown sugar and it wasnt touched.
I also have a set of 4 canisters (plastic air tight) for my staples (sugar, Flour and two extra containers for beans etc) I got them in Disney World they are Mickey.
Oh yeah for Rice... I just got the awesome new tupperware container that you keep it in and has a built in measuring cup so makes it convient.

 

[cntrygal]

Modular mates from tupperware is the way to go. The stack nice, never had a mouse chew into thoose and i live in the country we get mice all the time, it just a fact of life. The modular mates come in all shapes and sizes and are designed to stack together. I use them for everything. I even use them in my suitcase when i travel, pack snack and stuff for trip and on the return i use them to pack anything breakable i bought.

 

[3boymthr]

You are definitely not alone.

DH is an HVAC service technician. He says that most houses he goes into have mice or other "critters" living in them. He works on both furnaces and A/C. He has found the following (live and dead) animals in people's furnaces, A/C units or duct work:

Mice
Rats (many of the places he works are in the city)
Raccoons
Birds of many types
Snakes
Chipmunks
Squirrels

He also said he finds "evidence" of critters. Many of these critters are found in houses that are extremely clean.

To the question at hand I use modular mates for storing my rice and my sugar.

 

[pilesoflaundry]

We had a mouse in the garage recently. There wasn't any food out there but he came in and tried to find something to make a nest when it was so cold. I got him before he got to the house!

I put all of my dry goods in airtight plastic containers like tupperware but you can use the cheaper stuff too.

 

[luvsJack]

I bought gallon plastic jars with screw on lids from Dollar General, kind of like gallon pickle jars that I keep flour, sugar and corn meal in. I have smaller glass jars that I keep pasta, rice and dry beans in. These seem to work best for me and were a LOT cheaper than Tupperware. I don't keep cereal in them but the gallon size ones would work for that too, and I have seen containers at DG that are sized more for keeping cereal in.