Why, pests of course. They love to get in to your food storage. Your food storage is an endless buffet for them. Be it bugs or mice they will live a life of heaven in your food storage as long as they can and even invite their friends along. Just think. One mouse gets into your food storage and he/she has found the largest buffet in the world to them. Are they going to keep it all to themselves? Surely not! They are going to invite their significant other to join them and maybe a few friends. And some where along the line they are going to have babies, who, when big enough are going to be shown to the buffet. Oh the wonderful life of a mouse or a bug when they find the worlds biggest buffet all for themselves. They will love you forever for providing so much wonderful food just for them.
Now, think of all the hard work and money you spent building that food storage. Add the fact that you did it to feed your own family and not some rodents or bugs. Ticks you off big time when they get to it first doesn't it? Brings you to tears when you see the damage they did to your food storage. So, you set out traps and catch a few mice. Now you think your food storage is safe once again. Wrong if you didn't store it right. They will continue to come back as long as they can smell the food and get to it with minimal effort. You need to make it a lot harder on them.
Take for instance this one prepper who filled tons of mylar bags with her own dehydrated foods and store bought dry goods and then lined them all up nice and pretty on a very high shelf in her garage. Sounds good right? Wrong! No matter how high she stores those bags, bugs and rodents are still going to get to them at some point in time.
And what about the people that store rice and beans in 2 liter pop bottles? Is their food storage safe? And what about foods that are packed in mylar bags and then into 5 gallon food grade buckets. Are they safe? Wrong! Mice and rats can chew through almost anything but metal and glass. So what can a person do to keep their food safe?
Well for me I rely on metal tins and glass jars. I collect metal tins from my family and buy them at thrift stores and yard sales cheap. I mainly look for popcorn tins. Even at Christmas time I will buy 4 of the tins of popcorn, bag up the popcorn to add to food basket gifts and then wash the tins out really good and make sure they are completely dry. Now I don't just put the food directly into the tins. You can but I choose not to. I place the food in gallon ziplock bags and then place in the tin. This helps keep moisture out of the tin and keeps me from having to wash them often. Of course the gallon bags only fit the popcorn tins. For the smaller tins I use quart or pint ziplock bags. Mylar bags would be better but I have not been able to afford any yet.
Another way to keep your food safe is to store it in half gallon canning jars. I use mostly wide mouth but I have some regular mouth ones I use too. I use the regular mouth jars to store dried beans, rice, popcorn and noodles. I just pour the food into a jar, add the lid and ring and tighten down then I use the food saver jar attachment to seal the jars tight. I use the wide mouth to store sugar, brown sugar, powdered sugar, flour, corn meal and other dry goods that are not easy to get out of a regular mouth jar.
Another good source to use for food storage is gallon pickle jars that you can get for free from restaurants and ice cream places. Some places do charge a small fee for these jars like 50 cents or a $1 but the price is well worth it when you get a gallon size jar to store your food in. I use them to store my own baking mixes. Once you get your food in them and tighten the lid you can add a layer of tape around the lids and jar to keep bugs out. Mice will not be a problem since they are not small enough to fit between the lid and the jar.
One other little trick I use to get gallon or even half gallon pickle jars is that when we are invited to a party or reunion I buy a big jar or two of pickles and make a pickle dish to take. That gives me one or two more jars for food storage and I have not wasted any money because 99% of the time I have very few pickles left to bring home and it is still not a waste of money since we finish up the pickles. :)
One word of caution about using metal tins in the south. I have been told that they will rust. Since I just moved south I have not had this happen to me yet, But I trust the person who told me this I so I am sure it will happen. Depending on how much my tins rust I will still use them if it is not to much since I always put my food in ziplock bags before putting them in tins. If the tins rust so much that bugs will be able to get in I will stop using them and rely only on glass jars.
Oh before I forget there is another way you can store your food and keep it safe from rodents and bugs. You can buy brand new metal trash cans with tight fitting lids to store bigger items like 25 lb bags of sugar, flour and so on. Just repack in mylar bags with a oxygen absorbers and place in the cans. Cover tightly with the lid and place a layer of tape around the lid and can. This will keep the bugs from getting under the lid.
So, as you are building your food storage make sure to store it right so you do not lose any of it and remember to rotate your stock. Place the new stock behind or underneath the old stock and always use the oldest stock first. You don't want to waste any of your money that you can use in other areas of prepping.
Prepping Granny