The Pantry Blitz is a community pest surveillance activity where you can participate by weekly monitoring of your pantry cupboards for insects using the MyPestGuide® Reporter app and play your part in keeping WA free of damaging pests.
As part of this year’s Pantry Blitz, registered participants will be asked to place traps inside their kitchen cupboards (where food is stored), take weekly photos of the traps (with or without critters stuck to the trap) and report any findings using MyPestGuide® Reporter for DPIRD’s experts to identify. Our experts will provide information back to participants on what they have found stuck on the trap and how to manage or eliminate any pest problem.
Participation from the public is extremely important to detect pests that might escape WA’s strong border biosecurity controls.
Registrations now closed
Registrations for Pantry Blitz 2022 are now closed. We’re mailing Pantry Blitz packs to registered participants from 7 March in time for the start date on 18 March.
From 18 March – 22 April 2022, registered participants will:
- Download the MyPestGuide® Reporter app.
- Wait for your Pantry Blitz pack to arrive in the mail (with any luck by 18 March).
- Follow the set-up instructions in the Pantry Blitz pack (and watch the video).
- Send in weekly reports with photos of the pests on your sticky trap using the app. (Remember to clean the camera lens and take perfect photos).
- Select the ‘Pantry Blitz’ project from the dropdown menu in the app for each weekly report.
- View data and Pantry Blitz images on the MyPestGuide® community website.
Note: If you receive your trap before or after the start date it is not a problem. Start once you receive your pack in the mail.
Every weekly report is important
Found something? Report it using the MyPestGuide® Reporter app so the department can respond to any incursions of exotic pests and help prevent any spread to our grain production areas.
Nothing to report? Did you know this kind of data is also valuable? Reporting empty traps using the MyPestGuide® Reporter app contributes to evidence provided to our trading partners that specific pests are absent from Western Australia. This supports our State’s grain industry's continued access to domestic and overseas markets.
Why do we need your help?
Many items coming in via freight containers and mail, crossing WA and Australian borders, can end up in your pantry. It is more important than ever for everyone to look and report pantry pests as part of their everyday lives.
Early detection of ‘unwanted hitchhiking pests’ is critical to protect local grain growers and production areas from damaging pests. In the event of an exotic pest incursion, it maximises the opportunity for eradication or containment. Your data is also used to provide our trading partners with evidence that specific pests are absent from Western Australia, supporting our access to domestic and overseas markets.
Download the MyPestGuide® Reporter or report on the MyPestGuide® community website.