No help, but sympathy. Our best friends had pantry moths. Really bad for quite a while - definitely on the wane for the last year or more. But still, just about every time I’m in their home, I expect to see at least 1.
Make my nearly annual ants seem a treat!
Where do you rank mice? Normally we’ll get one or two coming into the house late fall, but they’ve been suddenly showing up this spring. We’ve trapped and released (two miles away, across a river, let’s see them make it back from there) four in just the past two weeks. 
Don’t think you need to worry about trapping and releasing that far away. If 1 got in, others will follow. You gotta find where they are entering and seal that hole.
Me, I’ve got nothing against mice - OUTSIDE. But you come into my house, snap, you’re dead.
My sister has an ongoing mouse problem. Not a bunch at any one time, just 1-2 every couple of weeks. The exterminator has been coming out regularly (I bet they regret that guarantee!). The conclusion is that they are figuring out various entries under the exterior siding. My poor sister is learning more about mice and mouse behavior than she ever cared to.
But the little buggers REFUSE to talk!
In theory I feel the same. When I spot one, or the evidence they leave behind, I’m all DIE! DIE! DIE!!! But as soon as they’re a pathetic little corpse in a snap trap… How can you feel good about killing an opponent barely 1/3000ths of your weight? So instead it’s the Havaheart trap and a trip to the disused cemetery across the river from us. Sort of a cautionary threat: THIS time we’re letting you out alive.
Huh. We’ve got vinyl siding, hadn’t considered the entry could be hidden beneath that. Mostly we suspect the cellar bulkhead door. A flaw in the poured cement part, or a hole where the metal cover isn’t tight enough against the house. We’ve looked but not been able to find a hole.
I’ve had them about as bad as you describe in an apartment I used to live in. The source turned out to be a big container of corn-based cat litter.
The way I finally got rid of them was to throw out everything that they might be in. As I bought new flour, etc. kept it in the freezer. Thoroughly clean everywhere they might have reproduced. One place I only realized after a while to look was at the underside of all the shelves and drawers. Keep getting rid of all you find.
After being moth free for a while, I was able to have flour and baking mix on the shelves again. But, any time you see even one moth, you have to follow up by putting stuff in the freezer and being vigilant about anything that’s been in the pantry for a while.
Another common spot is around the AC fittings. My sister can now spot the paths the critters make in the dirt along the foundation. You realize that their skull bones are not fused, and they can get through a dime-sized hole? You need to check under the bottom row of siding, and seal it with caulk and/or wire mesh.
Yeah - really cute - OUTSIDE. And my kid had a very personable pet rat. But mice in my house, sorry.
I have heard (but it may not be reliable info) that if you put your grains and related products in the freezer for a week, it will kill the eggs. You can then safely move the product to your pantry.
Just bought a set of Rubbermaid Brilliance, thanks @romansperson for the rec above. Cooks Illustrated also tested and rated them very highly, said they are absolutely airtight. Those people are fussy as hell, so when they say something’s good, I believe them.
The theory here – after tossing out everything, cleaning the cabinets perfectly, and applying diatomaceous earth to the cracks in the cabinetry – is to transfer all newly bought nuts and grains into these things. Then if one of them had moth eggs carried in from the store, the infestation will be confined to just that one container. The containers are perfectly transparent, so we should be able to see any insect activity inside.
It’s all rather Martha Stewart and not my usual style, but after seeing those eggs on the inside of a sealed box of Bisquik, I’m not having any cardboard boxes on my shelf again, not unless it’s going to be consumed in about a day.
Yep, after a couple of bad outbreaks I started freezing all grains, etc for a few days before storage and haven’t had a recurrence since. I would also note that pantry moth larvae can chew right through plastic bags so don’t rely on those. Glass jars or rubbermaid type containers.
You should mark the mice before release because, well, they do swim quite well, and it would be an interesting experiment. Do mice have a homing instinct? 
As a single person, I don’t go through bags of flour or other grains that fast, so I keep my flour in the refrigerator. Never had a bag go buggy.
I did have a mouse infestation in my old house, and eventually found out that they discovered a bag of cough drops in my closet and had feasted on those. I cleaned that up, and had very minimal mice issues after that.
I’ve only been infested once & was able to control it by throwing out all the foodstuffs they had invaded. Since then I always check beans & rice for eggs before I buy it. This only works for foods that come in transparent bags, but it has saved me bringing home more on several occasions – the eggs were very obvious when I looked.
I have a couple small ones that I use for making salad dressings and brines - both are things that need to have the hell shaken out of them to mix/dissolve the ingredients. I’ve never had one leak.
I’ve also heard of people putting grains, bulk beans, etc. in those metal cans that popcorn and other holiday treats come in. You do need to label them appropriately.
You can also use canning jars, and in fact many people do use jars with chipped edges, or those that won’t seal for other reasons, for this purpose.
For ants= wipe down the trails with cleaning vinegar. Then, lines of boric acid (sometimes sold as “Roach-Pruf”) all where they get in.
Pretty safe stuff.
The biggest problem is that I couldn’t locate the nest or where the critters were coming into the house. They just seemed to appear out of the woodwork (which is quite likely).
A Ball Mason jar with a good seal did not defeat some of the critters. Contamination on the inside (which might have been present before it was sealed) and bugs under the ring, on the outside of the rubber seal. I said they were dead but I now think they were living pupae.
I think you need to bait straight boric acid (dunno about Roach-Pruf which I hear in Paul Havey’s voice). I use peanut butter, works great. I’ve found boric acid at the dollar store.
I think the most likely cause here was inadvertent contamination while the jar was open. They can’t actually get through the rubber seal or the metal or glass. Likely case is you had some contaminated grain on your hands, which included a few eggs and touched the open lid of the jar. A few got inside (contaminated grain) and a few stayed on the outside of the rim, which you later found dead around the rim, because they got stuck and died or were dormant.
For roaches, yes, but with ants a line around where they are- or might be- getting in is what you want.
I just put a line all around my kitchen counters at the back.
Roach-Pruf comes in a handy dispenser and one purchase has lasted me for years.