Bacterial and viral cross-infestation of food are but one reason that food business pest control is required by law. So it's surprising that so many businesses only call commercial pest control services after they have detected signs of pests. Cheap commercial exterminator callouts may seem like the go-to solution, but it's not the best in the long run.
Pest prevention is the practice of keeping your premises secure and hygienic, stopping infestations before they have the chance to take root and cause problems. Aderyn is a South Wales pest control and pest prevention business, experienced from working with many restaurants and food processing factories. In this blog, we will go through the reasons why prevention should be your top priority.
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Prevent Loss of Product and Profit
Cockroaches and rats are the largest culprits of cross infestation, where dangerous bacteria, parasites, or viruses are spread to humans. The Food Safety Act of 1990 requires you to withdraw unsafe food that has been contaminated, which is costly at every stage of production.
While stored product insect infestations are less likely to result in cross infestation, the fact is their eating and breeding habits will make food products unfit for human consumption. They introduce moisture to dried products and leave their moulted casings in the food, and entire silos of grain can be rendered unusable if a meal moth or grain beetle is able to complete a full life cycle undetected.
Protect Employees Against Cross Infestation
The worst risk pests pose is that an employee can get infected with dangerous illnesses like salmonella or listeria before you realise there is a pest infestation on the premises. This can then spread to other employees, your food and customers as a result. A non-proactive approach isn’t worth the loss of productivity and the risk of legal liability.
Improve Workplace Morale
A food business that has flies buzzing overhead, ants crawling underfoot or the scratches of rodents in the walls is an unhappy workplace. Working around pests and managing repeated visits from commercial exterminators is stressful and taxing on employees. Pest prevention can improve working conditions, making employees less likely to be stressed over pest encounters.
Prevent Property & Equipment Damage
Rodents, wasps, ants, bees, and cockroaches are all too happy to cause damage to your premises to create their nests or remove obstacles to where you store food. Destruction of wooden structures, damaged wires, and damp are just some issues a pest infestation causes to your food business. Furthermore, many insurance companies do not cover structural damage caused by pests, leaving you out of pocket to finance repairs.
Preserve Business Reputation
Whether food is contaminated and recalled, a food poisoning incident occurs, or a customer spots a pest directly, it will be a massive blow to your business reputation. If you show a lax attitude towards business pest control, this will affect your bottom line and the amount of business you receive as a result.
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Types of Pest Prevention
Now that you know the dangers of pest infestations, let’s discuss what methods of pest prevention you can utilise to stop infestations from manifesting in your food business premises.
Removing Attractions
Pests are attracted to premises that are in the habit of leaving unsecured food and food waste lying around, whether out in the open or fallen under a worktop. Messy premises provide hiding places for pests to nest and allow infestations to take root.
Ideally, all your food and food waste needs to be stored in a way that pests cannot access. Rodents may find it easy to get into a bin bag, cardboard box, or burlap sack, but closed fitted lids on secure containers pose a challenge they can’t easily overcome.
Stopping Access
Preventing pests starts outside your buildings. Insect screens or netting around doors and windows are highly effective at preventing stored product insects, flies, and wasps from entering. Aderyn can take care of this for you as part of our commercial pest control services.
Repairs are important too. Cockroaches can slip through gaps as small as 2mm! Rodents can squeeze through any gap as big as their head, which is 6-7mm for mice and 2cm for rats. As part of your preventive maintenance, keep a close eye on finding and fixing cracks that allow pests to enter the premises. Our South Wales pest control service can check for and advise on pest entry points.
Preventative Trapping
Rats can travel up to a mile from their nest to search for food, and they will travel up to four miles in order to find a new nesting place. Getting commercial exterminators to set up traps is essential to ensure roaming pests are taken care of as soon as possible before they even have the chance to realise your premises are a source of shelter and food. For flying pests, Aderyn has a range of electric fly killers and glue boards that can attract and securely eliminate insects that wander into your food business.
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