5 Elements of an Effective Pest-Management Plan for Restaurants

Developing an effective pest-management plan is an important part of your job as a restaurant owner or manager. Yet, this often seems to be easier said than done when your delicious food seems to constantly attract a wide range of pests such as rats and cockroaches.

Not only is keeping your restaurant free of pests essential for staying in compliance with food-service regulations, but you also know that all it takes is one patron seeing a bug in their food to damage your reputation. For this reason, a professional pest-control company always ensures that your management plan includes these strategies.



Identify Current Infestations During an Initial Consultation

It is common for restaurant owners to be surprised to discover that they already have a major pest infestation hidden behind their walls. Alternatively, you may think that your problem is a random mouse when cockroaches have overtaken your kitchen shelves.

Scheduling an initial consultation with your preferred pest-management company allows you to know exactly what needs to be done. Eliminating all of the pests that are in your restaurant at once allows you to stop the endless cycle of thinking the problem is solved only to have a new pest move in.

Use Safe Pest-Control Strategies

As a member of the food-service industry, you already know how important it is to protect the health and safety of everyone who enters your restaurant. The same concepts that you use with food should also apply to your pest-control treatments.

Ideally, your pest-control service should have experience working within the food industry. If they do, they’ll know about safer methods such as using organic pesticide or exclusion strategies to control pests so that you don't have to close your doors or risk the safety of your guests.

Repair Structural Deficiencies

Commercial buildings are subjected to more wear and tear than residential homes, which means that pests have more opportunities to find ways to enter. For instance, a door that is constantly being opened and shut may have weather stripping that breaks down faster.

Arrange for an inspection to check for structural deficiencies to be performed regularly. Often, inspections are done yearly or seasonally, but you should also have a pest technician come out to check after inclement weather or any other time the building might have sustained damage.

When problems are found, make sure to get them repaired. Often, a simple leaky faucet is all it takes to attract pests to your kitchen, and fixing it solves multiple problems.

Train Employees on Pest Identification and Prevention

Consider your restaurant staff to be your first line of defense against pests. While you have drilled in proper sanitation and hygiene to your staff, it is possible that they still make mistakes when things get busy, such as failing to fully wipe down counters during downtimes.

Your staff should also be able to recognize the early signs of a pest infestation and know how to report it. Arrange for your pest-management company to train your employees on how to identify signs of a problem, such as insect droppings, along with how to properly dispose of waste and store food to prevent pests.

Arrange for Regular Supervisory Inspections

Once you have your pest problem under control, regular inspections keep pests away. With each season, you can expect a new threat such as wasps building nests near the doors in the spring. Have your building inspected early in each season, and you never have to worry about an infestation spiraling out of control.

At Paffy's Pest Control, we understand the many elements that go into running a business. Reach out to us for help with your pest-management plan, and enjoy serving your guests with full confidence that an errant bug will not ruin their meal.