Commercial Pest Control is a significant segment of the professional pest management market and consists of restaurants, bakeries, nursing homes, hospitals, warehouses, factories, office buildings and the list goes on.
This market often requires different products and techniques compared to those used in residential pest management.
A good workplace is a “pest free” and clean environment, so, rats, mice, cockroaches, ants and other creepy crawlies are definitely “unwanted guests”!
Unfortunately, pest-related issues in any business can result in very real costs to your reputation, your client base and your bottom line.
An Integrated Pest Management System (IPM), coupled with good hygiene is one way of protecting your business from pest infestations. IPM practices include monitoring, prevention of access and common sense environmental sensitivity when controlling for pests.
The issue with commercial establishments, especially restaurants is that they generally start early and close late, which makes it increasingly harder to apply Integrated Pest Management and maintain cleanliness and hygiene.
Darrin Pierce, the owner of Berwick Pest Control in Victoria gives a great example of managing this issue in a local restaurant which had become increasingly popular in the area.
Darrin said: “The restaurant had become very popular and was fully booked for lunch and dinner 7 days a week. Staff would go to work in the late mornings and clean up the previous night’s dirty dishes, as they were too busy and too tired to clean up late at night before going home. The next day they would start the process all over again”!
Darrin said, “German cockroaches were coming out at night and enjoying a feeding frenzy on the food scraps, leftovers and dirty dishes. The cockroach population was also growing in numbers.”
Things had to change and change quickly, so Darrin implemented an Integrated Pest Management system coupled with a hygiene report to the restaurant owner, highlighting areas that required attention. The first thing to change was the habit of leaving dirty dishes and food scraps out in the open after closing time. The kitchen had to be cleaned after each sitting, i.e. lunch and dinner.
Secondly, Darrin went about sealing all cracks and crevices and possible entry points where the cockroaches were gaining easy access. Darrin explained, “Once the main food source had been removed and a new level of hygiene had been introduced, controlling the cockroach population became much more manageable”.
“I started to gain further control by applying a surface spray of Temprid®75 Residual Insecticide on the kitchen floor area and Maxforce® Gold Cockroach Gel in the areas that the cockroaches were most likely to harbour”.
“Due to the domino effect of Maxforce Gold and the knock-down and residual of Temprid75, I was able to reduce the infestation significantly to a more manageable number , whereby I am now back to a monthly maintenance “call cycle” with this customer”.
Temprid75 provides the perfect surface spray to treat cockroaches and other crawling insects which come out at night. This insecticide combines two powerful and effective residual insecticides, beta-cyfluthrin and imidacloprid to deliver excellent control.
Maxforce Gold contains a tailor-made bait matrix specifically to cater for a balanced range of cockroach dietary preferences and is recommended for clean-out jobs.
Bayer has a full range of products designed to assist you with your day-to-day pest control requirements. For more information contact your Bayer Territory Business Development Manager.
COMMERCIAL PEST CONTROL – Article written by David Fielder, Territory Business Development Manager – PPM (VIC/SA/TAS)
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