Commercial Pest Control

Pests need only three things to survive, namely food, water, and shelter, and retail stores offer plenty of each. The large size of stores, intense customer traffic, and regular food delivery offer insects and rodents numerous opportunities to find their way inside a store and contaminate products. Once inside, they destroy not only the physical products they contaminate, but also the company’s reputation and customer loyalty. Here are the five areas in your retail store most likely to be infested by insect pests:

1. Firewood Supply

According to a 2012 study, untreated firewood sold in retail stores is a common source of destructive insects and pathogens. 52% of firewood sold in retail locations in 18 U.S. states was brought from sources outside the purchase state, and 50% showed proof of insect contamination. The pine and mixed-conifer bundles typically found in grocery stores, department stores, supermarkets, and gas stations were shown to have the highest number of insects.

Increasingly, commercial building owners across the world are becoming more preoccupied with cutting down operational costs and reducing their environmental footprint. As a result, interest in LEED (The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification continues to grow, as it provides buildings owners and operators with the tools they need to obtain an immediate and measurable impact on their establishment’s performance.

LEED recognizes performance in five essential areas of human and environmental health:

1. Sustainable site development
2. Energy efficiency
3. Water savings
4. Materials selection
5. Indoor environmental quality

Of these five key areas, two – sustainable site development and indoor environmental quality – are directly influenced by your indoor and outdoor pest control efforts, and implementing an effective IPM program can speed up your way towards valuable LEED points.

How Does IPM Fit in with LEED Certification?

Defined in accordance with LEED guidelines, an IPM program is an environmentally responsible pest management approach that integrates preventative methods and non-chemical solutions to effectively and proactively manage pest problems and minimize the hazards to people, the premises, and the environment.

“Audit” is a term many businesses abhor, especially those in the food processing industry where standards are tough and penalties even tougher. But as dreadful as it may be to have your retail, meat, fish, poultry, or vegetable & produce business audited by exigent environmental health specialists and sanitarians, it is ultimately in the best interest of the customer, as they help to:

• Find, eliminate, and prevent food hazards
• Focus on identifying and treating the root of the problem, not only the symptoms
• Prevent foodborne illnesses
• Prevent costly and reputation-damaging recalls
• Ensure compliance with state regulations of food processing
• Improve and maintain a healthy environment for producing safe food products

Of the total audit score, pest management accounts for up to 20 percent. However, in order to obtain the maximum score and avoid penalties, food businesses should not only carry out all required measures to deny entry, eradicate, and prevent the harborage of pests on the premises – they must also prove it with the proper documentation.

Food processors are mandated by the law to manufacture safe foods. By definition, a safe food is a product that contains no physical, chemical, or biological hazards that if ingested could harm consumers and result in their illness, injury, and death. Many times, however, despite food processors’ efforts of implementing plant-wide protocols for detecting and preventing contaminants, extraneous objects or foreign matter find their way inside food products.

It is generally agreed upon that the most common methods of introducing physical hazards into food processing plants include those:

• Introduced from the field (stone, metal, insects and small animals, vegetable matter, etc.)
• Resulted from processing and handling (metal, glass, wood, grease, paint, rust, etc.)
• Introduced during distribution (insects, metal, stone, dirt)
• Intentionally placed in food products (via employees)
• Miscellaneous materials (struvite and other such mineral deposits)

Other examples of extraneous materials include shell fragments, pit fragments, cleaning equipment (bristles, sponges, cloth), packaging materials, elastic bands, medications, band-aids, glove fragments, pencils, jewelry, keys, and paper clips.

Eating out is, for most of us, one of the most pleasant ways of spending time with friends and family while enjoying delicious freshly-cooked meals in a fancy décor. But such pleasant occasion can rapidly turn into a terrifying experience if you happen to stumble upon a fly in your soup or bite down on a cockroach baked into the crust of your pizza.

Flies, rats, cockroaches, weevils, ants, and other invaders are an absolute nightmare for restaurant and food service establishments. Heavy infestations can not only damage a brand’s image and cause significant financial losses, but also pose serious health risks to customers’ health and wellbeing.

Here we look at four of the most notorious pests found in restaurants and the damage they can cause when they’re no longer under control.

1. Cockroaches

Cockroaches may be a staple of some countries’ cuisine, including China, Thailand, Mexico, and Japan, but the thought of putting the slimy bugs in one’s mouth makes most people cringe in disgust.