Preventing Pest Problems in your Restaurant

When it comes to pest control in your pizzeria, your best offense is a good defense.

Think prevention. It’s much easier to avert an infestation than to get rid of one.

Prevent insects and rodents from getting into your restaurant, and deprive them of the food, shelter and warmth they need to survive and reproduce.

According to Jim Fredericks, chief entomologist and vice president of public affairs at the National Pest Management Association (NPMA), “a single female cockroach is capable of producing 400 eggs in her lifetime, and each egg will hatch and grow into a reproducing adult in as little as 90 days, so populations can really explode.”

“Under ideal conditions, house flies can develop from egg to adult in as little as a week,” says Patricia Hottel, board certified entomologist and technical manager at Rentokil Terminix.

Plus, once you’ve got an infestation it puts your business at risk. Customers have very low tolerance for seeing rodents or bugs where they eat. According to the NPMA, 59 percent of customers say that they won’t return to an establishment where they saw a pest on the premises.

We talked to some experts in the field about how to discourage unwelcome critters from coming into your restaurant and setting up housekeeping.

Sanitation

“My first tip is having a specific sanitation plan for who does what,” says Ian Williams, entomologist and technical services manager at Orkin. “Make sure that the dishes are done at the end of the night and instead of sitting in a sink overnight. Make sure that the floors are cleaned regularly, that there’s product rotation for stored ingredients. Sanitation by itself is a huge step in proactively and reactively dealing with pest problems.”

Matt Lentine, a commercial branch manager at Truly Nolen, agrees. “If you keep a clean establishment, even when pests make it into the building, it’s easier to eliminate them. Pests are all looking for harbor, food and water, and especially at a pizzeria, you’re not going to be able to take their harbor away entirely because of all the pizza boxes, but you can definitely control the food and water portion of it.”

Roaches in particular “are looking for moisture. So dripping pipes, or not wiping down a dish area well or leaving water in it overnight, that encourages them,” says Lentine. “We advise our customers to caulk or seal as many cracks and crevices as possible.” Not only do these spots offer harbor and possibly access to vermin, but they also collect materials like flour and food waste that provide food for your unwelcome animal guests.

“Deep cleaning is really important on any cracks or crevices where flour might start to build up. Those places are a feast waiting to happen for a stored grain beetle,” advises Fredericks.

“Some areas, because they are not food contact surfaces, can be forgotten and not addressed in cleaning programs,” warns Hottel. “This includes things like floor drains, beverage fountain drip trays, grease traps, suspended ceilings and dumpsters.”

Prevent Access

“Probably the one thing that’s most important is making sure that pest entry points are sealed up,” says Fredericks. “That means keeping doors closed in warmer months, and sealing any gaps, especially in older buildings.” He points out that a mouse can squeeze through a quarter-inch gap under a door, which is about the width of a pencil. If you’ve got gaps under the doors, install floor sweeps to close them up. Mice can also slip through a hole the size of a dime, which may exist around unsealed utility penetrations.

Look Out for Seasonal Trends

Know your local vermin and their seasonal habits. For example, rodents will seek shelter when the weather gets cold, and they won’t leave when it warms up. Ants march indoors during warm rainy weather. Flies tend to be a warm-weather problem, while cockroaches and flour beetles are problems year-round, according to Fredericks.

Hottel advises that “insects and related arthropods are cold-blooded and so their ability to survive and reproduce will be tied to temperature.  The time for an insect to develop from egg to adult will be faster during ideal temperatures.”

Inspect Deliveries

“Some pests are good hitch-hikers and can be carried in on ingredients and employee belongings,” such as the German cockroach, says Hottel. “Check incoming product deliveries to make sure there are no pests being delivered. Have a designated area for employees to store their personal belongings and monitor those areas for pests like cockroaches.”

Fredericks also urges operators to inspect all incoming goods for signs of insect or rodent activity. Corrugated cardboard is a favorite place for roaches to lodge. “Often you’ll just see little antenna sticking out.” In addition to looking for the actual animals, “damaged packaging is an indicator that you need to take a closer look.” Cockroach feces “might just look like little specks that are almost pasted around the edges of gaps.”

Inspect Your Premises

Keep an eagle eye out for signs of unwelcome creatures so you can address the problem before it gets out of hand. Williams suggests employing “a passive monitor like a paper-based glue board that’s placed in areas where German cockroaches, for example, are likely to travel, so you can detect them early.” This helps indicate the level of population and where the animals are coming from.

Take a close look for rodent and roach fecal matter in crevices and inside corners and around outlets and other potential access points. Drop ceilings are notorious for harboring pests. The insulation around coolers is also an attractive nesting area because the refrigeration mechanism keeps it warm and cozy.

Rotate Your Product

First in, first out is not just about keeping your ingredients fresh — it also discourages infestations. It’s extremely important to rotate your pizza boxes. Cardboard makes a very inviting roach motel and you can’t treat pizza boxes with pesticides, so don’t keep too many boxes on hand at a time and rotate through them.

Seek Professional Support

Partnering with a pest professional experienced in the restaurant industry will help you keep on top of any problems. Professional exterminators know the local vermin and their seasonal habits. They’re experienced at detecting subtle signs of bugs and rodents, and they have extensive knowledge about safe pesticide application, especially in terms of what products can be applied where, and how frequently. “In some states, it would be a violation of law for someone to apply pesticides without the proper certification and credentials,” according to Hottel.

Lentine points out that using an enzyme-based floor cleaner will help in the battle against drain flies. “The enzyme will eat away the bacteria and things that drain flies live off, and it works hand in hand with our products whereas bleach deteriorates our products rapidly.”

The pros also have sophisticated tools in their arsenal. For example, Williams explains that they can place monitors specifically for Indianmeal moths and other flour-eating moths “that have female sex attractant on them. If male moths show up, we can know about it immediately and react very quickly with a management plan already in place.”

Fredericks points out that a pro won’t “just react to an infestation, but will develop a comprehensive Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program that will consist of preventative measures such as identifying potential points of entry and ways to modify the facility to discourage entry, along with monitoring and early detection for proactive instead of reactive pest control.”

You want to be proud of every nook and cranny of your restaurant, not just your amazing pizza. Stay on top of pest presence in your place, or else you risk getting negative health inspections, offending and losing customers, and actually putting the health of your guests and employees at risk.

Annelise Kelly is a Portland, Oregon-based freelance writer.