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We all know that where there’s food, the risk of pests follows. For restaurants, cafes, takeaways, and every business in the food industry, staying vigilant against these unwanted guests is a non-negotiable aspect of maintaining hygiene, protecting your reputation, and ensuring customer safety.
Here are the top 5 pests we are asked to manage for restaurants, cafes, takeaways and businesses within the food industry:
Cockroaches love the warmer temperatures offered inside a building, especially those where there is a food source. So they will seek out tiny holes and cracks to gain access to your premised and breed quickly. Sometimes, they will have been present for a while before you detect them, as they explore at night. When they crawl over your surfaces they can also spread nasty diseases such as, E.coli, Salmonella and Staphylococcus. A notable sign of cockroaches will be round, or oblong droppings that are brown or black. The faeces can also be runny and will appear on your floors or surfaces as smear marks. You may also find some cockroach skin, left behind when they shed.
Effective cockroach management isn’t just about eliminating the visible population. It requires a thorough understanding of their entry points, those tiny cracks and crevices and implementing preventative measures to seal them. Relying solely on surface treatments might miss hidden populations. We provide targeted treatments that will identify the structural vulnerabilities that allow cockroaches access in the first place. Regular monitoring, looking for those tell-tale droppings and shed skins, is also crucial for early intervention.
You could be forgiven for a few flies that have found their way inside on a warm day, but generally larger numbers of flies, where there is food, is bad news. This includes fruit flies, house flies and drain flies.
Did you know flies have an extremely unpleasant way to feed? They vomit their saliva onto the food or food surfaces and then suck up the liquid. This can result in food that is contaminated with bacteria. The bacteria can cause food poisoning, Dysentery, Typhoid or even Cholera in countries where these occur.
Effective fly control in food businesses requires more than just fly swatters or even standard electric fly killers. Understanding the specific type of fly is also important. For instance, drain flies indicate potential issues with stagnant water in drains that need to be addressed. Fruit flies often point to overripe produce or inadequate cleaning. Our approach at Protex Pest Control involves identifying the breeding sources and implementing targeted solutions, alongside recommendations for improved sanitation practices to eliminate these attractants.
Thankfully, ants do not usually pose a public health risk to people. However, a café or restaurant with an ant infestation is unlikely to attract customers. Ants are attracted to sweet foodstuffs and will invade on mass to take food back to the nest to feed to the larvae and queen. It can be difficult to track their entry points so an off-the-shelf product may be ineffective, and a Protex Pest Control technician may be required instead.
We work with you to identify and seal potential entry points, preventing future invasions and protecting your customer experience.
It is important to first accurately detect if you have mice or rats as the two are commonly mixed up, and the approach needed to treat each is different.
Mice and rats can access your premises through small cracks and drains. They can spread diseases such as Salmonella and Listeria through their urine, droppings and bedding. Just like cockroaches, they do most of their foraging at night, so it can take a while to realise they are there. The first signs may be droppings, gnawing marks, or ripped food cartons.
Our approach involves identifying entry points, implementing targeted trapping or baiting programmes based on the specific rodent species, and providing advice on structural repairs to prevent future access. Continuous monitoring is also essential to ensure the problem is fully resolved.
Pigeons will thrive near food outlets. They will feed on crumbs and discarded food. Unfortunately, they pose a public health risk. As well as being unsightly, their acidic droppings can corrode buildings.
Effective pigeon management often requires more than just visual deterrents. Our bird control team will assess your property, including roofs and window sills, and install appropriate bird deterrents that are both effective and humane. This proactive approach helps protect your premises and maintain a clean and welcoming environment for your customers.
What can you do?
Effective pest management in the food industry goes beyond simply identifying and eliminating pests. It requires a proactive, knowledge-based approach that includes:
A Protex Pest Control expert will thoroughly assess your premises and if necessary, start treatment immediately.
We will also seek out all the possible entry points to prevent any future infestations. These will include doors, windows, cupboards, storage rooms and cracks in walls. And in the case of pigeons, we can access your roof, or windowsills to install the appropriate bird deterrents.
We will develop a preventative pest control plan for your premises. This could cost as little as £1.60 a day – that’s less than a cup of coffee.
