How to Monitor and Track Pests in Your Facility

Monitoring devices and traps. These are often used for tracking pests and minimizing their populations. Your pest control provider should have data for each device that details their location and pest activity levels. Some pest control providers even gather this information remotely and store it digitally for easy data visualization and record management. Make sure you work with your pest control provider to obtain the trend reports from these devices so you can use the insights to revise your current pest management plan, as needed, and prove to your auditors that you’re being proactive in your pest control efforts.

Annual assessments. Review your IPM plan with your provider annually, at a minimum. Make a note of pest problems that occurred and discuss resolutions for them accordingly. By performing these annual assessments, you’ll be able to spot recurring problems quickly and develop more targeted solutions.

Sighting reports. Your facility should have a logbook for recording pest sightings and, if your staff doesn’t already have access to it, they should. These will help your pest control provider perform thorough investigations of pest activity and make more accurate recommendations.

List of service changes. Your IPM program should change as your pest pressures do. No two food processing facilities are the same, and a variety of external factors can cause pest pressures to shift periodically. Whenever you make a change to your pest management program, be sure to note how you changed your program and why you implemented those changes.

Tracing and monitoring pests requires a team effort. In addition to staff training from your pest control provider, communicating with your supplier and distributors is important. It might seem as if it will damage your reputation to share news about documented pest issues with your supply chain, but it’s quite the opposite. Keeping your suppliers and distributors informed of pest issues within your facility can help protect the rest of the supply chain from pests.

Pests will go to any lengths to get food, water, and shelter—especially during a pandemic. If you aren’t already implementing traceable policies in your facility, now is the best time to start. In addition to a strong IPM program, finding and removing pests will be easier for you and your pest control provider with these traceability policies.

While pest pressures won’t stop immediately, these tactics will help uphold food safety regulations and protect your business in the long run.