The Best Defense is a Good Offense

You can eliminate these bugs by hiring a professional with experience in eliminating bedbug infestations, as recommended by both Steritech and The National Pest Management Association, the industry’s trade association.

Activity of German cockroaches specifically is expected to be on the upswing. This species often inhabits restaurants, bakeries, supermarkets and other food establishments. A cockroach infestation can easily get out of hand, since they can reproduce up to two million offspring in a year under optimal conditions.

In food processing environments, German cockroaches are often found in areas that remain undisturbed, such as storage or confined space areas. Left unchecked, a population can quickly grow in size and spill over into open areas, putting your product at risk.

What You Should Know

As more has been learned about pest biology, pesticide resistance and aversion, pest management methods have also evolved. No longer are traditional approaches such as “spraying” or “fogging” the foundation of a pest management program. Rather, modern pest management programs are built around a variety of complementary tactics, such as early-detection of insect pests through monitoring, thorough inspection for detection of harborage sites, targeted treatments that pose little risk to the environment or people, and structural repairs that exclude invasive pests from entering the facility.

Such modern pest prevention programs rely on a strong partnership and communication between the client and the pest management technician. The level of communication between a facility’s designated contact and a pest management technician is often indicative of a program’s success. Check with your employees on the reporting, documentation and one-on-one contact they receive from their pest management professional. Reports should include details of the service, note any chemicals applied, list opportunities for improvement and include detailed sanitation and structural recommendations. Your contacts should be in regular communication with their pest management technician.

Documentation at the facility should include copies of any reports, material safety data sheets (MSDS) on products currently being used at the facility, maps of service areas and any other pertinent information. If you don’t see these things, consider looking for a new pest management partner. In your search, ask candidates for a proposal detailing the job, frequency of visits, response times, applicable guarantees, types and quality of service reporting, and above all, make sure that the company knows what it takes to outsmart pests in your facility.

It is helpful when personnel in the facility understand what is required in terms of sanitation, operational procedures and structural repairs for the program to be successful. Once the role of each partner in the program has been established, knowledge about the pest’s biology can be used to eliminate the conditions that enabled the pest to become established in the first place. See Table 1 for some tips on stopping pests before they become a problem.

Despite warming temperatures and pest trends, you can safeguard your facility against pests. Investing appropriate resources in training, maintenance and a high-quality company will help to reduce your costs in the long run, protect you from costly shutdowns and recalls and, most importantly, ensure that the safest possible food is being produced at your facility.

References:

1. Nathan Riggs, The ABC’s of Fire Ants and Their Management, Department of Entomology, Texas A&M University, 2002, http://fireant.tamu.edu/materials/factsheets/fapfs005.2002rev.pdf.

Dr. Nansen is technical director of The Steritech Group, Inc. ( Charlotte , N.C. ). Reach him at [email protected].