Pests descend even on the cleanest of premises and can cause stress and disgust among occupants and their clients with their presence. While, the most effective way to control pests would be by engaging a professional pest control company; however, there are some challenges even in engaging professionals. A facility owner and manager cannot afford not to know what these challenges are and how they could lead to treatment failure.
A successful integrated pest management is possible only through a proper synergy between pest control and FM service providers. Listed below are seven common pitfalls that result in infestation.
Securing Entry Points
Pests descend because there are points of entry – Rats being supple, even a large one can squeeze itself from under a door; cockroaches can find their way in through supplies and find cracks and crevices to set up their new home; files and mosquitoes fly in through frequently opened doors and so on.
In places where doors are frequently opened, the facility should be protected with air curtains. If physical measures are not recommended by the pest control company to facility management and or facility management fails to implement such measures, even the very best of pest control treatments are likely to fail. It is not uncommon on the part of the FM to refrain from taking measures despite the pest control vendor highlighting points of pest entry and the required remedy.
Denying food to pests
Pests will perish without food; however, even in the cleanest of premises some food might be left uncovered or not sealed enough to prevent pests entering.
Garbage bins within premises must be emptied out before the end of business every evening. If they must be left indoors overnight they need to be in well-sealed and sturdy containers so that pests cannot find their way in or eat their way in. There should be no food spillage left behind.
Kitchens tend to build up grease and cockroaches thrive on such surfaces, making most pest control products to fail. Dust is another friend of pests because most pest control products particularly cockroach gels and rodent baits are not effective in industrial dusty conditions.
The pest control company should highlight their findings on hygiene and sanitation regularly to FM. If FM fails to improve the conditions or does not implement the recommendations of the vendor, pest control measures could turn ineffective.
Proper inspection
Besides identifying entry points, it is also important to correctly identify the pests. If flying alates of subterranean termites are mistakenly identified to be flying ants or vice versa, the treatment measures can be totally ineffective and may cause unnecessary expenditure for the facility manager.
All cockroaches, for example, are not the same. The long brownish and large American Cockroach breed in sewers. If they are mistaken for German Cockroaches and only cracks and crevices within the facility are treated there could be a treatment failure.
All rats are not the same either. The long slender black roof rat generally enters and also hides in higher places in the facility as the name roof rat implies. Whereas the fat brown sewer rats find their way into the premises from the sewers. Location of placing traps or bait stations is critical for optimum results. With termites visual inspection alone is not sufficient because their entry and presence go unnoticed until the damage has been done. However, with modern technology, it is possible to use detection tools like Termatrac to detect the presence of termites where it is impossible for the human eye to detect. Does your pest control company do thorough inspections with the latest inspection devices and correctly identify the pest?
