Cockroaches infest dirty banquet hall in Freehold, NJ | Bug Control
Challenge
At first blush, it’s easy to think that the job of a pest control technician is a cakewalk. To service an account, all you need to do is lug around your trusty B & G sprayer filled with the appropriate insecticide, and like magic, by spraying around, all of those disease-harboring insects will simply disappear. In reality, our work is much more involved.
To accomplish our objective of keeping our restaurants and other commercial accounts free of pests, pest control technicians can’t do it alone. One of the crucial aspects of keeping any commercial establishment pest free is implementing an Integrated Pest Management plan. Pest management is a team effort. The restaurant staff under the owner’s supervision must ensure that conditions are kept as sanitary as possible, and the entire staff must be vigilant about hygiene. Strict sanitation protocols must be in place and followed every day — from keeping food debris and grease in and under any equipment to a minimum to eliminating standing water, which is an attractant to all sorts of unwanted pests. This particular Freehold restaurant temporarily let down its guard with sanitation, and unfortunately paid the price with a cockroach infestation.
As far as insects go, there is no greater worry for restaurants than a stubborn cockroach infestation. Most roach infestations involve the dreaded German roach, one of our most persistent and resilient insects. Roaches stay out of sight and hide in dark cracks during the day. However, at night, when the lights are off, they emerge from their hiding places, scavenging for food and water. When doing so, they crawl, eat, and defecate all over anything and everything in their path. Not much much larger than a nickel, they are extremely quick, and have no trouble finding small hiding spots to start laying eggs. Before you know it, a restaurant can find itself with an entrenched roach infestation, invading ever larger areas in their search for food. Roaches are especially attracted to greasy, messy areas to lay eggs and eat. Needless to say, commercial kitchens must have strict hygiene and cleaning protocols in place, and if there is an infestation, it has to be resolved quickly and definitively — before a health inspection or a customer sees a roach in the dining area. The financial repercussions of dealing with a publicized insect infestation can be overwhelming. A restaurant simply can’t afford to have bugs.
Solution
We worked closely with the manager of this facility and developed a comprehensive Integrated Pest Management Plan and advised the manager to educate his entire staff.
