Fighting cockroaches in a restaurant kitchen can feel like a losing battle. Cockroaches are versatile insects that can scale walls, cross ceilings, flip from the top to the bottom of a table in an instant, squeeze through the thinnest of cracks, and sometimes fly. If your restaurant doesn't have a pest plan, it is impossible to keep this insect out. It requires a use of pesticides and a knowledge of how and why these insects get in. Fortunately, Action Pest Control has some answers for you. Here are a few of the ways you can make your restaurant kitchen less inviting to cockroaches.
- Stop an infestation before it starts. If your restaurant receives shipments, use a black light to illuminate cockroach urine and feces on the outside of boxes, and look for chew marks. This can prevent a hitchhiker from getting into your food areas.
- For roaches that squeeze past your defenses, do daily inspection for cockroach droppings in food storage areas. Keep foods that come in cardboard or paper packaging inside your walk-in cooler or in sealed plastic containers. If a cockroach doesn't find a food source, it can motivate it to move on.
- Proactive sanitation throughout your entire restaurant is your greatest tool against cockroaches. Don't leave spills to sit, vacuum regularly, and keep floors and counters clean.
- If you are having a lot of trouble with cockroaches, use flip tops on all your trash cans, keep cans clean and disinfected, and don't allow trash to build up to a point where it keeps the lid from sealing shut. If you only have a few cockroaches every once in a great while you can get away with open trash cans during the day, but empty them every night before closing--and clean the cans.
- Cockroaches like squeezing into tight, hard to reach spaces. You should be doing a deep cleaning of your kitchen at least three times a year, to get grimy buildup and food matter that has gotten into nooks and cracks.
- Cockroaches, flies, and other pests uses drains to breed and find a drink. Use a biological drain cleaner to break down organic food matter that has build up in these places.
It can be hard to keep cockroaches out, even if you have a pest plan and you are proactive about keeping food sources cleaned up. If you operate a restaurant in Lexington, have Action Pest Control partner with you to seal your walls, apply products that are needed, and advise you on any pest control measures that are specific to your restaurant.