Rodents like the Norway rat, black rat, and house mouse have lived with humans so long that they cannot live without us. Originally from Asia, they have traveled the world with ships and explorers and are now on every continent but Antarctica. Controlling them is an ongoing challenge for everyone in Torrington but especially for restaurants.
Rodents Are Attracted To Restaurants
Rodents are attracted to restaurants because of the abundance of food there. Messy kitchens with food spills and lots of water available are a rodent buffet. Food storage areas have an abundance of food as well. Even if they cannot get inside the restaurant, rodents will haunt dumpsters or other refuse containers to get a meal. They also frequent outside dining areas where they consume food left behind by guests.
Problems Rodents Cause In Restaurants
Rodents do a lot of damage to restaurants. If a guest sees a rodent, they will be unlikely to return. Worse, they will tell people they know and give the restaurant a bad review on review websites. Once a reputation is damaged in this way, it is hard to overcome.
Rodents eat a lot of stored food if they can get to it. They can turn costly food into garbage by walking on it, urinating, defecating, and eating it. They also chew on labels, which means you are no longer sure what the contents of cans and sacks are.
Rodents carry diseases, and they will give them to your customers and employees. Between the three rodents, they carry leptospirosis, lymphocytic choriomeningitis (LCM), tularemia, salmonellosis, and rat-bite fever. Having a cluster of rodent-born diseases break out in your customers will cause the health department to shut you down until the rodent problem is under control.
Preventing Rodents In Restaurants
The two keys to keeping rodents out of your restaurant are exclusion and sanitation. Remember, mice can enter through a hole that is the diameter of a nickel. Rats can get in with a little larger hole. They are hard to keep out. Here are some ways to implement both exclusion and sanitation.
- Do not store food on the floor. Put it on shelves.
- Clean up food spills promptly.
- Fix leaks and avoid allowing water to puddle anywhere.
- Make sure you have screens on your doors and windows that fit tightly and have no holes in them.
- Seal all cracks and holes with steel or copper mesh that is caulked into place.
- Keep food in metal or glass containers so rodents cannot get to it.
- Keep doors closed.
- Seal openings around pipes, electrical wires, and cables with steel wool and caulk.
- Keep outside doors closed.
- Store trash in metal containers with tight-fitting lids.
- Take the trash out and dispose of it regularly.
- Make sure the outdoor trash containers are emptied regularly.
- Make sure door sweeps are in good condition with no empty spots that rodents can exploit.
Get Professional Pest Assistance
Dealing with them yourself doesn't make sense with all the damage that rodents can do to your reputation and your pocketbook. Hire an experienced pest control company to take care of the problem. At Rescue 1 Pest & Termite Control, we can come out and inspect your premises, look for harborage and entry points, and look at your layout. We will then devise a commercial pest control plan to get rid of the rodents. Once they are gone, we will return monthly to make sure they stay gone. Call Rescue 1 Pest & Termite Control today and get rid of your rodents.