“Simple solutions like use of glue-based ribbon work well in open food stalls. But at the same time, it cannot be termed as a very effective method to keep pests away given the fact that the food is being served in the open.”
In such cases, hygiene plays a very important role in keeping pests away.
“Every pest manager can be reactive in terms of treatment, but the critical angle is to prevent a problem through monitoring. If you are able to monitor, you will use less chemical to control and come up with a solution before pest actually becomes a problem. For example, the pheromone based trapping systems is a good indicator of the extent of pest in the facility, as it pinpoints the problem before it becomes an issue.”
By strategically placing pheromone traps based on the kind of pest in the vicinity, enables the pest manager to identify the points of ingress from outside the facility. Such monitoring ensures a pestcontrolled and infestation-free food premises.
Preventive Maintenance
To understand non-chemical based pest control methods, “we need to understand the cause of pests breeding. Pests exist because not enough measures have been taken to cut off the supply of food or alter the conducive environmental conditions which allow them to thrive,” says Rajan Prakash, Founder, Pestgogo.
“Some of the preventive measures to discourage pest breeding include:
- Making the premises unfriendly for pests so that they do not get food, water, hiding or breeding place.
- “Bio-pesticides” which is a contraction of ‘biological pesticides’, include several types of pest management intervention: through predatory, parasitic, or chemical relationships.
- Habitat modification.
- Good garbage/waste management
- Overall good facility management
- Mechanical and electrical devices which creates different kind of barrier for them, generate and emit unfriendly sound and light waves.”
Even though, preventive maintenance is a must, “there are many impediments and challenges in implementation.
- Lack of coordination between stakeholders like facility management, pest management, maintenance
- Pest prevention given last priority while in project designing stage. Pest Management Professionals should be involved at project stage.
- Lack of education and training on pest hygiene to all stake holders by subject matter specialist (Pest
Management). - Insufficient pest prevention by civic bodies which increases the pest pressure from outside.
- High foot fall to food area creating more pressure.”
Besides preventive maintenance, it is equally important to maintain the facility clean to prevent pests.
“Absence of proper hygiene practices in food premises actually adds up contributory factors for growth of pests. This would make any other form of pest management activity – untenable. It would lead to the only option of chemical treatment at higher and higher dosage which is unacceptable.
“The risks presented by pests are great and so too, is the activity of other fellow people working in high risk environments. The effectiveness and practices of the pest control company are vital. Leading food businesses have to pay particular attention to the quality of such services and the conformance of the pest agency to exacting pre-requisites.”