Transcription
Okay, here we go with chapter 13. Chapter 13 is all about integrated pest management. We're gonna talk about what that means and how to set up a program for pest management. We'll do a little bit of work on identifying pests. We'll talk about how to work with a pest control operator. We will talk about some treatment plans for pests and then a little bit about using and storing pesticides.
Here are the five objectives for this chapter:
1. Identify the method for denying pests access to an operation.
2. Identify methods for denying pest food and shelter.
3. Identify signs of pest infestation and activity.
4. Identify how to correctly store pesticides.
5. Identify how to select a pest control operator.
So, an IPM or integrated pest management program is everything that you do to stop pests from coming into your operation and then get rid of those who make it in anyway. So you're gonna have prevention methods and control methods. And I'll tell you right from the get-go, the best thing you can do is work with a licensed, trained pest control operator. The licensed pest control operator is going to do is help you fix anything in your operation so that you can, as much as possible, deny pests access to your operation. You're gonna try and keep them out as much as possible, and then they're gonna help you work on denying those pests food, water, and shelter. So the first step, physics.com, control operator is the number one most important thing because they are experts in this cereal and can help you achieve a safer place.
So, number one, again, denying pests access. So there's two basic ways that pests will come into the operation. And the first one is they hitchhike. They come in on deliveries. They're already in the bags or on the food, and when those food products come into your operation, now you've got pests in your operation. So the way to avoid that is use, use reputable suppliers. Make sure you're checking your deliveries, looking for signs of pest damage, refuse any shipment that has pests in it or signs of pests. So in the picture here, you're seeing a corner of a bag of flour, looks like, and that is some pretty obvious chewing marks from a rodent. So you would want to deny this.
And then the second way they come into the operation is they just physically enter it from the surrounding environment. So some things you want to do to stop that from happening: make sure your windows and any vents are screened to stop flying insects from coming in. You want screens that are at least 16 mesh per inch. So if you were to count the wires within one inch of screen, there would be 16. Install self-closing devices and door sweeps on your doors. Repair any gaps or cracks in door frames and under thresholds. Those might be little tunnels for pests to get past your doors. Make sure you've got weather stripping on the bottom of doors that don't have thresholds, and that's gonna help protect from from letting them in. Air curtains can be installed on doors, either above or alongside. These are big fans that are triggered when the door is open to blow turbulent air across the doorway to stop flying insects from coming in. And then make sure, as much as possible, keep your exterior openings tightly closed. Open them when you pass through them, close them behind you. Don't prop them open. It's gonna make a big difference for what pests are able to come in.
Some pipes will be passing through the walls of your operation. Generally, the hole for that pipe is bigger than the actual pipe, leaving a gap. So make sure that is filled. You can fill it with a cement like shown, which will fix the pipe in place. If that is not, if you're not able to do that, if the pipe needs to be able to vibrate, you can put a screen across this so it tightly fits around the pipe and then it's flush against the wall to stop pests from using that. It's a little highway. Make sure your ventilation pipes and ducts have screens on them as well. And then make sure your floor drains have hinged grates. Those are designed to stop rodents who are able to swim through the sewer system from coming up through the sewer floor drains and coming out in your operation. Those hinged grates should be heavy metal to stop the rodents from coming out. Make sure any cracks in floors and walls are sealed. You'll talk to your pest control operator. I mean, you see PCO, that's what we're talking about, pest control operator, or your health department. They can recommend the right kinds of sealants that's gonna stop them from chewing through it and keep them out. Seal any spaces or cracks where stationary equipment is on the floor. You remember we said six inches off the floor or seal to a masonry base. This is where what we're talking about, sealing it to the floor to a masonry base using the approved sealant or concrete, depending on on how big that spacing is.
So once we've worked our operations so that pests have a hard time getting in there, we also want to make the environment inhospitable for any pests that do get in. And that means don't provide them a free lunch or a nice place to live. Denying food and shelter. Garbage is gross to us. It starts to smell. It's waste, but to pests, that is like a buffet. So make sure that garbage is getting out of your operation as quickly as possible. We talked about how garbage containers should be maintained, so make sure you're doing that. Keep your containers clean, in good condition. Keep those outdoor containers tightly covered. Clean up any spills. Again, a spill might be a nuisance to you, but it's a buffet or a feast to a pest. So you want to clean those up to not invite pests to stick around. Your recyclables typically have food residue on them, which again is a nice food source for pests. So make sure your recyclables are stored correctly and in pest-proof containers and keep them as far away from the building as you're allowed.
You want to make sure your food and supplies are stored quickly and correctly. Remember, you do need to keep them away from walls and at least six inches off the floor. And you want to practice good FIFO. Pests, particularly rodents, which are pretty smart, are a little wary of new things. So if something's been sitting there for a long time, they get comfortable with it. But if you're constantly following FIFO, they never get fully comfortable with what's there, and they hopefully don't then settle down. Good cleaning practices are important to avoid having food or beverage, good drink, water essentially for the pests. So clean up your spills immediately. Make sure the toilets and restrooms are clean. Train your staff to keep lockers and break areas clean. Avoid any unnecessary food left in there, especially for longer periods of time. Keep your cleaning tools and supplies clean and dry. You should have hooks to hang your mops on and your brooms up on so that nothing is resting on the floor. If a mop is used and then rests on the floor, that is a moist, dark, warm environment for pests, and that's heaven for them. So you want to hang those hooks up so they can dry properly, not get molded, but also aren't providing a nice hiding place. And then when you're done mopping, make sure you're emptying that water out. Standing water can attract rodents as they look for places to get a nice drink.
Deny pests food and shelter on the grounds and in outdoor dining areas. So you're gonna maintain your grounds by mowing the grass and pulling the weeds. Get rid of any standing water. Picking up the litter. Make sure your outdoor garbage containers are covered. If you've got outdoor dining areas, make sure you are bussing those tables as quick as possible so you're not leaving food out that will attract wildlife. Again, clean up spills as quickly as possible. Don't feed birds or wildlife and encourage your guests not to feed birds or wildlife. That just teaches that wildlife that here's a free lunch, and they'll keep coming back. You can install electronic insect eliminators, sometimes called zappers. Make sure though that those are away from any food or customer staff serving areas. Essentially, these zappers blow up flying insects, and you don't want little bits of insect raining down on food contact surfaces or food or customers. So if you want to store them over by the trash cans, great. Don't put them in the dining area or in the outdoor dining area. And anytime you see some sort of dangerous insect like a bee or hornet, something like that, call your pest control operator and have them do the work so that they can do it safely.
So we're going to talk a little bit about identifying pests. And the idea here is so you can spot the signs that you have the pests so you can inform your pest control operator on how to work with that and how to eliminate that. So flies. Flies are pretty easy to spot. They fly around, they buzz, they irritate you. The reason we're concerned about them is that they feed on garbage and waste, and when they do that, they pick up not necessarily purpose, but pathogens. Speak to them. So Shigella is known to be transmitted through flies. It can come, it can stick to the flies when they land on waste and seize, and then when they land on food, they leave behind a couple of the bacteria. And then when, of course, you eat the food, you get the illness. So we do need to control flies because they are a vector of disease transmission.
Cockroaches. And again, the reason we're concerned about them, other than they're just generally a key, is that cockroaches carry pathogens. And so as they scurry around looking for food, they are transferring pathogens all over the place. Cockroaches are afraid of open spaces and light. They like to be in the dark. They like to be kind of concealed and in a closed space. So you'll ultimately find them more in dark, warm, moist, and hard-to-clean places. If you see cockroaches in daylight, you may have a major infestation going on. They've kind of outgrown the dark spaces and they're being pushed out into the daylight. And here we have a picture of one of the most common roaches that plagues the industry, and that's a German cockroach. There are all sorts of different cockroaches. You probably don't care what kind of type it's a German or Oriental or brown-banded or Palmetto, whatever. You probably don't care, right? If it's a cockroach, it's a cockroach, you want to get rid of them. And I agree. So we don't really spend time talking about those. But we will talk about some ways of spotting if you have a cockroach problem without actually seeing the cockroaches. So those signs are a strong oily odor. Smells not like a clean, fresh oil, but kind of like a used or burnt motor oil. And then you might be able to spot their feces. The feces of cockroaches look a little bit like grains of black pepper, only they're gonna be all black. Whereas black pepper, if you look closely at it, it's black and white specks. The feces of a cockroach will be all black. So if you see something that looks like black pepper and you look closer and it's just all black, there's a sign that you may have a road infestation. You might also see their egg cases. They tend to be a dark in color, somewhere in the brown, dark red, black range. And they tend to look kind of leathery, shiny-ish, smooth. Their capsule-shaped, which means it's kind of elongated. It looks kind of like a pill. So if you see something like that, pick it up. Don't just leave it there. Put it in a jar with a lid or something, and then call your pest control operator.
Rodents. Rodents include primarily, we're concerned about mice and rats. We are concerned about them because they transmit diseases, as well as having no bladder and sphincter control. They don't hold their urine or their feces, meaning wherever they are, when the urine gets to the end of the urinary tract and the feces gets the end of the digestive tract, that's where it comes out. So as they're walking around, they're peeing and pooping everywhere they go. Most rodents will hide during the day. They are nocturnal. They tend to stay fairly close to their nests. Mice will stay a lot closer. Rats are bigger, stronger, tougher, more intelligent, and so they tend to go a little further away. They can squeeze through very small holes. Their skeletons are not super rigid, so they're able to kind of squish their body through tiny holes. Rats are able to jump three feet in the air, which means they can get up onto most carts and some tables and whatnot, and they climb very, very well. Rodents also have very keen senses of hearing, touch, and smell, and they are fairly intelligent. There's a reason why rodents are used in laboratory experiments. They have the ability to learn, which means as they see other rodents affected by bait or traps, they will learn to avoid that bait and those traps.
So your signs of a rodent infestation, you might see these even without seeing the rodents. If you see gnaw marks or droppings. Here's a picture of an eyeing and dropping in the pastry box in the top picture. Mice droppings are pretty small. Road droppings, rat droppings can be half an inch to three-quarters of an inch and pretty big in size. They tend to be black when fresh. As they get older, they go gray. You also see urine stains or smell the urine. Their urine will fluoresce under black light. So if you are concerned, you can turn off all lights and shine a black light around, and it should show you if there's any urine stains there. The other thing you might see is dirt tracks along the walls. Rodents would prefer to stay in cover or with at least one wall so that they feel safe. So they run pushed up against the wall, which tends to leave dirt streaks where they run. So if you see on white baseboards, a little dirt streak of half an inch to an inch up on the wall, that may be signs of rodents running along there. You also might come across their nests. Their nests aren't really like bird nests, which tend to be fairly well organized. They tend to look like kind of a random jumbled pile of soft stuff, so cloth and hair and feathers, scraps of paper. Here's in this picture, I'm guessing someone's recreation of what a nest might look like, but it's usually going to be in a hole or in a quiet place somewhere where they can be protected, quiet, dark, hopefully close to food and water for them. It might not actually be in your building. It might be outside of your building, as long as they have an access into and out of the building. So your pest control operator can help hunt down where those nests are, and that can help them get rid of the mice and rats.
So you're going to work with a pest control operator. They are going to help you develop a program to deal with. They have the knowledge on how to deal with this, so they can tell you what you need to do. Your pest control operator will stay trained on what is current as far as their career, new equipment, products, etc. As you have spot problems, they should give you prompt service, come out and deal with those, and they're gonna keep the records of anything they've done to prevent and control pests, which are important because in the inspection, you may be asked by the health department to provide records of what you're doing to prevent pest infestations.
Before you choose your PCO, make sure you check references. Make sure they're licensed by your state, if your state requires that. I mean, you want a written contract where they spell out exactly what they're going to do, the period of service, over what amount of time they're gonna do it. It should also indicate what you are expected to do. You can sabotage their efforts greatly if you don't do your part as far as cleaning up spills, etc. The pest control operator, when they first come in, they will survey your facility. If you've seen any sightings or what you think are indications of pest problems, point them out as best as you can. Keep a record and give that to them. Give them the building plans and equipment layout so they can see how the pests might be accessing or moving about your building. Let staff answer the PCO's questions. This isn't time to be embarrassed or anything. If you've got a problem, they're there to help you with the problem. If you don't tell them about the problem, they can't help you. So tell them as much information as they need in order to get set up to take care of your pest problem.
Your treatment plan is going to include a treatment for any problems that you have, and it should include the potential risks. They should indicate when they're going to treat with the chemicals, the pest control chemicals. You want to, as much as possible, avoid having staff members there. That's difficult for a restaurant that's open 24/7, but generally speaking, trying to avoid having additional people there. They will indicate what you can do to help control the pests. They should show you what building defects are hindering the prevention and control and give you steps to fix that and indicate when they're going to follow up with you. So the control measures that they are planning should be environmentally sound and safe for operations. Obviously, you don't want to use any chemicals that are going to cause a problem, a chemical contamination with the food. And they should be effective for pests in your area. If you are concerned about a humane treatment, that's something you should speak to them about. If you just want them dead and out, then I'm sure they can accommodate that as well.
So I hope you're getting the idea by this point that the most important thing you should do is hire a pest control operator. You are not an expert. I don't know, I guess maybe you could be, but I am not an expert in pest control, and most people who work in food are not experts in pest control. So work with someone licensed. Now, if you decide to ignore that suggestion and want to apply your own pesticides, I know I do at home. I typically spray for roaches and spiders and whatever at home, but I would never do that in my kitchen. But say you want to, well, here are some more reasons why you wouldn't want to. Pesticides, you might buy a jug of a pesticide and use it, and that's it. Does some good, and then use it again, use it again, and the pests you work with develop a resistance or immunity to it. Or you make a mistake, you don't understand what you're doing, and you apply it incorrectly, and it causes harm, and now you've got a big lawsuit on your hand. You also need to be aware that control measures can vary by region. Different regions have different pests and they require different treatment plans, and a pest control operator should be aware of that, which most people aren't necessarily. And generally, the pesticides you just find in a hardware store, they're not approved for use for food businesses because they're too strong or they last too long, and they can again cause that chemical contamination issue. So they should be trained on what they can be using in a food operation. You just again go down to the Lowe's or Home Depot or Fresno AG and pick up some chemicals. You may be causing some serious harm.
So pesticides should be applied when you're closed for business and your staff are not on-site. That's not always possible, but as much as possible, you want to try for that ideal. Before pesticides are applied, remove any food and movable food contact surfaces. Cover your equipment and any food contact surfaces that can't be moved. Once the spraying has been done, you want to wash, rinse, and sanitize any food contact surfaces. You do need to maintain an MSDS or SDS, which is a Material Safety Data Sheet or Safety Data Sheet, for pesticides that are used or stored in your operation. And that's true for any chemicals that you use. Federal law, Occupational Safety and Hazard Act, OSHA, requires you to maintain a document for each and every chemical that is not just stored but used in the operation. So you will need to get that document from the pest control operator and then put that into your file of Material Safety Data Sheets.