survey and report

Probably the most important service we provide is an accurate and honest survey report. Many pests have very secretive lives (most are tasty morsels for larger creatures so it makes sense to keep out of the way) we try to excel by knowing the biology of the likely pest, knowing where to look and combining this with a knowledge building construction. All this will enable us to provide a risk assessment of your premises on the current hazard and potential hazards of infestation.

I wish I had a pound for every time I have heard “we have never had a problem”, “we will give you a ring when we get a problem”. Both of these statements are based on ignorance since most places are constantly being invaded by one pest or another but for some reason it is blissful to think there is no problem. This seems to be a normal human trait perhaps due to the hideous or filthy habits of some pests makes it distasteful to think of them, it’s nicer to pretend - we have not a problem.

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For food premises this attitude is now technically illegal since owners of businesses now have to:

a. undertake a Food Safety Assessment

b. ensure that proactive measures are carried out to prevent infestation.

Business owners must look at their food premises and assess the environment which food is subjected to from the moment it arrives on the premises to the moment it is eaten or disposed of. Food hygiene and storage temperatures have to be looked into, as does also flying insect control. Do I need to put screens over window and door openings. The answer could be no because my kitchen is 6 floors up and I do not get any flies, but it could equally be that the kitchen door opens onto the bin area and there is a real risk that flies feeding on rotting food in refuse bins could be entering the kitchen and infecting food with harmful bacteria. In this instance all openings should be protected by insect screens and electronic fly catchers be fitted in suitable areas.

Proactive Measures

What sort of measures are proactive? In a nutshell this means anticipating the sorts of problems we might experience in the future and taking preventative action against them. There are lists available of hundreds of potential and serious pests. These could be of a rodent, bird, insect, mite nature. Some are naturally occurring outside and come in through gaps in the building structure such as rats, mice, sparrows, beetles. Others pests may come in with equipment from suppliers or kitchens which also do not have adequate proactive measures. There are also a lot of pests which are actually found in food itself and need to be monitored and looked for, this could be indicative of a supplier having hygiene or stock rotation problems, and also inadequate proactive measures.

Unfortunately, during my time with BETAPEST there have been instances where we have been contacted only after the food establishment has been closed down. Although we quickly identified and eradicated the pest the establishment was prosecuted because they did not take adequate preventative measures.