[Vertebrate Pests] Restaurant Rodents, Part One

This past February and March was somewhat of a watershed event for our industry. Rats were filmed “frolicking” in a KFC/Taco Bell restaurant and the footage was shown on national television as well as on the Internet. Shortly thereafter, the TV show Inside Edition visited several cities, filming live rodents foraging after closing time inside different brand-name restaurants.

Despite the embarrassment for some in the restaurant industry, there are some positives that resulted from this media event. Certainly, it helped increase public awareness for the need for pest management services. In fact, the public, restaurant owners and health inspectors everywhere were asking if these restaurants actually contracted with a pest control service (which, of course, nearly every filmed restaurant did). And if they did, how could this happen? And, why was it so (seemingly) easy for the Inside Edition folks to find rodents scurrying about in our everyday restaurants? Many people I encountered remarked, “I thought having pest control services prevented pest infestations in restaurants.” Unfortunately, much of the public (and many store owners as well) think controlling pests in food stores and restaurants is that one dimensional!

Of course, from a restaurant owner’s point of view, there is a strong incentive to avoid such rodent media coverage. You better believe KFC/Taco Bell’s corporate owner Yum Brands (as well as many restaurants) are focusing not only on their own store operations and practices, but on pest management. This serves as a prompt for the pest management industry as well. How does our industry explain such rodent incidents in restaurants? Is it all due to gappy doors or insufficient cleaning by the restaurant? What constitutes a quality pest service in the typical restaurant? What specifically should be the “partnership” between a restaurant operation and its pest management provider?

In Part I of this topic, we’ll examine the relationship between rodents and restaurants, and the first essential step in effective restaurant rodent management: professional sales programs.

RESTAURANTS ARE PRONE. To experienced pest professionals, it is no surprise that restaurants are among the most rodent- (and cockroach-) prone commercial facilities. First, rodents, like animals everywhere, need and are attracted to those areas in the environment where concentrations of food, food odors and food wastes are generated. Second, in many of today’s cities and suburbs, restaurants typically are part of larger buildings and/or older buildings. Renovations cover over outdated-looking facades and walls, as well as holes and cracks. Third, a restaurant’s delivery and customer doors open and close perhaps hundreds of times each week (in some cases, each day), providing pests with repeated opportunity entries. Fourth, even with a tight building and a good pest management service, mice may arrive periodically as stowaways among the hundreds of deliveries that occur during the course of the year (see “The perfect stowaway, part I,” PCT, April 2006). And finally, storage space in restaurants is often very limited. Thus, restaurants are prone to box and supply clutter, especially in our high-density cities where every inch of floor and shelving space is exclusive real estate. Although it’s important to facilitate effective rodent (and other pest) control, it is not easy for city restaurants to store everything off the floor and away from the walls to facilitate the placement of mouse traps and bait stations.

RESTAURANT RODENT BEHAVIOR. In the restaurant environment, the behavior of rodents can vary significantly depending on the facility’s sanitation and clutter levels. If the sanitation is good and clutter is managed, rodents usually respond well to multiple catch traps, rodenticide baits or the food lures of snap traps. But in poorly maintained restaurants, rodents can afford to be picky in their food choices, decreasing their interaction with baits, lures and potential new harborages.

QUALITY SELLING & PURCHASING. Effective rodent management inside and around all restaurants begins with quality sales programs — and both parties have a responsibility here. Whether a restaurant realizes it or not, if only low bid sales are sought, the restaurant increases its risks to its food safety program. Of course, they also increase their risk of negative public relations. Educating the restaurant along these lines is a delicate “sales walk,” and many salespeople are apt to avoid the discussion entirely for fear of jeopardizing the sale.

But if a pest management company (or one of its sales professionals) is bent on beating all other companies in town to simply add volume and then underprices its restaurant work, the result is usually predictable some time later.

Underpricing means not having enough time to perform proactive inspections (the most important aspect of good service), or to install pest control devices in the more difficult-to-reach areas where rodents often breed (e.g., ceilings). Nor will a technician have the time to properly communicate with the restaurant management his or her findings, conducive conditions, etc.
Underpricing commercial work often results in the classic cancellation cycle: restaurant undersold — technicians can’t perform properly — pests remain and/or proliferate — the client is dissatisfied and cancels service — cycle repeats with the hiring of yet another low-bid pest control company.

Part of good sales is the frequency of the service that is purchased (and offered from the sales professional). Correct service frequency is critical for preventing pest issues in nearly all food-serving establishments.

Monthly service can suffice for small restaurants that are pest-proofed, perform good sanitation, and have few previous pest issues and low pest pressure. But for perhaps the “more realistic restaurant,” twice-a-month pest service is necessary for pest prevention and food safety. As described earlier, once-a-month service is not enough inside restaurants because of all the deliveries, availability of food, constantly opened doors, escaping food and refuse odors acting as pest magnets, etc. In other words, a quality restaurant can go from 0 to 60 in pests overnight with just one delivery or with one open door. For some restaurants, even weekly service visits are appropriate. For example, large, complex restaurants can be divided in half, with each half being serviced every other week. And of course, weekly (or more) service is necessary in any “initial” service performed to eliminate established infestations.
Next month, in Part II, we’ll examine the various strategies employed for both prevention and control of rodent infestations inside restaurants. 
 
The author is president of RMC Consulting and can be reached at rcorigan@giemedia.com.