From the moment your business opens its doors, it’s also opening itself up to the potential of invasive pests. And when pests do infest, they do it for a reason. Wouldn’t you, too, go flooding through cracks in the walls if there were the promise of unlimited food, water, and shelter on the other side?
In commercial settings—and especially in the food industry—there is a slew of pests that would be happy to snack on and nestle under your inventory. That’s exactly why proactive, all-encompassing, integrated pest management is crucial to ensuring a sanitary, pleasant environment for both your employees and customers. Advanced IPM is here to explain how a preventative commercial pest control program can help keep your business running like a well-oiled (and pest-free) machine.
What Is Integrated Pest Management (IPM)?
Now more than ever, homeowners and businesses are seeking pest control treatments that prioritize the health and safety of their children, pets, students, patients, employees, and more. Integrated Pest Management (IPM)—also known as Green Treatments—is an advanced, holistic, and environmentally friendly approach to pest management that replaces traditional methods. It reduces pesticide-induced risks, thus improving the overall quality of pest control.
Our technicians are IPM-certified service providers. To meet required sustainability standards, we combat pests by combining control methods that cover all the bases and minimize economic health and environmental risks. These aspects include:
- Cultural – We work to modify the activities of occupants, groundskeepers, and maintenance crews, including anything from food consumption areas to the time of day trash cans are emptied.
- Physical – We modify a habitat by exclusion, from using traps or baits to ensuring lids are on trash cans tightly.
- Biological – We use products that contain natural bio-enzymes to manage certain pest populations.
- Chemical – We utilize pesticides as a last resort, beginning with the lowest possible toxicity, including baits or crack and crevice treatments.
IPM for Businesses in Practice
There are seemingly endless sectors of business, but no matter your industry, there are probably pests that would be more than happy to infest within your walls. A preventative, IPM approach is crucial in commercial settings because there is so much at stake. Your top priority is your bottom line as well as the safety, loyalty, and overall satisfaction of clients and customers.
An integrated pest management program begins with a thorough understanding of the unique pest pressures facing each business and how they’re influenced by factors like environment and seasonality. It’s also important for employees and pest control experts alike to closely monitor pest sightings, evidence, and conducive conditions within the property, such as entry points, harborage, food sources, and moisture or humidity levels. Identifying these conditions will help form a comprehensive prevention game plan. This can include sealing entry points, fixing structural weaknesses, setting traps, and implementing proper sanitation procedures. Lastly, IPM programs will take the necessary pest control measures to ensure the eradication of unwelcome, destructive business partners.
For more information on commercial pest control approaches, visit one of our industry-specific pages:
- Educational Institutions
- Food & Beverage Processing
- Food Service
- Healthcare Facilities
- Hospitality & Lodging
- Multi-Unit Housing
- Office Buildings
- Retail Stores
- Warehousing & Distribution
What Types of Pests Typically Invade Businesses?
Food Pests
Pests within a food service space can both damage and contaminate food—not to mention your reputation. However, if you do notice a pest problem, resist the temptation to DIY. Setting out baits or applying any materials should be left to the professionals because food businesses are sensitive environments with high sanitation standards. Because rodents and birds can transmit dangerous diseases, being proactive is essential to protecting your product, employees, and customers. Failing to do so could result in violations, fines, or temporary closures from the health or agriculture departments.
Most commonly, the following types of pests are encountered within food service buildings:
Stored Product Pests
Unfortunately, fabric and pantry pests are some of the hardest to spot, making them quite the headache for retailers, warehouse centers, and the food distribution industry. An effective pest control program for stored product pests includes closely monitoring pheromones to prevent the infestation from spreading and causing product loss. Our Advanced Care program also utilizes mating disrupters for moths, sending them into confusion and thus reducing mating activity.
Most commonly, the following types of pests are encountered among fabrics and stored products:
- Clothes moths
- Carpet beetles
- Sawtooth Grain Beetle
- Indianmeal moths
- Grain beetles
- Drugstore beetles
- Rice weevils
Other Destructive Pests
For those in the retail industry, protecting clothing and other merchandise is key. Torn, punctured, or unclean clothing can easily tarnish your store’s reputation and fracture customer loyalty. Worse yet, pests like termites and rodents can gnaw away at the structural integrity of your business.
Due to the sheer volume of people coming and going every day, hotels, motels, hospitals, and other locations with overnight guests are extremely susceptible to infestations of insects such as bed bugs or rodents within the walls.
Most commonly, the following types of harmful pests are encountered within retail, healthcare, and hospitality buildings:
Why Should Commercial Spaces Receive Preventative Pest Control?
Whether you’re purchasing a new commercial building or continuing business as usual in the same one, you can’t afford an oversight of a pest infestation. If you have termites destroying wooden structures, rodents chewing on wiring, or wildlife threatening your safety, the problem is in your hands.
If you take a reactive approach to pest activity, costs and disruptions to your business will add up much quicker than if you catch them early. Simply scheduling an inspection can help seal pests out before they even come inside. Because each neighborhood is hospitable to different ecosystems of pests, our technicians are trained to tailor evaluations and solutions to your commercial needs.
Here are some other ways a proactive commercial pest program can boost your business in the long run:
Uphold Health Standards
The most salient type of trouble that all sorts of pests can pose is the risk of disease. Carriers of disease-causing organisms, like viruses and bacteria, may pass them along to customers and staff. For instance, droppings and urine from birds, rodents, and cockroaches present serious health hazards such as salmonella and can trigger allergic reactions.
Passing health inspections and meeting safety standards is essential to a company’s success and reputation. Catching a pest infestation early and receiving professional advice on prevention methods can save you from costly closures or maintenance down the road.
Prevent Future Financial Burdens
Commercial pest infestations cost U.S. businesses billions in lost revenue and additional operating costs each year. If customers fall ill from contact with contaminated food or materials, you could be hit with a health investigation, compensation claim against your business, and resulting reputational damage. If stored product pests infiltrate your inventory, it’s automatically contaminated—meaning wasted product and increased expenses on your end.
Once a group of pests makes itself at home in your business, kicking them out is no small task. Regular, proactive treatments are a much-preferred alternative to paying the price after the fact.
Preserve Your Reputation
One scurrying pest can mean dozens of customers scurrying out the door. In an age where information travels fast, an incident like this can cause irreparable damage to your company’s image. If there’s even a rumor of your bed and breakfast having bed bugs or your restaurant having flies in the kitchen, consumers will gladly take their money elsewhere.
Avoid the pest problem altogether—and the stressful period of damage control after your brand reputation takes a hit. With IPM practices from knowledgeable professionals, pesky intruders will find somewhere else to take shelter (even if it’s in the grave).
Instill Peace of Mind
As a business owner, manager, or landlord, you have endless things to keep track of. Scrambling for DIY pest control solutions to curb an infestation should not be one of them. After all, these are seldom effective and might be unsafe. Pest control is one item of business best left to the experts. Rest assured that with an ongoing plan, all the necessary equipment and monitoring will be implemented to strategically tackle pests in your premises for the long term.
Advanced IPM’s Holistic Approach to Commercial Pest Services
At Advanced IPM, we schedule regular appointments to keep your business pest-free all year long. Plus, we even guarantee that if pest problems resurface between routine service intervals, we’ll return—free of charge. Save yourself from stress, embarrassment, and financial burdens by taking advantage of our advanced integrated pest management methods—after all, it’s in our name! Contact us with questions or request a quote today.
