13 replies to this topic

[hygienic]

Dear All;



I just want to ask overhere what do you prefer in the food establishement , to go for external pest control or to do your pest controlling enternally ?

Suposse you are qualified in this field and you will have a team to do your pest controlling enternally ?


please give your openion .



regards

[Charles.C]

Dear All;



I just want to ask overhere what do you prefer in the food establishement , to go for external pest control or to do your pest controlling enternally ?

Suposse you are qualified in this field and you will have a team to do your pest controlling enternally ?


please give your openion .

regards

Dear hygienic,

I hv never met a qualified internal pest controller. I am guessing they all hv their own companies.
(Perhaps you are one ? )

Rgds / Charles.C

[GMO]

I have experienced an internal pest controller. To be honest she wasn't ballsy enough. That might have been personality or it might have been that she wasn't a very senior member of staff - you're unlikely to have a senior manager doing this job but it takes the oomf of a senior manager to get the recommendations closed out. So, I would think it would take someone who is very good at influencing to make this job work internally. The difference externally of course is that the pest contractor would report the results into the Technical team and if things don't happen the Technical Manager would enforce it. From experience if you have an internal person the Technical Manager then abdicated the responsibility. Or maybe that was just a poor technical manager, who knows?

I suppose I think of it like external audits vs. internal ones though. I like to think I'm a good auditor and I'm tough. I will pick up 3-4 times as many issues as any external auditor (if not more), however, it often happens that the external auditor will see one or two things that I haven't. I'm not doing myself down here; we are all influenced by the culture of our establishments and that will influence how we work, including our audit findings or lack of.

As a final point, the internal pest contractor I'm referring to was someone I worked with closely to reduce incidence of stored product insects in a factory. I was fresh out of university at the time (some years back). We made fantastic leaps by educating the team on cleaning etc. I then moved onto another site and heard a few months later things were back to how they were previously because the plant manager had reduced cleaning frequency and she'd allowed this to happen knowing what the result would be. As a 20 something year old, I would have fought tooth and nail for that not to happen and I know I would have pushed it and pushed it but that's just my nature. I'm not sure you'd get many professional pest controllers on a not great salary with an attitude like that?

[Charles.C]

Dear GMO,

it takes the oomf of a senior manager to get the recommendations closed out

Assuming "oomf" = Authority, i agree entirely. Back to the bottom line again, QA does not generate income, by popular belief.

Rgds / Charles.C

[mgourley]

I believe I mentioned this in another thread, but I prefer to have pest control done by trained, licensed in house personnel.
In the three facilities I have worked in, two did their own pest control, one had a contracted service.
Each state in the US has their own laws and regulations as to who can be licensed. In California and now in Ohio, I am certified and licensed by the state. In Tennessee, the requirements were that you had to work for a "pest control company" for three years before you could be individually certified.
My experience with the contracted pest control companies were less than satisfactory, since I had to fire two of them before I could find a company that would do things the way "I" wanted them done.

The reasons for having pest control done internally (if laws and regulations allow) should be pretty obvious.
1) You are intimately familiar with your facility and it's processes.
2) You are intimately familiar with the condition of your building and grounds.
3) You work there every day and hopefully, are always doing GMP and Pest Control audits, even if you are just walking from your office to the restroom.

If you MUST have an outside contractor perform your pest control, I would strongly suggest you educate yourself as much as you can regarding pests in general, pest proofing, and inspection and control strategies.
YOU schedule when your contractor visits your facility. YOU accompany the service person when he/she does their rounds. YOU point out areas of concern to your service person and ENSURE that the service person thoroughly inspects those areas and treats and/or suggests methods to improve the condition of your building or grounds.

Marshall

[GMO]

I believe I mentioned this in another thread, but I prefer to have pest control done by trained, licensed in house personnel.
In the three facilities I have worked in, two did their own pest control, one had a contracted service.
Each state in the US has their own laws and regulations as to who can be licensed. In California and now in Ohio, I am certified and licensed by the state. In Tennessee, the requirements were that you had to work for a "pest control company" for three years before you could be individually certified.
My experience with the contracted pest control companies were less than satisfactory, since I had to fire two of them before I could find a company that would do things the way "I" wanted them done.

The reasons for having pest control done internally (if laws and regulations allow) should be pretty obvious.
1) You are intimately familiar with your facility and it's processes.
2) You are intimately familiar with the condition of your building and grounds.
3) You work there every day and hopefully, are always doing GMP and Pest Control audits, even if you are just walking from your office to the restroom.

If you MUST have an outside contractor perform your pest control, I would strongly suggest you educate yourself as much as you can regarding pests in general, pest proofing, and inspection and control strategies.
YOU schedule when your contractor visits your facility. YOU accompany the service person when he/she does their rounds. YOU point out areas of concern to your service person and ENSURE that the service person thoroughly inspects those areas and treats and/or suggests methods to improve the condition of your building or grounds.

Marshall

I agree with the above but I suppose both methods must be accompanied by people not shrugging off the responsibility. I have an external pest contractor who isn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, however, they see things occasionally that I have missed on my GMP audits because I am so familiar with my site and audit it regularly which is why I value that fresh pair of eyes.

I've never seen a pest audit which has picked up every pest issue I've found on site though but then that's because I'm fabulous at auditing (modest too ) but I also know that every auditor has their pet hates but also their blind spots.

If you have a wide ranging audit team in a big company then, yes, maybe it's possible but if you're like me and the bulk of the auditing is on your shoulders, fact is you will miss things occasionally, even if you're as great as me!

[hygienic]

IMO.which is maybe agree by you also,that your pest control contractor will never work hardly at your facility and solve issues such as if you have cockroaches or flies infested in the company because contractor always think to keep the agement valid and take mony from the second part this is semply why the internal pest controlling preffered . I dont know if you agree with me or not.

Regards

[mgourley]

IMO.which is maybe agree by you also,that your pest control contractor will never work hardly at your facility and solve issues such as if you have cockroaches or flies infested in the company because contractor always think to keep the agement valid and take mony from the second part this is semply why the internal pest controlling preffered . I dont know if you agree with me or not.

Regards

I would have to disagree. If a pest control company were not solving infestation issues, they should not expect to get paid.
I will terminate their contract.

[hygienic]

Dear hygienic,

I hv never met a qualified internal pest controller. I am guessing they all hv their own companies.
(Perhaps you are one ? )

Rgds / Charles.C

Dear Charles;

Frankly , believe me I did pest control exam in my local authority and passed (theoretically,practically).

I do not want external company.

[SQFconsultant]

Dear All;

I just want to ask overhere what do you prefer in the food establishement , to go for external pest control or to do your pest controlling enternally ?

Suposse you are qualified in this field and you will have a team to do your pest controlling enternally ?

please give your openion .

regards

If you can meet all the requirements go for it. I've seen good and not so good external PCOs and the same for internal. Percentage wise it is around 95 percent external contractors, very low number of internal pest control programs.

[Charles.C]

Dear Hygienic,

Dear Charles;

Frankly , believe me I did pest control exam in my local authority and passed (theoretically,practically).

I am impressed. Also rather intrigued as to the content of the practical exam ?.

Rgds / Charles.C

[hygienic]

Dear Hygienic,



I am impressed. Also rather intrigued as to the content of the practical exam ?.

Rgds / Charles.C

Dear Charles;


Thanks for your impression ,and you are very attentive. I think practical exam unreasonable, but practicaly means , only demo , they asked about some incidents, according to that what do you do?
that's it .

Regards

[Peter Snopko]

I see a lot of packaging manufacturing sites and how they use contractors to manage their pest controls. Our own business has some of its own people manage pest control on very large sites (well trained internally), plus some sites also use outside contractors.

The biggest issue is not with the Pest Companies but with the operator that comes on site each month and your understanding of what is required to manage and montor pest trends on yoursite. If they pest service person is not adequately trained to Food Standards, then request another person to service your site - its your right. If that doesnt work then tender out the business - always gets the pest companies attention.

Make sure the pest contract you sign has an out clause that you can take to exit the contract due to poor service. Never ever ever sign a contract with an automatic roll over clause, even if it says you can give 3 months notice before the contract rolls over, as you wil forget to give notice. Contracts must expire at the end of the contract period.

Hope that helps.
Cheers
Peter

[Lexter Cruz]

Dear Hygienic,

Here in our company both internal and external pest controller are implemented.

To clarify with, internal pest controller - He is the one responsible for daily pest control activity. Verifying the implementation of IPM (integrated pest management) principle of 80% Hygiene and Sanitation including the inspection and 20% Chemical application. Including here is the daily weekly and twice a week activities such as inspection of glue traps and bait station, insect light traps, checking of stored raw materials and application of needed chemical as per set frequency. He also the one responsible for preparing paper work and update on Pest control Checklist and accomplishment/closing of gaps raise by 3rd party Pest Controller.
External pest controller - is the institution/agency hired by the company to do plant/factory visit monthly to check records, inspection and chemical application which needed to apply for monthly schedule. Their are responsible to inspection and raise gaps. Gaps rating must be base on standard, written document and procedures.

Both of them are important first point is our Internal pest control is the one who sees all activities in our factory. He can give us immediate feedback on what the the following things/control needed to address first. On the other side, our External Pest control is our guide if the In-house of internal pest controller are in the right path of pest control program since they are expect technically.

I'm hoping that by means of this shared ideas will help you to improve your Pest Control System...

thanks,
Factory Hygienist