Can light traps with glue boards eliminate gnats?
Hello all,
Was wondering is there a solution for gnats? our sanitation knows to control any standing water and cleanup of debris.
Gnats are our nuisance, can light traps with glue boards work to eliminate or control?
How far should these traps be from the food processing?
Thank you all.
Hi mp42
I think first of all it is important to see what is the cause of you gnats problem? Are outside doors kept open, loading docks open, etc. Once you find out what causes the problem you can work on that first. We had a similar problem in one of our factories. The counts on flies where very high. What seems, the night shift cleaners left open some outside doors and the light from inside attracted a lot of flies :(.
We have started another factory last year, it was an old factory which did not have operated for several years. After some proper renovations, we had the pest controller installing light traps with glue boards. The first period the counts on the glue boards where enormous but, decreased overtime. So, in my opinion, yes, light traps with glue boards can be effective and definitely a something to look into.
Our light traps are hanging on the walls at least some meters away from the production line to minimize the chance of product contamination.
Hopes this helps you someway ;)
Hello MP42,
I am going to chime in with rdeboer1986,
I work in flexo-printing and gnats are a great concern here. The light traps will help with gnats. Here in Texas, it's a 102F outside and all the insects are desperately looking for water and trying to get inside wherever they can. Depending on the system you are in, gnats can be a real issue feeding off of bacteria in floor drains, which can lead some to apply a foaming agent (supplied by a licensed pest control expert) to the floor drains. But, as mentioned earlier, even with an air curtain at every personnel door, you can only minimize their presence. Good communication from your pest control technician will allow you to document "reasons" as to why you might have observed a spike in flying insects like; doors left open for new machinery, or other creative narratives that explain the seemingly unexplainable. In addition, this will also help to coordinate a CA to spikes in flying insects.
If you have gnats, i doubt if your sanitation can really control standing water and debris. Assuming they can do sanitation well inside the production area, then the problem lies in the sanitation of your surrounding, sewage or roof/ceiling debris.
Insect Light Traps (ILTs) with glue boards will not control or eliminate gnats. ILTs will only capture the adult gnats (about 20-30% of total population). But by strategically locating & re-locating the ILTs, you will be able to identify their entry points or breeding area (home of 70-80% of the population).
The required distance of ILTs to exposed products ranges from "not nearer" than 10 feet to 30 feet" (≈3-10meters) depending on the certification body (AIB, BRC, ISO22000, etc.).