Summer Pest Control Prevention Advice

Dear All,

Can you please give some advise on how to prevent pest in the food facility this summer.

We have pest control management but is there method that we can use to prevent from those moth, bugs, and insect.

Thank you so much

Keeping the area as dry as possible, cleaning out unwanted weeds growing around the plant and general house keeping practices such as sweeping and keeping the area clean reduces moths, bugs and insect activity in general. As a part of your pest management spraying insecticides, weed killers should do the job as well.

GMP housekeeping (spillage clean up etc.), stock rotation and correct/optimum storage conditions always important as a clean factory both inside and outside makes pest control so much easier and less expensive in the long run.

Also recommend the use of pheromone traps as a method of monitoring stored product pests to see where any issues may be occurring in the plant before just undertake spraying regimes.

Pest control is influenced by a large range of factors such as facility type and design, product type being processed, facility location ie. rural, city based, surrounding buildings and operations  etc. so you need to take these sorts of factors into consideration as well. Ask you pest controller they usually get excited if you show an interest in what they are up to and this also helps to prevent you from being ripped off with over servicing as well.

Hi Grace,

What do you do in terms of your pest control management?

Have you had specific issues with moths/bugs/insects previously?

Without more information it would be difficult to make recommendations without speculation.

Do you use a professional pest control contractor/company? If so I would recommend a walk around the site with them as they will be able to suggest the most suitable preventive controls for your specific site and operation.

Do you use a professional pest control contractor/company? If so I would recommend a walk around the site with them as they will be able to suggest the most suitable preventive controls for your specific site and operation.

I'd also recommend doing exactly this!

You may find that modification / additions to your existing control measures are needed to accommodate natural seasonal changes in pest activity - for example we have a site that handles a lot of fruit juice products and sugary soft drinks materials, so we install a number of wasp banes around the external areas as soon as the weather starts getting warmer.

First, It depends on the type and nature of food. Generally speaking, to prevent food commodity from microbial damage and pest attack, It's advisable that such food commodity are stored below safe moisture content. This varies from commodity to commodity. 

Another method that can be employed to extend the shelf life of storables is to utilize cold storage techniques.

I hope this helps.

first off keep all doors and windows closed.  if you have gaps between the door seals and the building, repair them.  Do you have a pest control company visiting your facility on a scheduled basis?  If not, get one and have the bug lights added.  If you already have a pest control company visiting, ask them for advise.

Keeping the area as dry as possible, cleaning out unwanted weeds growing around the plant and general house keeping practices such as sweeping and keeping the area clean reduces moths, bugs and insect activity in general. As a part of your pest management spraying insecticides, weed killers should do the job as well.

Thank you for your advice. Yes we have Orkin come once a week. We have added the bug lights as well. Sometimes it is so hard because we can not see all those bugs in the raw material even though we have check some of it before receiving. Those bugs can come out from the package and it can spread.  I'm trying to find any possiblity to prevent this situation. Thank you so  much.

Thank you for your advice. Yes we have Orkin come once a week. We have added the bug lights as well. Sometimes it is so hard because we can not see all those bugs in the raw material even though we have check some of it before receiving. Those bugs can come out from the package and it can spread.  I'm trying to find any possiblity to prevent this situation. Thank you so  much.

Have you had pests coming in inside the raw material? 

A word of caution when putting up bug lights (I'm assuming you're referring to Electric Fly Killers?) - careful not to place them in such a location can could cause zapped insects to fall into an area that can ultimately contaminate product. One of my suppliers recently received a non-comp on an audit as they had an EFK (a type that didn't effectively contain the bug once killed) directly above a production line. 

Thank you for your advice. Yes we have Orkin come once a week. We have added the bug lights as well. Sometimes it is so hard because we can not see all those bugs in the raw material even though we have check some of it before receiving. Those bugs can come out from the package and it can spread.  I'm trying to find any possiblity to prevent this situation. Thank you so  much.

 I m not sure what kind of bug you are having problem with or the product that is in concern. We are dry fruit processor and despite of good pest control program, the fruits are prone to growth of pest such as indian meal moth, fruit beetle and so on. We take care of it through fumigation.

Keeping the area as dry as possible, cleaning out unwanted weeds growing around the plant and general house keeping practices such as sweeping and keeping the area clean reduces moths, bugs and insect activity in general. As a part of your pest management spraying insecticides, weed killers should do the job as well.

Thank you so much for your advice!

GMP housekeeping (spillage clean up etc.), stock rotation and correct/optimum storage conditions always important as a clean factory both inside and outside makes pest control so much easier and less expensive in the long run.

 

Also recommend the use of pheromone traps as a method of monitoring stored product pests to see where any issues may be occurring in the plant before just undertake spraying regimes.

 

Pest control is influenced by a large range of factors such as facility type and design, product type being processed, facility location ie. rural, city based, surrounding buildings and operations  etc. so you need to take these sorts of factors into consideration as well. Ask you pest controller they usually get excited if you show an interest in what they are up to and this also helps to prevent you from being ripped off with over servicing as well.

Yes, we've done all of those. At the moment we increase the amount of mornitoring the pheromones trap. Our product is nut and rice clusters. Last week I found beetle and meal moth under our packing machine and i was very surprised how they get in there. We've never had any moth and any insect in our packing facility before. There was a history that the customer found the bug in the products and it has cost us a lot. Therefore I'm as a QA who has been pretty stessful about this situation. The pest control guy is gonna come in today for the discussion. Hopefully we can come up with the solution. Thank you so much for your advice!

Hi Grace,

 

What do you do in terms of your pest control management?

Have you had specific issues with moths/bugs/insects previously?

Without more information it would be difficult to make recommendations without speculation.

 

Do you use a professional pest control contractor/company? If so I would recommend a walk around the site with them as they will be able to suggest the most suitable preventive controls for your specific site and operation.

Hello, I mean we do have all the pest control procedures. We have orkin comes in every week. Last two weeks there was an increase activity and i was freaking out. and Yup, the pest control is coming today and I will be talking to him about it. Sometimes our supplier does not have good pest control program so we receive the raw material that might have moths or other insect in it. it is very hard to avoid. I think we are going to do fumigation, or air blast freeze and look for a cold warehouse to store our raw materail in. Thank yous so much for your advice. I appreciate it.

I'd also recommend doing exactly this!

You may find that modification / additions to your existing control measures are needed to accommodate natural seasonal changes in pest activity - for example we have a site that handles a lot of fruit juice products and sugary soft drinks materials, so we install a number of wasp banes around the external areas as soon as the weather starts getting warmer.

Hope this won't be a stupid question. What is  wasp banes? Does it help with the pest activity sinificantly.  I looked it up but I'm not really sure if it can apply with my company. Our company receive raw pistachio, almonds, crips rice and rice puffed at the recieving facility. If it really works, I could put wasp banes around the receiving facility, cooking and packing facilities. Thank you so much!