Food safe pesticides that can be used in a warehouse

Hello All,

 

So we have a documented and closely followed pest control program currently in place at my warehouse. We store bags and totes of packaged sealed raw ingredients, and facilitate the inbound and outbound transportation of such product. During our bi-monthly pest control inspections done by an outside firm, it was discovered in some of the glue traps that we have 5 brown recluse spiders in various traps. We have not had any real issues with pests in the past. 

 

I instructed the pest control company to put out more glue traps so as to better ascertain the potential problem. Dependent on the findings at re-inspection  in two weeks I am wondering if there are any BRC approved food safe pesticides that can be used in the warehouse. If so what is the recommended application/quarantine. If there are not any approved pesticides then what are some ways to truly remedy the situation. 

 

Some thoughts I had on potential issues if we can not spray for the pests: How can we be sure we are not just transferring the problem from one area to another when we move product to a quarantine area so we can clean and spray effected areas once we have removed the product ?

 

Thank you in advance for your response. This forum has been an incredible resource for managing a complaint food safe warehouse.  

Integrated Pest Management systems do not attempt to completely eliminate all pests.  The discovery of brown recluse spiders suggests that they are finding something to eat, but they themselves are not a food safety problem.  As far as I know, the BRC wants no chemical pesticides indoors. 

 

In the "natural" pest control quiver there are a couple of arrows.  One can use diatomaceous earth, but it doesn't work at all on flying insects (and barely works on crawling ones).  A fun trick in an empty building is to boil a gallon of vinegar; the fumes will kill lots of very small critters, but more importantly eliminate some of the mold and bacteria that they are using for food.  Ants (and some other insects) can be deterred with cinnamon in the cracks and crevices.   

 

Outside, clear vegetation completely away from the walls. 3 meters or more away, if possible.

I like the rememedies that Hank mentions and would like to add that we have used diatomaceous earth with great success to killing spiders, scorpians, ants, and a number of other small insects, bettles, etc as they walk or crawk thru it, it coats them and gets into their cracks and crevises and thrn effectively cuts them apart. We actually use this in our own home to set up barriers at door ways and it is sprinkled at all wall/floor coving areas.

Integrated Pest Management systems do not attempt to completely eliminate all pests.  The discovery of brown recluse spiders suggests that they are finding something to eat, but they themselves are not a food safety problem.  As far as I know, the BRC wants no chemical pesticides indoors. 

 

In the "natural" pest control quiver there are a couple of arrows.  One can use diatomaceous earth, but it doesn't work at all on flying insects (and barely works on crawling ones).  A fun trick in an empty building is to boil a gallon of vinegar; the fumes will kill lots of very small critters, but more importantly eliminate some of the mold and bacteria that they are using for food.  Ants (and some other insects) can be deterred with cinnamon in the cracks and crevices.   

 

Outside, clear vegetation completely away from the walls. 3 meters or more away, if possible.

 

 

I like the rememedies that Hank mentions and would like to add that we have used diatomaceous earth with great success to killing spiders, scorpians, ants, and a number of other small insects, bettles, etc as they walk or crawk thru it, it coats them and gets into their cracks and crevises and thrn effectively cuts them apart. We actually use this in our own home to set up barriers at door ways and it is sprinkled at all wall/floor coving areas.

 

First of all thank you so much for the responses these have been so helpful. I escalated the issue with our outside pest control company, and had a regional supervisor come out to access the warehouse. I have increased the number of glue traps 3 fold and increased monitoring to weekly for the time being. Additionally I am going to send any samples we collect to the staff entomologist our pest control company employs. From the pictures the original technician took the entomologist does not think they are actually brown recluse. Being in Ohio we are at the most northern possible zone for the brown recluse to survive. The entomologist actually thinks it is a harmless version called the northern recluse. 

My goal is still to minimize any potential issues with insects, spiders, and other pests so if we can confirm this is a harmless spider then I think the increased monitoring and increased traps may be a long term solution. I will look into the diatomaceous earth. We are also having a landscape company clear any bushes that are close to the building( few and far between as we have manicured flower beds) I am having some landscaped flower beds removed and turned into grass to mitigate any risk. 

 

Thanks again and I am always open to suggestions and I appreciate the comments thus far. I will update this thread as I have new information.