9 replies to this topic

[Kevin O'Donnell]

Hello,

 

I work QC for an organic bakery and we have ants and spiders that we lay down paper sticky traps for.  We have asked our pest control contractor for help, but his solutions like bait gels or spray applications aren't approved by organics.  We have cracks in the concrete around the exterior of our building where the ants come in.  We use PAA sanitizer in the cracks and rosemary mixed with water around that to drive them back into the cracks then paper traps get laid down to see if they are coming back.  We have Tin Cats for rodents near the doors and have never caught anything but bugs in the sticky traps. 

 

My question is, does anyone have a better solution than sticky traps?  I'm told by a coworker with experience that we need to number these temporary sticky traps and add them to our list of facility pest control devices, but they get moved and destroyed all the time.  I'd like to seal the crack but I'm worried about when the concrete expands or contracts the seal might cause the concrete to break up even more.

 

Any suggestions welcome.  Thank you in advance. 

 

 

[GMO]

Seal the cracks and seal it with something flexible if you're worried it will crack again. Sorry if it's a stupid suggestion but it seems like an obvious thing to do. You shouldn't have loads of cracks from the outside which lead inside. Fix your fabrication to fix the root causes. And if your cracks are visible to you, they're probably big enough for a cockroach or worse. You only need the width of a pencil for a mouse and mice love bakery.

 

Not sure where you are but that will impact what is allowed to be used from an organic perspective, also knowing what ant species you have is helpful and whether flying ants at certain times of the year are likely to become a risk to you. It will also give you an idea of where they might be nesting.

 

Another suggestion is borrowed from traditional solutions I've seen in Greece. Using lime based white paints are natural deterrents to ants. You can also get other anti insect paint which might be ok from an organic perspective. 

But I'd always seal the gaps first. Otherwise you'll never keep them out.

[MDaleDDF]

GMO is right, you've got to repair the cracks.   The idea of pest control is to catch them of course, but job one is to keep them out in the first place if possible.   

They make many products for concrete repair that allow the concrete to expand and contract without doing damage.   A quick google will show you lots of options.   But definitely gotta seal it up.

[SQFconsultant]

Great ideas GMO.

 

While in Panama and Costa Rica we were exposed to problems with spiders, amazingly nasty Scorpions and not knowing the actual name of these things.. GIGANTIC COCK ROACHES - what we were introduced to by the locals was DIATOMACEOUS EARTH - super fine powder that sticks to ants, spiders, etc body parts and it acts like mini razor blades - the critters basically cut themselves apart with seconds to maybe a minute by just attempting to walk across this powder.

 

It did not work all that great on the giant cock roaches though - the locals would either shoot those with a 22 or bb gun  -- a whole other story, frankly I saw one of them, asked what the hell it was and then started moving very quickly to the door - with te workers yelling after me - that guy from the states is afraid of our little cocka roaches!!! -- Yes would have been the answer if i had stopped walking as fast as I was at the time.

[MDaleDDF]

Great ideas GMO.

 

While in Panama and Costa Rica we were exposed to problems with spiders, amazingly nasty Scorpions and not knowing the actual name of these things.. GIGANTIC COCK ROACHES - what we were introduced to by the locals was DIATOMACEOUS EARTH - super fine powder that sticks to ants, spiders, etc body parts and it acts like mini razor blades - the critters basically cut themselves apart with seconds to maybe a minute by just attempting to walk across this powder.

 

It did not work all that great on the giant cock roaches though - the locals would either shoot those with a 22 or bb gun  -- a whole other story, frankly I saw one of them, asked what the hell it was and then started moving very quickly to the door - with te workers yelling after me - that guy from the states is afraid of our little cocka roaches!!! -- Yes would have been the answer if i had stopped walking as fast as I was at the time.

Lol, that's hilarious Glen.

I've never heard of the DIATOMACEOUS EARTH, that's crazy.    I see you can buy the stuff online for bug control too.   I'm gonna try some around the house  and in the garden.    Food grade.   It says it's super effective against ticks, garden pests, etc.   I'm on it.

Edited by MDaleDDF, 19 March 2026 - 11:12 AM.

[Scampi]

Diatomaceous earth is great for slugs in the garden!     You should be able to get it at your local garden store or co-op

[MDaleDDF]

After some reading it says it's bad for bees, so I'm gonna have to use with care.   I don't wanna hurt the bees...

[TimG]

After some reading it says it's bad for bees, so I'm gonna have to use with care.   I don't wanna hurt the bees...

I was just going to say, it can hurt the bees! But along paths that you know pest bugs are going to travel, it works great. My girlfriend loves to squirt it all over to stop the pincher butt (earwigs) bugs from getting in the garage in the spring/summer.

[jfrey123]

I've never heard of the DIATOMACEOUS EARTH [snip]   

Food grade.

 

I just retold a coworker this story, but I first ran into diatomaceous earth at my first QA job at the spice plant.  We were like 6 months past their first SQF audit ever, proud of being a small family run business with the new GFSI cert on the wall.  Third party tolling, we would process a lot of things for a lot of people, and the owners found someone who needed diatomaceous earth bagged.  "Hey, just letting you know we're bringing in dirt.  But don't worry, it's "food grade" dirt so it'll be fine through the bag fill machine."

 

But it was not fine.  They sent us a spec when I started to push back, and it contained heavy metals at higher PPM than OSHA prescribed just to handle the stuff.  I told them I wouldn't sign off on the sanitation, nor any lab testing to try and justify the cleaning of equipment after.  Maintenance manager was one of the brothers, sat down and asked why I was being so pissy about it to everyone, was shocked at what I showed him, so he went and told them all he wouldn't help with the disassembly/reassembly he normally did for sanitation.  Big argument between the owning partners of the family, maintenance manager apparently told them "SQF means something to jfrey123, we're a food company and it's time to act like it..."  Eventually they decided to rent another warehouse suite, buy another bag filler, and ran it all there with a temp crew.

 

In the end I won, but seeing your post mention DE and food grade in the same paragraph brought back trauma lol.

[TimG]

I've used FG DE to coat filter press sheets (slices? Can't remember what the proper term is) in a few different manufacturers now. It's industry standard for syrup/liquid sugar/honey as far as I know.