It’s been an interesting week for Beaver Pest Control.
We have been getting ready for the Takeaway Expo so the two examples below are quite topical.
Running a food outlet, whether takeaway or restaurant is hard work. It takes passion, dedication, skill and hard work to be successful. Reputations can be damaged in one evening if customers fall ill, or see evidence of a pest problem. And with social media, bad news spreads quickly.
Recently we had two incidents involving food premises and Environmental Health Officers.
We had a call from one of our new customers. We had recently taken over the contract and had carried out the initial treatment and a follow up visit. As part of the initial treatment we recommended that a hole was blocked as it was a potential access point for the rats which were active in the external areas. The follow up visit also included a recommendation to clear the external areas to reduce harbourage areas.
Unfortunately the owner had not carried out either recommendation and as a consequence rats entered the food premises. The customer called us while the EHO was on site. Luckily we were able to juggle our schedules so we could attend within 3 hours and before the EHO deadline of 5pm.
Our second incident was a takeaway owner without a pest control contract who had an unhappy EHO on site. We went there within the hour, carried out a survey, provided a quote and booked the initial treatment for the following morning which satisfied the EHO. Crisis averted.
There is so much more to pest control than just checking bait boxes. Pest controllers need to be detectives, we need to find out where the problem is coming from and this isn’t always apparent.
Our top tips for prospective customers:
- When choosing your pest controller, make sure they want to work in partnership with you and will provide you with written recommendations every visit.
- Make sure the pest controller investigates thoroughly if you have a problem. This could take time and you get what you pay for. Finding the source is critical to clearing pest infestations.
- Carry out proofing recommendations or get your pest control company to do it for you. They will have specialist materials for the best result.
- Your pest controller is your early warning system. Make use of their expertise.
