How to Keep Your Restaurant Rodent Free
Your restaurant has food, water, and shelter — all key to rodents’ survival. Rodents are well-known pests in the food industry simply because of the same reasons customers are drawn in. As a restaurant owner or manager, pests are your worst nightmare. It’s natural to think about your customers first because they can make or break your business. But have you thought about how rodents can generate restaurant problems even further?
Why Rodents Are Bad for Business
The pathogens rodents carry cause diseases that sacrifice the cleanliness of your restaurant. This can raise the health concerns of your employees and customers. Additionally, rodents can cause expensive property damage, delay productivity, and break health codes. All of these can lower profits and even end in complete shutdown.
Rodents put your restaurant’s reputation at risk. If a customer sees a rodent while enjoying their meal, they are likely to leave a bad online review. This results in the customer not coming back, and also affects the choices of future and current customers.
6 Rodent Prevention Tips
The best way to maintain a rodent-free restaurant is to take action before the problem starts. Prevention is cheaper than infestation. Follow these preventative measures to stop rodent reservations:
- Tidy up – Keep the interior and exterior of your restaurant as clean as possible. Since leftovers lure rodents in, it’s important to remove food scraps immediately. Make it a routine to clean and rotate dumpsters.
- Secure food and water – Make sure to pay attention to moisture and crumbs on floors. Food containers and trash cans should be tightly sealed.
- Lock up correctly – Shut all windows and doors properly with no cracks. Did you know that rodents can squeeze through coin-sized openings?
- Repairs – Seal all exterior cracks, fix leaks, install door sweeps, and repair torn window screens.
- Landscaping – Be sure to trim the vegetation around your restaurant. Regular mowing and trimming will keep customers in and rodents out.
- Documentation – Documenting your prevention program is useful for health inspectors and can increase your inspection scores.
Help From Critter Control
It only takes one rodent sighting to damage your reputable business. The good news is that our experienced commercial rodent removal technicians at Critter Control® of Orlando can quickly and safely remove unwelcome guests and keep them from returning.
