For restaurant owners wondering how to keep flies away, commercial fly control is often the best option. Nothing damages the image of your establishment like having bugs inside, but flies are a fact of life. That doesn't mean you have to accept them, though. Ensure that your guests dine fly-free and keep the bugs at bay for good with Hulett Environmental Services commercial fly control.
The Health Hazards of Having Flies
Flies are more than just a simple unsightly annoyance. When a fly lands on your food or kitchenware, they can carry and transmit pathogens on their bodies and transfer them to the food that they land on and can potentially spoil the food. And when the food is handled and consumed, the pathogens could potentially cause disease and illnesses such as Dysentery, Staphylococcus, Shigella, Salmonella, E-Coli, and worms. Truly, this is the worst nightmare for restaurant owners and guests alike.
Flies can cause food poisoning as well. Each time a fly lands, it regurgitates a portion of what was in its stomach, mostly bacteria, as a predigestive onto the solid food to break it down into a liquid to aid in its feeding. During this process, food can become contaminated, and create food borne illness. It is estimated that house flies are capable of transmitting up to 65 diseases.
Flies will often feed and breed in animal excrement, feces, dead animals, garbage, or other sources of rotting decaying matter. These food borne pathogens can be physically transmitted from the fly's body to the food, utensils, or food preparation areas when the fly lands. Flies can lay up to 100 eggs that will hatch into maggots in under 48 hours. What starts off as a simple issue can easily and quickly turn into a fly invasion. Nothing is worse for the reputation of your restaurant than guests coming down with food poisoning after their visit. Or, for homeowners that like to cook for their guests, serving spoiled food to their friends and family.
What's Attracting All These Flies to My Restaurant?
Restaurants attract flies due to the large volume of food inside them. Flies are attracted to sugary substances like citrus fruit and soda, salt, meat, oil, and even alcohol. Abundant sources of food and breeding areas make your restaurant an attractive home for these pests. They can also be attracted to large quantities of garbage and food scrap, like in the dumpsters you may keep out back. It is very important to store the garbage away from the structure, and have it emptied often. Air curtains, screens, and door sweeps can also help prevent these outside flies from invading. The variety of attractants your restaurant has inside makes commercial fly control extremely important to keep flies away. Garbage should be stored and disposed of in a hygienic fashion. Waste containers should be tightly sealed by a lid at all times, and emptied and cleaned regularly. Restaurant staff should also make sure that food and utensils are stored properly and cleaned prior to use, and that floors, drains, under equipment, and food preparation areas are cleaned often. Sanitation is key.
The Fly Database
Did you know that there's more than one type of fly? There are more than 110,000 different species of flies throughout the world, with more than 20,000 in North America alone. That's a lot of flies. So which are most likely to appear in your restaurant or kitchen?
Fruit Flies
Fruit flies are tiny flies that may be mistaken for gnats. You'll know the difference since they tend to hover close to food and usually have big, red eyes. As their name implies, they're particularly attracted to fruit. Fruit flies are also attracted to vegetables and other forms of sugar, like spilled soda. Other areas you may find them include sink drains and garbage disposals, recycling bins, and near mops or wet towels. Any item or surface that has collected sugar is a potential feeding source for a fruit fly.
To keep the flies away, make sure your garbage is collected regularly, and that produce is disposed of once it is overripe. Clean up any soda, juice, or alcohol spills on the floor right away with a proper cleaning solution, as a simple water rinse can still leave behind a sugary residue.
Phorid Flies
Phorid flies are also referred to as "scuttle flies" or "humpbacked flies". This is because they have a tendency to run, rather than fly. Also, their bodies have a noticeable humpbacked appearance, normally with a yellow and brown striped abdomen. Phorid flies live, feed, and breed in various sites found within a restaurant or kitchen. They often breed near drains, plumbing, and utilities, and may fly towards foods in which they are attracted to, particularly potatoes and onions. Once they've made their home in your sinks or drains, you'll likely need commercial fly control to eradicate the problem.
Blowflies
Blowflies are another common restaurant pest. These are the noisy flies that seem to shine blue, green, and black as they buzz around. They're considerably larger than other fly species and can reach 10mm, or almost half an inch, in length. Blowflies can be attracted towards dumpsters or trash, in search for raw meat or other sources of decaying matter. Blowflies may also indicate that there are dead animal bodies in a structure. This can sometimes mean that the building has rodents that are infesting, so a proper inspection by a professional pest control company is very important to make sure that any rodent issue is resolved.
House Flies
House Flies are most easily identified by their large transparent wings and big brown or red eyes. Their primary food source is sugary substances, so you'll likely find them near the sweets and citrus in your restaurant, but also decaying matter that you may find in the trash. Once they've found a suitable breeding site, they reproduce very quickly, and severe infestations may require professional fly control. If you find their breeding site, you may see thousands of worm like maggots wiggling around your food or trash, these are the immature stages of the fly.
Professional Fly Pest Control
Restaurant owners need to know how to keep flies away, and professional fly control is the best method to both eradicate and prevent future infestations. It's vital to employ a professional to address the problem, as fly control shouldn't just take place inside your establishment, but on the outside as well. Professional and certified applicators that are trained will know where to look, how to identify the root cause of the problem, and effectively treat the pests. This proper inspection is critical, as Pest Control Operators are trained to make effective treatments, but also make sanitation recommendations to restaurant owners and tips and tricks about things they can do to reduce fly pressures. With a professional on your side, you can learn how to limit your attraction on the outside, inside, and how to help prevent fly entry by creating physical barriers. With routine pest control services, you can make sure that you have the best plan to make sure flies do not become an issue.
Indoor Pest Control for Flies
Controlling indoor flies includes identifying what the bugs are attracted to and determining how to eliminate their source of food and breeding grounds. Fly lights, fly traps, or fly tape may be used as well to catch the adult flies, helping to prevent them from infesting food and trash, or to help prevent them from breeding. It may be necessary for a commercial fly control service to search for and recommend cleaning of an infested area, or to treat these fly breeding grounds in specific areas of your restaurant's interior to kill an infestation.
Outside Pest Control for Flies
The best way to prevent flies from invading your restaurant is to stop them from entering in the first place. Commercial fly control services can effectively treat key areas outside of your establishment as well to help achieve this.
There are fly baits explicitly designed to be placed on the exterior, away from entry points, such as near the dumpsters, for example, to provide an external food source which draws the flies away from your building and controls the fly population. Keeping trash containers closed, emptied regularly, and stored away from the building will help increase the effectiveness of the baits and help lessen fly pressure. Residual perimeter sprays can also be applied to common entry points. These methods can kill the bugs before they have a chance to get inside. Air curtains or fly screens are also physical exclusion methods that may be beneficial to help prevent flies from invading. These techniques and more can be recommended during an inspection by a professional pest control company.
Commercial Fly Control
Here at Hulett Environmental Services, we have an expert team of commercial fly control specialists to assist you and your business. Your reputation is of the utmost importance to our team. We will take the time to develop the most effective course of action to rid your restaurant of pesky fly problems.
Contact us today for a free inspection.
