Keeping your food preparation and dining areas free from pests is hard, even at the best of times, but knowing how flies work, live, eat and reproduce can help you to stem the flow of the winged nuisances entering your venue and bothering your guests.

Flies and other pests can have a massive affect on the reputation and employment of your business. If guests have to fend off dive-bomb attacks from hungry flies, they may not return to your establishment. This is also true for staff; no chef or waitress wants to work in an unhygienic environment with flies buzzing around their heads.

Prevent and Prepare

The first step to dealing with pests is prevention. Electric fly killers are great for catching and killing pests, but can also be used all year round as a monitoring device. The trays in both electric fly killers and glue traps give you an indication to the level of an infestation. When checked and cleared regularly, you can monitor any incline or decline in pest activity. Keep an eye on numbers and keep a log – this may seem trivial, but knowing that you are catching more pests than usual will give you time to carry out the next steps before the problem worsens!

Quick tip: If you’re serving food in outdoor areas, consider using candles on each table to create a more pleasant environment for customers. Flies don’t like smoke so will avoid tables with a candle or 2 on.

Locate

If you start to experience an increase in pest activity (most likely during the summer months) you should seek to stem the population of flies by reducing the accessibility to easy meals and moisture.

A fly’s lifespan is around 30 days, in which a female fly can lay between 400 and 600 eggs – making the problem very bad, very fast! The ideal location for a fly to lay its eggs is somewhere that has moisture and food. This can range from a leaky pipe near a bin to a large dump site, so it is essential you keep any potential breeding grounds to a minimum by covering food, thorough cleaning and reducing the amount of on-site waste. Most local authorities offer extra pick-ups for rubbish, allowing you to maintain a hygienic and clean waste management area.

Did you know? A single waste bin, if not emptied regularly, can become a breeding ground for up to 30,000 flies!

Take Action

Fixing leaky pipes limits the amount of moisture available to pests and using bins with securely closing lids makes it impossible for them to feed on and lay eggs in waste, meaning they’ll venture elsewhere to breed. It is also worth installing fly screens on doors and windows to stop flies entering or moving from room to room. Electric fly killers are the most effective method of eliminating pests once they’re inside, so be sure to get a powerful enough machine for large kitchens and food preparation areas. So long as you maintain a watchful eye on flies and pest around your home or restaurant, you should be able to stay pest free, however, if your problem persists you should seek professional help from a pest control business.

The FSA has a printable guide for businesses which we recommend downloading and using in conjunction with the above steps.

By Oscar Black