Roach Control In Restaurants

The approaches to cockroach control used by pest management companies are almost as widely varied as the different types of food handling establishments. This article will discuss several of these approaches and review the techniques used to treat restaurants for German cockroaches.

Control vs. elimination. Pest management companies differ in their basic offerings to restaurant customers. Most pest control companies offer a "control" philosophy. This philosophy essentially guarantees that client that the company will provide service according to a prearranged schedule to treat for cockroaches and other pests. Should the customer see cockroaches at any time, the company will return free of charge to treat no matter how many times it takes to solve the problem.

Pest management companies which offer an "elimination" philosophy guarantee total eradication of the existing cockroach or other pest infestation. They also guarantee that cockroaches or other pests will not become established again in the restaurant. This does not mean the customer will never see another pest ever again. Cockroaches can be brought into the restaurant in too many different items. The guarantee assures that a breeding population will not become established again in the restaurant. Guarantees, should cockroaches become established again in the restaurant, range from free service until the problem is eliminated to refunding all of the money paid to the company and free service for one year.

The basic difference, aside from the guarantee, between the two philosophies is the price charged for the service. Companies offering "control" charge anywhere from $12 to $100 per month for an average sized restaurant. An "elimination" company might charge $400 to $500 for the same restaurant.

Obviously, some differences exist in the way service is performed between the two philosophies. The basic treatment techniques used to control cockroaches are few and each type of treatment technique (i.e., crack and crevice) can be used in either service philosophy. Cockroaches hide in the same places in a restaurant whether it is being serviced by pest "control" company of a pest "elimination" company. The biggest difference is the time spent for the service. the "elimination" company can spend many more man-hours servicing the restaurant and tracking don and treating every harborage here cockroaches re living. These man-hours are covered by the high price of the service.

The service technicians for pest "control" companies must provide quick service in order to meet production goals set by the company. Many times, this service involves only a treatment of all baseboards in the restaurant. The service may be completed in as little as 10 minutes. The results of such a service are usually poor at best. In contrast a technician for an "elimination" company may spend three hours or more servicing the same restaurant. He must spend this time in order for the "elimination" company to feel secure in offering its guarantee.

The role of the customer. The purchasing of pest management services in a restaurant may be made by the restaurant manager or owner. In the case of a restaurant chain, the purchasing is done by a regional manager or central purchasing agent. Any one of these persons has his or her own ideas what pest management should entail and how much it should cost. In most restaurants, pest management is seen only as an expense which must be endured in satisfying local health codes. Paying even one dollar too much is unthinkable. Turnover in the use of particular pest management companies in this situation is usually quite high. Occasionally, a manager of a restaurant will retain the services of a low-priced company because the price is right even if the kitchen is literally overrun by cockroaches.

Some fast food chains believe that if a pest management company is given the contract to service their 30 locations, the price should be low because of the volume of restaurants included. The price for each location is the same even if several restaurants are located in city 50 to 75 miles away. These are the restaurant customers which usually purchase pest "control" services. Unfortunately, in many areas, these restaurants can get away with employing these low-cost services which may allow populations of cockroaches in their restaurants because health codes are not enforced.

The restaurants which employ the services of pest "elimination" companies are usually elegant, high-priced restaurants whose reputations would be at stake if pests were seen by restaurant patrons. Compared with reputation, the cost of "elimination" service is low and well worth every penny to the restaurant manager. High-class hotels, which depend on reputation to draw repeat customers, hospitals, and high-rise office buildings also purchase "elimination" services.

In conclusion, many different types and sizes of restaurants exist. A pest management company must decide which type(s) of restaurants they wish to service and market their services to those restaurants.

The initial service. The initial or first service for pest management in a restaurant is, b far, the single most important service performed in controlling pests in that structure. This is most true if a German cockroach infestation is present. The service technician either gains a major foothold in his assault on the population or begins a slow retreat.

In order to service a restaurant properly on the initial service, the service technician will need to spend three to four times the amount of time spent for a regular service for the same restaurant. This added time is used to find and treat every possible harborage in which cockroaches are living. No shelf, can opener, conduit box or even an oven knob can be left unexamined. If the service technician misses a single pocket of gravid (pregnant) female German cockroaches, the restaurant could be repopulated in quick fashion in one or two months.

The salesperson who sold the service to the restaurant often performs only a cursory inspection before making the sale. He or she may not notice any cockroaches and, taking the customers word no problems are present, the sale is made without charging extra for the initial service. This is a major mistake. Many times, when this situation occurs, the service technician uncovers large numbers of deeply hidden cockroaches. If extra time has not bee factored into the cost of the first service, the technician has two choices (1) He can spend only the amount of time covered by the price of the service, in which case, the problem will persist and the customer will become dissatisfied and eventually cancel the service, or (2) The technician spends the time necessary to service the restaurant properly, which makes the customer happy but severely impacts the technician’s production and causes the company to lose money in servicing the account.

In either scenario, the technician can’t win because his manager will be upset with him. Is it no wonder service technicians become so upset when service is underpriced or the salesperson fails to sell an added initial service charge? Quality restaurant service begins with the sale.

Several areas are particularly important when servicing a restaurant for the first time:

1. Wall voids - Most restaurants have had their share of poorly performed pest control in the past. This type of service usually results in driving cockroaches into deeper harborages. The most common harborage of which cockroaches take advantage are wall voids, particularly the wall voids in the kitchen. Many pest control technicians simply overlook wall voids and fail to treat them. In most cases where a restaurant needs numerous retreatments, untreated wall voids are the culprit. One restaurant serviced by a conscientious technician continued to have problems with hundreds of cockroaches even though the technician treated every available crack each week. One service spent drilling and treating wall voids eliminated the problem.

Each of the wall voids in a commercial kitchen need to be drilled and treated during the initial service. A residual inorganic dust such as boric acid of Drione needs to be used. If cockroaches are present, a quick killing dust, like Drione or Whitmire PT230-TriDie should be used. Restaurant managers do not like to wait a week or more to begin seeing results. Wall voids should be drilled both high on the wall and low to insure that the void is thoroughly covered. Drill small holes in inconspicuous areas if possible. Don’t forget to tell the customer that some drilling will be done.

Wall voids take time to drill and treat, but elimination of cockroach populations without this treatment is difficult. Once drilled, the holes can be used to periodically retreat. The sales person must include a charge in the initial service to cover the added time of performing this necessary treatment. This can be used as a point of differentiation in the sale supporting a higher price.

2. Kitchen equipment - Preparation tables, shelves, slicers, mixers, stoves, lowerators (dish carts) and ovens all make excellent harborages for German cockroaches. These pieces of equipment are rarely cleaned properly, providing food for cockroaches. Shelves must be cleared of items before the service. Many prep tables have shelves which fit over the support bars, creating cracks in which cockroaches live. These must be inspected and treated. The underedge or lip of the top of prep tables is also a common cockroach harborage. Can openers mounted on prep tables often contain food residues and harbor cockroaches. One of the most common places to find cockroaches is in the hollow legs of tables and in the cracks of the legs on stoves and ovens.

Inspection plates in many pieces of kitchen equipment must be removed and the inside inspected and treated. Slicers and mixers can be treated using a non-residual aerosol such as Whitmire’s PT100-Resmethrin to flush out and kill cockroaches. Become familiar with how to quickly get inside different pieces of equipment. Most kitchens have the same equipment. Obey warning stickers which state that a panel on a piece of equipment be opened only by a service person. The warnings are there for a reason!

Don’t overlook any piece of equipment, no matter how small.

3. Electric conduits and junction boxes - All electric wires in commercial kitchens running to stoves and other pieces of equipment are encased in metal conduits. The conduits meet at square, metal junction boxes which have removable fronts. These conduits are highways for cockroaches. The inspection plates on the front of junction boxes should be removed and the box treated. Using PT230-TriDie, slip the plastic injection tube into each conduit and inject a ½ second burst. Replace the inspection plate. Do not use a crusader type hand duster when treating around electricity unless the duster is equipped with a plastic tip over the metal tube. Electric shock could be a very real hazard to the technician who is not careful.

4. Dining room - The dining room is very important because it is here where the restaurant’s reputation can be damaged. Many service technicians focus primarily on the kitchen because that is where the majority of cockroach problems exist. The dining are can have its share of problems, and left improperly serviced, this usually results in restaurant patrons experiencing an unpleasant sighting of pest.

Dining rooms can be difficult to service because they often contain much wood in the construction. Cockroaches love wood. One of the most anguishing (to a technician) types of decorating in a dining room is the use of wood shingles over the bar, on the salad bar or on the walls themselves. Wood shingles contain hundreds of cracks, and cockroaches love them. They also take a great deal of time to treat properly. Any salesperson seeing wood shingles in a restaurant should automatically increase the price of the initial service to cover the added time of treating the shingles.

Booths are another item in the dining room which can be difficult to service. The customer should be instructed to have the seats removed from the booths and the area under them cleaned thoroughly prior to the service. The cracks along the edges of the booths can be treated with dust and the inside of he booth can be treated using a wettable powder or microencapsulated insecticide labeled for use in dining rooms. Don’t forget the void up inside the backs of the booths. Cockroaches living there are often overlooked.

Dividing walls between tables and around booths are common in many restaurants. Like wall voids in kitchens, these voids need to be drilled and dusted. The cracks around planters also need to be dusted.

Waiter stations are found in most restaurants just off the dining areas. These stations usually contain dishes, condiments, a sink and a soft drink dispenser. Cockroaches living in these stations will "hitch" rides in napkins and other items to tables where they may be seen by restaurant patrons. The customer must have all items removed from the stations at the time of the service to allow thorough inspection and treatments.

Salad bars are found in most restaurants these days. Salad bars provide plenty of food and moisture for cockroach survival. The wood construction of many salad bars provide plenty of cracks for cockroach harborage. The inside and underneath of the bar require thorough attention. The drain underneath most salad bars collect debris and also harbor cockroaches.

5. False ceilings - False ceilings are also known as drop ceilings or suspended ceilings. They are quite common in the construction of restaurants. When the cockroach population grows too large or pressure is placed on the populations, such as substandard treatments, cockroaches take up residence in the ceilings because food is either prepared, cooked or served in both the kitchen and the dining areas, false ceilings in restaurants cannot be treated with a dust insecticide. The chance the insecticide dust could be dislodged from the ceiling and enter food down below is too great. Also, in some restaurants, the false ceiling is used as part of the air handling system - no air ducts are present in the ceiling. Dusting these ceilings would result in the insecticide dust being distributed throughout the restaurant.

The best way to treat cockroaches in the ceiling is to lift the panels among the wall and sot treat the walls above the ceiling using a wettable powder or microencapsulated insecticide labeled for use in commercial kitchens. This treatment can be followed by a space treatment above the ceiling. The air handling system must be turned off and the building vacated during and following the space treatment.

6. Soft drink dispensers - German cockroaches like to hide inside the spray heads of soft drink dispensers. If cockroaches are found here, treat only using non-residual insecticides.

7. Dishwashing area - The dishwashing area is one of the most difficult areas to keep cockroaches out of when servicing a commercial kitchen. The cockroach has plenty of water, warmth and food to survive. A the same time, the amount of water and heat of a diswasher work to quickly degrade residual insecticides. Non-residual aerosol insecticides, therefore, are the only materials which should be used to treat the dishwasher itself. The service technician should treat the dishwasher every time he services the restaurant. Inspection panels should b removed to allow access into internal areas of the dishwasher.

The wall surrounding the dishwasher should be drilled and dusted with a residual dust insecticide. The walls should be redusted lightly during each service visit because of the effect moisture and humidity may have upon the dust in the wall voids.

Cracks under tables and conveyors in dishwashing areas should be treated with residual insecticides. The wall under and behind the splash guard of the table and dishwasher should be spot treated using a wettable powder or microencapsulated insecticide labeled for use in commercial kitchens.

The regular service. The initial service has severely impacted the cockroach population. The service technician has achieved a 95 to 98 percent reduction in size of the population. If he doesn’t locate and eliminate the other 2 to 5 percent, the population will quickly rebound and spread throughout the kitchen. New cockroaches may have entered inside boxes of incoming food goods.

The price charged for a regular service is generally about one third that of an initial service. the service technician, therefore, can spend only a third of the time spent on the initial service and still be productive. Cockroaches can still be living anywhere in the restaurant, but not enough time is available to thoroughly inspect every nook and cranny. Where does the technician begin?

Most pest management companies train their technicians to go into the restaurant and treat critical areas such as around coolers, stoves, the dishwasher and waiter stations. This approach leaves a lot of areas unchecked from service to service. Large numbers of cockroaches can build up in areas that receive little attention. Obviously, a better approach is needed.

Two methods are used regularly by pest "control" and pest "elimination" companies alike. These two methods are the zone concept and the deep harborage flushing method.

Zone concept. The zone concept is based on dividing the restaurant into treatment areas or "zones". For example, a medium-sized restaurant can be divided into four zones, two zones in the kitchen and two zones in the dining area.

Zone 1 and 2 are in the dining area while zones 3 and 4 are in the kitchen. The first service following the initial service, the service technician will thoroughly treat cracks and voids in zones 1 and 3 using residual insecticides. In zones 2 and 4, he will perform an inspection using a flushing agent such as pyrethrins. If any pockets of cockroaches are found, he will thoroughly treat the area using residual insecticides.

The next service, the service technician will treat all areas of zones 2 and 4 and inspect zones 1 and 3. By using this approach he insures each area of the restaurant is thoroughly serviced at least every second visit. The inspection using a flushing agent helps him find pockets of cockroaches in the zones he is only inspecting. This approach helps him reduce his service tie while still providing a complete and through service.

Smaller restaurants usually can be divided into two zones. Larger restaurants will have more zones and the service schedule becomes a little more complicated.

Deep harborage flushing. This method is commonly used by pest "elimination" companies. The initial service involves a complete treatment of all possible cockroach harborages using residual insecticides. Subsequent services involve inspecting with non-residual insecticides to drive cockroaches out of their harborages. Pyrethrins and resmethrin are the products most often used and these are usually applied using an aerosol generating machine such as the Actisol system.

The Actisol machine breaks low volumes of pyrethrins or resmethrin into aerosol-sized droplets and forces them, using air, deep into cracks, voids, false ceilings and kitchen equipment. This treatment contacts and kills many cockroaches and forces them into the open where the technician can find them. The technician then treats problem areas using residual insecticides.

This method is not much different than the zone concept except that the entire restaurant is inspected and flushed instead of only a few areas. Treatment with residual insecticides is performed only when problems are found. The deep harborage flushing method can save money in insecticide use if performed properly.

Conclusion. Cockroach control in restaurants and similar structures is a dirty, time-consuming and tiring job. The technician’s uniform gets filthy and he probably sees things that make him rethink his position on eating out. Keeping a restaurant free of pest problems, however, can be rewarding work and it is never dull. Experience in servicing restaurants is the best teacher. One has to get out and crawl under a few kitchen tables through grease and water to find out how much effort it really takes to eliminate cockroaches in a food establishment.

___ Stoy A. Hedges