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BALTIMORE, MD. — On Tuesday, Jeff Tucker, B.C.E., and Whitmire Micro-Gen, kicked off the first of a 20-date series of skill development seminars focused on restaurants and commercial kitchens.
About 100 pest management professionals crowded a meeting room in Baltimore to hear Tucker present for more than three hours about “two things and two things only,” Tucker said, “cockroach control in restaurants and commercial kitchens and fly control in restaurants in commercial kitchens.”
Tucker, a popular presenter and a regular on the speaker circuit, focused his session on microhabitats — the smaller areas within a bigger space that pest management professionals must focus their attention on while making an application. These microhabitats are usually the site of insecticide applications, Tucker said. “The big picture doesn’t help us much. We’ve got to understand the little parts,” he said.
To kick off his presentation, Tucker shared with attendees what a large potential market the restaurant industry is:
• In 2006, restaurant industry sales are estimated to be $511 billion.
• There are 925,000 restaurant locations in the United States.
• The restaurant industry employs 12.5 million workers.
“There is a 100 percent chance of cockroach infestations,” in these locations, Tucker said. “The restaurant industry needs us to offer advice.”
Tucker presented information about pest control work in kitchens in two sections: 1) the front, where all of the restaurant’s customers sit (called the “front of house”) and; 2) where food is prepared (called the “back of house”)
As pest management professionals who work in such accounts know, restaurant kitchens come in all shapes and sizes. And the No. 1 cockroach in restaurants? German cockroaches, Tucker said. “This is one tough creature,” he added.
Tucker said German cockroaches:
• spend most of their time in crack and crevices
• are mostly active at night
• are distributed in clumps
• have high reproductive potential
• have a 60 to 75 day life cycle
As has been widely discussed in the pest management industry, some populations of German cockroaches have been shown to be resistant to some insecticides. In addition, there are cockroach strains, Tucker said, that are resistant to some baits. As a result, “Bait mania may be a thing of the past,” Tucker said.
But even though some PCOs have experienced challenges in the field with some bait products, the insdustry is fortunate to have a wide range of products at its disposal for German cockroach control. Baits, as well as residuals, crack and crevice products, traps, etc., are being used on a rotating basis by pest management professionals in many accounts and the key to cockroach control in restaurants is inspection, Tucker said. “Inspection is always first in restaurant pest control,” he said. “Walk in purposely with your flashlight and you check locations.
“As you get control of an account, you should be inspecting a lot more than you treat.”
During his presentation, Tucker also shared with PCOs tips on treatments of various areas of the commercial kitchen, including:
• tables and chairs
• point-of-sale areas/side stations
• bars
• floor drains
• carts and wheels
• dry storage
• prep equipment
• garbage cans
• the “hot” line
• gas/electric quick recovery fryers
• plating stations
• bag-in-box soda systems
• dishwashing areas
Tucker said he looks at commercial accounts in two ways: 1) the first month, in which he rids the account of all of its pest problems; and 2) then all the rest of the time to maintain it.
FLY MANAGEMENT. In addition to discussing cockroaches, Tucker also presented information about flies in restaurants.
Filth flies are found in restaurants for three reasons only, he said:
1. Poor sanitation (lack of effective clean up or maintenance) that allows flies to breed indoors.
2. Failure to keep flies from entering the restaurant through doorways and windows.
3. No fly control program.
The most common flies in restaurants are house flies, phorid flies and small fruit flies, Tucker said.
For additional information or to register for the Skill Development Seminar: Restaurants & Commercial Kitchens, visit www.wmmg.com/seminar.
Following are future dates/locations:
- Feb. 14: Bristol, Tenn.
- Feb. 15: Nashville, Tenn.
- March 6: Miami, Fla.
- March 7: Tampa, Fla.
- March 8: Jacksonville, Fla.
- March 13: Raleigh, N.C.
- March 14: Norfolk, Va.
- March 15: Atlanta, Ga.
- April 17: Chicago, Ill.
- April 18: St. Louis, Mo.
- April 19: Kansas City, Kan.
- April 24: Dearborn, MI
- April 25: Boston, MA
- April 26: Queens, NY
- May 15: Dallas, Texas
- May 16: Houston, Texas
- May 23: Portland, Ore.
- May 24: Seattle, Wash.