instore - May 2018 - 66

FOOD SAFETY

ter. Most notably, they can come in when
your deliveries do.
"Keep an eye on deliveries," Corrigan says.
"Many pests arrive within the delivery boxes from infested distribution centers. But
many people assume all pests come only
from the streets or nearby/connected. They
come from both sources. But supply houses
and warehouses that have pest infestations
themselves will send boxes of pests over and
over again to a grocery store, if the receiving
staff at the store are not paying attention."
Sanitation is also a commonly overlooked
method pest prevention. Pests proliferate
where there is a lack of detail cleaning in
hard-to-reach spots. Corrigan also says a lack
of clutter control with discarded boxes on top
of hard-to-reach areas is a recurring problem.
"I would estimate that 80 percent of the grocery and food industry overlooks these elementary issues of pest prevention," he says.
Also, Corrigan says, it's easy to fall into the
trap - no pun intended - of ignoring the

space above your head. Too many people
only thing about floors with trying to attack
pest problems.
"The pest professional must inspect and possibly tread any suspended ceiling spaces,"
he says. "They should give the store managtement a brief report if any rodent signs
were noted in the ceilings. Putting traps on
the floor for rodents living in the ceiling will
do little and money will be wasted."

Expected problems
There are some situations where pest control
issues can perhaps be expected more than
others. If your facility is older, for example,
you're more likely to experience problems.
"When we talk about rodents, we're typically
talking about structural elements," McGuire
says. "It's usually a structural defect that is
allowing rodents to enter the facility. The age
of the building and the upkeep of the building will normally determine if they're going
to have an issue. If it's a really old building,
or a very complex building and you haven't

not kept up with keeping it in good shape,
you're more likely to see rodent issues."
Geographically, facilities in warmer climates
that don't have sever winters, like those in
Southern states, are subjected to pests yearround. McGuire points out that more urban
facilities (especially in large cities like Chicago or New York) will see more rat problems whereas more rural businesses will see
more mice.

"You have to be involved in it with your
pest control company. Not just allowing
them to do what they want."
SARAH MCGUIRE, SMITHEREEN PEST MANAGEMENT

Companies should have a plan for these expected issues, especially with recent FSMA guidelines and increases in food safety initiatives.
"The last five or six years, the standards were
very different. Now, people have to write
things down more," says McGuire. "Now, facilities really need to have a plan, it needs to written out, X-Y-Z. If this happens then we will take
this action. Everybody is now moving towards
having a really detailed pest management program where they identify who the players are,
what the actions are, what the thresholds are
and exactly what is going to happen if there is
any kind of pest issue that pops us."

New technology
While the technology and methods to capture rodents hasn't necessarily evolved drastically over the last few years, the way facilities can monitor the traps certainly has.
McGuire points out that wireless monitoring
has already started to gain traction in the industry and will likely only grow more popular.
"As soon as something gets caught in a rodent station, you get an alert on your phone,"
she says. "You can immediately address the
pest capture rather then potentially waiting
for the next service, which could be in a couple days, or in a week, or even in a month depending on where you're located and when
your company can get to you.

66 * MAY 2018 * commissary INSIDER

"It's a new age technology that hadn't really
been seen before that is starting to be used
and we think it's going to be a very commonplace technology in the next couple years."

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