It’s summer, and the living is easy, especially when there is abundant food and water for large flies like house flies. People eat outside more often at home and in restaurants. Protecting those sites from flies that can transfer harmful food-borne illnesses is essential. Not to mention create bad reviews from unhappy dinners that can damage a restaurant’s reputation.
As with any pest, IPM is critical. An integrated approach that includes inspection, sanitation, exclusion, trapping, and treating is more effective than just putting down treatments. Since large fly populations typically breed in outside structures, inspections must focus on the outdoors. Look for all food resources like dumpsters, animal waste, trash bins, and anywhere damp organic material is building up. Stress to customers how important it is to clean these areas and remove the debris so fewer flies can survive.
Exclusion is pretty hard when it is an outside patio area, but if you think a little creatively, it is still possible. Installing a screen still allows for airflow and that outdoor “feeling” while keeping the pesky flies away from diners. Fans can push flies back from outdoor seating areas. Restaurant management should seal all doors and windows to prevent flies from gaining access to inside the restaurant.
Treatments can further reduce the fly population once the sanitation and exclusion issues have been addressed. While granular and liquid applications can be applied around and near potential habitats, it’s harder to treat eating areas where people and food will be. In these spaces, consider using a station like the Fly Bait Station (FBS) to contain the bait and keep it secure.
The FBS provides a place to attract flies instead of food. Place stations in areas that restaurant patrons will not see and try to secure them between 3-5 feet off the ground. The FBS can be easily attached to a wall, or an optional friction fit stake can secure the station in the ground. Remember when using pesticides always read and follow all label directions.
The FBS can also help you build recurring revenue. VM Products CEO Ethan Vickery says that “by selling the station and the service, PMPs can create a long-term fly program that creates monthly revenue.”
It is tough to control flies in the summer when people eat outside and provide plenty of food resources. It’s not a hopeless case and getting bait treatments in FBS stations near outdoor dining areas can significantly help keep fly populations low and away from people.
For more on fly and insect control, as well as products to make treatments more effective, contact VM Products here.
