If you think finding a cockroach or a rat in a restaurant is bad, try spotting them at the grocery store. Worse yet, what if it were a grocery store you owned? Even if your store has great prices and excellent customer service, it still doesn’t stand a chance if it has pests scurrying around the food people are supposed to purchase and take home. Don’t become the victim of negative social media reviews because of pest-related issues, learn more about the negative impact pests can have on your grocery store.
Most Common Pest in Grocery Stores
If you own or manage a grocery store, protect your store from three pests found in the aisles, storerooms, and food prep areas:
- Mice - Mice and other rodents are huge problems for grocers. The most common rodents found in South Carolina are the house mouse, roof rat, and Norway rat. Rodents prefer grocery stores because they offer several places to hide and unlimited access to food. Rodents bring disease, ticks, and parasites into your place of business. They leave feces around that pose a significant health risk to both customers and employees, and they can also be a fire hazard as they chew on materials and wiring to build nests.
- Cockroaches - Cockroaches can survive anywhere. Your grocery store is the perfect place for them to get comfortable and invite their friends and family along with them. Cockroaches can multiply quickly because they release a scent that attracts more roaches to an area. That stink is an unmistakable smell that won’t leave until the roaches do. When cockroaches are in your grocery store, they put you, your employees, and your patrons at risk because they spread bacteria, parasites, and at least seven other pathogens that affect humans. If you have crunched a few here and there, don’t feel too confident that you have gotten rid of them all. Cockroaches can survive for up to a month without food or water, and they are most active at night - when you close the store for the evening, so it is unlikely that you have seen them all.
- Spiders - Spiders are all over the place, but they shouldn’t be hiding under your grocery shelves, in the produce, or under registers. Some spiders are dangerous and others are not, but neither should be in your store. Dangerous spiders include the brown recluse and black widow. House spiders are also a concern, even if they are not as threatening or venomous.
How Aiken Pest Help Grocers
Aiken understands that pests in grocery stores are a health risk to you and your patrons. You want a safe and healthy place for your neighbors to shop, and Aiken Pest Control can help. For more than 50 years, grocery stores in South Carolina have trusted Aiken Pest Control to get rid of bugs and rodents with commercial pest control services. It begins with an inspection and continues through control and prevention.