The pests that we deal with are unwanted organisms that cause nuisance, damage or disease to humans, livestock or crops. It is interesting that in some cases we have a “zero tolerance” attitude to certain pests, whereas others are tolerated in low numbers.
For example, the numbers that are generally acceptable for the following pests and when you would call in a pest control company to deal with them vary greatly
- Bed bugs = a single insect
- Wasps = several sightings or a nest
- Biting midges = several hundred
However, when it comes to controlling flies, tolerance of them varies depending on the industry type they are found in. In food preparation areas there is generally a very low tolerance, on a pharmaceutical production line there is zero tolerance, whilst in a warehouse with continually opening/closing loading bay doors their presence will be accepted before they are deemed a problem.
Electronic Fly Killers are designed to catch flies, thereby reducing the likelihood of transmitting bacteria such as Salmonella, and then holding them for monitoring and/or disposal. Having appraised the site using the principles of ‘Exclude, Restrict and Destroy’, the EFK unit is there to either:
- Provide indications of fly numbers to allow our Field Biologists to advise clients when and where exclusion technologies need to be improved or
- To act as a control method in situations where exclusion or destruction is difficult or impossible to achieve.
Removing the fly from the environment as quickly as possible is the critical measure of how effective an EFK is and this factor is not directly taken into account when looking at the data used to sell many units, factors which include many urban myths.
This is why Rentokil express the effectiveness of EFK units as a half-life which has a clear benefit to customers: it tells them how long, on average, a fly will remain in an area before it is captured.
Using a half-life value when discussing the effectiveness of EFKs is clearly a key performance indicator that Rentokil Pest Control hope that the industry will adopt, and certainly the initial feedback from manufacturers we have worked with has been encouraging. Our experimental method has recently been published in the May/June issue of Pest Magazine and we hope it can stimulate some healthy industry discussion.
Please do let us know your thoughts here on the blog.
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5 Comments
Its quite interesting when you go to a bar / restaurant you see a fly and never see a unit that will catch the flies. Is there any requirements for food places to have a fly unit?
Food establishments are not required formally to install fly units but they do have to demonstrate that they have done everything reasonably practicable to assure the safety of food they prepare, serve or sell. Rentokil recommends an integrated approach to help food establishments prove due diligence. Firstly we help them to exclude flies by ensuring that doors and windows are closed or screened. Secondly we help them improve their hygiene by removing debris and waste that encourage flies to breed. We then recommend a suitably sized Luminos fly killer to capture and destroy any casual intruders. In the best food establishments we would also establish fly counting over a given period to ensure that we have maintained control and that there is not a gradual advers trend begining.
It is always amazing to me to see flies buzzing around a restaurant. My opinion they may be the most disgusting of all bugs. Fly machines are a great way to keep the flies off customers and food. There are also a variety – some have paper that advances, some have glue boards. Whatever you may need and of course look to a Professional to purchase and install. Flies like to fly at certain heights and certain places. Hire a Professional.
A Rentokil rep told a chap on one of my sites that HACCP guidelines have changed so that ‘fly-zappers’ cannot be placed within 3 meters of a food prep surface.
I cannot find anything to support this (although it seems pretty common sense to me) – can anyone confirm if a placement distance is specified in the HACCP guidelines – if so where?
@Jen, as I was reading this it reminded me that this distance had been mentioned in a previous blog post (http://bit.ly/cC88Ea) with respect to AIB standards.
This distance is found here in the AIB document: “The AIB International Consolidated Standards for Inspection” in the Integrated Pest Management section under part 4.13. I hope this helps!