Fighting flies
Julia Pittman, Director of Beaver Pest Control, looks into the problems that lead to infestations of flies, and how to deal with them.
Do your customers have problems with drain flies or fruit flies? Quite often we are called into premises where the cleaning practices are contributing to a drain or fruit fly problem.
Research published in the Journal of Food Protection (Food Quality & Safety, USA, 2018) showed that fruit flies are capable of spreading diseases like
E.Coli, Salmonella and Listeria from contaminated sources to fresh food.
However, preventing these pests is relatively straightforward. Although Pest Control companies can carry out a knock down treatment for your customer, the long-term solution for these flies is to remove the breeding sites through thorough cleaning.
Fruit flies and drain flies aren’t particularly attracted to UV light, so electronic fly killers (EFKs) are less effective in dealing with these species of fly.
Preventing drain flies
Also known as Filter Flies, these tiny flies are very often found hovering by drains and stagnant water. The first job is to remove the breeding ground as they breed in the organic matter found in drains, grease, food and general sludge.
Keeping drains free of this material will prevent any drain flies breeding. It is important to remove stagnant and still water from any places where it is pooling.
Preventing fruit flies
Fruit flies and drain flies are often confused with each other as they are similar sizes. Fruit flies have bright red eyes so if you catch one and look under a magnifying glass, you will be able to tell.
As with drain flies, fruit flies can easily be dealt with by removing the breeding grounds. In this case, it is likely to be fermenting milk, fruit, juice or wine. In order to locate
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the breeding sites, look for any moisture, decaying or fermenting fruit or debris and warmth.
If your customer has regular outbreaks of fruit or drain flies, can you incorporate some of these areas into your daily cleaning specifications? The key areas to target and steps to take are:
1. Clean the bottom of refuse bins.
2. Target areas where empty bottles of juice or fizzy cans are stored prior to recycling.
3. Under food preparation areas or the gaps in between worktops need cleaning.
4. Standing water can be found underneath fridges or ice machines, etc.
5. Clean in between or underneath damaged floor tiles.
6. Do not leave damp mop heads facing down in the bucket in a warm store. Turn the mops upside down and make sure that there is enough air for them to dry out properly.
7. Watch out for fruit left out which can start to ferment.
Once you have found the breeding site, it is just a matter of cleaning it thoroughly. Stagnant or still water, warmth and organic matter are all these insects need in order to breed. If you remove the environment, you can remove the problem.
Beaver Pest Control has a dedicated environmental fly prevention team. If you keep getting problems with drain flies or fruit flies, we can carry out a full audit with detailed written report including recommendations. Our teams can also locate the breeding sites and will deep clean these areas for you.
www.pestcontrolservices.co.uk twitter.com/TomoCleaning
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