Tips for Keeping Mice and Rats Out of Your Commercial Kitchen
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, mice and rats spread a whopping 35 diseases around the world. If you are a restaurant owner, your biggest concerns are the quality of your products and the health and happiness of your customers. Mice and rats can enter a commercial kitchen at any time of the year, and once they call your restaurant their home, they can become very difficult to get rid of without help. Don't place your customers and small business at risk. Instead, here are a few simple tips to help you keep mice and rats out of your commercial kitchen.
Look for Potential Points of Entry
One of the most effective and inexpensive ways to keep mice and rats out of your kitchen is to look for ways they can get in—and eliminate them. Begin by checking the foundation and floor and work your way over the walls. Finally, check the ceiling. Additionally, look over the doors and windows.
Fill any cracks and holes in the foundation, floor, walls, and ceiling with caulk. Any larger holes in the drywall should be repaired with a patch kit. The kit contains everything you will need to prevent mice and rats from entering your kitchen, and it can be applied in less than a day.
On the doors and windows, repair any cracks or damage with caulk. Replace or repair any broken screens. Remember, according to the Daily Mail, a mouse can squeeze through a crack as small as one-quarter of an inch, so don't overlook any smaller cracks or holes. Seal everything to ensure that your kitchen remains rodent free.
Keep Your Kitchen as Clean as Possible
Mice and rats are attracted to the smell of food. Unfortunately, because your business deals exclusively with food, it will be very difficult to complete eliminate the odors that mice and rats find so irresistible. This is why it is important to keep your kitchen as clean as possible.
It is important to understand that there are certain areas that should be cleaned at least once a day, preferably after the restaurant closes, and there are other things that should be cleaned once week and still others that should be cleaned once a month.
For example, according to The Balance, you should clean your restaurant's fryers, grill top, steam table, cutting boards, and prep tables at least once a day. Your coffee machine, ovens, and sinks should be cleaned at least once a week. Your ice machine, your freezers, and the walls and ceilings of the kitchen should be scrubbed down at least once a month.
Remember, this is a minimum recommendation. The more often you clean, the less attractive your commercial kitchen will be to pesky mice and rats.
Get Your Employees Involved
Finally, one of the most effective ways to prevent mice and rats from calling your commercial kitchen home is to get your entire staff involved. Begin by hosting an informational evening about the dangers of rodents in the kitchen. Teach your staff the proper way to store and handle food and provide them with a cleaning list.
Next, assign specific jobs to each member of your staff. For example, place one or two of your employees in charge of setting out traps and bait stations. These stations and traps should be checked and emptied at least once a day.
Posting signs reminding employees to close the doors behind them, emptying the trash every evening, and cleaning up any spills and crumbs immediately is another simple way you can remind staff to keep the kitchen tidy.
Keeping mice and rats out of your commercial kitchen should be a priority. Utilizing the above-mentioned suggestions is a great place to start. However, if you're suffering from a rodent problem or want more information about how to keep mice and rats at bay, don't hesitate to contact a pest-control agent in your area or hop over to this site.