Are you dreaded by the dream that there are roaches running all over the plates and cups in your restaurant? Have you ever imagined a scene from Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares where your restaurant is being audited? Restaurants are an ideal place for cockroach infestation. This is because restaurants provide multiple sources of food such as leftovers, remains, stored items and make for a conducive, warm shelter where they can stay and grow. Hence it is necessary to implement a cockroach control plan.

Why cockroaches are found in restaurants?

• Food Scraps Everywhere
  Even the smallest scraps of food can attract cockroaches in the kitchen of a restaurant. Also, if you leave dirty dishes out overnight or wait to clean a food spill till the next day, you might be attracting cockroaches.
• Poor Hygiene and Cleanliness Standards
  In addition to making sure your staff is following proper guidelines for hygiene, you need to make sure that your staff is not storing leftover food or any item that might attract cockroaches in their lockers. Also, make sure your restaurant has a proper cleanliness policy in place in order to keep the restaurant and the kitchen spick and span, and your staff is well instructed and trained to implement it.
• Garbage Kept in the Open
  Cockroaches are drawn to any food left in the open, and they aren’t fussy. That is why cockroaches are attracted to the dark, quiet corners of garbage bins. Take out the garbage before the smell begins to permeate from it and keep the area near your trash disposal system as clean as possible.

Other than this, here are a few underlying causes of why your restaurant might have a cockroach infestation:

• Most restaurants generally keep visible areas clean, but sometimes, a spill beneath a table, or some scraps of food under the fridge can become breeding grounds for a cockroach infestation if left unchecked.
• Little holes around pipes, cracks, and crevices are places where cockroaches fester. Make sure all cracks and crevices are properly sealed.
• Also, remember that cockroaches eat other types of material besides food. This includes items made out of paper and cloth. If you have empty cardboard boxes, newspapers, or cloth scraps pilling outside your kitchen, your restaurant might be prone to a cockroach infestation.
• Cockroaches might be attracted to your restaurant kitchen because of its warmth and humidity. Even if you manage to keep food away from cockroaches, it can survive a month without having a meal. Till then, they will be attracted to dark and humid places in your home.
• Water leakage is another cause for a cockroach infestation. Since restaurants have easily accessible water resources, cockroaches swarm to them.

In order to keep your restaurant clean, you have to make sure you invest in a good commercial pest control service like Take Care Termite to make sure you keep cockroaches at bay.