Jan 26, 2024 | Commercial, Wildlife
When left unaddressed, birds can wreak havoc on your business. As a business owner, protecting your reputation and bottom line is crucial to your success. We breakdown the dangers nuisance birds can be to your business if invaded and bird control methods you can place to deter them away.
Problems Birds Cause to Businesses
Birds can cause many problems for your business and property. It’s crucial to understand the issues birds can bring so you can effectively deter them.
- Health risks: Birds and their droppings can spread more than 60 diseases, including Salmonella and E. coli. They can also attract other pests, including rats and insects, that pose additional health threats to your team and customers.
- Property Damage: Bird droppings can be corrosive and cause damage to roofs, balconies, equipment, and more. The cost to repair their damage can be costly and disrupt your regular business operations.
- Safety Risks: Bird droppings can create a slippery surface, especially on walkways, stairs, and entrances. This can lead to customer or employee slip-and-fall accidents.
- Food Contamination: If you’re in the food business, a bird infestation can pose a risk of food contamination, which can lead to food poisoning and other health issues for your customers.
Bird Control Methods for Your Business
One of the best ways to deter these nuisance birds away is to create an environment that’s less attractive to them. Check out these humane preventative tips to keep birds from invading your business.
Bird Netting
This method can act as a barrier to keep birds away from your building. The netting is often made of polypropylene and has stainless-steel hardware, which can be invisible to your customers’ eyes. It can best protect your business from smaller birds like swallows and sparrows. Bird netting can protect areas such as loading docks, rooftops, courtyards, storefront signs, balconies, open beam structures, and more.
Spikes
Spikes are harmless deterrents that work great to deter birds, such as pigeons, away from a structure. Spikes are made from stainless steel or plastic and are placed upward to make it difficult for birds to land or make it uncomfortable to roost. Spikes can be placed on ledges, parapets, gutters, signs, and more.
Visual Deterrents
Visual deterrents or decoys are a great tool to utilize around your business property to deter birds. Decoys that resemble owls or other predators can scare birds away. Other deterrents include holographic and reflective materials like optical gel, scare tape, and more. This method can be a great addition to other bird control methods you have already placed at your business.
If you’ve seen more bird activity than you’re comfortable with around your business, call your local professional wildlife control team for assistance. These bird experts will provide you with the best options to prevent the nuisance birds, deter them from your property, and control them to avoid a future bird infestation.
Jan 26, 2024 | Commercial, Wildlife
As much as birds are necessary, they can become a nuisance once they begin invading and damaging your business property and causing health concerns for your customers and employees. Whether it’s a restaurant, warehouse, commercial building, or store, these wildlife creatures can threaten your business’s bottom line. One of the best bird control methods to keep these birds from invading your business property is to create an undesirable environment for them. If you’re experiencing an influx of bird activity, there are several methods you can utilize to safely deter them from your business.
Common Bird Prevention Tips
Reduce Nesting Options
Create an environment less inciting to birds by removing limbs and branches from your business property. Additionally, look to routinely trim any surrounding trees around your property and if you have a lawn keep it mowed.
Utilize Deterrents
Consider mounting a plastic hawk or owl decoy on the roof of your building to scare nuisance birds away. Bird spikes and optical gel are another great tool to place on top of the building to encourage birds to perch and nest elsewhere.
Exclude Areas
Many birds are known to create nests around or under HVAC units because of the availability of water and shelter. To avoid this, consider netting or blocking off the area around your HVAC unit. If larger areas need excluding, it’s best to contact your local pest management company for assistance.
Remove Food Sources
Birds will continue to visit your property if there’s access to food sources. It’s crucial to make food and water sources inaccessible as much as possible by promptly removing all food debris and standing water. Likewise, discourage customers from feeding birds if they happen to land around your business.
Call a Professional
There are state rules and regulations on controlling birds from properties, so it’s best to contact your local wildlife control company to assist with any bird nuisance. These bird control professionals will provide you with a thorough inspection of your business and recommend the best methods to remove and prevent these birds from your property in the future.
Aug 17, 2022 | Commercial, Florida Pest Control
Miami Gardens Pest Control: Commercial Pest Control for Businesses
Dealing with a pest infestation at your business is never ideal. Our Miami-Gardens area is known for its tourism, making your business vulnerable to a pest infestation. Whether you’re dealing with rats at your restaurant, birds at your retail store, or roaches in your apartment complex, a pest infestation can be devastating to your business. Check out our top three reasons why your business needs commercial pest control.
Pests Bring Health Risks
Every business owner wants to ensure that their team and customers are healthy and safe. Pests such as rats and roaches can carry many diseases and pathogens that can be transferred to food and food surfaces, leading to contamination. Whether you are a food-handling facility or not, pests can cause a health risk to your customers and team. When you invest in a recurring pest control plan, the risks of these pests visiting your business are reduced, giving you peace of mind that your customers and team are safe.
Pests Put Your Brand at Risk
If a customer sees a pest in your business, it can be detrimental to your brand reputation. With online reviews and social media, the news of an infestation at your business can spread fast. This can lead to bad reviews, fewer customers, and financial problems. Having a preventative pest plan in place can help ensure your brand keeps its reputation.
Pests Damage Property
Certain pests can cause damage to your property, equipment, products, and even the structure of your building. Birds are known to damage a building’s structural integrity by dislodging roof tiles, destroying insulation, and even chewing through packages in search of food. These problems can lead to larger problems with costly repairs. Having a plan in place to prevent these pests from entering your business property can help ensure your business is gaining money instead of losing it.
Dealing with a pest infestation is the last thing you want to deal with at your business. Investing in a customized commercial pest control plan can help avoid these pests and allow you to get back to what matters most, your business, team, and customers. Contact your local Miami Gardens pest control company for a pest control analysis.
Jul 7, 2022 | Bed Bug, Commercial, Florida Pest Control
South Florida Bed Bug Control for Businesses
In Florida’s economy, tourism is one of the largest contributions. With major tourist attractions such as beaches and theme parks bringing in thousands of people to your business, having a bed bug infestation at your resort can be devasting for your reputation. These unwanted hitchhikers can easily sneak in through luggage, clothes, and purses. Learn more about how your hotel can avoid these pests and uphold your reputation.
Educate Housekeeping
It’s likely that housekeeping will be the first to encounter signs of bed bugs or the pests themselves. Ensure your housekeeping staff is educated on the signs of bed bugs, including finding their eggs, black stains on bed linens, strange smells, or droppings.
Schedule Routine Inspections
Consider adding frequent staff routine inspections at your hotel. Have your staff look at furniture, bedding, and walls for any underlying infestation. Bed bugs will breed in the cracks and crevices of walls and headboards, hide in curtains, and sneak into the seams of couches or chairs. Finding these pests as early as possible will help lessen the infestation.
Hire a Professional
Bed bugs are one of the most difficult pests to control, making it extremely important to have a plan ready to eliminate them. A professional exterminator that specializes in bed bug control is necessary to assess the situation at your resort and provide you with the best plan of action, treatment, and prevention plan to avoid future bed bug infestations.
Pest Control Services for Businesses
Jun 27, 2022 | Commercial, Florida Pest Control, Wildlife
Commercial Pest Control in South Florida: Restaurant Rodent Control
Florida continues to be a hot spot for food and dining. With popular tourist and local spots in Fort Myers, Bonita Springs, Naples, Miami, and many more, the restaurant industry continues to boom. As summer approaches, we can expect an uptick in restaurant reservations from those visiting. Now is the perfect time to ensure that your restaurant has placed proper preventative measures to avoid rodents.
Have a Garbage Routine
This one might be obvious, but it is one of the most crucial factors in avoiding rats and mice. Food scraps and leftovers that restaurants discard is a major attraction to these creatures. Look to remove all leftover food as soon as possible, emptying the trash cans several times a day. You will want to ensure that all trash cans and dumpsters have secure lids. Look to position the outside trash containers away from your restaurant building and entrances to help discourage rodents from entering.
Protect & Clean
In a restaurant, it’s impossible to remove all food and water that rodents are attracted to. However, you can protect and secure the food inside your restaurant. Look to cover all food until it is ready to be prepared and ensure that you’re dining, and kitchen areas are clean throughout the day. If any food spills occur, make sure you clean them up as soon as possible, remembering to check crumbs settled into crevices and along baseboards.
Keep Up Repairs
Keeping your restaurant up to date in repairs will help to prevent rodents from entering. Rats can enter buildings through gaps small as a size of a quarter, while mice only need an opening the size of a dime! To help prevent their entry, make sure that all exterior cracks and crevices are sealed, install door sweeps, repair torn window screens, and fix any water leaks.
A rodent infestation can be extremely harmful to any business, risking a negative reputation in the process. Consider investing in Commercial Wildlife Control for your South Florida restaurant, as these professionals will provide your business with a customized prevention and treatment plan.
Dec 20, 2021 | Commercial, Company News, Pest Control
Derek Foster was named the 2021 PCT Commercial Technician of the Year due to his dedication to service, safety, and industry leadership. Derek has been a Northwest teammate for almost 10 years and has served with our Commercial Pest Control division since the beginning. The entire Northwest team is excited to celebrate his win, as he’s continued to push our team to new heights, to honor our customers, and to create extraordinary experiences everywhere he goes. Learn more about PCT’s Commercial winner this year in this Teammate Q&A!
NW: How did it feel to find out you were named the 2021 PCT Commercial Technician of the Year?
Derek: When I found out that I had been named PCT Commercial Technician of the Year, it completely blew me away. I was kind of speechless at first, like, ‘Are You Serious? You’re not kidding me?’ What an honor! When I started asking questions, I thought back with how honored and thankful I am to all the people that have helped me along my journey here at Northwest for the past 9 years. I’m extremely proud to work here at Northwest Exterminating and receive this recognition for hard work. I can’t even describe how thankful I am to receive this!
NW: What made you choose Northwest initially?
Derek: I chose Northwest Exterminating 9 years ago (September 2012) because I was looking for a change from my prior 14-year career. I managed a fence manufacturing/distribution location and wanted something different where I could get out of the office, travel around a bit, be hands on, and interact with people. After interviewing and meeting multiple people at Northwest, I knew this was it and has been exactly what I wished for. Since then, everyone I have met and had the opportunity to work with within the company have been awesome.
NW: What is your favorite Northwest Service Standard?
Derek: #7 Golden Opportunities “We view a complaint or a callback not as a hassle, but as a golden opportunity to create a Customer for Life. These opportunities are our time to shine and show the customer the Northwest Difference.”
This is my favorite Northwest Service Standard because in our industry, the customer doesn’t always get a visual result for what we’ve done during their monthly or quarterly service aside from web brushing. When we receive a callback or we are approached by potential customers, it is our chance to shine! From our response time getting to those customers to our genuine concern to help them in any way that we can to make things better, the call back or customer approach also gives us some personal face to face bond time to educate and explain what we will do to take corrective action for any issues rather than just say ‘You should be good now.’ This is recognized by our customers and builds trust and value for them to know that we are there for them.
NW: What’s some advice you’d give to someone wanting to join our industry?
Derek: If I were to give someone wanting to join our industry advise, I would say be open to educate yourself in all areas and to accept knowledge and experience from others. Own your role, manage your time well, be accountable and take responsibility for all that you do, and learn from mistakes or practices that didn’t work for you in the past. Try new things and be open to growth. Find passion for what you do, have fun, and enjoy it!
NW: Outside of work, what do you enjoy doing?
Derek: Outside of work, I enjoy spending time with my family. I enjoy boating on Lake Lanier, fishing, dining, and swimming. Being from the islands, I love the beach and pretty much anything to do with water like water skiing, wakeboarding, or jet skiing. Scuba diving is probably one of the things I miss most and need to plan a dive trip the next time I’m in Florida, which is where I enjoy vacationing the most. I’d like to teach my wife and kids how to dive so they can see the underwater world. On my own time, I have a passion for wood working, concrete projects, and home improvements.
NW: Where will you be in the next 5 years?
Derek: In the next five years, you’ll find me in a management position for the 3rd Commercial Service Center here at Northwest, this with be known as Commercial North. (Editor’s Note: Derek was recently promoted to Service Supervisor of our two Atlanta Commercial locations. This vision casting is slowly but surely coming true for him and Northwest because of the team’s hard work and this type of dedication!)
Derek’s consistency in the type of teammate he shows up as for his team, customer, and community is what the Northwest Way is all about. To see this consistency, and his dedication, career enjoyment, and expertise honored by this award is something all of his Northwest Family is proud of and excited for. Derek is beyond deserving, and we’re grateful to call him part of our Northwest Family!
Congratulations, Derek!
Nov 17, 2021 | Commercial
With the holiday season arriving, your business is sure to get plenty of packages to fulfill your customers’ needs. Shipments and deliveries will be expected in and out throughout the day, unfortunately putting your business at risk of a pest infestation. We break down how you can get prepared for commercial pest control before the packages start rolling in!
Know the Signs
Understanding the signs that your delivered packages are infested is the first step to prevention. Pests will often leave infestation signs outside and inside the package. Gnawing marks in the corner of cardboard boxes or containers is a well-known indicator of a rodent infestation. Other red flags include seeing egg cases, discarded wings, insect body parts, droppings, larvae, or the actual pest inside the package. If there is a pest inside a delivery, it is best to take the package outside and isolate it.
Prepare Your Staff
Ensuring that your team understands the signs of pests within packages and deliveries is another step in pest prevention. Educate them on the types of pests they could potentially see, how to inspect each delivery, and the procedures to take if they find an actual pest.
Always Tidy Up
For many businesses, shipments and packages will be delivered either at the front of the business or have a dedicated loading dock. With any unloading area, make sure that the space is always clean and uncluttered. Have the location frequently cleaned and prohibit any food or drinks to help avoid supplying the pests with a food source.
Dealing with an unexpected pest infestation is the last thing you want to do during the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. Ensure that your business has a pest plan in place to help prevent any pest problem that can ruin your reputation.
Oct 20, 2021 | Commercial
We know your business, customers, and team are at the top of your mind; so when you spot a pest problem, you will likely ask two questions: How can you get rid of them, and where did they come from? Every business owner must be aware of what is attracting and drawing pests inside. Here we break down certain factors that could make your business vulnerable to pest invasions and some commercial pest control tips you can utilize.
Garbage & Trash
Pests need a food source to survive and trash is the perfect way for them to get it! Common pests like rodents and roaches will often seek these areas. It’s extremely important to empty the trash multiple times a day, along with keeping your business’s dumpster cleaned and maintained throughout the week. Place your trash receptacles and dumpster far away from your business building. Always make sure that the container lids are tightly sealed and always kept closed.
Irregular Cleaning
A clean business is not only appealing to customers but will also help to avoid a pest infestation. Throughout each week, regularly sweep and vacuum up food crumbs and debris from the dining areas, kitchens, break rooms, and entryways. Make sure to pay attention to areas behind furniture and appliances, as well.
Deliveries & Shipments
Packages, boxes, and containers will often host hitchhiking pests! Pests like roaches or spiders will latch onto these deliveries and easily make their way inside your business. If you can, dedicate a space inside, away from your customers, to inspect these deliveries. Some great ways to tell if there is a pest infestation, besides seeing the actual pest, is noticing any rips, tears, or holes, or seeing droppings. If you notice any of these signs of pests, take the packages outside immediately and make sure to discard the boxes away from your business.
Sep 22, 2021 | Commercial
Whether it is an outside dining space, lounge, or entry area, keeping pests away is essential in these high-traffic areas that see customers. To avoid any pest problem in your outdoor space, here are some easy maintenance tips to help keep pests away from your outdoor business space.
Keep Garbage Away
Pests like roaches, rats, and mice are all looking for a food source, often leading them to the trashcans. By placing trash cans outside, it can easily create a pest problem and even odors. Instead, place them inside your business, making sure it’s emptied and cleaned often. If trashcans are needed outside, consider investing in trashcans with covers. Trashcan covers will both help with reducing odors and keeping pests from infesting.
Check for Water
Throughout your outdoor space, keep an eye out for any standing water that could attract pests. Mosquitoes are constantly looking for standing water to breed. Frequently clean out your gutters and downspouts, as the leaves and debris can create clogs and standing water. Outdoor water features, such as fountains and ponds, should be cleaned and maintained often.
Clean it Up
Outdoor spaces where food is served should always stay as clean as possible. Spills and leftover food crumbs on the ground can attract pests right into the outdoor space and they could even find their way inside. Remove all plates, bowls, cups, and cutlery as soon as your customers leave or finish eating. Wipe tabletops down right after and sweep up any leftover food that has fallen.
Have a Pest Plan
Utilizing the above tips can help control and prevent pests from infesting, though having a customized commercial pest control plan could help even more. A trained service professional will be able to access, inspect, and provide you with the best plan of action to keep pests away from both your outdoor and indoor spaces to ensure your reputation is upheld.
