As a South Portland restaurant owner, you take pride in serving up delicious food to your guests. However, there is another kind of guest that you do not want to eat your delicious food. We are talking about cockroaches. These nasty prickly-legged creatures will make any place immediately feel filthy. Cockroaches are bad enough back in the kitchen, but if they make it out into the dining areas, where customers get a view of them, that’s a harbinger of doom for your business because of the negative reviews you’ll get online. But this is only the beginning of problems cockroaches can cause.
The Dangers Of Cockroaches in a Restaurant
Cockroaches are not only thoroughly disgusting to look at, but they pose serious health threats as well. They can make anything they touch immediately contaminated. Here are just some of the problems cockroaches can cause for a South Portland restaurant.
- Cockroaches can cause losses. If roaches are found infesting food stores, it could mean throwing out thousands of dollars worth of food.
- Cockroaches spread diseases. If roaches are allowed to roam free in a restaurant, it can mean the spread of many diseases such as salmonellosis, typhoid fever, cholera, dysentery, giardia, and plague.
- Cockroaches can make employees leave. No one wants to work in a roach-infested restaurant.
- Cockroaches can cause negative reviews and loss of customers. Word spreads of cockroaches very fast and if cockroaches are spotted in your restaurant, it could lead to your place of business getting a negative reputation extremely quickly.
- Cockroaches can cause failed health inspections. Even if word doesn’t get out about a cockroach situation at your restaurant, if a health inspector sees roaches, your business could be shut down. This can cause thousands of dollars in losses every day that it is closed.
Some Cockroach Prevention Tips
There are a number of ways in which a restaurant owner can prevent cockroaches from finding their way inside. Though all restaurants have the potential to attract roaches because of the presence of the large volume of food, here are some things you can do to stop them from invading.
- Clean up food spills promptly.
- Clean in hard-to-reach places on a regular basis. Residue can build up in places that many restaurant owners do not clean very often, like underneath ovens and in the spaces between kitchen appliances.
- Seal up all cracks and crevices. Check your foundation and outer walls for gaps and cracks where roaches could squeeze through.
- Seal up any entry points you find.
- Make sure the conditions outside are as dry as possible. Cockroaches, like many other pests, are attracted to moisture.
- Keep your outside trash in tightly sealed trash receptacles and stored away from your outer walls if possible. If roaches stay away from your outer walls, they are less likely to find their way inside.
Get Help From The Pros At Big Blue
If you need help getting roaches out of your South Portland restaurant, or you would like to prevent them from getting inside in the first place, reach out to the professionals here at Big Blue Bug Solutions. We have been in the bug business since 1935 and have helped countless homes and businesses remain cockroach-free. Big Blue Bug Solutions serves South Portland and the entire Portland metropolitan area, in addition to our branches in Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.
Don't let cockroaches ruin your restaurant. Reach out to Big Blue Bug Solutions today.