These areas are important factors that can influence the presence of pest activity by acting as pest reservoirs or by providing routeways for rodents or flying insects to occur on the adjacent property.  

The presence of these areas can influence the shape of pest monitoring and pest control programmes. They can influence the quantity or location of pest monitors and even influence where external rodent monitoring could be concentrated, for example to intercept incoming rodent activity.

Woodland areas and watercourses can result in small, flying insects being carried on airstreams into buildings.

In old buildings the building fabric may be susceptible to pest activity. It can provide easier access for pests to enter via gaps and holes into the building or to penetrate wall voids etc.  

New and purpose-built facilities present a lower risk of pest ingress into the building fabric, because they are usually designed to reduce the risk of pest access and pest harbourage within the building.

For example, external metal wall cladding panels with a securely sealed base are effective in excluding rodents.

A ‘shared’ property significantly increases the risk of infestation from adjacent premises because pests can move from one building to another.

If the neighbouring property has pests present, and pest prevention measures are lacking or absent, this will significantly increase the risk of pests migrating from one property to another.

This can occur along cable and pipe routeways, through wall cavities or via connecting roof voids and underfloor voids.

Good quality proofing and good door discipline is essential. If open wall cavities, holes and gaps are present in the external building fabric, there is a risk of pest ingress into the building.

The presence of wall cladding or thermal outer layers can create a ‘double skin’ that provides harbourage for rodents and allows them to ascend the building.

Open-ended conduits supplying pipes or cabling from the street outside provide a significant risk of pest ingress. Pipes and cables are frequently used by pests as a routeway into buildings.

These areas should be checked, and any gaps sealed. Monitoring is recommended.

Poor quality drainage or areas of standing water may result in flying insect activity, such as flies and other small invertebrates (eg rove beetles – staphylinidae) which can appear in large numbers.

Appropriate monitoring measures should be used to highlight outbreaks of high numbers of flying insects. It will also highlight the need for the removal of standing water or for drain cleaning in localised areas.

Relatively inaccessible high level areas can be difficult to clean and difficult to inspect on a regular basis, allowing rodent or insect pest activity to develop undetected and to spread to adjacent areas.

These areas can present a significant risk of pest activity, especially in dry food-powder environments. For monitoring and control ensure an appropriate cleaning and inspection schedule is in place. If possible, deploy monitors in some inaccessible areas for periodic checking.

Consider how long ago an incident occurred, where, why, its cause and what was its severity?

Were there any risks to food safety as a result of a previous pest incident? Did it result in a customer complaint or were significant economic costs incurred? Ensure appropriate safeguards are in place to prevent a recurrence of a critical pest incident.

For organic or ‘non-toxic’ sites, many forms of non-toxic monitoring are available and a non-toxic system will require more frequent checks of the non-toxic rodent monitors.

Therefore, the presence of a suitably trained member of staff might be necessary to ease the burden of additional checks otherwise carried out by the pest contractor. Ideally, on non-toxic sites, internal rodent monitors should be checked weekly by a trained, competent person, and the pest contractor should provide visits every 4 weeks.

This is because the usual interval of 6 weeks (8 visits a year) between service visits is too long, as rodents can become established in a building during the 6 week period.

High risk areas such as raw material and finished product storage areas could require monitoring for stored product moths or crawling insects.

There is a high risk of SPI activity at dried food sites, powdered dry food sites and pet food manufacturing sites. In areas such as bakeries and flour mills, monitoring for stored product insects adjacent to machinery might be required. This will highlight the risk of any increase in insect activity and will also highlight a need for targeted cleaning to reduce the risk of increased SPI activity. Typically, moth pheromone traps are serviced are eight times per year.

IPMIC Ltd can provide help and technical support for independent third party audits regarding food safety and the quality of pest management. We can advise on pest-related matters, assess quality standards and verify compliance to company standards and codes of practice.

Unbiased third-party audits assist with your programme of continuous development for pest management on site.

High risk areas. Flies present a significant risk in high-risk food areas, especially where ready-to-eat food products are present.

This is because flies are vectors of foodborne pathogens and, in high-risk areas, food may support the growth of pathogenic micro-organisms transmitted by flies. Such microbial contamination presents a risk to public health because the food may not be exposed to further treatments that would otherwise destroy pathogenic micro-organisms, prior to being eaten.

The restricted use of pest monitors in high risk zones places a greater emphasis on good quality visual inspections of the building fabric, floors, drains and machinery.

Pest monitors and fly control units can be strategically deployed in adjacent, low-care areas to intercept rodents or flying insects before they enter high-risk areas. When electric fly control units are deployed in a high risk environment, their purpose is to demonstrate an absence of flying insect activity, and to intercept any individual flies that might stray into the area.

Consider the primary source for previous flying insect activity. External sources could cause higher numbers of blowflies or moths to be present, and an internal source may cause higher numbers of drain flies or fruit flies to occur.

Consider if appropriate control measures are in place to reduce the risk to finished product.

Dry food sites are susceptible to a wide variety of stored product insect pests.

Food sites particularly at risk are those handling or processing the following commodities: Rice, dried vegetables, herbs, dried fruit, cocoa beans, nuts, chocolate, grain, cereal-based products or dry-powdered food products such as dried milk or infant formula.

High risk areas would include raw material storage areas, food production machinery and finished product storage areas.

Ensure that an appropriate insect monitoring strategy is in place for the detection of insect pests associated with the food being handled on site.

Facilities handling dry food products have a high risk of stored product moth and stored product beetle activity. Therefore a review of existing SPI monitoring measures is recommended. Are there any monitors in place for stored product moths?

Are there any monitors in place for stored product crawling insects? Is the distribution of SPI monitors appropriate? Is the type of SPI monitor appropriate for the species being monitored (for example, are blunder traps or pheromone traps more appropriate)?

Cereal based food products, meat and fish based products are especially attractive to insect pests.

Therefore, in the production area, any accumulated food debris present inside machinery significantly increases the risk of insect pest activity.

On food production sites, a significant risk of insect activity can occur when:- Food process machinery is run constantly and only stopped briefly or occasionally to allow for cleaning. When food debris accumulates in food process machinery in areas that are difficult to access for frequent cleaning.

Set up an inspection schedule for machinery and coordinate access between the pest control contractor, Hygiene Department, Electrical Department and Engineering Department – to ensure that high risk process machinery is accessible for more frequent cleaning and for SPI inspections to be carried out during the year.

High risk equipment would include:- silos, hoppers, weighers, mixers, storeveyors, conveyors (especially less accessible, overhead conveyors), and dust extraction units. Additional areas would include motor housing areas and electrical areas such as electrical cabinets or electrical switch units.

To reduce the risk of increased SPI activity:- Appropriate crawling insect monitors or moth pheromone traps should be deployed. Frequent cleaning schedules should be in place. An inspection schedule for plant and equipment is recommended.

The type of fly control unit used can influence the frequency of service visits. Many sites using fly control units with electrified grids are serviced 4 times a year. However, when using glue board units, the glue boards can fill quickly during the summer months (especially if they are located near external doors).

Once full, the lack of an adhesive surface on the glue boards means that the fly control unit is no longer effective for intercepting flies. This therefore significantly increases the risk of contamination for food and packaging in production areas.

Doorways in goods-in or dispatch areas usually experience higher levels of flying insect activity.

Improvements could be made by installing automatic roller doors, fitting self-closing mechanisms to pedestrian doors or fly-strip curtains to external doors. These measures will reduce the risk of pest ingress.

Crawling insects are usually casual intruders, but some species such as house crickets (Acheta domesticus) or booklice (Psocids) can complete their life cycle inside the building and present a risk to food and packaging.

Depending on the history of crawling insect activity, and the species concerned, a specific crawling insect monitoring strategy might be required.

Ensure appropriate monitoring is in place for house cricket activity because infestations can be difficult to eradicate once they become established. Crickets will find harbourage in inaccessible gaps, holes, cracks and crevices and also in conduits for cables and piping. This hinders targeted treatments, making control measures difficult and slow.

House crickets pose a significant risk and can occur in raw material storage areas, packaging stores, production areas, finished product storage areas and boiler houses. If there has been a history of house cricket activity on site, a greater level of vigilance is required and there should be a greater emphasis on insect monitoring to allow for the early detection of any new activity.

Increased levels of monitoring could include areas such as wall-floor junctions, overhead ledges and along cable and pipe route ways. If possible, deploy crawling insect monitors adjacent to machinery at risk or adjacent to motor housing areas or along electrical cable trunking.

German cockroaches prefer warm, moist environments especially where plant and machinery are present. They can be found inside tray wash plant, motor housings, under machine panels, inside electrical switch boxes, fridge motor areas and vending machines.

German cockroaches can readily climb smooth surfaces to occupy gaps, crevices and voids for harbourage. Once established, populations can be difficult to eradicate. If there has been a history of German cockroach activity, ensure a greater level of vigilance and positive reporting by staff is in place.

Monitoring should be increased and detailed inspections should be carried out. If necessary, ensure that high risk plant or equipment is visually inspected as part of a regular inspection schedule. This will enable localised, targeted treatments to be carried out if required.

Oriental cockroaches can occur in warm voids, drains, waste/compactor areas, cellars, boiler houses and pipe ducts. They will exploit spaces and voids inside processing equipment.

They will travel extensively from their point of harbourage and can travel up to 100 metres in search of food. Ensure that extended monitoring is in place and that detailed inspections are carried out. This will enable localised, targeted treatments to be carried out if required.

SPIs are associated with dried food products including cereal products, nuts, dried fruit, spices, seeds, powdered milk, tea and preserved meats.   Some SPI species are able to enter packaging such as paper, cardboard, plastic cellophane and foil. Access holes are very small, and some insects are able to penetrate tiny gaps in pouches or packaging that has not been fully hermetically sealed. This can allow SPIs to develop inside packages of finished product.  

Once inside finished product packaging (or in other areas where accumulated food debris occurs), all stages of insect development can be present (eggs, larvae pupae and adult). Ensure that appropriate monitors are deployed for stored product beetles and dry food-product moths. Also ensure that appropriate visual inspections are carried out on product stored in high risk storage areas.

To allow for the early detection and control of stored product insect activity in high risk areas key plant and equipment in the production area should be monitored and inspected. This would include high risk machinery such as:- DCE units, conveyors and screw conveyors, plansifters, cyclones, weighers, enrobers and filling lines.

Any equipment where dead air spaces may cause food debris to accumulate such as air handling systems, ducts, chutes or pneumatic conveyors. Peripheral locations next to the main production area are also high risk areas because these can harbour stored product insects and cause the re-infestation of production machinery after it has been cleaned.

There are many potential peripheral high risk areas, but typical examples would include electrical switch boxes, electrical conduits, electrical cable ladders, overhead horizontal surfaces and ledges and wall floor junctions in the food production areas.