What Can You Do to Get Rid of Pests in Your Office?
October 05, 2020
Dealing with a bug infestation in your office can be a huge health risk for both you and your employees, especially since these bugs can follow you home through your clothes or your bag. Getting rid of any pests in your office is not a job made for a single person; everyone in the office needs to do their part to help get rid of these unwelcome visitors. Here’s how you can banish pests from your office.
Vacuum Frequently
It doesn’t matter if you have a lot of carpets at work or none at all, there are going to be a lot of crumbs that you won’t be able to notice unless you get close enough to the ground to spot them. These crumbs can be the beginning of an infestation at your office if you don’t have someone vacuum it frequently. Vacuuming also helps get rid of any dust and hair, which can be a life-changer for any employees who suffer from asthma.
Never Eat at Your Desk
Every office should emphasize this as much as possible, as this is the number one reason why pests find their way into the office in the first place. Eating at your desk is never a good idea, even if you try to be as neat as possible. You can easily miss food crumbs or droplets of sauce, which will attract insects and rodents. With their heightened sense of smell, these pests can easily find those hidden or overlooked areas that have food crumbs and liquid spills, which slowly causes an infestation.
Teach Your Employees
The best way to get rid of pests is to prevent them from coming into the office in the first place. Teaching your employees where they should be eating, how to properly dispose of their trash, and how to safely cover food to avoid attracting pests can make dealing with this issue a lot easier. Creating designated spots where your employees can eat along with any other facilities they may require can make your office permanently pest-free, as long as you maintain these areas properly.
Hire Professionals When It’s Serious
If you start noticing that the pests in your office have multiplied to a dangerous level, then it’s probably a good time to call in the professionals. The property restoration specialists over at https://www.oc-restoration.com/ state that hiring professionals to deal with an infestation can help keep your office pest-free for a very long time, as they deal with the root cause of the problem directly. This saves your office precious working hours, as having pests roaming around can be very distracting and unsettling for your employees. Make sure you talk to the professionals you hired about where the issue came from and how you can prevent it from happening again in the future.
Be Careful of the Things you Leave Overnight
Leaving the office with some leftover food sitting uncovered on your desk or even inside your bin can attract tons of different pests while you’re away. This is also the case with used cups that still have a few drops of liquid in them. Leaving cups of juice or coffee out in the open can attract quite a few unwelcome guests. If you throw any food in the bin next to your desk, make sure you take out the trash before you leave the office, otherwise, its contents will likely surprise you the next morning.
Declutter Your Storage Area
Food isn’t the only thing that attracts insects; cluttered areas around the office can be the perfect breeding spots for them too. Offices with storage areas for products or paperwork often struggle with insect infestations because of the clutter. Decluttering these areas and neatly organizing them can greatly reduce the chances of insects finding refuge in there.
Prioritize Cleaning Certain Areas
Hiring a cleaning crew to clean the entire office every day can be very costly and unnecessary. Ranking areas by how much cleaning they require can help you reduce the number of hours you’re paying any cleaning service by having them primarily focus on specific spots around the office. These spots usually include the kitchen and the bathrooms, as they’re typically the areas that require the most attention. Using this strategy and instructing your staff to keep their desks clean can cut on cleaning costs while simultaneously making the office cleaner.
Learn How to Spot the Signs
Knowing when the office is riddled with pests can be very difficult if you don’t know what you’re looking for. Signs like holes in the walls, bad smells, or damaged furniture can indicate that there are rodents inside the office. Spotting these signs as early as possible can make dealing with these rodents a lot easier since pests multiply very quickly when they’re left unnoticed.
Check the Plants
Having indoor plants can make the office look very elegant, but if you’re using real plants with real soil, you’ll need to make sure that they don’t become the new home of an ant colony. Spraying your plants with insecticide and grooming them as often as needed can help you avoid any issues.
Schedule Plumbing Maintenance Regularly
Water leaks from any pipes hidden behind walls are like an oasis in the middle of the desert for insects and rodents. You’ll most likely begin noticing signs of an infestation long before you spot the leaking pipe that caused these pests to come around. Getting a plumber to inspect the pipes around your office for any leaks can be a great way to prevent any pests from making your office’s walls their new home.
Preventing pests from invading your office takes a lot less effort than getting rid of them, so try your best to keep them from ever coming in. Ensuring that both you and your employees are fully aware of the risks caused by eating at the desks or leaving uncovered food lying around can help prevent any pests from coming to the office in the first place. Knowing how to handle an infestation is also very important, so make sure you do your research on the type of insect or rodent you’re dealing with.