How To Deal With Bed Bugs In Your Restaurant

Even though bed bugs are found in the cleanest of homes and all kinds of businesses, there's still a stigma associated with having them. If your restaurant customers get itchy welts after dining in your establishment, it won't be long until word spreads, especially in the time of social media, and your business suffers. There isn't much you can do to prevent bed bugs since so many people come in your restaurant, but you can take steps to eliminate the pests quickly once they're present. Here are some steps for bed bug control that may help.

Identify The Bugs And Their Location

If you suspect there are bed bugs in your restaurant, call a pest control company right away. They can verify the presence of the bugs through searching or by using a dog trained to sniff out the bugs. It's also important to learn where the bugs are located. They may be isolated in an employee break room, your office, or the waiting bench in your restaurant. Figuring out where the bugs are located helps the pest control company plan the best way to eradicate them.

Move Infested Pieces Of Furniture

Your entire restaurant may not be infested by bed bugs. A likely place is where many different people sit, such as an easy chair or upholstered waiting bench at the entrance. If bugs are in just one item of furniture, then removing it could be a quick solution to the problem and keep the bugs from spreading. First, the bench or chair should be covered with plastic so bugs don't fall off it when moving. Then, the furniture can be taken outside or to the pest control company for treatment. You may even want to destroy the furniture and replace it with something new.

Use Dry Ice Or Heat On Furniture

Both heat and cold will kill bed bugs, so the pest control company may go over all the furniture in your restaurant with steam heat or dry ice vapor to kill stray bugs. The employee area is another place that needs close inspection and possible treatment since an employee could be bringing in the bugs from home. If bugs are found on employee coats or belongings, the items should be bagged to contain the bed bugs until the employee can remove them from your building. Then, the break room or locker room can be treated with dry ice or steam.

In the case of a severe infestation, a heating unit may need to be used in your building that heats up the entire space to a high enough temperature to kill the bugs. This gets rid of bugs that may be hiding between the walls or other hidden places where steam or dry ice vapor can't reach.