Consider all SPP sources before treating

James Rodriguez, ACE, Technical Director, J.T. Eaton & Co.

SPP can feed on more than just the food in your customers’ pantries. The hardest problems to solve are when a pantry pest infests carcasses of dead animals like rats, mice or birds that are dead in inaccessible areas.

Another difficult scenario is when SPP are in a wall void where mice have cached their food. We need to consider things like this before jumping the gun and doing a treatment.

You can eliminate most SPP infestations by locating and removing the infested product(s), vacuuming cracks and crevices, using pheromone traps and/or spot treating infested areas. Here are three more tips:

• Ask your customer about any recent or previous rodent or bird infestations, or about the use of rodenticides. Include these in your inspection.

• Protect your pheromone glue traps in high-traffic areas by placing pheromones on glue boards in multiple-catch devices.

• Once the insect is identified, have a protocol for temporary containment of stored food (plastic sheathing or plastic tubs, for example), so you can determine the level of infestation and pinpoint the source.