The Importance of Pest Control During a Pandemic

If you’re a property owner, never underestimate the importance of pest control especially during a pandemic. Without proper prevention and extermination in the event of an infestation, some horrible things can go wrong that will cause problems for not only your premises but also the wellbeing of people. Pest management is involved with the safety of your health, your foods, and the protection of your property.

The implementation of lockdown or work from home has created a fertile breeding ground for bed bugs, roaches, and rodents, especially at multi-occupant, assisted living, and hospitality properties. Even if you don’t have a pest problem now, pest prevention is always easier than pest reaction. Delaying treatment and the implementation of preventive programs has the potential to bring an explosion of infestations later.

Here are a few reasons why you should remember the importance of pest control during a pandemic.

Prevent Physical Damage to the Buildings and Fittings

During a pandemic crisis, governments around the world have ordered the shutdown of non-critical businesses and services to reduce the transmission of the virus to protect the population. Other buildings that operate essential services may have cut the number of staff as only essential workers are regularly on site. Thus, many premises lying empty or with much reduced human presence, resulting in a higher risk of pest and maintenance problems.

With no or few people and little activity, these buildings have become a perfect habitat for several pests. Empty buildings during the lockdown can provide an ideal harborage for pests to shelter and breed. Pests can damage parts of the premises to access and get around buildings to find food and nesting places. Pests numbers can rapidly increase with access to food supplies, including unemptied food waste bins.

We have heard of some local authorities curtailed the recycling and collection of food waste for the duration of the lockdown. Hence, it increases the incidence of pest activity if householders do not dispose of their food waste and organic matter carefully and safely in line with local authority advice. Another problem is that if a building is left empty for an extended period, the insurance policy may not provide cover.

The importance of pest control during a pandemic is it can prevent a large pest infestation that is much harder to eradicate. Also, it prevents contamination of the site with debris from nesting material and droppings. Pest control protects your buildings from further risks caused by pest activity. Action now will keep your building pest-free, safe, and ready to use when the lockdown is lifted, and business operations are restarted.

Pests can destroy and affect the saleability, liveability, and value of your property. A professional pest control service can provide an integrated pest management plan that controls pests efficiently and discreetly to protect your building, stock, equipment, and provides a safe place for your staff. Ahead of food premises re-opening, a pest management inspection of them ideally by a field biologist depending on the site auditing standards would be beneficial.

Protect People Health

The pest control reduces risk to the health and wellbeing of staff and customers from pest activity. Pest management professionals are now formally recognized as ‘key workers,’ highlighting the importance of public health pest management during a pandemic. In addition to spreading diseases, the presence of pest infestations causes stress and anxiety.

Some common pests, which include roaches, fleas, and mosquitoes, can transmit deadly diseases. You can suffer from malaria, dengue, plague, and asthma. It can be incredibly challenging to know where pests are going to show up first. Monitoring and inspection are crucial, but many miss “hot spots” for pests if you aren’t looking in the right places. If this happens, pests are free to breed and spread undetected until you have infestation levels that are expensive and time-consuming.

Southeast Asian countries are bracing for possible outbreaks of infectious diseases that show symptoms similar to those of the novel coronavirus ahead of the rainy season. Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne viral disease common to tropical and subtropical regions, including Southeast Asia. Treatments for these seasonal infections are very different from those for COVID-19, complicating the work of front-line medical workers.

Symptoms include fever, headache, and muscle aches. Severe cases can be deadly. There is no known no vaccine or drug that can prevent the disease. Southeast Asia is also bracing for seasonal influenza, which spreads more quickly during the rainy season when the weather is cooler. The rainy season begins in May in Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Myanmar, and other countries (Koya Jibiki, 2020).

The difficulty for health care workers is that dengue fever and influenza have early symptoms similar to those of the coronavirus. Patients may have trouble getting the appropriate treatment. Besides the problems with early diagnosis, the simultaneous spread of multiple diseases will put more pressure on Southeast Asia’s fragile health care systems.

The risk of dengue will increase when countries start opening more business sectors, as plenty of the premises have not been in use for months. It would be best to improve the level of cleanliness in your buildings and environment, especially places where water stagnates, such as pools and toilets that are all potential places for the Aedes mosquito to breed. Together with proper pest control management, you can prevent dengue outbreaks.

Prevent Costly Termite Damage

The importance of pest control during a pandemic is it reduces the costs of an infestation to business as a result of contamination, damage, or consumption by pests. Termites may be as small and look as harmless as ants, but they can cause costly damages to properties. The structural damage that will occur if your building is infested by damaging bugs like termites will eventually lead to even more expensive repairs.

Pest control plays a crucial role in enabling essential businesses and organizations to provide safe products and services, prevent disease outbreaks, and reduce downtime risk. Pest infestations will delay the return of a building to normal use when the coronavirus lockdown restrictions are lifted. By using pest control services during this time, infestations can be monitored and dealt with quickly, and costs can be significantly reduced.

Protecting health and safety is the mission of all pest control providers, including Atalian Global Services. Our services are an essential way to help prevent the spread of disease, and our eco-friendly products help protect people and the environment. It is vital to have a system of control for pests for the safety of the overall public. It will also reassure staff and customers that a building is safe to work in or visit.

We are adhering to CDC Guidelines and will maintain 6 feet of distance from others to further protect against the spread of the virus. Our technicians are equipped with the proper Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to safeguard everyone during a site visit. They were also practising appropriate handwashing and sanitation techniques before and after every appointment. Even during routine times, we always use cleaned and sanitized equipment.

During a pandemic, our technicians have increased the frequency of sanitations for your peace of mind. The easiest way to keep your buildings safe from pests is to contact us.