Factories and food production

Food production has the least tolerance for pests of any sector we work in, and the requirements are usually written down somewhere by a customer or a certification body. That makes this the most documented work we do.

The pests that matter depend on the process. Wet processes and drains bring flies and the small flies that breed in organic films inside drainage. Dry goods handling brings stored product insects, which arrive in raw materials as often as they arrive in the building. Warm plant rooms and motor housings bring cockroaches. Rodents are a constant everywhere there is material and shelter.

Our starting point on a production site is the survey rather than the treatment. Where product goes, where waste goes, where water sits, where the building is open to the outside and where the temperature stays warm are what determine the programme, and that cannot be worked out from a price list. We look at the site properly before we propose anything.

Treatment is chosen for the setting rather than for convenience. In production and storage areas that means monitoring, proofing, physical controls and targeted application into voids and harbourage rather than broadcast spraying, and it means being specific about what may be used where. Insect light traps go where they draw insects away from product rather than over it, which is a detail that gets missed surprisingly often.

Documentation is part of the job. Each visit produces a record of what was found, what was done and what needs action from your side, and the site keeps a plan of monitoring points. Where an issue needs your attention rather than ours, we say so plainly rather than treating around it, because a structural gap or a drainage problem will keep producing the same finding every month until it is fixed.

Staff make more difference than any product. Doors propped open during warm weather, waste held too long, and material stored directly against walls undo good treatment quickly, and we would rather point that out and be useful than return to the same finding.

We work with single factories and small production operations, and we are frank about scale. A multi site food manufacturer with a group audit programme is better served by Securekil, the parent business, which is built for that, and we will make the introduction.

Raw materials deserve their own attention. Stored product insects arrive in deliveries far more often than they breed in a clean building, so goods inwards is where the useful checking happens. A short inspection routine at intake catches more than any amount of treatment downstream, and it is something your own staff can do once somebody has shown them what to look for.

Maintenance and pest control overlap more here than anywhere else. Failed door seals, damaged wall junctions, standing water from a leaking fitting and drainage that does not fully clear are pest problems wearing a maintenance hat. We list them as findings so they can be scheduled and fixed, rather than treating around them month after month.