The Name & Shame List – Striking fear into the hearts of every restaurant owner

Most people I know will check all the usual review sites such as Eatability, Urbanspoon, or TripAdvisor before we will book a place to eat, particularly in the Campbelltown area.

Every couple of months I’ll sit down with a mate and (eagerly) prepare ourselves to be scandalised by seeing which of our local restaurants have made the NSW Food Authority’s Name and Shame List, and it seems like we’re not the only ones who are doing it!

Just this month the NSW Food Authority revealed the Name and Shame List has received 7 million hits since it had been launched in 2008.

  

    We treat over 3500 businesses. Our services can be found here: www,provenpest.net/Campbelltown

If you haven’t heard about this list before, it is a website that publicly names businesses that have failed to meet food safety standards. Amongst complaints from diners, it also includes pest violations (13%), and a general lack of hygiene and sanitation (35%).

Put this List on top of the number of review sites used in Australia, and restaurateurs now have a lot more to worry about.

 

Flies may often be waved away as being nothing other than a small problem, but the hard facts about them are worrying. Flies can carry more than 100 known pathogens, and can also spread diseases such as E.coli and salmonella. Diseases like these can have serious, and even fatal consequences when introduced into the body. An unsafe situation like this will not only get a restaurant put onto the Name and Shame List, but onto the front page of the paper as well.

Five ways to prevent Irritable Fly Syndrome (IFS)

If there’s one thing less appetising than a colony of flies invading your lunch, it’s the heady waft of fly spray used to battle them.

Rentokil experts have devised this five-point plan to help assist with common problems that can draw flies.

1. Empty bins regularly, and ensure that food is always sealed tightly away in plastic bags. Make sure that the bin lid is also kept firmly closed.
2. Take away customers’ plates and cups as soon as possible, and regularly wipe down surfaces where food is present.
3. As well as front-of-house, ensure kitchen worktops, sinks, and appliances are always kept clean, especially before close.
4. Regularly disinfect the floor and drains.
5. Install an electronic insect control unit.

Winter is Coming, Rodents invade Campbelltown

There’s no escaping that we are living in an environment that is becoming increasingly harsh within the Macarthur area. From the searing heat waves, to the sustained periods of droughts followed by severe flooding, it’s these extreme and quick shifts in our climate that are having a remarkable impact on the evolution of our indigenous and successful non-indigenous fauna. These evolutions are also making it easier for these pests to modify the main key to their survival: being able to adapt rapidly to the new fluctuations in the environment they live in.

  Get a pest problem? Contact us here: www.provenpest.net/Campbelltown

Rat

There is a saying that goes along the lines of, “Make hay while the sun shines.” This certainly rings true for our wildlife, and none more so that intrusive species like the Norway and roof rats. When conditions are right, they will increase their breeding cycle to make use of the new abundance of food. This also happens to be what is occurring now, and due to this factor we have seen an increase in the amount of rat activity in the Campbelltown area.

Rats, such as the Norway and the Roof, are very effective at exploiting small gaps into a property, and once they have established themselves they can cause a lot of damage in a rather short amount of time. Rats also pose a real health risk, and are even known to transmit diseases to humans such as salmonellosis and Weil’s disease.

We are often asked how to prevent rats from entering the home in the first place, and provided below are some helpfulhints to combat this issue.

• Keep your home in good repair. Rats only need a gap a thickness of 15mm to gain entry into your home.
• Remove potential nesting sites by keeping yards and gardens clean and tidy. Be sure to also cut back overgrown areas and remove any fallen fruit in your yard.
• Seal gaps around waste water pipes and air-conditioning units.
• Install pest exclusion mesh over building vents and weep holes.
• Do not leave household waste where rats can gain access to it. Close the lids to the rubbish bin and composters, and do not feed wild birds as you may be feeding the rats as well.
• Keeping chickens, pigeons, and other caged birds in your yard may attracted rats into your property.
• Rats are very adept climbers and can exploit hanging tree limbs to gain access to your home via the roof. Be sure to trim any overhanging or touching tree limbs.
• Avoid having items such as shade cloth attached to a fence. This will act as a highway for rats when traveling along the fence to climb up onto your roof.
• Ensure that all down spouts connect directly into the storm drain and are not left open at ground level. An easy solution to this is to install a metal gutter ball to top of the down spout. This will act in helping to stop rats from climbing onto the roof through the pipe.

It comes back to the old saying of, “An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure!” But if you’ve tried all of these methods and are still having ongoing problems, you need to call on the professionals to help you out.www.provenpest.net/Campbelltown

Avoiding Pest Infestations

Many  problems and pest infestations are easily avoided rather than treating them once they’ve become well and truly established, it is surprisingly simple to help give yourself the edge when it comes to doing it. 

Stay on Top of Repairs

Protecting yourself from pest infestations is no more demanding than doing a bit of routine maintenance to keep your home in good repair. Cracks in the masonry, gaps under the doors or holes in the roof can all roll out the welcome mat to unwanted guests, and once they’re in, they likely to want to stay – and bring their friends!

So if you don’t really want to be inviting everything from rodents to silverfish, fill those cracks and fix those gaps as quickly as they appear.

Remove and Seal all Food sources

When it comes to their creature comforts, pests are pretty similar to people, which is probably why they seem to love living alongside us – which means that something to eat is even higher up the list of ‘must-haves’ than a place to stay! 

The trick is to avoid making it too easy for them to find themselves a free meal. Tidying food away and cleaning up after you’ve eaten are obvious tips to keep your food to yourself, but it’s not just about the crumbs from your table. Don’t forget that some pests eat rather odd – and often seemingly unsavoury – things, so make sure you keep your rubbish properly covered, moths out of your wardrobes and tidy away any pet food – and droppings – before they attract any unwelcome attention from ravenous rats or hungry houseflies.

Keep it Clean!

Most pests thrive in secret. Give them a quiet, undisturbed corner, with somewhere to hide away from human sight and they’ll happily get on with the business of being a pest entirely unbeknownst to you, until it’s too late and one or two have multiplied into hordes!

The solution is obvious – keep things tidy and cut down on anything that provides these nuisance species with places to lurk. You don’t have to get all obsessional about it, or turn into a candidate for the next re-make of the Stepford Wives, but a bit of a basic de-clutter can work wonders. It’s a good tip for the greenhouse or garden shed too and could help you avoid a whole range of problems, ranging from mice to botrytis and a whole lot in between! 

They say cleanliness is next to Godliness; well, that may or may not be true – but it certainly is a long way along the road to pest-less-ness. 

Know what to look for

You often see the signs of a pest long before you see the thing itself, so one of the best ways to avoid a minor nuisance turning into a major infestation is to be able to recognise the tell-tale symptoms early. It would be an impossible undertaking to try to learn the warning signs for every single pest that you could ever encounter, but it really is well worth getting to know them for the most common ones. 

For gardeners, for example, it’s a good idea to be able to recognise the early wilting caused by aphids, or the pattern that leaf-miners leave behind them, while knowing the unmistakable look of a flea bite is a must for pet owners! Whatever you keep, grow or collect, if there’s a particular pest that’s likely to cause a problem, learning what to look for can make all the difference in the long run.

Be Aware

Avoiding pest problems can sometimes seem like an unending battle, and in many ways it is; there’s a vast reservoir of beasts, bugs and other assorted bothersome blighters in the world and sooner or later, one or two of them are almost guaranteed to turn up on your doorstep. The bottom line is that you always need to keep your guard up – so stay vigilant. 

With a bit of luck, if you follow these few, simple preventative measures, you may never be bothered by anything more serious than an errant mosquito or a few wasps at your BBQ, but if you do happen to spot something worse developing – act and act quickly. The real trick to all this is to stop a small pest problem turning into a bigger one!

                                           

For great rates on pest control anywhere in the Campbelltown area.

Call us today on 1300 08 25 52

Or visit our website at: www.Provenpest.net/Campbelltown