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The Impact of Pests on Retailers

Retail stores have a unique challenge when it comes to pests. Frequently, open doors, storage spaces and a lot of foot traffic mean easy access for different kinds of pests. While retailers strive to maintain a clean store to make a good impression on customers and keep their products in good condition, it only takes one customer seeing a mouse or cockroach to hurt your store’s reputation.

Top 3 Worst Pests for Retail

No pest is welcome in a retail store, but there are a few that are especially dangerous.

Mice

Mice are the largest and most visible pests usually found in retail stores. In colder areas like Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, and Washington DC, mice fight to come indoors and get away from the winter temperatures. It’s hard to miss a mouse running across the floor, and that always sends customers running in the opposite direction. Mice will chew through wires, damage clothing and even spread disease.

Birds

Birds fly in through open doors and get confused by indoor lighting. They are hard to capture and get out of a building. Not only are they distracting to shoppers, but their droppings also cause a huge mess.

Cockroaches

Cockroaches are correlated with dirtiness, so they are a blight on the reputation of any retail store. Keeping trash cans emptied and food out of your store is a big step towards discouraging cockroaches.

Treatment plans

Treating a pest issue in a home is much different from in a retail store. For one thing, the size of a building plays a huge role in the pest control strategy. At home, you could put a few bug bombs in the house and kill off most of your problems. In a retail store, it just wouldn’t be feasible to use the same tactic since all the merchandise would be contaminated. It is usually not possible to shut down the store to do pest treatments since the store needs to make money. Your pest control strategy has to work around your customers and your open hours.

Every treatment plan has to be tailored to fit the individual retail store. No two stores are alike, so you need a professional to come in and assess all the variables and give you some effective treatment options.

Contact Presto Pest Control today to schedule a consultation. If you own a retail store, you can’t afford to let a pest problem get out of hand. It is better to get your building checked out and prevent pests than it is to wait until an infestation occurs.