How Ants Can Damage Your Restaurant's Reputation
Your restaurant's reputation doesn't just depend on the food you cook and the service experience you give your customers. Your hygiene matters too.
If you've noticed the odd ant hanging around your kitchen, you may not be too worried. Compared to some other pests, like rodents and cockroaches, ants don't freak people out that much. You may simply have put down some powder to try to get rid of the ants. However, this can be a more serious problem than you first think. Like any pest, ants give a negative impression of your restaurant. Why is this a problem and why should you take your ants more seriously?
People Associate Pests with Bad Hygiene
You may follow every single health and safety requirement to keep your kitchen clean and hygienic. However, ants will take any opportunity they can to find a food source. You can keep food covered and protected and take care to keep all your surfaces spick-and-span, but ants may still come into your kitchen on the off chance they can find a way in.
If your customers spot ants in the restaurant, they may assume that you have a hygiene problem. They don't know how clean you keep your kitchen. They also don't know if ants have gotten into your food and their meals. At this stage, you can't guarantee this either.
The last thing you want is customers telling other people that your restaurant has a pest problem. Bad news spreads fast.
Ants Travel in Packs
Once an ant has identified your kitchen as a target, your problem is likely to get bigger. A simple spill is enough to encourage an ant into your kitchen; the ant then leaves a scent trail telling its mates that you're serving dinner. Other ants will follow this trail and come into your kitchen too. Before you know it, you might be spotting ants everywhere, even if you try to deal with the problem yourself. Some ants may move into your dining area, or you may even end up taking the odd ant to a table on a tray or plate.
You can't mess around with your restaurant's hygiene. Your kitchen may be clean, but ants aren't. If they walk in your ingredients or meals, they spread around whatever else they've walked in recently.
To solve your problem, call out a commercial pest control company as soon as you can. They can identify the ants you have and recommend the most appropriate treatment. They can also give you advice on how to ant-proof your kitchen in the future.