Long term, a professionally maintained pest management routine complete with regular check-ins is vital to ensuring the health and safety of the people that live and work in your facility. It’s also the best way to avoid the potential pest PR disaster in the age of social sharing. There are some simple steps that you, your tenants and your maintenance staff can take daily to help keep pests at bay. Lots of these double as cost-cutting measures, as they’ll help preserve your property. Post them in your facilities to help spread awareness and get more people on board with keeping pests out.

Clean Counters: Use a combination of vinegar and water to wipe down counters in break rooms. Not only does it contain less harsh chemicals, but it also removes all food particles and smells that may attract a variety of pests. Simply create a solution using equal parts water and vinegar and clean as you normally would.

Put a Lid On It: Open trash receptacles are essentially extending an open invite to your pest friends into your facility. A simple investment in a garbage can with a full lid can do wonders for preventing ants and other bugs from feasting in your building. Same goes for those mini trash bins many office workers keep in cubicles. More snack wrappers, discarded lattes and other food waste ends up in these than you might realize.

Cut the Water: Bugs and mice are attracted to water. Like us, they need it to survive. Fix leaky faucets and make sure tenants know who to report leaks to.

Rinse and Repeat: If possible, advise tenants to rinse beverage containers, soup cans, and other recyclables before disposing of them. This will remove remaining food particles and odors that may attract bugs.

Drain Control: Advise your tenants or cleaning service crew to schedule professional drain and chute cleanings regularly. Contaminated chute can lead to costly infestations. Avoid this risk and schedule a cleaning for twice a year.

Of course, don’t forget that the best way to prevent pest infestations is by having regular inspections done by a professional pest control company like Assured Environments.