Professionals managing hospitals or any other medical facility face many challenges to keep their patients safe. They frankly have enough to deal with – they don’t need the many issues that fruit flies can bring with them.
Because fruit flies seem non-threatening, people tend to just shoo them away, but you could be waving away a potential problem. Why make sure fruit flies don’t check in to your medical facility? Here are just a few reasons:
They will follow food carts. They are attracted to food and can carry food-borne illnesses. So not only are they regurgitating and defecating on whatever food they land on, but they can transmit an illness to it. That could be a patient’s lunch.
Nurse‘s stations tend to get overrun. The most important people in a hospital are arguably the nurses. Ask them how it feels to be waving fruit flies away as they’re trying to converse with a patient’s family. The nurses need to focus on their patients, not on flies or where they are coming from.
Fruit flies are associated with filth. Hospitals deal with many rules and regulations and meeting the highest level of sanitation while caring for their patients is just one of them. Even the perception that a medical facility is dirty can do irreparable damage to its reputation.
Dialysis areas are a draw for fruit flies. The by-products or waste drawn out of the blood during dialysis create a biofilm on drain walls that attracts some flies that feed and breed in the biofilm. Oftentimes, the patients coming in for dialysis are immune compromised in the first place. The food-borne illnesses fruit flies can carry with them could be deadly. They will go wherever there is sugar. Glucose is commonly given to patients intravenously to treat everything from low blood sugar to dehydration. Those are very broad terms and can be a side effect of several of the inflictions people come to the hospital for. Glucose is a sugar solution. You know who loves sugar? Ever have a banana on your counter that has gotten out of hand and now there are fruit flies all over it? That’s the sugar a rotting piece of fruit gives off that flies are very attracted to.
The best way to keep a medical facility protected from pests like flies and the illnesses they could bring with them is to have a professional pest control company come in on a regular basis. Even if you don’t see a fly, they can be breeding in the drains, traveling in through opening doors, or hitching a ride in on the many patients, visitors, and staff members that are coming in and out of the facility every day.
Your facility needs a professional pest control company that will come in and connect the dots. Western will not just look at where the fruit flies are – but will find the source of the infestation and deal with THAT. And Western is more of a partner than a pest control company. Western will educate you and your staff on best sanitation practices and methods to help keep flies – and other dangerous pests – out of your facility. We are experts at identifying the sanitation and structural deficiencies that are directly contributing to ongoing pest problems – or can lead to them.
The Integrated Pest Management (IPM) plan Western puts in place not only gets rid of pests, but it ensures they don’t return. The benefits of a professional pest management program often far outweigh any associated costs. In the long run, it could save the facility valuable funds due to the proactive preventive measures put in place as well as save possible future costs of dealing with larger infestations.
Not only is it truly a health issue, but it’s a best practice. If you manage a healthcare facility, the best thing you can do is contact Western Pest Services right now and start the process – for the good of your patients, your staff, your building, and your reputation.