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The Financial Cost of Pest Infestation to a Business

Be they rats, mice, squirrels, cockroaches, bed bugs or pharaoh ants, the presence of pests in any commercial establishment can have serious financial implications for business owners in more ways than one. Why? Because it’s not only damage to buildings, merchandise, equipment and foodstuffs that businesses must contend with when dealing with the repercussions of a pest infestation – it’s the damage caused to reputations, staff morale and productivity as well. In severe cases, there is also the potential of hefty fines and litigation from regulatory authorities that may have to be faced, which may even lead to an establishment being temporarily or permanently closed down. As such, it is absolutely imperative that all commercial operators have a robust and reliable pest control for business strategy in place, as the financial risks of doing nothing are simply too perilous to leave to chance.

Let’s consider the significant financial impact pests can have on business operations.

Damage to Property, Goods and Food

When considering pest species, what businesses must remember is that no matter if the pests are of rodent or insect varieties, it is wild animals they are dealing with. By nature, wild animals are incredibly adaptive. They make a living scavenging and hunting for whatever food and materials they can scrounge in the environment they find themselves in. If this environment happens to be your commercial property, nothing that an invading species can eat or otherwise utilise for its survival is safe from the damage the species can cause.

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Take rats and mice, for example. These animals have incredibly sharp incisor teeth which are β€œopen rooted”, meaning they continuously grow throughout the rodents’ lifespans and so have to be worn down by gnawing. Any hard material is suitable for this purpose – including wood, concrete and metal – and a trail of damage and destruction will be left in the rodents’ wake wherever they are present. They will chew through skirting boards, walls, beams, fixtures and fittings, all of which must either be repaired or replaced, incurring significant costs for the business. Rodents will even chew through electrical wiring, causing extensive damage to electrical equipment (a particular problem for businesses that rely on expensive or high-tech machinery), as well as posing a serious fire hazard. As such, a robust pest control for business solution is as much about safety as it is about damage control.

Of course, rats and mice don’t just cause damage when looking after their teeth. They will also chew through softer items – including cardboard, paper and furniture upholstery – when gathering material to build their nests or when plundering storage areas for food. Commercial kitchens in restaurants, pubs, bars, cafes, hotels and other hospitality venues all have a responsibility to protect public health by preventing contamination of food. This means that if rodents are found to be present, all potentially contaminated food items will need to be destroyed and replaced.

Insects can also cause untold damage to a business’s property and supplies, meaning the various species must also be covered in a pest control for business strategy. In the case of bed bugs, for instance, a hotel, B&B, care home or another establishment with a high turnover of tenants may be faced with the expense of replacing a whole building’s worth of linen. When it comes to cockroaches, though they don’t cause structural damage, they nonetheless carry bacteria and diseases, meaning any potentially contaminated foodstuffs will need to be replaced if these insects are found to be present.

Damage to Reputation, Productivity and Staff Morale

Pest control for business isn’t just about protecting against the financial costs of physical damage. Just as important are the intangible costs that businesses must bear in the face of pest infestations, including losses in productivity, customer goodwill, drops in employee morale, loss of brand value and damage to reputation.

In the age of social media, any business that suffers from a pest control issue will find their problems highly-publicised very quickly. News spreads fast across the likes of Facebook and Twitter and any business that relies on ratings on sites such as TripAdvisor will feel the impact of negative pest-related reviews for a long, long time. In the digital age, businesses can live and die by word-of-mouth reputations and online reviews. Without an ongoing pest control for business solution in place preventing infestations from ever taking hold in the first place, a business leaves its good name in a permanent state of risk.

Aside from reputation damage, pest infestations inevitably lead to investigations from environmental health authorities, which can have dire financial consequences.

Beyond losses in productivity, revenue and reputation, there is a further intangible cost of a pest infestation – the decrease in employee morale. Working in a pest-infested environment can be exceedingly stressful for employees, who may become demoralised, refuse to work, or even seek employment elsewhere. Businesses may feel the impact in terms of lost productivity and absences, while staff may choose to express their concerns and grievances on social media, tarnishing reputations even further. What’s more, if employees feel as though their health or safety has been put at risk due to the presence of pests, they may seek compensation, potentially adding further costs related to the infestation.

Pest Control for Business – How to Minimise Costs and Risk without Disrupting Your Business

The most cost-effective way to deal with pest infestations is to employ the services of a professional pest control company who will work with your business to take the steps necessary to ensure the complete removal of all pests from your premises. Of course, professional pest control for business solutions come at a fee. However, when compared to the potentially ruinous costs of having your reputation destroyed, the risks of being closed down, the losses in productivity and the costs of repairing or replacing damaged goods or equipment, outsourcing professional pest control services is undoubtedly the smartest choice a business can make.

This is true even if you are lucky enough to be currently experiencing no signs of an infestation. The reason being that the most expensive way to deal with pests of any nature is to do nothing until an infestation presents itself. As is so often the case, when it comes to pests, prevention is far better than cure. Only by taking the reliable yet cost-effective step of calling in the professionals to secure your business against infestation will you ensure you never have to face any of the dangers and huge associated costs outlined above.

A professional pest control company will ensure you have the most effective pest control for business solution in force at your establishment. It will continuously monitor your business for signs of pests and ensure you have an integrated pest management policy that works for you, your employees and your customers.

Safeguard Pest Control – a Pest Control for Business

With so much at stake, it’s vital you work with a professional pest control service you can trust.

Safeguard has over 30 years’ experience designing and implementing bespoke pest control strategies for commercial clients in a wide range of industries. We cover Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Plymouth, Taunton, Torquay, Truro and many other areas in the South West and serve all kinds of organisations including: Bars, Pubs, CafΓ©s, Restaurants, Hotels, B&Bs, Nursing Homes, Factories, Warehouses and Organic Farms. We work with discretion in full support of your business’s precise needs. Get in contact today for a free quotation.

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