It’s the middle of your restaurant’s dinner rush. It’s a packed house, but the kitchen and the wait staff are on top of their game and keeping customers happy. Everything is running as smoothly as possible- that is, until the shriek of a guest cuts through the room. It’s every manager’s worst nightmare: a rat in the restaurant, right in the middle of service. Fear quickly spreads to the other tables, everyone sets their forks down in disgust and pushes their plates away. In this situation, the best case scenario is often hundreds or thousands of dollars worth of food and beverage comps. In the worst case scenario, a customer could get seriously ill from the rodent and threaten legal action. Rat Bite-Fever can lead to serious flu-like symptoms, while Leptospirosis can even lead to death if untreated.

How important is pest control in Las Vegas restaurants?

Rodents and pests are bad for business now more than ever. Before the advent of online reviews and Yelp, a guest could experience a pest problem at a restaurant and simply never return. With online review platforms, however, guests are q
uick to tell other potential customers about their negative experiences. Plus, it’s never been easier for reviewers to gather evidence. All they have to do is pull out their iPhone and snap a photo of a cockroach or a mouse- then it’s instantly uploaded to the internet for everyone else to see. Good luck getting Yelp to remove that one star review! This is particularly impactful for restaurants in Las Vegas, because of the sheer volume of options that both locals and tourists have.

While it’s important to keep pests away from the customers, it’s just as important to make sure there are no rodents or bugs behind the scenes, either. One mouse or rat hiding in the wall of the food storage might not seem like that big of a problem at first. The problem is that where there is one, there will be more. They don’t just contaminate food on their own- they bring in more problems with them. According to a quote from a health department spokesman, “They also chew through surfaces enabling other vermin to enter, and their droppings serve as food for insect life.” One rat can literally open the way for a whole colony of them, and can also bring along fleas and other insects that live in their fur. For this reason, it’s worth it to stop the problem before it gets out of hand.

Have a rat problem? Call Preventive Pest Control – Las Vegas now!