When you have the difficult enough task of managing healthcare facilities, whether it’s a doctor’s office or a full hospital, you have enough to deal with when trying to maintain the safety of your patients. Fruit flies do not need to be on your list of issues to deal with.
Fruit flies seem innocuous enough and because of that, you probably just wave them away with a flick of your hand. But those fruit flies could be evidence of a larger problem and not taking it seriously can be an issue. Why should you take them more seriously? Here are just a few thoughts:
They love food carts. Fruit flies are drawn to food and they vomit and drop their feces on whatever they land on – including the food. Besides the disgusting nature of that, they also carry and transmit food-borne illnesses. When they land on food, they could be dropping off an illness in addition to their bodily fluids. That lunch could be delivered to a patient that can’t afford another health problem.
They buzz around the nurse’s station. You could argue that the strongest link in the healthcare chain is the nurses. Find out how they feel to be dealing with an infestation of fruit flies and if it’s distracting or not when they are trying to speak with a family member of a patient. They shouldn’t have to deal with the distraction fruit flies can cause.
Cleanliness is not associated with flies. Fruit flies are not known for hanging around clean areas. In fact, they are synonymous with garbage and therefore being dirty. Healthcare facilities are held to the uppermost standards of cleanliness as they care for patients. Even one bad review hinting at unsanitary conditions can be devastating for a hospital.
Dialysis areas attract fruit flies. The waste and/or byproducts taken out of the blood during dialysis create a biofilm on drain walls that attracts flies that feed and breed in it. Usually, anyone needing dialysis is already at higher risk. A fruit fly transmitting food-borne illness could have dire consequences.
Fruit flies have a sweet tooth. Glucose is a solution made from sugar. It’s a common treatment to battle things from extreme dehydration to hypoglycemia. And there are plenty of things in between where glucose is commonly given. Fruit flies and their famous sweet tooth will be zeroed in on that glucose as a great place to get the sugar they want. Ever let an apple go bad on the counter by mistake? The sugar that piece of fruit gives off is the reason there are probably fruit flies all over it. They love it.
A professional pest company can help with all of this and more. Because seeing a fly doesn’t just mean it flew in through an open door. It could also mean they are breeding in the drains – and that can be an infestation.
Your healthcare building deserves a pest company that will not just treat for where the fruit flies are – but will follow the breadcrumbs and find the source of the problem. Waltham Pest Services knows how to find the source of the problem and that’s where treatment needs to be done. We partner with you and your employees and staff on best practices for sanitation, cleaning, and trash management to keep fruit flies – and plenty of other pests – out of your nurses’ faces and off your patients’ lunches.
The experts as Waltham Pest Services are ready to help. By implementing an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) plan, pests will be escorted out and not invited back. Preventive measures like these can save healthcare facilities important funds as well as mitigating future large infestation costs.
It is a health issue, and it is also just the right thing to do. If you are managing a doctor’s office, hospital, etc., you should give Waltham Pest Services a ring. Start dealing with pests – for you, your healthcare heroes, your business, and, most importantly, your patients that are relying on you.