Let's discuss a topic on facilities maintenance, please answer the poll and feel free to post additional comments.

Question:
How do you manage pest control at your plant / facility?

Choices:
Hire a pest control contractor
Use internal resources
Combination of above (i.e. contractor for special services only)
No pest control program required
Other

 

Why do you need a discussion on this topic?

We include this pest control under hygiene monitoring by HSE.

What pests are you facing?

We try to keep away rats & dogs from plant areas, which are attracted to food leftovers. So put rubbish bins in fabricated steel cage so that the dogs cannot tip them & install a plate to prevent rats climbing them. Needless to say ontime rubbish collection.

Grasscutting is very important to keep them away.

Pest control in buildings is done by Admin by sraying chemicals periodically by a vendor.

To keep the stray dogs out, the fence must be good except at drain openings & even at guard gates. Will you put traps in the plant or chase them away?

We use a contractor, ants, cockroaches, bats, bees, termites, mice are also considered pests.

If you have a kitchen, and most plants do, let us say serving 12000 meals a day, it would be impossible to ban al the "weird stuff".

Didn't meet the bee or coackroach yet that was discouraged by a fence

There is a "pest" until now have not found a solution yet. swallow these "lovely" little birds come to south america when it is winter somewhere else, there are hundreds of thousands of them (they are protected by law, and I heard "indigestible") and preferred hangouts are powerlines, tank roofs, maintenance shops, masts and other hard to reach places, and they s..t all over the place causing corrosion. any suggestions?
Speakers, grease, watercanons already tried out

Have you tired fake falcons or owls over tanks or other tall structures?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Eugene,

Harrods in London uses that live falcon biological strategy (which we learnt in school) & the handler is the longest serving staff!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Josh,

Eugene, how much do you spend on pest control in pharmaceutical industry compared to equipment maintenance costs?

Pest Control costs are very little vs Equipment Maintenance costs, however finding a live (or even dead) insect inside a pharma-drug packaging line or tablet production area is not a little issue. I return later with some numbers or %.

quote:

Originally posted by Josh:
Harrods in London uses that live falcon biological strategy (which we learnt in school) & the handler is the longest serving staff!

svannels, you could argue that falcons are a endangered species too, and by keeping a few in your facility you are doing your share of protecting the wildlife.

Eugene, I didn't tried a fake or live falcon out yet but if the %&@!! birds are scared of nothing...

We have falcons over here, evidence: we found a nest with "little" birds restants in one of the highest places in the plant. Guess the place was used like a restaurant

My point is there are too many swallows certain periods of the year. They would outnumber any falcon by at least a factor of 10.000.

I assume ( ) that a fake or live falcon would be molested (censored) once the swallows did a headcount.

I see them "falcons" once in a while fishing in the canals near/around the plant.

Words of a falcon: "I'd rather go fishing !!"

This message has been edited. Last edited by: svanels,

OK jokes a side, in Eugenes case, and other food processing industry, having an effective pest control program would be crucial to stay in business.

Imagine you (and others) lost your job because of a cockroach

Did the plant designers consider to avoid the bird migration path while on the drawing board?

Do the birds interfere with instruments? Any plant trips due to them?

Over here, the swallow bird nests in caves are harvested for sales as supposedly medicinal delicasies. I wonder whether these birds produce the same tasty salivas for making their nests? If yes, maybe can turn the problem into opportunity...

In view of this lucrative sales, some people started to provide old buildings as their birdnesting places, which are of lower heights compared to cave ceilings. So maybe you can provide or donate some alternative nest places if it is really a corrosion-causing problem?

quote:

Did the plant designers consider

According to the designers all was considered etc..

There is a strong ambientalist lobby
Some links about Suriname
http://www.conservation.org/xp/news/press_releases/1999/051399.xml

http://www.unep-wcmc.org/protected_areas/data/wh/suriname.html

http://www.2docstock.com/Suriname/Stinasu/centralreserve.html

The swallows were the only ones absent in the negociations to obtain funds for construction, despite various invitations, I think they do not read maps either

quote:

Over here, the swallow bird nests in caves are harvested for sales as supposedly medicinal delicasies

%$@# tourists!!

quote:

So maybe you can provide or donate some alternative nest places

Why don't they stay home!!


When these @#$% foreigners come they are not making nests!! The come and "poop" all over the place, and when the winter is gone they leave.

Josh, you have my total support eating all the nests with eggs and birds. If I had money I would start a foundation for eating these pests

This message has been edited. Last edited by: svanels,

The birdnests are not meant for tourists. They are eaten for nutirtional or medinal purposes all times, preferred by the Chinese.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Josh,

The birds are the tourists, they don't live here.

Do the Chinese eat the swallows also?
If I organize some "eating tours" when it is winter $$$ I could be accused of "birdslaughter" by greenpeace...

No they don't eat the birds, just their nests.

The birds are the citizens of the world. The country boundaries are created by man.

Am I glad cows can't fly, every morning clean up the mess deposited by bunch of cows sitting under the roof..

This message has been edited. Last edited by: svanels,