Having been in lockdown since the New Year, businesses around the UK are getting ready to reopen their doors. Non-essential retail, beauty, leisure and outdoor hospitality venues will be able to welcome the public once again from 12 April.

While this is fantastic news, if your premises has been sitting empty for the last three months, there’s no doubt a lot to prepare.

Something that has become increasingly important to customers since the pandemic hit, is hygiene. You want people to feel safe when visiting your premises and it is of course very important to do everything you can to keep both customers and employees safe.

There are many aspects to consider before your grand reopening and pest control is one of them. Below we highlight why this is more important than ever.

You may have acquired pests during lockdown

Business premises are at great risk from pest infestations during lockdown. This is especially the case this time round because it took place over the depths of winter. This is a common time for pests to make their way indoors as they seek warmth, shelter and food.

Many businesses were shut down with little to no notice which means that there wasn’t time to safeguard against pests. Bins could have been left unemptied, deep cleans weren’t conducted and buildings weren’t checked for potential entry points.

What’s more, pests will generally try to avoid human contact as much as possible so an empty building is going to be a very attractive prospect.

Hygiene has become a priority

Since the pandemic hit, hygiene has become increasingly important to all of us. A worldwide survey conducted by GlobalData revealed that 77% of people are buying more personal hygiene products compared to before coronavirus.

Customers are naturally going to be wary about venturing out their homes post-lockdown so it’s important that businesses make them feel as safe as possible. While a pest infestation isn’t necessarily caused by lack of cleanliness, people do associate these creatures with poor hygiene.

The last thing your business needs when trying to get back on its feet is for word to get out that you’ve had an outbreak. It’s a good idea to address any potential issues before you reopen so they can be dealt with before you start welcoming customers again.

Post-lockdown pest contract services

Now is the time for a pest control audit. Prokill can visit your premises to see if you’ve suffered an outbreak and if you have, we can treat the problem quickly, discreetly and effectively.

Moving forward, we offer a number of services to keep your premises safe in the long run.

Pest+

Our Pest+ service is aimed at low dependency commercial areas. As well as ensuring that help is on hand should an outbreak occur, we work with you to create prevention strategies.

Our Pest+ service includes:

• An initial risk assessment and a free pest control risk survey
• Tamper resistant safe pest baiting
• Detailed reporting explaining the services that have been carried out
• Ongoing recommendations for housekeeping and proofing
• Free callouts for pests covered under your agreement

PestAdvanced

This is our most detailed service specification and is ideal for businesses within the food or pharmaceutical industries. We can tailor this service to suit your audit requirements and provide detailed documentation to ensure that you’re covered.

We also ensure that you’re compliant with current legislation and regulatory bodies as well as constantly changing audit requirements.

Our PestAdvanced service includes:

• Risk assessments
• Baiting and detection points are dated on inspections
• Insect count analysis
• Annual reviews by a dedicated account manager
• Field biologist visits
• Detailed reports
• Detailed site plans and fixed date visits

To book in for a free pest control audit, get in touch with Prokill and we’ll be happy to help.