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Effective Pest Control for Schools: Creating Safe Learning Environments.

Schools can be an ideal place for pests to search for food, water, and shelter. But with proper pest control, you can prevent pest problems in schools and keep the area safe and clean for children to learn and grow. It’s important to understand what areas in a school are particularly susceptible to attracting pests, which pests are often found in Sacramento schools, and how professional pest control can help. If your school is in need of professional pest control, contact Earthwise Pest Management for help. 

Areas that Attract Pests in Schools

Schools have plenty of areas that attract pests from the cafeteria and classrooms to gyms and locker rooms. Pests love areas where they can hide out in warm dark places and find food and water. Children aren’t exactly the tidiest and cleanest humans, so there is often clutter and crumbs left behind. Schools can create an ideal place for pests to call home. 

Cafeterias

Cafeterias have plenty of food and water for pests. From the food prep area behind the scenes to the tables and chairs where the children eat, there are numerous places where pests can search for their next meal. It’s imperative that school cafeterias be cleaned thoroughly and all food is kept in tightly sealed containers. The cafeteria is one of the most vulnerable places in the school when it comes to housing pests. 

Dumpsters

Dumpsters are also highly susceptible areas in schools to attract pests. While there has to be a place for school waste, you can lessen the chance of those pests entering the school by keeping the lid on the dumpster closed and moving the dumpster to a place that is farther away from the school. If the dumpster does attract pests, you don’t want them to make their way into the school next. 

Classrooms

While classrooms aren’t traditionally where children eat in school, they do usually contain dark, messy places such as desks and closets for pests to hide. And just because children are supposed to save their food for the cafeteria, doesn’t mean that there is not any food hidden in their desks.at all  The best way to keep classrooms free from pests is to keep everything clean and organized, reducing the places available for pests to hide. 

Lockers

School lockers are not exactly the cleanest of areas in a school. They are typically messy and may contain food or drinks. Lockers are great places for pests to hide out in, and if children aren’t cleaning out their lockers until the end of the school year, they may go unnoticed for months. Encouraging children to not leave food in their lockers and to clean up a bit more often can help keep pests away. 

Buses

While each school district has a different set of rules regarding children eating on the bus, there is always a chance that someone is sneaking a snack. If buses aren’t cleaned out after the day is done, they become a great place for pests to live. They are vacant and may contain a food and water source for the pests. Buses should be cleaned often and special attention should be taken to ensure that there is no food or liquid left behind. 

Locker Rooms & Gyms

Locker rooms and gyms are often poorly ventilated. It creates a warm place for pests to lurk, especially inside the gym lockers. Also, water left on the shower floor can provide an excellent source for pests. Gyms and locker rooms need to be thoroughly cleaned and sanitized and kept free from standing water. 

Outdoor Areas

Outdoor areas such as athletic fields and the landscaping around the school can attract pests if they are not taken care of properly. Overgrown bushes and plants create a place for pests to hide and excess water from poorly maintained sprinkler systems can be a perfect water source. To reduce the risk of pests making a home in the outdoor areas around the school, ensure that landscaping is properly maintained. 

Pests that Are Common in Sacramento Schools

While you certainly don’t want any pests calling your school home, there are certain ones that you can be extra vigilant about since they are a bit more common in Sacramento schools. The scraps and crumbs left behind by students, the large cafeteria, and the plentiful dark places to hide, makes schools an ideal home for pests such as rodents, ants, and cockroaches. Other pets such as bees, wasps, and termites often find schools as a hospitable home as well.  


Ants

Ants can live off the tiniest scraps and crumbs of food and they love dark places to hide. Ants can live off the crumbs left on cafeteria floors and counters and they can have a field day with the dry stock area if the food isn’t kept in tightly sealed containers. Ants can hide in lockers, desks, closets, and other dark places. Ants quickly become a large problem when they find a food and water source and are extremely hard to get rid of without professional pest control.


Cockroaches

Cockroaches are attracted to any area where they can find food and water, and once they infest your school, they can live up to a month without food. So, if you notice a cockroach, it may be too late to rid the school of them with just a good cleaning, as they can hang around for quite some time even without a constant food source. Cockroaches spread a wide range of diseases from salmonella and typhoid fever to cholera and plague. Cockroaches can even cause asthma attacks in certain individuals. These are not the type of pests you want wandering around your school. 


Rodents

The last thing you want scampering across your floor while the children head to their classrooms is a mouse or rat. Rodents are notorious for spreading diseases and love any place where they can find a meal and a place to hide. If schools are not active in pest control, they can provide both of these things. 


Termites

Termites can destroy your school from the inside out. Once they get into the walls of the school, they will eat away the wood that provides structure and support to the school building. Termites are fast workers and each nest can contain over a million termites. Any place where wood meets the ground can be an entry point for termites. Once they enter your school, they can go for years and even sometimes decades without being identified, and the damage done can be irreversible. Termite infestations require a professional Sacramento pest control company to properly identify and eradicate for the safety of your school. 


Bees & Wasps

Bees and wasps can find their way to outside areas at your school, especially if there is an outdoor eating area. Not only can these pests sting students causing minor injuries, if a student is allergic, a sting could be life-threatening. The Sacramento pest control experts at Earthwise Pest Management can help you prevent wasps from making nests nearby and they can also safely remove nests if they already exist. Wasps are not a pest that you want to take on by yourself. 

Why You Need Professional School Pest Control

Professional pest control is the only way to effectively get rid of any current infestation and to prevent future pest problems. The Sacramento pest control experts at Earthwise Pest Management can help keep the children safe from pests and pesticides with our Integrated Pest Management program. 

Keep Children Safe From Pests

Some pests are dangerous because they bite or sting, such as rats, wasps, and ants. Many pests are also harmful to children’s health because they spread diseases such as salmonella, shigella, plague, rat-bite fever, staph infections, and more. 

Whether you are dealing with ants, cockroaches, rodents, or other pests, their main objective is to find a place to make a home where they can find food, water, and shelter. Many times, while they are searching for food and water, they will search in the dumpster, trash cans, and other dirty places where they pick up bacteria. They spread the bacteria around when they search places such as countertops and dry storage. For example, if an ant made their way through a trash can and then continued their search into the food storage area and found a bag of flour loosely rolled at the top, they can then make their way into the bag of flour and spread any bacteria that they picked up from the trash. 

When you hire a company like Earthwise Pest Management, we can help keep your school free from pests that spread disease and teach you preventative techniques such as keeping foods tightly sealed and taking away their food source. This way, we are making your school a less desirable home for pests. 

Keep Children Safe From Pesticides

Children spend a large amount of their time at school. If children are being constantly exposed to pesticides that can be just as, if not more, dangerous. Pesticides should only be handled by those that are properly trained and know how to use them. 

However, Earthwise Pest Management uses a removal and prevention process that is environmentally-responsible and safe. Our number one priority is to keep you, the school, the staff, and the children safe from not only pests but from the products we use to remove pests. We use only the best scientifically tested natural/botanical products in our pest removal and control. 

Integrated Pest Management Program

The Integrated Pest Management Program (IPM) is a pest prevention and control process that is effective and safe. It is also recommended by EPA for use in schools. This process consists of three steps that are designed to remove a pest’s source of water, food, and shelter to make your school a less desirable place for pests to make their home. 

Step 1: Inspection

The first step in the IPM process is to inspect the school for a pest infestation. This includes identifying if there is a current infestation and how it started. We will identify how pests entered your school, where they are finding food and water, and how we can take those things away so they no longer find your school a good place to live. 

Step 2: Identification

After we inspect the school and decide that there is indeed an infestation, we identify the pests. Each pest is treated differently and has different preferences, so it’s imperative to understand which pest we are working with to understand how to treat the infestation. 

Step 3: Treatment

Once we know which pests are invading your school, we will begin treatment. This includes treating the actual pests, removing their food and water source, and preventing the pests from being able to enter your school again through the same means. 

After we successfully treat a pest infestation, we always recommend our follow up maintenance and management so we can ensure that your school remains pest-free. 

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