Commercial Restaurant Fly Control
Protect your health inspection score and your customer experience. Commercial strategies for kitchens, bars, and dumpsters.
The Threat to Your Business
For a homeowner, a fly is an annoyance. For a restaurant owner, a fly is an immediate threat to the business. Flies carry over 100 pathogens, trigger health code violations, and ruin the customer dining experience instantly. Restaurant fly control requires a rigorous, commercial-grade approach that goes far beyond simple vinegar traps.
Target 1: The Commercial Kitchen (Drain Flies & Fruit Flies)
The kitchen and the bar area are ground zero for drain flies and fruit flies. The constant washing creates a permanently wet environment, and the accumulation of grease and sugar creates the perfect breeding sludge.
The Floor Drain Protocol
Commercial floor drains collect a devastating amount of organic matter.
- No Bleach: Do not just pour bleach down the drains at closing. It flows over the grease and does not destroy the bio-film where eggs are laid.
- Scrub Daily: Floor drains must be scrubbed with a stiff, long-handled wire brush.
- Bio-Foam: Invest in commercial bio-enzymatic foamers. The foam expands to coat the entire pipe, allowing the bacteria to eat the grease overnight.
The Bar Area Protocol
Beer taps and sticky soda gun holsters are the #1 source of bar fruit flies.
- Wipe down all bottles at the end of the shift.
- Ensure floor mats are pulled up, scrubbed, and hung to dry entirely—do not lay them back on wet floors overnight.
- Cover beer tap spouts with plastic wrap or specific rubber caps overnight to prevent flies from laying eggs inside the lines.
Target 2: The Dining Room & Entrances (House Flies)
Large house flies and blow flies almost always enter through open doors when customers arrive or when deliveries are made in the back.
Air Curtains
Every exterior door (guest entrances and back receiving doors) must have a commercial air curtain (fly fan) installed and functioning perfectly to blow flies back outside.
Commercial UV Light Traps (ILTs)
Install Insect Light Traps in the dining room and kitchen. Crucial rule: Install them at least 5 feet away from any food prep surface, and place them so they cannot be seen deeply from the exterior windows (you don't want to draw outdoor flies inside).
Target 3: The Dumpster Area
Your battle is lost if the dumpster area is poorly managed. The smell will draw flies from blocks away, and they will wait by your back door to enter.
- Ensure the dumpster actually has a tight-fitting lid, and enforce that employees close it every time.
- Have the dumpster enclosure power-washed weekly to remove "trash juice" seeping into the concrete.
- Place odorous trap bags (like Rescue! traps) at the far corners of the parking lot to intercept flies before they reach the main building.
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