A Fly in the Ointment:
Don’t Let a Common Pest Spoil Your Environment of Care

By Ron Harrison, Ph.D., Entomologist, Orkin, Inc.

As an infection control professional, you may already know that flies are one of the top transmitters of disease in the world. The all-too-common pests can carry up to half-a-billion harmful microorganisms on their bodies and they land on surfaces often – making them an especially potent disease vector.

Of most concern in health care facilities are the filth flies: house flies, blow flies and phorid flies. These species are known for feeding in areas with particularly high amounts of disease-causing organisms.

It’s frustrating to think that something so small could jeopardize the sanitary environment you work so hard to maintain. Fortunately, some simple adjustments to your sanitation and maintenance program can help keep flies – and the germs they carry – out of your facility and away from your patients.

Like all pests, flies are looking for food, water and shelter, and health care facilities often provide all three. Here are some tips for mitigating access to these three elements in each area of your facility:

Outside your Facility: Decaying organic matter can attract flies looking for a food source and place to breed. House flies are attracted to ammonia which is present in feces and urine while blow flies are attracted to methane gas which is given off by decaying animals. Keep animals off the property and remove any small animals that may have expired on or near your property. Fluorescent lights attract many flying insects, so place such lighting at least 100 feet from the building to draw them away. To illuminate entrances and exits, use sodium vapor lights, which are much less attractive to flying insects.

Lobby/Waiting Areas: With people constantly coming and going, flies can easily slip in through lobby entrances. If your facility does not already have a second set of sliding doors at outside entrances, recommend them to facility management to decrease the chance of pests sneaking through. Work with facility maintenance to be sure all doors and windows are sealed with weather stripping and door sweeps are installed wherever appropriate to keep pests out.

Likewise, ask facility maintenance to ensure the air in your building blows outward when exterior doors and windows are open. This will create a natural barrier to flies and other flying insects. To test your building’s airflow, just stand in an open outside doorway with a lighter – if the flame blows in, ask facility maintenance to adjust the airflow to create positive airflow out of the building. For the same reason, consider installing air curtains (created by high-speed fans) above doors to create a wall of air that flies cannot cross.

Cafeteria, Kitchen and Break rooms: Adult flies are not picky about their meals, so vigilant sanitation is a must wherever food is found in your facility. Vacuum and mop daily to keep even the smallest food particles form attracting flies and other pests. Line and seal all trash cans and remove trash regularly. To prevent flies coming from drains, remove the drain lid and scrub the drain pipe with an organic cleaner, which use naturally occurring, “good” bacteria to remove the greasy matter on which these flies feed. Be sure to install fly lights in the kitchen as well. Flies will be attracted by the UV light and trapped on a non-toxic sticky surface.

Waste Areas: Again, removing food sources wherever possible is the key to preventing fly problems, so review your facility’s waste management plan and be sure it calls for regular, prompt trash removal. You could not send a stronger invitation to flies than a dumpster full of decaying debris. Are dumpsters as far from your building as possible? If not, propose moving them to a better location and be sure the waste management company regularly cleans and rotates them, too.

Just as constant cleanliness helps prevent pest problems and stem the tide of infection, constant vigilance for budding pest problems will help you catch them before they disturb operations. Train your employees to document and report any pest sightings immediately to environmental services or another designated party. Good documentation will help your pest management professional identify the pest and take corrective action quickly.

To see how your current pest-control efforts measure up to best practices in your industry, log onto HealthcarePestControl.com. You can take an interactive self-assessment to “score” your pest control program against best practices recommended by the American Society of Healthcare Environmental Services (ASHES) and download free tips and training tools on smarter pest control practices in healthcare environments.

With some extra effort and cooperation with environmental services and facility maintenance, you can keep flies and other pests out of your facility and set the stage for fewer secondary infections across the board. That’s an outcome that will create some real “buzz.”

Ron Harrison, Entomologist, Ph.D., is the Director of Training at the Orkin Training Center in Atlanta, Ga., and an acknowledged leader in the field of pest management. Contact Dr. Harrison at rharriso@rollins.com or visit www.orkincommercial.com for more information.