Flying insects are bad for business. Not only can they harass staff and customers, they also create a perception that the environment is unclean—and no operator wants their business to be thought of as unclean.
In defense of all bar operators, there is no way to fully be rid of flying insects. You can only suppress their populations and keep their numbers low. Unfortunately, there is no one magic secret to suppressing flying insect populations. It takes a combination of multiple strategies, all working together, to cover all the ways they feed and multiply.
Here are seven tips you can use to suppress fly populations in your bar.
1. Perform a deep clean, then schedule to repeat every 30 days.
Once flies find rotting food that doesn’t get cleaned up, you will soon have an infestation. The objective of the deep clean is to locate all the areas moist, organic material can gather and get rid of it.
Sometimes it means shutting down the bar for a day to do it because you have to move appliances and shelves around to get to it. I’m talking about the really hard-to-reach areas like: behind the dishwasher, under the service well ice bin, the drain under the service well, the wall next to the garbage can, the areas under the sink, under and behind each refrigerator, and anywhere else you can think of.
BE WARNED: Deep cleans can be nasty! Make sure to wear gloves and even a mask when you get to some areas. You can discover some pretty disgusting things if it’s been a long time since you did a deep clean. However, it does get less disgusting, if you schedule it every month and do it constantly. But the key is to actually do it and schedule it so it’s a regular occurring task.
2. Buy traps and place them everywhere.
The best traps I have found are the EcoCanucks Sticky Traps that you can buy from Amazon. But there are also other big, long ones that hang from the ceiling that are also effective for the big black flies.
The EcoCanucks traps are effective when paired with a good bait like some decomposing lemon. These traps should be strategically placed during every close. You should not wait until you have an insect problem before putting these traps out. Change them often, and keep them out every night into perpetuity.
3. Schedule weekly “trap days” where all garbage cans and opened liquor bottles are scored in a different area.
Traps are most effective if they are the the only logical food source for the insect. Garbage cans, even with a deep clean, are in a perpetual state of filth and provide a microscopic (and sometimes not so microscopic) food source for the flies. If a big, stinky garbage can is next to a small trap with some lemon in it, the trap won’t be as effective. The garbage can will overpower the trap and the flies will gravitate there instead of the trap.
During trap days, leave the garbage cans in your garage to air out. And for booze, instead of leaving all the liquor out, you put everything into another room or in a cabinet far away from the action. Then use this opportunity to spray and wipe down every opened liquor bottle so any residual stickiness is removed from the bottle and also the spout / lid area.
Now when you set your traps with their sweet aromas, the flies will gravitate to them because there are no other options. If this is done correctly, your traps will have tens, and maybe even hundreds, of flies stuck to them when you return the next morning.
4. Establish strict closing protocols.
You need to have procedures that are followed each night to minimize the amount of access to moisture and alcohol. Make sure to do things like: Plug all beer taps, plastic wrap and seal all spouts, seal drains / sinks, sweep, mop, and also spray down all countertops, dish areas, and surfaces near any liquid.
Then, after all that is done, set traps in the problem areas. The key to all of this is to inspect and enforce. Employees get lazy at closing time, and they will skip out on cleaning duties if they think they can get away with it. And laziness like this is what leads to flies in the first place. So don’t assume this is being done. Check yourself or ask your openers what the condition of the bar is like first thing in the morning. This is something you must be constantly vigilant about.
5. Harass flies with fans.
Sometimes, it is beneficial to get a big fan, point it at the problem areas, and leave it on all night. This will dry out the area and also make it difficult for the flies to land. This is a non-lethal method, however, and is more for harassing flies than obliterating them. However, if done consistently, this makes it much harder for the flies to access their food source, and it can lead to a reduction in numbers.
6. Use a zapper.
Leaving a camping zapper on at close can also be beneficial in reducing their numbers. Several of the flies that are attracted to lights can be killed this way, especially once all the lights are off, and it is the brightest thing in the room.
Several kinds of bug zappers can be purchased on Amazon for under $40, and they are a great tool to incorporate in the war against bugs.
7. Buy a salt gun.
I knew a bar operator that had success with a “salt gun,” which looked like a Nerf pump-action shotgun but used a spring to shoot a burst of salt around five to 10 feet. He reported that he killed many insects with this tool and that it was far more effective (and fun) than a fly swatter. The one that he used was called the Bug-A-Salt gun, which you can buy from Amazon for about $60.
The only thing about this tool is that you actually have to be in “bug hunting mode," which is not the best use of time, but it might be a good tool to equip your staff with if they are trying to kill a bug that is causing problems. Just be warned, it makes a bit of a mess so you have to have a broom and dustpan ready.
Kevin Tam is a Sculpture Hospitality franchisee with more than a decade of experience working directly with bar, restaurant, and nightclub owners on all points of the spectrum. From family-owned single bar operations to large companies with locations on an international scale, Kevin works with them all and understands the unique challenges each kind of company faces. He’s also the author of a book titled Night Club Marketing Systems – How to Get Customers for Your Bar, a regular writer/contributor for Bar & Restaurant.
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