Ants in Your Restaurant? Here’s What to Do Next

Wherever a constant source of food and water exists, you will find ants. Unfortunately, this includes your restaurant, and nothing spoils a diner's experience and your reputation like ants scurrying across the floor or in your patron's food. Several reasons exist for why you might have an ant infestation, and several options exist to help you get rid of the ants and prevent the ants from returning.

Here are a few ways any restaurant owner can keep their kitchen and dining room ant-free.

Determine Where Ants Enter Your Kitchen

Ants will squeeze their way into almost any hole, crack, or other damage in your kitchen. This includes cracks in the foundation, damage to the weather stripping around the windows and doors, or through holes in the floors. Ants will construct nests inside the walls or back corner of your storeroom, which means the source of the infestation could be inside the restaurant.

Pinpoint any damage the walls, foundation, flooring, doors, and windows and perform the necessary repairs. For example, seal cracks in the foundation, replace damaged or worn weather stripping, or fix any gaps or damage around the vents. After taking all these steps, if you still find ants in your kitchen or dining area, chances are you missed a point of entry.

Create a simple ant trap to not only eliminate ants but also determine where they are entering. For example, fill a few shallow dishes with a small amount of sugar water. Place the dishes throughout the kitchen, including in front of the doors, windows, on counters, and on the floor right before you close for the night.

Check the dishes and for any ant trails near the dishes first thing in the morning. Follow the ant trails to the place where the ants enter your restaurant and perform any necessary repairs.

Create a New Cleaning Protocol

Clean your restaurant even more thoroughly to prevent ants from finding an easy food source. For example, encourage all restaurant employees to clean up any spills or messes immediately after they occur. Create a daily and weekly cleaning protocol to ensure your restaurant and kitchen are as clean as possible.

Post this daily cleaning list and instruct workers to check off each task after they are done:

• Clean fryers, grease traps, stove hoods, and filter inside the dishwasher.
• Wipe down the outside of the stove, dishwasher, walls of the food prep stations, and walls surrounding the fryers, stoves, and food prep stations.
• Clean and sanitize all cutting boards, sinks, meat slicers, faucets, and food prep areas.
• Wipe down the menus, condiment dispensers, tables, and chairs throughout the day.
• Sweep and mop the floors of the kitchen and dining area often.
• Clean all floor mats throughout the kitchen and dining area.

Have employees wash the walls and clean the ovens at least once a week. Clean the garbage bins inside the kitchen and throughout the dining area at least once a week as well.

Store Food Correctly

Proper food storage will protect your dry goods, condiments, and other items outside the refrigerator and freezer from not only being consumed by ants, but also attracting ants. Here are a few tips to help you keep your food and food storage areas clean and ant-free:

• Store foods in tight-fitting lids. Choose food-grade containers, such as polycarbonate or polypropylene containers. Each container should feature a tight-fitting lid. Encourage employees to always shut the lid after each use.
• Store foods off the floor. Purchase shelving units to keep food containers off the floor. This makes the containers more easily accessible and protects them from insect infestation.
• Replace damaged food containers immediately. Throw away damaged containers immediately, including containers with a broken or damaged seal.

Wipe down the shelving units and the floor beneath the shelving at least once a day. Teach your staff how to properly handle the food containers, and encourage them to keep the storage area clean. Monitor the contents of the containers, and, if you notice an infestation, throw out the food immediately and wash out the containers.

Contact a Professional for Help

Unfortunately, despite your best efforts, your restaurant can still suffer an ant infestation. Contact a professional exterminator if you are unable to handle the infestation on your own or if it reoccurs. Your pest control agent will help you determine all the ways ants get into your restaurant and use the proper tools and equipment to eliminate the infestation.

For example, the pest control agent might use restaurant-safe bait stations to attract and eliminate the ants. Do not use any pesticides or commercial products in your kitchen before contacting a professional to determine if the product is safe for use around food.



Don't allow ants to wreck your restaurant's reputation and diners' experience. Contact the professionals at Paffy's Pest Control with all of your ant, earwig, and other common pest-related questions.