Risks of Having an Ant Infestation in Your Business

Small business owners are agile beings, continually wrestling with evolving regulations, the fluidity of the Canadian dollar, the quest for excellent staff – oh, and ants. If you have an infestation of ants in your place of business, it could pose several risks to the health of your business.

Yelp, there is an ant in my soup

Yelp, the online business where you can rant or rave about other businesses, has about 145 million visitors a month, and no business owner wants the negative attention that a yelped-about ant infestation could bring. Ants attract enthusiastic attention in science museums, but are a jarring sight in an office, shop or restaurant.

Your insurance company may not pay for damage done by ants

Should you discover that a colony of carpenter ants has caused structural damage to your building, your insurance company may not cover the cost of repairing it.

Why?

Many insurance policies exempt what is usually referred to as “gradual damage” from their issued policies, meaning that if an ant colony destroyed a support beam in your building, the insurance company would categorize this happening as a result of negligence on your part.

Basically, if a sudden onslaught by any kind of pest causes damage to your business, you should be covered, but if that colony of carpenter ants has been slowly drilling their way through your supporting beams, you may be out of luck.

Ewww….Ants!

Your customers are likely to interpret the presence of ants in your building as an indicator that it is unclean –though ants do gather in clean spaces. As the Professional Retail Store Maintenance Association (PRSM) has reported, 95% of customers say that they are less likely to buy a product or service if it is sold in an unclean space. The ants must go.

Swarming ants don’t contribute to an outstanding work environment

If swarming ants regularly greet your employees when they open a cupboard or open a window, your employees may feel uncomfortable in their work environment and could experience unnecessary stress as a result. As the clever folks at Infinity Consulting Services point out, the comfort of the physical work environment is directly linked to the creativity, productivity and happiness of the workers within it.

Your friendly neighbourhood health inspector doesn’t like ants

If you own a restaurant, it is particularly important that you guard against ant infestations, as health inspectors check for insects during inspections, and may decide that a reprimand is in order. More importantly, a colony of carpenter ants will detract from your efforts to present a physically appealing space to all of your stakeholders – from suppliers to hosts to dishwashers.

Ant infestations can happen in business spaces that are well maintained and regularly monitored, but it is important that they are dealt with swiftly before damage is done to your physical space, and your reputation on social media and within your organization. Give us a call today at Harlow Pest Control and we can take care of your ant problem quickly and affordably.