The principal of an elementary school in Greenfield Park, a sector of the borough of Longueuil on the South Shore neighboring Saint-Lambert, contacted our team after an employee observed rats in the kitchen of the establishment in the early evening. The presence of rodents in a school environment poses a serious threat to the health of children and staff, due to the risk of contamination of surfaces and food with pathogens associated with rodent feces. Greenfield Park, a well-established residential area, has several school buildings built several decades ago, whose foundations and walls have structural vulnerabilities that favor opportunistic rodent intrusions. Given the particular sensitivity of the place and the responsibility towards the children, our team planned a rigorous and documented intervention, carried out entirely outside the hours of presence of the students and staff. Our team at Greenfield Park is well versed in this type of institutional constraint.
Thorough inspection of a school
The inspection was carried out in the evening, after the departure of all the students and staff of the school. It covered the kitchen, the cafeteria, the basement corridors, the school equipment storage room, the technical rooms and the entire exterior perimeter of the building. In the kitchen, greasy dripping under the commercial sink and droppings behind the low storage cabinets confirmed sustained nighttime activity. The supply storage room featured gnawed packages and a compact pile of nesting material in a corner that was not frequented by staff. Outside, a gaping opening around a pipe of French drains running along the side wall of the building was the most obvious point of entry. Well-formed burrows near the pruned shrubs bordering the main entrance indicated an outdoor colony that had been firmly established for at least one full season. The rodent infestation inspection made it possible to precisely delimit the areas of activity and to plan a graduated intervention adapted to the different risk zones of the establishment.
Safe rodenticide-free treatment in food contact areas
The daily presence of children and the direct proximity of the food preparation surfaces guided the exclusive choice of professional mechanical traps with quick release for the interior of the school building. These traps were installed in locked boxes inaccessible to students, placed behind kitchen equipment, under shelves in the food storeroom, in the basement hallway, and in the corners of the equipment storage room. Outside, secure baiting stations anchored to the ground have been positioned away from the play areas and entrances frequented by the students, with direct treatment of the burrows identified at the edge of the main entrance. Follow-up visits were conducted each evening according to a schedule previously agreed upon with management, and each intervention was carefully recorded in an official log provided to the institution for its records. All methods comply with the regulatory requirements applicable to environments frequented by minors, and our protocols are described on our rat extermination page.
Decontamination, sealing and prevention in schools
After confirmation of the complete eradication of the colony, rodent decontamination was carried out in the kitchen and in the equipment storage room. This operation included the safe collection and disposal of feces and nesting materials, the complete disinfection of all affected surfaces with a registered virucidal and bactericidal product effective against rodent-borne pathogens, and the replacement of potentially contaminated supplies. The exterior openings identified were sealed thanks to our caulking service of the entry points, including the filling of the opening around the drain pipe and the sealing of all cracks found around the periphery. Management was provided with a detailed checklist of checklists to incorporate into the building’s preventative maintenance routines. For similar achievements, see our study on rats in a public building on the South Shore. All of these interventions testify to Nova Extermination’s know-how in terms of rigorous pest management in high-traffic institutional places.