In the middle of the summer season, the owner of a restaurant located in Saint-Philippe, Montérégie, contacted our emergency team after a customer was stung on the outdoor terrace by a hornet. The covered terrace of the restaurant, set up at the back of the building, was located directly under an active nest fixed in the wooden framework of the roof of the pergola. The situation required a rapid response given public health imperatives and the risk of temporary closures imposed by food inspection.
Site assessment and restoration constraints
A restoration building, such as those found in the growing residential areas of Saint-Philippe, in the Roussillon RCM neighbouring La Prairie and Candiac, imposes particular constraints during extermination work. Our technician carefully evaluated the pergola’s wood structure before selecting the treatment methods. Any product that could stain or damage aged wood has been discarded. The inspection also confirmed that only one nest was present, housed in a corner formed by the junction of two main beams. Nest size and activity flow suggested a colony of about three weeks, or a growing population of a few hundred.
Our team in Saint-Philippe is familiar with the particularities of the buildings in the area and systematically adapts its methods accordingly. The priority was to eliminate the colony without leaving any visible residue on the wooden surfaces and without interrupting the restaurant’s operations for longer than necessary.
Night treatment and complete elimination
For a catering establishment, nighttime treatment is the norm. The hornets return to their nests at dusk and the colony is almost non-existent between 12 p.m. and sunrise. Our technician intervened at 12:30 p.m., after the restaurant had completely closed and all the staff had left. A direct-acting aerosol insecticide, registered for commercial use, was applied directly to and around the nest entrance using a high-spray sprayer for remote treatment. The lightning effect of the product immediately neutralized the sentinels at the entrance to the nest, and then the formulation penetrated inside to reach the rest of the colony.
In addition, a residual insecticidal powder was blown into the gaps in the surrounding framework to eliminate any individual who had sought refuge in the cracks in the wood. The next morning, before opening, the audit confirmed zero activity. The nest was manually unhooked and packed for disposal. The entire treatment complies with the standards for the extermination of hornets in the food environment in Quebec.
Prevention and protection of the terrace for the rest of the season
After the nest was removed, our technician carried out an outdoor insect treatment on the entire framework of the pergola and the surrounding shaded areas. This surface treatment creates a repulsive barrier that discourages queens looking for a foundation site from returning to settle in the same place, taking advantage of the residual pheromones of the eliminated nest. Without this step, the risk of reoccupying the same location is significantly higher, because hornets are attracted by the olfactory traces left by previous colonies.
Practical advice was given to the owner: cover outdoor garbage cans with airtight lids, avoid leaving food scraps on patio tables between services, and perform a visual inspection of the frames and soffits at the end of April each year. A nest discovered at this stage contains only the founding queen and a few dozen workers, and the intervention is much simpler and less expensive than in the middle of summer.
This type of case in a restaurant setting is comparable to another intervention performed in a similar establishment. Nova Extermination supports restaurateurs and merchants on the South Shore with solutions adapted to the specific health requirements of their sector of activity, guaranteeing treatments without prolonged interruption of operations.