The owner of a restaurant in Sainte-Catherine, on the South Shore, requested emergency intervention after traces of rats were discovered in the dry food supply and behind the kitchen equipment. Sainte-Catherine, a city on the St. Lawrence River adjacent to Saint-Constant, is home to several restaurant establishments whose activities generate large quantities of organic waste, a direct source of attraction for rodents in peri-urban areas. An infestation in a restaurant not only represents a danger to the food safety of customers, but can also compromise compliance with the hygiene standards required by the Quebec regulatory authorities. Our exterminator in Sainte-Catherine responded within twenty-four hours of the call, outside of service hours so as not to interfere with the restaurant’s day-to-day operations.
Inspection in a restaurant setting
The inspection began with a systematic review of the highest-risk areas: dry storage, space under fryers and commercial refrigerators, low ventilation ducts accessible from the kitchen, garbage room, and the exterior perimeter of the building. Fresh rat droppings were found behind the industrial fryer and in the corners of the storeroom, where food had been partially gnawed and soiled. The greasy traces along the foot of the walls and the nibbling marks on cardboard packaging confirmed a regular and sustained night-time activity for several weeks. Outside, a free space of several centimetres between the bottom of the delivery door and the threshold was the main point of entry. Masonry cracks on the periphery of the building, at the plumbing pipe connections, provided secondary access routes that rodents used opportunistically. The rodent infestation inspection made it possible to draw up a complete plan of the areas to be treated and the priorities for intervention, while documenting all the points of structural vulnerability of the building.
Safe treatment adapted to dietary constraints
In a restaurant context, conventional rodenticides cannot be used in food preparation or storage areas. Our protocol therefore focused on certified professional mechanical traps for food areas, positioned behind heavy equipment, under storage shelves and in the corners of kitchen walls. In the non-food areas, i.e. the technical room and the exterior of the building, secure baiting stations in boxes anchored to the ground have been deployed. The outdoor stations were positioned along the foundation and on either side of the delivery door, where the most frequent passages had been made. Each trap and each station was verified during two follow-up visits carried out outside of operating hours, which confirmed the total disappearance of the activity in less than ten days. The entire treatment complies with the regulatory requirements applicable to food establishments in Quebec, and all of our commercial methods are listed on the rat extermination page.
Decontamination, sealing and sustainable prevention
Following the treatment, a complete rodent decontamination was carried out in the food storage area and behind the kitchen equipment. This fundamental step included the removal and hygienic disposal of contaminated food products, the thorough cleaning of all surfaces with a registered disinfectant active against rodent-associated pathogens, and the careful removal of accumulated nesting material. All identified openings were then sealed with our entry point caulking service: reinforced door bottom seal at the delivery door, hydraulic mortar on exterior masonry cracks and compacted steel wool around pipe connections. The owner has received a guide of good practices adapted to the restaurant industry: hermetic sealing of the waste bins every evening, systematic cleaning of the areas under heavy equipment and monthly visual inspection of the outside perimeter. A complete intervention report was also provided to it for its regulatory compliance files. At Nova Extermination, we support each operator in the implementation of sustainable preventive habits adapted to their sector of activity and type of establishment. For comparable references, see our report on rats in a food store on the South Shore.