While students and staff are away, the building they leave behind can become a haven for cockroaches and wasps, and both pests can turn a smooth reopening into a stressful scramble. Knowing what to watch for helps you protect students, staff, and your budget.
Why Cockroaches and Wasps are Found in Schools
An empty school over the summer can offer pests what they need. Kitchens, cafeterias, lounge areas, vending machines, and storage areas can hold food or food residue. Food combined with the warmth of a building, the water in sinks and drains, and dark rooms, and you have the right conditions for a cockroach infestation.
Cockroaches that were brought into a school with people and infested items take advantage of these conditions. They are active at night and in the dark, reproduce quickly, and shelter inside and behind appliances, in wall voids, and around plumbing. A small population left alone in the summer can grow into a serious infestation in the fall.
These insects can stay active year-round; see how cockroaches survive cold weather indoors.
Wasps use sheltered places such as roof eaves, soffits, wall voids, ground cavities, and storage sheds to build their nests, and a colony left undisturbed for months can become large and aggressive.
The Risks an Infestation Brings to Your School
The trouble with cockroaches and wasps goes well beyond being a nuisance.
Cockroaches crawl through drains, garbage, and over food-prep surfaces and tables, where they can spread disease and contaminate areas. Their shed skins and droppings are also known triggers for asthma and allergies. Our cockroach information page explains how these insects behave and why they are difficult to remove.
Wasps can be an immediate physical risk. A nest near an entrance, in a playground, or on a sports field can put students and staff at risk for getting stung, and for anyone with an allergy, a wasp sting can be a medical emergency.
What to Check Before Opening
Effective pest control for a school starts with a thorough walk-through, ideally before staff and students return. Begin in and around the kitchen and cafeteria, searching for signs of cockroach activity such as droppings that look like coffee grounds, an unusual or oily smell, or live insects in cupboards and behind equipment. Check washrooms, custodial closets, and any place with food and moisture that cockroaches could find and use. Set up traps to help monitor for pests.
Outside, go around buildings, the grounds, and other structures to inspect walls, eaves, soffits, sheds, portable classrooms, and the areas around and above doorways for wasp nests. Look for a steady stream of wasps into a hole and listen for a steady hum that can give a hidden colony away. Remove garbage regularly, because food waste, beverage containers, other bugs, and sugary residues attract wasps.
Wherever you find evidence of cockroaches or wasps, professional control is the safest route. If an inspection finds a pest problem, do not wait for the pests to spread, because professional pest control can bring a cockroach infestation under control or remove a wasp nest before the first day of class.
After the Doors Are Open: Staying Ahead of Pests
When school resumes, there is a risk that people can bring more pests with them. Ask staff to report pests and signs of pests such as droppings, wasp nests, cockroach sightings, and stings as soon as they can. Keep cleaning and repairs on a tight schedule.
To arrange a commercial pest control service for your school in Manitoba, Alberta, or Saskatchewan, call Poulin’s Pest Control today.