Commercial
Common pests found in restaurants
Content updated: October 23, 2026
Key takeaways
- Cockroaches in restaurants can hitch a ride on shipments and deliveries, hide in cracks and dark areas, and quickly develop large infestations.
- Rodents can damage food packaging, equipment, and structures through gnawing and contaminate areas with their droppings.
- Flies in restaurants may enter through doors, windows, and other openings and can thrive around trash receptacles and drains.
- Stored product pests such as moths, weevils, and beetles can arrive with food shipments and infest stored grains, beans, nuts, and other foods.
- Stinging pests can create problems around outdoor dining and waiting areas, where stings may be painful or trigger allergic reactions.
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Treating pests without reservations
Your restaurant has delicious food, friendly staff, and an enticing ambiance, but a pest problem can quickly disrupt the dining experience for your guests and put your business’s reputation at risk. Restaurants can attract unwanted visitors such as cockroaches, flies, and rodents because food, moisture, frequent foot traffic, and incoming shipments provide plenty of opportunities for pest activity.
Learn about the most common pests in restaurants, the problems they can cause, and how professional pest control can help protect your business.
Cockroaches
These ugly bugs are among the most feared restaurant pests because they are well known to be vectors for bacteria. They can also trigger allergens and allergy symptoms in some people. Cockroaches are especially creepy because they skitter in and out of cracks, crevices and dark corners swiftly, likely leaving customers and employees shuddering and revolted. Capable of establishing large infestations quickly, cockroaches can hitchhike into restaurants aboard shipments and deliveries, and often hide in the dark voids of buildings. For help managing cockroach infestations, Terminix® Commercial offers an effective 5-Step Commercial Cockroach Control System that includes:
- Step 1: Removing all accessible cockroaches by vacuum, drastically reducing the population
- Step 2: Treating inaccessible spots where cockroaches live
- Step 3: Preemptively treating cracks and crevices where cockroaches try to run and hide
- Step 4: Using bait that kills all stages of cockroach development
- Step 5: Applying insect growth regulators for long-term control
Rodents
Besides being unsightly and unsettling for restaurant guests to encounter, rodents can damage packaging, products, equipment and structures. The damage can come from gnawing and from unsanitary droppings that rodents leave behind. Rodents can enter buildings through doorways and through surprisingly small cracks and holes. Their gnawing, feeding and breeding can pose threats to the health and safety of a restaurant. A professional rodent control plan can help address these risks and protect your restaurant.
Flies
Flies can sneak into your restaurant via open doors, windows, cracks and other openings. They can be irritating, annoying and difficult to control. Depending on the type, some flies can also bite. They can thrive in restaurant trash receptacles and drains, increasing in population during the summer months. Terminix Commercial offers several different types of Insect Light Traps (ILTs) for effective fly control, including unobtrusive decorative options.
Stinging pests
If your restaurant has an outdoor dining or waiting area, stinging pests can pose real problems. In addition to frightening customers and making their visit unpleasant, insect stings can be painful and may trigger allergic reactions in some people. Wasps are particular nuisances because they can sting repeatedly. Stinging pests can be hard to control and may build nests that can be difficult to remove due to location or because of the swarms around them.
Stored product pests
Almost all restaurants have food stored on the premises, which can be a big attractor for stored product pests, such as moths, weevils, beetles and others. Even if your restaurant has never had a food pest problem before, these creatures can arrive along with your next food shipment and set up residence in your shelving, cabinets and cupboards. Stored product pests can breed and build huge populations in a short amount of time, and widespread infestations can have more than one source which makes them challenging to control. These pests can leave behind eggs and larvae, contaminating food items. Many types of food items are at risk for stored product pests, including whole grains, wheat, corn, barley, rice, beans and nuts.
Ants
There are many different types of ants that can pose problems for restaurants, so proper identification is key for determining the proper treatment. Some ant species can be controlled using ant baits properly placed by a pest control professional, while others require different strategies. In most cases, it’s also necessary to trace the ants back to the colony for effective treatment. Ant infestations can be frustrating, and getting help from an experienced commercial pest control professional is recommended to help get ants effectively under control.
Treating pests without reservations
If you see any of these pests in your restaurant, or if you want help preventing them from showing up in the first place, call Terminix Commercial right away. Terminix Commercial has extensive experience in delivering effective pest control to restaurants and food service businesses. In addition to treating your pest problems, which will help you meet health code requirements in regards to pest control, our trained professionals can offer you and your staff tips for helping avoid and eliminate conditions that may attract pests. At Terminix Commercial, we want customers to come back to your restaurant, not pests.
