Pandemic Impact

The food industry faced a vast array of challenges in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, including reduced workforces, increased focus on worker protections, a shift in consumer buying trends and related production changes, and limited accessibility for external service providers. With that, it could be expected that there would be a significant shift in regular pest control services. However, 79% of the survey respondents stated that the facilities in which they worked saw little to no impact on their pest control services during the pandemic.

Of the 21% that did see some impact on their pest control service:

Additionally, the vast majority of respondents (85%) continued to have the same type of pest control services at the same frequency in their facilities as in 2019, with only 10% reducing their services. In fact, 4% of respondents increased the frequency or type of service in 2020. (Table 5)

The greatest shift seems to have been a reduction in the frequency, as both the weekly and monthly service frequency rates shifted slightly downward during COVID while the quarterly, “as needed,” and no set schedule rates trended slightly upward.