LEMUEL BRADY, Director of the Environmental Health Unit in the Ministry of Health, is urging Jamaicans to keep their surroundings clean to prevent pest infestation.
Proper environmental sanitation, which entailed proper disposal of garbage and cleaning up cooking areas after use, was the key to controlling pests, he said, as he addressed the launch of the PRE-EMPT Professional Cockroach Bait by Agro Grace in association with Bayer CropScience at the Terra Nova Hotel in Kingston.
The director said he was pleased with any new innovation to "keep annoying pests at bay" but stressed that Jamaicans needed to be cognisant of the need to keep their environment clean.
Applying pesticides or chemicals, he explained, should be used as a last resort and only as a maintenance factor in preserving a pest free household. "There were numerous chemicals in our environment already and Jamaicans should use them as necessary", he stated.
Explaining the necessity of environmental sanitation in the home, Mr. Brady noted that household pests, in particular cockroaches, required two elements to thrive, a place to hide such as cracks or crevices, and food to eat.
As the main area where food is prepared, the kitchen is most vulnerable to cockroaches. Therefore, cleaning up areas after the preparation of food as well as washing up utensils after meals is imperative.
"The number one element is to starve them to death. A cockroach living in a crack in the kitchen is ecstatic because, when you have your late night snack and fail to clean up, the cockroaches emerge to enjoy all the microscopic drops of food left behind", he explained.
He said the proper disposal of refuse was also important and advised that garbage containers should be covered at all times and kept clean by applying disinfectants or other cleaning agents.
Responding to queries as to whether cockroaches can transmit communicable diseases, the director said that, "to date, there were no significant diseases that were spread by the presence of cockroaches." He noted however, that judging from the places cockroaches inhabited, "there was a distinct possibility that they could be mechanical carriers that carry organisms from their hiding places that can cause gastro-enteritis among other food-bourne illnesses".
For this reason alone in particular, it is necessary that the home was pest free and also the workplace, Mr. Brady said.
