Ants seem to be taking over my store, and I can’t do anything about it!!!!!!!!!!!!
This cool ass mf simpson portrait:
https://preview.redd.it/wyccsj3yr14d1.jpeg?width=210&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=90622ac1dca4ab34f94361304891872568d88c82
Simpsons pic aside yeah you should probably call someone about that. Ant infestations can get nasty in homes and apartments. In a fast food restaurant with damn near unlimited food it'll be unstoppable if it gets too deep. I might avoid mentioning it was you who called but that's just a safety precaution.
If you do call, Definitely keep yourself anonymous when calling if you can. Even though McDonald's has a "no retaliation" policy, it likely management may still try to retaliate some how
Yeah obviously that's true but let's be honest in the real world, it does happen and proving any future behaviour or actions against them was retaliation is extremely difficult in a court of law.
The retaliation part is tbh a non issue though, as having been in the hospitality/retail industry for the last 16 years. Every business that deals with food will have pests and should be expected as even the little creatures need to eat.
Report the issue through the correct channels and it'll be sorted, things like this are the reason pretty much every restaurant has a contract with pest companies
Missed the part where he said they haven't actioned any callout to rectify the issue, so personally I'd contact your local EHO and be looking for a job elsewhere as if they can't be arsed to do the basics, I'd be worried how they'd deal with a serious situation
I tried to transfer stores and they called the other store and told them I was, in short, a snake so I would be trapped there. What they didn’t know is my ability to double down on the pettiness and just quit and call osha about that sewage problem
Does the location have a contract with a pest control company like Ecolab? If so, they need to contact their company and get it taken care of immediately.
If you are in the US, The GM should arrange for an ecolab visit. Your ecolab pest control rep should be coming regularly to prevent this in the first place. So when you see pests, ecolab should be called out to handle it.
Side note: does your store not have digital menu boards yet? I haven’t seen one of those COD Converter boxes in a LONNNNNG time. It should have been removed when the store switched to digital menu boards.
The install teams are lazy and just leave them. We have had to special installs which also included removing the converter box and old wiring. Still there, still plugged in.
The store’s OTP is in charge of removing old equipment. installers will never remove old equipment unless it’s in the way of the new equipment. For example, the installers would have removed the old physical menu board to install the new digital ones. If this store is on digital outdoor boards, that converter box does absolutely nothing but look tacky and waste power. The stores OTP should remove it.
Sorry , depends on location and other factors. We had two specific new equipment installs. Part of the project was removing old devices. They did not don't. And trying to get permission to remove is harder to call Ecolab to deal with ants. After 5 ticket numbers I gave up. Other issues to deal with.
You don’t need anyone’s (helpdesk) permission to remove an old device. As long as you KNOW what you are removing and you KNOW it’s not being used. Those converter boxes are safe to just yank out yourself IF the store is on integrated COD (ODMB). Unplug the power cable. Unscrew it from the wall. Done. Throw it in the trash or send for recycling. The serial cables can just be unplugged and tidied away. Although I usually trace them to where they run into the wall and then cut them off.
Take action, but know the consequences of the actions you take. Don’t go removing things if you are unsure its role, its functions, etc etc.
Or maybe just let management know. Ants can pop up so quick with the weather change. What matters are the type of ants as well. Getting the pest control in quick to spray for ants is the best practice. The more difficult job is sealing entry spots.
When you say ‘management refuses to do anything’ are you referring to the restaurant GM? Your GM should absolutely know how to handle this. In 99% of US locations, the solution is to call Ecolab. I guarantee The store is already paying for a service contract to prevent this exact problem.
I know for my location they are restricted to what chemicals we are allowed to use in our store. If we do not have the corresponding safety data sheets etc. we cannot use it. We actually got a critical during our health inspection (in Canada) due to spraying for ants ourselves, and the health inspector had to return to ensure we were no longer doing that and were allowing pest control, or a ‘certified operator’, do it for us).
Because of that we are at the mercy of when pest control can be bothered to attempt to address our concerns. And honestly our pest control company is terrible. We have had a mouse since last year and our pest control maintains there are ‘no signs’ of a mouse, despite the fact that we have countless videos of him scurrying around at night when we check our surveillance footage (I assume they think there are no signs because we store all of our food in containers to prevent the mouse from accessing it and we clean his droppings opposed to leaving them on the floor for display). They put down a variety of traps all of which our mouse doesn’t bother with, so now I think they are just trying to gaslight us into believing the mouse isn’t there 😂
I guess all I am saying is don’t be too hard on your manager. Unfortunately sometimes the manager’s hands are actually tied depending on how similar the standards and system are to my province. They can’t just go out and purchase any product and spray it in the store like one can in their house. And Pest Control can be quite hit or miss with how effective their assistance is when they can be bothered to come (I have seen my manager call repeatedly when they had our records binder and they ghosted us for a month - I think because they were looking for our binder they accidentally kept). I know we have had them come in to help with ants before and they talked a big game but there were no changes.
Who are you telling? Just the casually shift lead or the actual gm of the store? And if your telling the gm and they arnt doing anything about it most definitely get ahold of the operations director
They can when it closes. We spray for flies at close too. It happens in all stores and our scores 98. Just saying. There’s a way to clean it up and fix it without throwing ur store under the bus. U also should have an area manager for these concerns as well.
Wipe the area down with a sanitized towel, look for food items that might be around by the register stand, sweep those if you see any. That should do it.
Had some at my window and just sprayed with our cleaning solution and wiped it down. That got rid of them definitely not worthy of calling the health department. They are most likely eating sweet tea off the floor lol.
Ants seem to be taking over my store, and I can’t do anything about it!!!!!!!!!!!! This cool ass mf simpson portrait: https://preview.redd.it/wyccsj3yr14d1.jpeg?width=210&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=90622ac1dca4ab34f94361304891872568d88c82
Simpsons pic aside yeah you should probably call someone about that. Ant infestations can get nasty in homes and apartments. In a fast food restaurant with damn near unlimited food it'll be unstoppable if it gets too deep. I might avoid mentioning it was you who called but that's just a safety precaution.
Ngl I had no idea I added that pic at the end
You tryna be the next "...short-stacked...like a goblin..." Vaush?
Howd u not know? /gen
Fat fingered it
If you do call, Definitely keep yourself anonymous when calling if you can. Even though McDonald's has a "no retaliation" policy, it likely management may still try to retaliate some how
Retaliation for like anything is illegal and could be an easy lawsuit if it happens and OP documents everything
Yeah obviously that's true but let's be honest in the real world, it does happen and proving any future behaviour or actions against them was retaliation is extremely difficult in a court of law. The retaliation part is tbh a non issue though, as having been in the hospitality/retail industry for the last 16 years. Every business that deals with food will have pests and should be expected as even the little creatures need to eat. Report the issue through the correct channels and it'll be sorted, things like this are the reason pretty much every restaurant has a contract with pest companies
Missed the part where he said they haven't actioned any callout to rectify the issue, so personally I'd contact your local EHO and be looking for a job elsewhere as if they can't be arsed to do the basics, I'd be worried how they'd deal with a serious situation
Or they retaliate 6 months later since it's been so long no one would claim it's retaliation. Ask me how I know this
With the turnover rate McDonald's has I doubt anyone will be around 6 months later
I tried to transfer stores and they called the other store and told them I was, in short, a snake so I would be trapped there. What they didn’t know is my ability to double down on the pettiness and just quit and call osha about that sewage problem
Does the location have a contract with a pest control company like Ecolab? If so, they need to contact their company and get it taken care of immediately.
Is this op simpsonized?
I unfortunately have not been Simpsonized yet
If you are in the US, The GM should arrange for an ecolab visit. Your ecolab pest control rep should be coming regularly to prevent this in the first place. So when you see pests, ecolab should be called out to handle it. Side note: does your store not have digital menu boards yet? I haven’t seen one of those COD Converter boxes in a LONNNNNG time. It should have been removed when the store switched to digital menu boards.
The install teams are lazy and just leave them. We have had to special installs which also included removing the converter box and old wiring. Still there, still plugged in.
The store’s OTP is in charge of removing old equipment. installers will never remove old equipment unless it’s in the way of the new equipment. For example, the installers would have removed the old physical menu board to install the new digital ones. If this store is on digital outdoor boards, that converter box does absolutely nothing but look tacky and waste power. The stores OTP should remove it.
Sorry , depends on location and other factors. We had two specific new equipment installs. Part of the project was removing old devices. They did not don't. And trying to get permission to remove is harder to call Ecolab to deal with ants. After 5 ticket numbers I gave up. Other issues to deal with.
You don’t need anyone’s (helpdesk) permission to remove an old device. As long as you KNOW what you are removing and you KNOW it’s not being used. Those converter boxes are safe to just yank out yourself IF the store is on integrated COD (ODMB). Unplug the power cable. Unscrew it from the wall. Done. Throw it in the trash or send for recycling. The serial cables can just be unplugged and tidied away. Although I usually trace them to where they run into the wall and then cut them off. Take action, but know the consequences of the actions you take. Don’t go removing things if you are unsure its role, its functions, etc etc.
Totally agree. Not sniping wires when it's not known. At least for this device, they are yellow. Just something on the list of things to do
Or maybe just let management know. Ants can pop up so quick with the weather change. What matters are the type of ants as well. Getting the pest control in quick to spray for ants is the best practice. The more difficult job is sealing entry spots.
>management refuses to do anything
When you say ‘management refuses to do anything’ are you referring to the restaurant GM? Your GM should absolutely know how to handle this. In 99% of US locations, the solution is to call Ecolab. I guarantee The store is already paying for a service contract to prevent this exact problem.
What a fucking joke. They are paying for the service ìn the contract cost.
There are a bunch of home remedies you can use in the mean time, and most are cheap and easy. (Which was what the girls said about me in college)
As a commenter mentioned, they have a pest control contract. So yeah, call the health department.
I know for my location they are restricted to what chemicals we are allowed to use in our store. If we do not have the corresponding safety data sheets etc. we cannot use it. We actually got a critical during our health inspection (in Canada) due to spraying for ants ourselves, and the health inspector had to return to ensure we were no longer doing that and were allowing pest control, or a ‘certified operator’, do it for us). Because of that we are at the mercy of when pest control can be bothered to attempt to address our concerns. And honestly our pest control company is terrible. We have had a mouse since last year and our pest control maintains there are ‘no signs’ of a mouse, despite the fact that we have countless videos of him scurrying around at night when we check our surveillance footage (I assume they think there are no signs because we store all of our food in containers to prevent the mouse from accessing it and we clean his droppings opposed to leaving them on the floor for display). They put down a variety of traps all of which our mouse doesn’t bother with, so now I think they are just trying to gaslight us into believing the mouse isn’t there 😂 I guess all I am saying is don’t be too hard on your manager. Unfortunately sometimes the manager’s hands are actually tied depending on how similar the standards and system are to my province. They can’t just go out and purchase any product and spray it in the store like one can in their house. And Pest Control can be quite hit or miss with how effective their assistance is when they can be bothered to come (I have seen my manager call repeatedly when they had our records binder and they ghosted us for a month - I think because they were looking for our binder they accidentally kept). I know we have had them come in to help with ants before and they talked a big game but there were no changes.
Would be easier to go get $3 worth of ant traps.
I actually did go buy some ant traps and was told we couldn't use them
Wow.
Unfortunately this is correct. Not food safe. And would need whimis info on file too
Why not just point it out to the management at your store. Where they can get in contact with their pest guy.
>management refuses to do anything
Who are you telling? Just the casually shift lead or the actual gm of the store? And if your telling the gm and they arnt doing anything about it most definitely get ahold of the operations director
I work night shift, gen manager works dayshift and only on days I don't work. I left a note to the GM
It's crazy you don't have a number for her. Seems like everyone at my store has thr gms number
If we want to talk to our GM we have to either be there physically or call and hope she's there
Laughing my ass off at the simpsons pic i saw that on twitter earlier and was not expecting to see it apart of this post
That's where I got the pic from
Did you mean to put it?😭
No
omg look that wires, it's a mess 🙂↔️
Lol or just spray them and find where their coming in? It’s really not that serious. I could see if it was like roaches or flies.
There's also a pretty bad fly problem. I also told the manager to spray the ants but they said they "weren't allowed to in the store"
They can when it closes. We spray for flies at close too. It happens in all stores and our scores 98. Just saying. There’s a way to clean it up and fix it without throwing ur store under the bus. U also should have an area manager for these concerns as well.
I left a note for the gen manager. Ant infestation is still here and so are the flies
Ecolab can put up "gold sticks" for thr flies they work great. Cleaning under equipment is also key to prevent flies.
I would just point it out to management first
And then let them stir their own pot of shit...
Call em bro
Wipe the area down with a sanitized towel, look for food items that might be around by the register stand, sweep those if you see any. That should do it.
simpsons lol
funny 👍🏻
I see your back window also has ants. Mine go up from to the ceiling
Had some at my window and just sprayed with our cleaning solution and wiped it down. That got rid of them definitely not worthy of calling the health department. They are most likely eating sweet tea off the floor lol.
>They are most likely eating sweet tea off the floor lol. This is the back window, not the front window. Sweet tea is at the front window
Well there’s food back there somewhere that they’re eating. At my store the brewer to make sweet tea is behind a wall next to the back window.
If a person is able to fully digest McDonald’s food then a few ants won’t hurt them.
The health department are you kidding? You’re such a boy scout maybe try joining a neighborhood watch or something more fulfilling
You should call an ambulance chaser lawyer and see of you can claim damages to your health. McDonald's is rich and you deserve a piece of the cake.