Pest monitoring and service reports
Monitoring tells you where pests are before anyone sees one. Reporting turns each visit into a record that a verifier, a committee or a landlord can read.
What is pest monitoring?
Pest monitoring is the use of numbered devices, placed at fixed points on a site plan, to detect pest activity between the inspections of a commercial pest management programme. Each point is checked and recorded at every visit, so activity can be traced to a location and a date. A monitoring point is not always a poison: inside food areas it is usually a trap, a non-toxic monitoring block or an insect glue board.
How monitoring points are laid out
The layout follows the way pests move: along walls, from outside to inside, and towards food, water and warmth. A typical commercial layout has three rings.
Monitoring rings
| Ring | Where | Typical devices |
|---|---|---|
| External perimeter | Building walls, fence lines, waste enclosures, near drains | Lockable, tamper-resistant rodent bait stations fixed in place |
| Entry line | Inside doors, loading docks, service penetrations, plant rooms | Rodent traps or monitoring blocks, insect monitors |
| Sensitive areas | Food preparation, dry stores, chillers, bins rooms, staff kitchens | Non-toxic monitors and traps, insect glue boards, fly units |
Every point carries its number, and the same number appears on the site plan and in every report. If a point moves, the plan is reissued.
What a service report contains
A service report is the written record of a single visit. The Food Regulations 2015 set out what a record of an activity must show: the date, the results, and who carried it out. For food businesses under a national programme they also require a record of the type of pest found and the extent of the infestation. Service reports in the programme are built around those fields so they can go straight into the food safety records.
ILLUSTRATIVE ONLY: the layout of a service report, with invented example entries. Not a record of any real site.
| Point | Location | Device | Finding | Action | Recommendation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| E01 | East wall, beside bin enclosure | Rodent station | Bait partly taken | Bait replaced, station cleaned | Bin enclosure gate does not close: repair (site) |
| E02 | Loading dock, north corner | Rodent station | No activity | Checked | None |
| I04 | Dry store, behind shelving | Insect monitor | 2 adult German cockroaches | Gel bait applied to harbourage | Pull shelving 50 mm off wall for cleaning (site) |
| I07 | Kitchen, dishwasher plinth | Insect monitor | No activity | Monitor replaced | None |
| F01 | Back of house corridor | Fly unit | Light catch, house flies | Glue board replaced | Keep dock door closed between deliveries (site) |
Below the table, each report states the products used and where, the technician who carried out the visit, the date and time, and whether any follow-up visit is needed. Recommendations always name who owns them: us, or the site.
How long should pest control records be kept?
Food businesses on a food control plan must keep each record for at least four years after it is created, and records must be legible, accurate, complete and dated. Keep the site plan, every service report and any corrective action notes together, so a verifier can follow a finding from the point where it was recorded to the action that closed it.
The pest control records guide sets out what to keep and how to file it.
Reading trends, not single visits
A single visit says whether a point was active. A run of visits says whether the programme is working. Each review looks at which points are repeatedly active, whether activity is moving inward from the perimeter, and whether recommendations made to the site have been closed. That is the evidence used to move a visit frequency up or down.
Questions facility managers ask
Is toxic bait used inside food areas?
As a rule, no. Inside food handling and storage areas the programme relies on traps, non-toxic monitors and insect glue boards, and rodenticide is kept to locked external stations. Any product used is applied in a way that cannot contaminate food, equipment or surfaces, which is what the food rules require of the operator.
Can reports be sent to more than one person?
Yes. Reports can go to the site manager, a food safety lead, a property manager or a body corporate committee contact, so that the people who own the recommendations see them.
What does a verifier usually want to see?
How staff check for pests, how pests are controlled, what is done when they are found, and the records that prove it. A current site plan, recent service reports and closed corrective actions answer most of those questions in a few minutes.
Related pages
Sources
- Food Regulations 2015, regs 35–37 (records) and 51(2) (record of pest type and extent)
- MPI, National Programme 2 guidance, "Controlling pests" (December 2025)
- MPI, Guidance for developing good operating practice procedures: pest control (2011)
Request a site audit. Our partner's technician walks the site and checks the records your verifier or committee will ask for. You receive a written scope with a monitoring layout and a quoted visit schedule.