Pest management in commercial buildings is typically procured as a periodic spraying service. Spraying is the least effective component of effective pest management. Integrated pest management inverts the emphasis. The sequence is exclusion first, sanitation second, monitoring third, and chemical intervention only where the first three have been addressed and a problem persists. Exclusion means physical denial of entry and harbourage. Gaps under doors, unsealed utility penetrations, damaged window screens, open drainage points, gaps around pipe sleeves and unsealed false ceiling voids are the routes by which rodents and crawling insects enter. A building with a comprehensive spraying programme and a two-centimetre gap under a service door has an ongoing problem it will treat indefinitely. Sanitation addresses food and water availability. Pantry waste held overnight, food court grease traps serviced irregularly, water pooling in plant rooms and vegetation in direct contact with external walls each sustain populations that chemicals then attempt to reduce. Monitoring provides early detection and effectiveness measurement. Rodent monitoring stations on a mapped grid, insect light traps in food areas with logged catch counts, and documented inspection findings convert pest control from an assumption into a measurement. Catch count trends indicate whether the programme is working. Chemical intervention, where required, should be targeted and documented, with material safety data sheets available, application records maintained and re-entry intervals observed. Blanket fogging in occupied commercial space is rarely justified and frequently counterproductive. For food courts, kitchens and pantry areas, the sanitation component carries most of the weight. No chemical programme compensates for a grease trap serviced quarterly.