Happy Halloween from Ew York City

Why are you storing your bread in the basement boiler room?

What are you doing?

Where are you?

I don't understand what you're doing?

Who eats?  Who eats?

Nightmare on Nightmare Street Nightmare

In honor of today being Halloween Eve, I thought I'd give us all a nightmare.

Really?  This is how you leave your storage closet?  Full of trash, clutter, chairs, printer paper, paper bags, plastic bags, bags of bags, and bags.  And you expect me to go in there and exterminate?   With what my elastic arms?  And you expect me to believe that your team goes in there regularly and cleans?  With what, their elastic cleaner wand from Duck Island?  And you expect-

Sorry, I haven't eaten breakfast yet; kinda cranky.

Anyway, I hope if you ever see things like this, you'll close your eyes, click your heels together, and say three times fast: "There's no place like clutter for a pest's home.  There's no place like clutter for a pest's home."

Let's dream of a day when our clutter nightmares are a distant vision in the rear view mirror of our cloud cars.

Work on it!

Ew York City will be haunting you tomorrow.

Go to the ant

Another one of my old bad photos from my previous phone, I apologize in advance.  The newer photos are coming.

There was a roof top bar in SoHo that had an ant infestation.  Instead of applying traditional products I decided to go with a bait product.

Ants are amazing communicators with one another, and it was but a few minutes after the first ant discovered my bait that dozens and then hundreds of others began to scoop it up and take it back to the Queen.

And then, the ants were gone.

I actually really, really like ants, so it's tough for me to wipe out a whole colony.  But I'm often reminded that there really is no stopping these guys.  You can learn a lot from watching them.

Ew York City will be crawling back your way soon.

De La Spider

Spiders are technically considered "beneficials," meaning they are beneficial to human beings, even though most of us consider them pests that should be killed immediately.

Spiders are natures exterminators, and many are the times I have found their webs full of cockroaches, bedbugs, and of course flies.

If you can stand them at all, let them be.  Of course there are some spiders that have harmful bites, but most of them are just interested in eating your houseflies and other disease carrying insects.

I'm Ew York City, and I approve this message.

Sitting in Your Own Pew

Some kind of a stink bug I think.

Crawling up the exterior wall of a restaurant downtown.

Crazy Monday.

Smell you tomorrow on Pew York City.

Love Is In the Air

These are just some pictures of Indian Meal moths mating. 

It's a slow Friday.

Ew York City will see you sometime next week.

Ordering Off the Menu

What could possibly come through that door?  Only customers?  We know better don't we?

The obvious intruder is flies, particularly house flies.  This door faces the street, and houseflies, which have a range of around one mile, can stop into your restaurant for a quick lunch, even if the door is only open for a minute.

Water bugs are another possibility, especially with drains, grates, sewers, and garbage right outside.

What else might stop in?

This little fella ran in one day.  We chased him around for a while.  See how sweaty he got?  Finally he died of natural causes, caused by being beaten with a blunt object.

So right now, let's dispel the rumor that pests don't just walk in through the front door.  For food like yours, they'll be breaking down the doors like an army of bloodthirsty zombies.

ew york city will be back flav

Your Drains Is Your Enemies

Lots of flies seen all over this restaurant kitchen.  Sanitation was average.  But the drains?  Several of them had standing water sitting on top.  But how can standing water sit while it's standing?

We pop off them lids, and word, we have issues.  It's ugly.  Somebody making soup?

Yes, this is your reality.  How often do you clean your drains?  Have your ever cleaned your drains?  Do you even know that you have drains?  Do you know what the word "clean" means?  How many fingers am I holding up?  Sir, I'm going to need you to calm down and answer the questions.  Drop the souffle and put your hands up.

Ew York City is back 2 soon 2 morrow.

Cornered

The corners are tough, no matter who you are, but especially if you're a circle.

There's a little water bug dead in a corner somewhere that someone missed.  And then there's this corner, which was actually in a very clean kitchen, except for the corners.  There's a leg blocking it as well, and you know that the mop head and broom cannot fit into such a little space, so I'm sure this just goes uncleaned for long periods at a time.

The solution?

Systematic, periodic deep cleanings.  You've got to schedule that every Monday night your team gets down on its hands and knees and gets to these spots that they miss the other 6 days of the week.

Meet me on the corner of rotting filth and dead roaches!  That's what I say!

Ew York City will be back tomorrow hopefully.

Not So Great

October is pumpkin month.  Hooray.

Okay, that's all I got for that.

Anyway, with many restaurants getting extra pumpkin deliveries, it's important to inspect thoroughly your deliveries.  Many boxes come with one or too not so hot pumpkins, and they can be full of pests, or can instantly become a condition conducive to pest breeding.

In the above pictures, our man Gil dug through some packages and found the source of fly activity.  But it shouldn't just be your exterminator that's doing the digging.  Make sure someone on your team knows how to inspect properly these packages daily.

Otherwise pests might carve you up.

We are the champions

This restaurant was complaining of an awful smell in the kitchen.  After determining that the chefs were in fact brushing their teeth and using deodorant, we decided to look around for other sources and found this little rat under one of the stoves.  It had obviously fallen asleep, so we just put it in a trash bag and sent it to rodent heaven.

Yes, vermin this big can get into your restaurant.  It is New York City.  And this is Ew York City.

Ew York City will be back tomorrow.