Why Not?

 Here is a nice active rodent entry point.  You can see the "mouse grease" i.e. sebum on the yellow foam.  The mice climb the cable or the wall and escape through the hole.

 Here is a close up of a hole in a brick wall with more sebum on the cement.

Hard to believe these sort of holes can exist in a Manhattan restaurant dining room, but why not?  Behind every brick wall is a labyrinth of rodent activity.

I'll be doing some serious thinking on rodents over the New Year, and I hope to understand them better, and to come up with new ideas for coexistence, setting boundaries, and inclusiveness.  I'll keep you posted.

Happy New Year from Ew York City.

Southern Discomfort

One of our technicians recently relocated from NYC to the warmer weather of the southern United States, and he sent me this picture of some of the creepy crawlies down there.

Yes, that's a spider.

Yes, it sure looks big.

Like big enough to gouge out an eyeball big.

So winter in NYC suddenly doesn't sound so bad.

Stay strong America.

Ew York City should be back one or two more times this week.

Eating Out For Christmas

Here's where your soda comes from at your favorite restaurant.

Merry Christmas from

Ew

York

City

dot

Blogspot

See you next year

You're Growing On Me

"Everybody has one and they usually stink."

So were the wise words to me from an older sage who imparted wisdom to me regarding the human drain.

Not that this is entirely relevant, but man these drains in your restaurants are a given for issues.

Deep, dark issues of the soul.

Sometimes decaying organic matter gets so out of control in a drain that living matter begins to sprout forth like so many pinkas.

Bleach is not the answer, so let's put a stop to that rumor (tap tap) right now!

Just clean like you care.  Even if you don't care.

Ew york city will be back tomorrow I think.

These pictures are from one of our nightcrawlers, Melv.

Farm Fresh

Here's a closeup of one of those grain beetles from the previous post.

This one however is not from that restaurant, but rather was under the bed of a young, handsome man from the mid-west who moved to NYC to fulfill his dream of becoming a interior decorator.

The dream lives!

But, as one would expect, the trek from the farm to the big city involved numerous perils along the way, including bringing some of these little bad boys along on the journey.  This one was found under a pile of burlap in the master bedroom.

Ew York City will be back tomorrow.

High Fiber Diet

Here are a whole bunch of dead, red flour beetles in a restaurant's storage room.

These little guys love infesting grains and flours and other things in your pantry.

The grains in this restaurant were so full of them for so long that there was a huge graveyard of them on the floor from when they would die of old age.  We didn't even spray to kill any of these.

Now you might be wondering if people ever accidentally eat these things in their food.

What do you mean "if"?

Ew york city will be back for hump day.

Stalag 17 Million

Here are some stalactites made of pure grease underneath a deep fryer in a restaurant kitchen.

My stomach doesn't feel so well.

Ew york city will be around tomorrow.

There Be Dragons Here

I realize these are not dragons.

But as far as the DOH is concerned, they may as well be an eight-headed Hydra with elf-powers.

These dirty, wet, filthy, yellowing rags were underneath kitchen appliances, just gathering moisture and food and were providing a perfect breeding sight for flies and cockroaches.

It was gnarly braddah.

Amazing how something so simple as killing a dragon restores peace to the realm, and something so simple as getting rid of these rags got rid of this restaurant's pests.

Try not to blink in the face of danger.

Ew York City should be back tomorrow.

Is it gross?

Every now and then one of my technicians will send me a photograph that makes me say, "what in the gehenna is going on here?"

Here is a nice closeup of the area between two stoves in a restaurant kitchen where grease and slimy matter have been gathering together for some time.

How long exactly?  It's hard to say.

In any case, this is a perfect example of pest conducive conditions right under your nose.

This needs a scrubbing, a steaming, a disinfecting, and a livable wage.

Move it out, clean it up, shut it down.

And receive with simplicity all that happens to you.

Ew York City will be back soon money.

Muckday

Here are a couple alternate views of a drain that I posted a few days back.

It's Monday, so I feel kind of like this drain.

Please clean.

Ew York City will be back on Tuesday.

Let the Sun Shine In

There are some things you can't look away from.

This is not one of them.

Even I don't like looking at this sort of thing.  My brain is actually triggering the smell of it now in my mind so I'm feeling kind ill.

This is not in some fourth world hive of scum and villainy.

This is in the kitchen of a really, really, really nice restaurant in Manhattan, that happens to wonder why they have so many pests showing up.

All their drains look like this.

Drains are not the be all, end all to all pest situations.

We're not talking about whoopsy doopsy.

But drains are a no brainer for any one who cares about sanitation and pest control.

Once the drains are on lock down you have eliminated one major source of doom and gloom in your life.

And that my friends, is a fight worth winning.

Ew york city will fly by again soon.

The Grobe

I never knew what the Grobe was, but I feared it nonetheless.

Ah, the 70s.

Anyway, look at all the nastiness gathering in your kitchen behind this one pipe.

"Filthy Whore!!"

That wasn't me.

I'm not sure who yelled that.

So the plan is to schedule a deep intense cleaning of this area every week at the least so that these sort of problems do not develop and persist.

You may not always be able to prevent the development, but you can always address the persistence.

Feel me?

Ew York City will be back again

The Door Sweeps For Thee

Here are a couple bad situations, back to back, and belly to belly.

If you're going to have door sweeps you've got to make sure:

1) They are attached correctly, tightly, beautifully, etc.

And

2)  They are intact, i.e. not crunched or bent or folded up anywhere, whether it be at the end or in the middle, etc.

Do you check your door sweeps regularly?

Do they sweep correctly?

Do they need replacing?  Oiling?  Lubing?  Refitting?  Customizing?  Detailing?  A tune up?  Diet?

So get down to bring it up a notch, and make sure that ain't no mice getting into your house, restaurant, etc.

Ew York City will be back, return, etc. tomorrow

Pass the Ammunition

Preparing for war.

Sound the trumpet.

Bait the mouse traps.

Bring the pain.

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope all the readers of Ew York City have a happy, and healthy Thanksgiving.

And I also hope you all get the counseling you so desperately need.

I think this was that dude's couch

This represents the great unknown of pest control.

What was this?

Why was it like this?

What can I do about it?

Who cares?

Ew York City will be back again.

Pre-Trending

Here's some of my former colleagues.

They were released a while back.

But for a while we worked together closely.

They really liked living in cardboard, but then one morning in the village me and little Nicky came across this little shoe and the roaches really seemed to enjoy sunning themselves on it.

They also ate quite a bit of the pleather interior.

I'm sure there's a niche market out there for edible footwear, and these little guys are way ahead of the curve on that.

We call it pre-trending.

Ew York City will be back next week.

Again, there's action in the alley

Floor?

Check

Wall?

Check

Mouse droppings?

Check

And where are they?

Next to the wall

This doesn't necessarily mean anything.

Ew York City will be back tomorrow

Listen to your rat droppings (or to your heart)

This was up in the ceiling of some wholesale place that sells huge amounts of trinkets from China to the little tourist shops in Times Square.

Just contemplate the profit margin there....

Speaking of rats, this is what was going on above all the ceramic NYC taxis and New York license plates that say "#1 DAD!"

Lots of rat activity:  fresh droppings, lots of urine, and plenty of sebum, that oily secretion that comes from the hair and skin of the rodent.

As the rodents poop, pee, sweat, shed, and run around, rat dander (learn that term!) falls down from the drop ceiling and floats onto the boxes of neon colored bongs and "I (Heart) NY" shirts that will shortly be making the long trip back to Barcelona, Tuscaloosa, and Bangalore.

And this is why I do my souvenir shopping online.

Ew York City will be back pretty soon

I'm feeling like a new man

Fruit flies were breeding behind this pipe.

The gunk was full of larvae.

The walls were covered with flies.

The orcs were marching toward Mordor.

So what did we do?

Steam baby.

We steamed out the gunk behind the pipe, and middle earth was saved.

Photos courtesy of our nightcrawler Melvin.

Ew york city will be back next week

Not grate

This is a bad situation.

Those blasted milk crates are a health code violation for a reason: they are not easy to clean under, and the DOH knows you don't move them and clean there.

Furthermore, how are we, your faithful, fearless, pest control people, supposed to look under that metal trap to see what's going on?  Maybe that's where all your fruit flies are breeding.

Much better.

Ew York City will be back later this week.

Look at me!

This is my little mirror thingy.

It's like that thing that goes in your mouth at the dentist.

No, the other thing.

Any way, this enabled me (wafoosh!) to see that there were mouse droppings behind this wall that I could not get my head into (just like that thing at the dentist) and it led me to a hole where the mice were getting in.

So think about all of that.

Ew York City will be back soon

The tracks of my tears

Why do you hate me?

Because you don't like the way I look?

You don't like my physical appearance?

You were brought up to hate me?

You don't like my language, my behavior, my beliefs, my proximity to you?

Why must you kill me?

Is it just because you don't understand me?

Because you decided I'm not beautiful?

Because you believe you're better than me?

Why?

Why do you have to hate?

Why can't you change, evolve, grow - to love me, at least to tolerate me?

I mean you no harm.

We are all God's creatures.

Maybe, starting with you, something new, something beautiful, something wonderful can happen, can begin:

The sprouting of a new peaceful friendship where once there was only pain and suffering.

Ew York City will be back next week

Shine a Light

Very easy to see the hole that's been chewed in the door sweep here.  Notice also all the rodent markers on the congoleum.

But this was one of those doors in the back of the restaurant that no one uses except the rodents.

Gotta move that junk back there so you can see what's going on.

No Clutter!!!!!

I'll be back when I feel like it.

Heads Up

Those head boards on some people's beds?

Not feeling them.

Why's that?

Often times they have upholstery, wicker, nooks, crannies, macaroni, sparkles, shpetzel, shnitzel, and other little areas where bed bugs can hide.

And get high on your blood fool.

See those dark little beauties tucked away behind the blue cloth on this headboard, gorged with the blood of New York transplant who moved here to fulfill her life long dream of making it big?  And how she cried when I pointed out the bugs that were hidden all over her bed.

"Oh, are you an actress?" I asked.  "Great performance."

Do yourself a favor and ditch the headboards.  Times have changed.

Ew York City will be back sooner or later.

If you want to be free, be free

Human behavior is much less predictable than pest behavior.

(That's assuming that you don't consider humans to be pests.)

The person in this apartment was treated for bed bugs.

As part of the service, we supply them with monitors, these black disk like objects that are quite effective at catching bed bugs.

Unfortunately, they don't work that well when you use them as plant holders.

(They're the black objects below the plants in the picture.)

Maybe they caught some ants or beetles?

Ew York City will be back later in the week

I don't feel so well anymore

When you pull out a kitchen appliance and see this, you kind of lose your appetite.

And you should.  This is not the way any kitchen floor should look.

Get your team into regular, systematic cleaning.

You'll be glad you did!

Insert smiley face and thumbs up here.

Ew york city will be back next week

It's Your Responsibility To Look Under Your Stove

Plastic container full of fly larvae.

Decaying fruit

Wet paper

Look under your oven this weekend.

Ew york city will be back next week

Pipe Nightmare

Flies breeding in these hoses under the bar.

Check, clean, treat, repeat.

Ew York City will be back next week

Pestilence of Biblical Proportions

Every now and then circles overlap in your life.

My theological background and my entomological background intersected on this day, when I found a nice harborage of bed bugs infesting this Bible.

Obviously, this Bible hadn't been read very often, so there's a little lesson for Sunday School.

We could also talk about how these bugs have a spiritual hunger, how the Bible is the living Word, how the plagues of Egypt are very vivid in this particular translation, etc.

Ha ha ha

Anyway, double check every where boys and girls.  You never know when it's your day to stand before the Judge.

Ew York City will be back later this week.

Snug as a Rodent in the Ground

You can see the little rodent burrow on the upper right.

The fake looking rock on the bottom is a rodent bait station, containing either a trap or rodenticide.

The hope is that the rodent will come up out of the burrow, crawl along the wall, and enter the fake rock, where he will then be "eliminated."

And that, my friends, is what we call exterminating.

Ew York City will be back on Monday.

The Q Factor

I don't know what this is.

But it's in your restaurant.

And it doesn't look good.

Thanks.

Ew York City will be back later this week.

Living Legend

Our man Nick, going above and beyond the call of duty with some serious belly time on the floor of ground zero.

This service manager and certified applicator with years of experience is not above jumping face first into the muck to find those breeding sites and sanitation issues that are the cause of so much misery and suffering in the world.

No wonder they call him the Pope of Pest Management.

After finding the mess, little Nicky steamed it hard, foamed it up and down, and blazed the glory trail all the way to pristine living, while finding time for the masterful technique we lovingly refer to as "The Anthony Identity."

For sweeter Italian, you'd have to go to San Genarro.

Bottom line: Clean your kitchen better so Nick doesn't have to do this every week.

Ew York City will be back Monday.  Peace.

Take Off, Eh?

Look in your hoses.

These were emptying into the drain on the right.

No one really thought to look into the pipes.

So they were just assuming the flies were coming in from outside.

Nope.

Breeding in the hoses.

First we steamed them and then we chemically treated them.

Flies decided to buzz off.

Ew York City will be back Friday.

Let's hear it for the boys (and adult females and various nymphs and instars)

Nice shot of some action by our man Nicky.

When you see this, it's already way too late.

The dark color and the pointier shapes let you know that these are some well fed bugs.

Ew York City will be back later this week

Surprised? Not really

What's under your counter?

Have a good weekend from Ew York City.

The Bed Bug Tapes

I know this picture isn't worth a thousand words, but it can still serve to illustrate this point:

Bed bugs can be anywhere and everywhere!

Here they are hiding behind the tape on the back of a photo frame.

It wasn't until the resident continued to complain about bites after her room had already been treated that we started to find harborages in the strangest places, case in point.

The one place you neglect to look is where they could be.

Ew York City will be back tomorrow

Pestlandia

Just another day in fly heaven.

Get down and clean.

Ew York City: we're just trying to help

Photo by Curtis

A Non Pest Related Post (Sort of)

Here's a picture of a pool of petroleum in front of my building.

Humans can be pesky too.

Ew york city should be back tomorrow.

Bonus Time

Just wanted to show you what we found under somebody's living room radiator, full of beetles.

Apparently, the beetles had a thing for tomato paste.