Max Problem

I don't know why I can't rotate this image 90 degrees to the left, but maybe you can turn your computer monitor on its side for a minute before you go on and read the rest of this.

Okay, thank you.

This was in a nice beauty boutique in an upcoming neighborhood in Manhattan, but the rats weren't really feeling the whole gentrification thing.

The light that you see in the picture was above the makeup displays in the boutique.  All sorts of eye shadow, lip gloss, foundation, and... I can't think of any other types of makeup, but you get the idea.

And on the top of the displays (where the light is) these big, beautiful rats would run back and forth during hours of operation.

That can be a little distracting to people looking for the right color lips.

This was actually a really tough job.  We had to do a lot of baiting, a lot of exclusion, and a lot of trapping, and it took a good long while to get the rats under control.

I haven't been there in a while, but I was thinking about frosting my bangs, so maybe I'll go.

Ew York City will probably be back a couple more times this week.

The Unknown

Sometimes I like not knowing.

Sometimes I like not knowing what it is that I've found under the kitchen appliances of a restaurant.

What is this?  What was this?

I don't know.

All I know for sure is that it was attracting fruit flies.

I hope someday I get to have an intelligible conversation with a fruit fly.

I want to find out their thoughts on so many things.

Like what did they think about the Seinfeld finale?

And can I borrow ten bucks, just until payday?

But maybe it's better not knowing what they would say.

Ew York City will be back tomorrow.

Layers and Layers and Layers

Here's an action shot.  We need more action in 2016.

In one of the "swankiest" restaurants in all of NYC our service manager Lester is pulling back some tiling on the floor and finding a lot of moisture and a whole lot of fly larvae.

One of the ice machines is right there, and when a few cubes would drop to the floor and melt, the liquid H2O would seep underneath the tiling and stay stagnant.  That's all the flies needed to get busy breeding.

Be careful, you might not like what you see.

I wish everyone a happy and healthy 2016.

Ew York City will be back soon.

Missed it by this much

Rats are an incredibly designed creature and a worthy opponent on every level, and many of my long time readers are aware of the mixed feelings I have about them.  Sometimes I hate them, but sometimes I love them, and in reality all they are is another visitor to this island called Manhattan just trying to find a comfortable place to live and trying to find something good to eat, and maybe trying to find someone to love.

This guy was caught right behind a nice Upper East Side restaurant.  The restaurant management wants to put a beer garden out back, but to do so we have to evict the current tenants back there, and in fact the eviction will be more of a genocide.

However, the rats that we are catching are the weaker, smaller ones, and the stronger, bigger ones are avoiding the traps and are laying low beneath the surface, perhaps moving underground and heading toward the Asian restaurant next door.  So the genocide will be limited in scope to be sure, and the bigger, badder rats will relocate and repopulate.

This guy got caught with a chocolate candy bar.  Sometimes I'll use beef jerky or slim jims.  Sometimes I'll put on some Tribe Called Quest while I'm setting the traps.

The skeleton of the rat is more malleable than many other vertebrate creatures of its size and body type, and that allows it to squeeze through the smallest of holes, cracks, crevices, pipes, etc., but it also means that when the trap hits the head (as in the picture above) the skull isn't really all that broken, just squeezed apart in two different directions.

Sometimes after I catch a nice rat like this, I'll carry it around with me for a while and swing it back and forth, and I'll act like I'm a baton twirler in the big parade.  And I'll feel so beautiful and special, just like I'm the prom queen again.

I'll be getting back to work now.  I hope your day is going well.

Ew York City will be back tomorrow if I feel like it.

Erase the Head

This was a good one, and I'm sorry I don't have more documentation of it than this, but in the corner of this restaurant basement was the above grate that you see, and underneath it was a living, breathing snarling mass of twisted and gyrating..

I'm sorry, I gotta take this phone call real quick.  It never stops some days.  I'll try to finish this story another time.

How's your building basement looking lately?  You go down there?

Ew York City will be back tomorrow I think

The Lance

It's not cool to keep your toilet plunger in your restaurant kitchen anyway, but if you do, please make sure that it's not holding stagnant water where fly maggots are living and breeding.

Also, ask yourself why you charge so much for the lobster bisque when there's hardly any lobster in it.

Give me liberty!

Ew York City will be back tomorrow player.

The Missing Pieces

Why in the world anyone keeps cardboard laying around is beyond me.

It's an organic paper product that attracts moisture and the pests that love moisture, plus it is an ideal harborage site and breeding ground.

And you can cut your widdle fingah.

There are some fly larvae visible in the top picture.

Have a nice weekend from Ew York City.

Tracking Trails

See all the rat tracks?

These are in the ceiling above the kitchen of a private residence in Tribeca.

Multi-million dollar apartment downtown Manhattan, completely surrounded by rats in the ceiling and floors...

And your point is?

Ew York City might not be back til Wednesday.  I have an absolute nightmare of a job coming up starting tomorrow and it's putting me in a very bad mood.

Pupae Don't Preach

This is in that ice tray behind the bar where the "rocks" are kept when you order a steaming hot "vermouth on the rocks."

We used to boil vermouth back in my day.

Anyhoo, these are some nice pupae.  Pupae is the term that refers to the cycle of the fly's life post-larvae (i.e. maggot) and pre-fly (i.e. fly).

Ice is certainly a vector of pests.

Bottom's up.

Ew York City will be back tomorrow.

What's in the Bag Dad?

A rat broke into an uptown apartment and ate a Hermes purse.

This is what that looks like.

Personally, I would still use the purse.

Have you seen what they cost?

Happy 2016.  See you tomorrow at Ew York City.