Let's Not, and Say We Did

Continuing our theme of not cleaning up after ourselves, here are some other shots of dirty dishes left out after dinner and all night long, and a sink strainer full of food debris also left out over night.

Again, this is just inviting trouble; trouble in the form of flies, cockroaches, and rodents, as well as people that are addicted to sneaking into other peoples' kitchens and doing their dishes for them.  That last type of trouble is very rare however.

So let's do our own dishes.  Let's stay that extra hour and clean up everything.  That way, when we get home, we can sleep like a baby roach.

I get the feeling this is gonna be a rough week, but I'm gonna bring it.

Ew York City will be back tomorrow.

Spicy Friday

Every now and then I walk into a restaurant first thing in the morning and find a situation that looks like this.  The kitchen staff literally just left everything sitting out until the next morning.  I know because I have the key to the restaurant and was the one who opened up the front door and turned off the alarm.  Also, the mice and roaches I interviewed confirmed that these products were out all night.

Nobody feels like cleaning up after a long day of cooking, but c'mon, even cockroaches clean their antennae and flies clean their feet, so you gotta clean your kitchen at the end of the night.  Don't leave it for the morning crew.

These various spices and ingredients could certainly be attractive to flies and roaches, and some may even attract rodents, so you've got to close up shop tightly every night.

And the bright side is that also we eat the occasional bug, it does no harm to us.  The bugs are in fact high in protein.

Don't ask me how I know all that.

Have a happy weekend from Ew York City.

The Cycle of Life

I've got some better pictures of this sort of this happening.  I'll post them in the near future.

But in the meantime, as you look under this restaurant's stove, you see a lot of food debris gathering between the pipes, and if you look closely you can actually see that some plant life has begun to sprout.

Now I don't know how long it takes for this little plants to start growing, but it has to be a couple days at least, which means that this area is not being cleaned daily?

"Ya think?!"

Needless to say, this restaurant had been battling cockroaches and flies for quite some time.

You've got to find these critical areas in your restaurant and make sure your team is addressing them regularly and thoroughly.

Unless your plan is to grow your own vegetables under your kitchen appliances.  Then that's okay.

Ew York City will be back tomorrow.  Stay dry.

Peeling Away the Layers

Above we have a pretty clear indicator that your office has a mouse problem: droppings out in the open.  Very obvious, and also very bad for your health.

A little less obvious is droppings behind a piece of furniture.  Also, those dark marks are more examples of the sebum we've been talking about, the natural grease that rodents leave behind when they run around and play.

Finally, here's a bit of evidence that is easily missed.  You have to get down to see this hole right underneath an electric plug.  If you find this kind of evidence you are on your way to being a master.

Ew York City, evidence coming tomorrow

Rolly Pollies

Here we have some pill bugs / sow bugs / rolly polly bugs that have decided to become very visible after a Spring rainstorm.

No doubt they were content to lay low in the subterranean realm of the planter, but the influx of water drove them toward the surface.

As people started to notice this large amount of these bugs crawling around, we got a somewhat panicked call from the owner of the property.

I told the property owner that these bugs really are harmless, a nuisance at best, and once things dry up, they'll return to their homes and just continue living their bug lifestyle.

I gave him the option of either letting nature take it's course, and letting them return underground peacefully, or of us destroying all of these life forms through the application of pesticides.

Ew York City will be back tomorrow.

Know Your Droppings

Here we have a couple of freshly caught American Cockroaches,   This was under the stairs in a storage area at a restaurant.  (Don't worry, the roaches were safely relocated to a ranch in Westchester.)

One of the good pieces of data we can take away from this picture is to get an idea of what water bug droppings look like.  You could easily confuse them with mouse droppings, couldn't you?

Water bug droppings are typically slightly smaller than mouse droppings and, in my opinion, they are more uniformly round on the edges, whereas (forgive me) mouse droppings often show evidence of having been "pinched off."

So be encouraged.  Just because you found droppings doesn't mean necessarily that you have mice.  You might just have cockroaches.

Ew York City will be dropping your way again tomorrow.

Chewy Monday

Once you see it you can never not see it.

This nice restaurant was having a big rat or rats show up from time to time right in the middle of the kitchen.

A little investigation led us to this PVC pipe that went into the floor.

Two obvious giveaways here: one side of the pipe has been chewed right down to provide easier access for big baby, and the pipe has a lot of sebum, those dark rodent rub marks, on it.

We baited it hard and closed it with exclusionary products, and that took care of the immediate problem.

Bottom line is you gotta sometimes look for the obvious things instead of the obscure ones.

I need to get back down there and see how they're doing.

Everyone have a great Monday from Ew York City.