I'm a Fun Guy

This one restaurant was seeing fungus gnats.

Fungus gnats are typically looking for a good amount of water.

For whatever reason, this restaurant was letting the carpets in the upstairs dining area get really wet, even to the point that the baseboards were starting to get moldy.  The carpet was damp to the touch.

Through having the restaurant change its procedures, the moisture was greatly reduced, and before too long the fungus gnats were gone.

No more fungus among us.

Ew York City will be dripping your way tomorrow.

Never die, just rust away

Man I love Chocolate Cake.

This is not a picture of chocolate cake.

That brown stuff was once shiny, strong steel wool that was used to close an entry point in a restaurant kitchen.

We can see that after some time the once shiny, strong steel wool has corroded into old, brittle rust.

I was able to poke my finger right through it.

This is a reminder to keep an eye on these areas where steel wool has been used, especially if moisture is nearby, say for instance in a dish washing area.

There are better options than steel wool if moisture is going to be a constant problem.  For instance, try cement or water proof exclusionary material, or that fruit cake from the holidays.

Ew York City will be back tomorrow.  Welcome back to reality.

So Chew Me

Here is a door sweep on a walk-in fridge.

On the bottom left of it you can see how the rubber bottom has been chewed down by the mice.

Mice love to chew, it's what they do.

So when we replac3d this door sweep we installed it with the metal side toward the bottom, to give us just a little better of a chance at keeping them at bay.

Think strong.

Everyone have warm weekend.  Be careful, it's dark out there.

Ew York City will be back Monday.

I'm not calling today's post Happy Ew Year's Eve

Here's a nice look at some mouse droppings in the middle of a restaurant dining room floor.

You should get to recognize these.

You should never handle these without gloves, and even be careful breathing them in when you sweep up.

Also, be advised that no matter how old they are, the DOH inspector will refer to them as "fresh rodent excreta" on his report.  That's even if they were made by the mice that came over on Noah's ark.

So clean, inspect, clean more, inspect more, and clean some more.

These are your mouse dropping resolutions for 2015.

Ew York City will see you next year.

That never gets old.

Mouse House

Do you see the mouse house?

Near the sidewalk cafe of a restaurant mice were running around right in the middle of dinner.  People were wondering where they could be coming from.

A brief inspection of these planters revealed numerous burrows, as well as "nests" underneath.

This is a reminder that mice don't need large places to call home.  Also, they don't travel very far to get to their food, so just running out from a planter and grabbing a crumb of a $14 hamburger is just what they like.

When you bring nature into the city, nature will win; eventually, nature will win.

Ew York City will be back tomorrow I think.

Heard It Through the Grape Vine

Here's a dark fruit fly, doing what dark fruit flies do, basically annoy you by resting right in front of you on a surface you don't want them resting on.

Smart move at least to cover the raisins.

Gotta find the breeding areas, probably not too far away.

Since you cover everything over night, you could leave a couple traps out, like vinegar traps, things the flies will "think" are uncovered by you by accident, and then, "Sploosh."

I'm not sure if fruit flies care much about good sources of fiber in general, but I'm craving raisins myself.

Ew York City will be back your way tomorrow.

Unwrapped

It's always fun to puff a little product under these traps and see what runs out.

We caught about a hundred water bugs.  Of course they live right under our feet, just enjoying the darkness and the moisture.  Occasionally a rogue comes out and scares the civilians.

This is one of the those spots you want to check every time, and for a while you want to do some MPI (the reverse of IPM).  By that I mean treat first and then inspect.  That's old school son.

Hope everyone of our readers had their dreams fulfilled yesterday, and now your life has meaning.

Ew York City will be back Monday.  Have a happy weekend.