Bed Worms

Bed bugs aren't the only bugs we find in peoples' beds.

In this instance, we found a good number of beetle larvae wriggling around this person's mattress.  These were carpet beetle larvae, a fairly common pest in the NYC area.

Here is a closeup of what one looks like from a photo on the infraweb, all rights reserved:

Often times these larvae will cause skin reactions on people similar to bed bug bites.  That, plus the fact that they also can hang out in your bed, often causes people to think that they have bed bugs when actually they do not.

The best advice I can give you for this situation is to vacuum.  Get a vacuum with an extendable hose and a fine tipped attachment and suck the worms out of your bed.  The larvae can in fact do damage to your fabrics, so that might motivate you if the thought of worms crawling around your bed was not enough.

On another note, I want to thank all of our readers for helping to make Ew York City the number one destination for my pest related pictures throughout the entire world.  We couldn't have done it without each other, and I sincerely hope that these past pest posts have inspired you to keep your world a little cleaner, a little leaner, and a little cleaner.

Ew York City will be back Monday.  Keep on the straight and narrow.

Look into you looking into you

Nice sized hole in the wall of a boiler room in the basement of a Brooklyn restaurant.

Basement was full of rat droppings.

Two words:

Cement

Ew York City will be back tomorrow for the final post of winter 2014-15.

Let the Revolution Begin

I see a lot of pests on the subway.

I've seen rats come through the door.

I've found German cockroaches on the seats.

I've seen a bed bug crawling on a lady's belt, and another one on that bag that I showed you a few weeks ago.

Nature is amazing.

And this lady is amazing.

Not just because she has eleven toes.

(By the way if thumbs aren't fingers, then what about thumb toes?)

But because she was rocking sandals in freezing weather, AND she stuck that sixth toe right in my face: that's why she was amazing.

Wow!

Now, is this a mutation?  Is it evolution happening right before our eyes?  Eventually we will all develop that eleventh toe so that we can do a better job of texting while we drive?  The sixth toe provides for us just a little more spring in our step as we jay walk across sixth avenue.  Sixth toes are like sixth sense - they enable you to detect when that next big earthquake is about to bust out, or when that next big sale at Uniqlo is dropping.  Or even if you need a toe to fake a kidnapping, you'll still have ten left.

These toes go up to eleven.

In any case, I can't wait for my sixth toe to get here.  Every inch helps.

Editor's Note:  There is no charge for today's episode of Ew York City.

See you tomorrow.

Poison Green

This is inside a rat bait station.

There are two types of bait blocks here, green and yellow (I won't get into all the technical differences between the two).

It seems like the rats prefer the green ones.  The one closest to the bottom is almost gone.

For these rat bait stations to be successful you've got to remove as much of the competing food source as possible.

Think of these bait blocks as some sort of artificial candy that you would eat if you had to, but you in no way would choose to eat it over one of your favorite meals.

The rat's favorite meal is human trash, so if there is any trash around, the bait will most likely go untouched.

The best part is when I open one of these and there is a live rat inside eating the bait!  That's always exciting.

To avoid that, I'll often knock on the top of the bait station.  Usually the rat will say, "I'l be out in a minute," so then I just wait.  If I don't hear anything I'll go right in.

Ew York City will be back tomorrow.

The bait is green.  Today is St. Patrick's day.  I tried.

Soda Slime and You

Soda.  The single greatest invention in the history of mankind.

I don't drink that much, but I work with it big time.

That sticky, syrupy stuff is such an attractant to flies I can't even begin to describe it to you.

You've got to think of your soda fountain the way a soldier thinks of his rifle in terms of sanitation.

Take it apart, lift pieces off, look inside of it with a flashlight, and clean it once, twice, three times dope.

Once we began to steam clean this bar's soda fountain, the number of flies decreased dramatically.

One time I saw one of my technicians wash his hands with cola.

Ew York City will be back tomorrow.

Hope you had a nice weekend.

Bleeckerpillar

Spring is right around the corner, warmer weather on the way, and pest nightmares are about to become a dark reality.

Here are some shots of a nice little caterpillar on Bleecker Street.

I'm not sure what sort of flying beast he eventually turned into, but in his caterpillar state he / she sure is cute.

Hope everyone has a nice weekend.  Ew York City will be back Monday after a few much needed days off.

Peace.

Keep Digging

One of our senior service managers and NYS licensed applicators Nick sent me this little gem of a picture.

One of the things that's so fascinating about being an exterminator is that you really are a modern day version of an archaeologist like Indiana Jones, except without the princess and the wookie.

This photo holds several secrets of pest activity from a past era.

First, we see the mouse skeleton, preserved fairly nicely for us.  You can make out the spinal column and the hind legs as well as some of the tail.  You don't really see the mouse's head, and that's probably because someone is wearing it as an amulet around their neck to ward off cheese monsters.

Second, we see a wing of a Water Bug, i.e. American Cockroach.  It's the dark burgundy thing on the right side of the photo that looks like the wing of a Water Bug, i.e. American Cockroach.  It's dark and burgundy.  Right side of the photo.  Water Bug wing.  Burgundy.  Shaped like a wing.

Thirdly, we see the pupae of a housefly. It's the small burgundy thing on the left side of the photo that looks somewhat eggish, or similar in shape to the Fubol Americano pigskin.  Obviously, burgundy is a popular color this time of year, and pestilence is no exception.  As Spring starts to spring we will begin to notice more yellows, chartreuses, mauves, and Salmon egg shell reduction.

Now, what does all of this tell us?

This blog is gross.

Ew York City will be back tomorrow I think.