The Intruder Part Three

As our story comes to close, we are reminded that an intruder has made his way into your home.  He has left droppings and urine in various areas.  He has several entry points wherein he gains access to your house.  So how do we deal with this?

First, as you can see above, we close the entry points.  This is called exclusion.  In this case, cement would have been great, but there were some obstacles to using it.  Instead, we used steal wool and lathered it with rodent repellant.  We also filled each hole with rodenticide (veneno para ratons primo!) and gave that time to work.  But there's one other thing we did:

Nothing like a good old fashioned rat snap trap to get the job done.  Baited it with your favorite candy bar, and set a bunch of them around.  The fact that we closed all the holes but still caught big daddy on a snapper indicates either 1) we missed a hole, or 2) big rat boy was hiding in the apt somewhere, maybe under the baby's crib or somewhere.

Intruders intrude.  It's what they do.  We've got to be prepared to defend against them at all times.  What are you doing to protect your home from the intruder?

Ew York City will be back

The Intruder Part Two

In last yesterday's episode we saw some heavy duty (haha) droppings in a nice Manhattan townhouse.  How did such a creature get in to such a nice house?

We went into the boiler room which was adjacent to the laundry facility, and look at what we found in the foundation.  This cavern sized hole led out toward the sewer.  And it wasn't the only one:

We found other smaller holes throughout the boiler room.

The challenge now is: how do we close the holes, and where is the intruder?

To be concluded tomorrow

The Intruder, Part One

The intruder

The great thing about having an intruder in your apartment is that he leaves evidence behind.  Now the evidence might be difficult to find sometimes, but if you look really closely like a Sherlock or a Columbo or a Drebin, you should be able to find the clues you need to conclude that your apartment has had an unwanted visitor.

In the above picture we see some of the evidence.  This is in a really nice upper east side townhouse.  It is in the laundry room.  You should be able to see some droppings, about forty of them.  You should also notice some urine mixed in, several patches.

Looking around the laundry room you see more droppings and more urine stains, and you notice that the droppings and urine stains are getting very close to the next room, which happens to be the television room or "den."

As you examine these droppings, you notice that they are about the size of a tic tac breath mint, maybe even a little bigger.  They are dark, and they shine or glisten, so that tells you that they are fresh.
You just did laundry last Tuesday, so all of this "activity" must be recent.  But where did it come from?

Continued tomorrow...

Cover All

In the battle against fruit flies, every single thing you can do to fight them is worth it.  They are relentless.  They are invasive.  They reproduce practically overnight.  They are bold and brave, and they are really into your bottles (sometimes literally).

Here is a bar that did something to fight the fruit fly war: they covered some of their bottles with saran wrap.  It's a good move, because it prevents the flies from getting into the bottles (exclusion) and it limits the scent of the liquors from attracting pests.

The problem is that they only covered some of the bottles.  Others were left exposed and therefore vulnerable.  I'm sure at the end of the shift the bar workers are tired and want to go to bed.  "They had a little drink about an hour ago!  And it's gone-"  Sorry, wrong pest movie.

Anyway, diligence is key here.  Time has to be taken to be comprehensive.  Cover every bottle.  Don't leave anything exposed.  As we said in an earlier post, if you give them an inch they'll take a mile.  So make sure your crew is covering all your bottles on every single night.

You'll be glad you did.  Even if you're gonna need a bigger box of plastic wrap.

Drain City Slimers

It's August.  Hot.  Humid.  Sweaty.  Slimy.  And that's just your drains.

Are you keeping tabs on your bar drains (ha ha ha)?

In a relatively short amount of time, your drains can become absolute havens of pest conducive conditions and fly breeding.

This drain needs a steam treatment with a heavy wire brush to break down the organic matter.  It also needs a bio-enzymatic foam treatment to keep eating away that build up.  And then it needs a chemical treatment to kill whatever may left behind.

Summer in the city, and the drains are feeling gritty.  But why?

Ew York City will return on Monday.  Keep up the good work.

Roachspotting

This is a smaller or younger American cockroach, i.e. the Water Bug.  I stumbled upon it in the middle of a kitchen floor.  Why do we find them dead in these various spots?  There could be a variety of reasons.

First, roaches die.  Sometimes they cannot choose where they will be when death comes upon them, and so they may end up dead in the middle of your floor, kitchen counter, bowl of porridge, etc.

Second, insecticides work, and they may "kick in" at various times.  So that roach that is lying dead on your floor on Friday may have actually "lit the fuse" on Wednesday, and he lasted 48 hours after contacting the insecticide.

Third, I have seen instances where dead roaches are moved by other pests or even predators.  So it is possible they died under your counter but were moved out to the middle of the floor by some other creature.

Fourth, life and death are great mysteries.  Who can know all the reasons why that roach is in the middle of your bathroom rug?  Is it trying to teach you something?  What lesson can you learn?

Have a good night, from your friends at Ew York City...

Maggot Rag

I think Maggot Rag would be a good name for a rock band.  Or for a character in the new Star Wars movie.

Anyway, our manager Nick pulled this out from a bar that was having fly issues.  All of those rust colored seed-shaped objects used to be fly larvae, or "maggots," and now they are in the pupae stage, waiting to hatch little flies that will begin to lay eggs within a day of hatching.  Isn't that amazing?

Moisture, decaying organic matter, filth, scum, smut, offscouring - whatever you want to call this, it is the cause of all sorts of problems in your restaurant.  Just by taking the time to get down and clean out under the bar, you can save yourself from literally hundreds of flies overwhelming you and your guests.

And then you'll have more time for band practice.