RI, MA EHS Pest Control Blog

Rats Infesting Food Store Prompt Inspector Visit

A cellphone video of rats taken by a passerby at a Vancouver grocery store has prompted a visit to the business by Vancouver health inspectors.

Matt Johnson was walking along West Broadway Saturday when he looked through the window at Kitsilano Natural Foods and saw large rats crawling over food and knocking over containers inside.

Johnson said he was with a female friend who started screaming at the sight.

“There were rats all over the place," he said.

Johnson pulled out his phone and started recording because he thought people wouldn’t believe it when he told them about the bizarre scene without visual proof.

"They were going through the produce, they were running up and down the walls. They had knocked down cans of stuff. It was a big mess.”

Health inspectors were notified about the video, inspected the store Tuesday, and have spoken with the owner about dealing with its rodent problem.

The rodents are a common problem in Vancouver, but if an infestation becomes too severe, inspectors can shut that business down, according to Trudi Beutel, of Vancouver Coastal Health.

"There has to be a wholesale infestation,” Beutel said. “And we have to believe there has been no due diligence on the part of the owner to correct any of the issues that have been brought to light over the course of the investigation."

The owner of Kitsilano Natural Foods, Ben Huinh, said Thursday that pest control technicians were sealing his building and getting rid of the rats.

Huinh said customers shouldn't be worried.

“Our policy for our goods is when in doubt, throw it out. So if we see anything that appears to be tampered with by rodents or anything we will discard of it," said Huinh.

Fall is the time of year that rats become more of a problem, as they seek warm places to go and food to eat, so they can be hard to keep out of homes and businesses, said Peter Steinfort, of Care Pest Control.

"They are excellent climbers, so they can go in through soffits. They can go through any sort of opening,” said Steinfort. “All a rat needs is about half an inch and that's enough for them to squeeze through.”

Steinfort said home and business owners need comprehensive plans to deal with the problem.

George Williams
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA

Rat Attacks Baby’s Face

A baby boy left sleeping in his stroller outside a Copenhagen apartment block was bitten on the face by rats this week.

The boy was left sleeping in his stroller in the courtyard of an apartment complex in the centre of Copenhagen on Wednesday evening. Apparently this is common behaviour in Denmark, despite the cold and other obvious dangers. As soon as the parents discovered the baby’s injuries they called an ambulance and the toddler was rushed to hospital for emergency treatment.

The boy’s father later told reporters from Denmark’s Ekstra Bladet newspaper that the youngster had been bitten by rats on the face, close to his eye. Other residents from the apartment complex also told the reporters that there was a current vermin problem as dozens of rats try to escape the harsh winter conditions looking for somewhere warm to hide.

Rats are known to attack babies, and they will go for the soft tissue areas such as the eyes. There have been more than one case of death caused by rats eating babies.

Source; Morningstarr

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA

Near South Side Bakery Closed After Inspectors Find Rats, Unsafe Food

A Near South Side bakery was shut down after city inspectors found something customers aren’t too fond of - rats and food stored at unsafe temperatures.

Mayor Daley’s Dumpster Task Force shut down St. Anna’s Bakery, 2158 S. Archer Ave., Thursday due to a rat infestation and unsafe food holding temperatures, according to a release from the city’s Dept. of Streets & Sanitation.

Inspectors visited the bakery in response to a complaint about rodent activity and found more than 70 rate droppings throughout the kitchen. Inspectors also found St. Anna’s had problems with the temperatures in their walk-in cooler.

Food temperatures ranged from 50 to 60 degrees and more than 400 pounds of food had to be thrown away, the release said.

St. Anna’s was closed for the critical violations of inadequate pest control and for failure to protect foods from contamination. The bakery must correct their rodent problems, revamp their housekeeping and pest control programs and repair their cooler before they can request and pass a detailed re-inspection.

Source = Chicago Sun Times

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA

Click image to Enlarge

What you don’t know CAN hurt you! If you could only see behind the scenes like we do in pest control you would be amazed at what we find! We are talking food handling facilities or restaurants. That serve the general public!!! Some of them are historic eateries in their cities & towns! You hear about all the dangers of uncooked food and what it can do to you. What about the dangers of pests? The attached image is damaged corn from mice and it was in a walk-in refrigerator. This restaurant asked us to come in and solve a mouse issue they were having as their previous pest control company could not solve it. The problem had been going on for YEARS! Mice are eating their food supplies and what they did not eat they urinated and defecated on! Needless to say they had a CRITICAL pest issue.

Why did they let this go on for years? Where are the health agencies that are supposed to be protecting public health?

EHS solved the problem with an aggressive pest control program. I just do not understand why restaurant owners tolerate pests as it can destroy their reputation and may even harm the general public.

Pest Control, MA ,  Pest Control, RI

We never get tired of saying this, but the pest control industry is never short on funny, weird, interesting, disgusting, fascinating, etc. stories. Hence the popularity of our blog!

I took a call from a out of breath, noticeably upset, and frantic customer who had a wild squirrel running around her house. Needless to say she wanted immediate advice on how to get it out. I suggested she open all the doors & windows then monitor the situation to see if it left. I told her to call me back with an update & if it still did not leave then we would dispatch a specialist.

She called back 15min later to say the squirrel bolted right out the front door. I was curious but I also wanted to make sure there were no issues on how the squirrel got in so I asked “Do you know how it got in?” Much calmer & laughing hysterically she said I know exactly how it got in…..

“Our family got our Christmas tree last night and since it was late we left it on the back deck until today. I brought the tree in the house and a squirrel leaped out of it. I screamed at the top of my lungs HOLY S##**! and nearly had a heart attack! I am sure that if the squirrel could talk his reaction would have been the same as mine!”

There you go, another zany pest control story….certainly more to come.

MA and RI pest control

I have been told I am a bit off center and/or goofy. In fact I accuse myself of this from time to time. It’s just my easy going nature. What happened to me is certainly entertaining and funny, definitely blog worthy! I was at a residential customer’s house and had completed the service. The customer wanted to pay by credit card and for security reasons it must be called in Vs written down. I had left my phone in the truck so the customer told me to use her home phone.

Not Actual Photo, Used For Parody Purposes

Our main office number is 781-769-9111 so I began dialing 781-769….. and the customer asked me a question which I replied to. I did not realize the phone number entry erased since I did not continue with the number. After a 1 minute pause for responding to the question I continued dialing the remainder of our number 911 and hit send. I was distracted so I did not realize I left off the last 1 before I hit send so I hung up. I redialed correctly and called in the payment. I was walking to the truck and the police office asked if everything was OK to which I said yes. The homeowner came out and the police wanted to know if she was OK.

When asked what this was about the police said someone from this home dialed 911 then hung up! They checked out the house & saw everyone was fine. We all had a good laugh about the situation. Needless to say I will not make this mistake again….at least I don’t think so.

Dave McNulty - EHS Pest Service Specialist