RI, MA EHS Pest Control Blog

RESTAURANT TO BE SHUT DOWN OVER RODENT DROPPINGS

Call it a big but disgusting find for kitchen cops in Brownsville.

An eatery is busted with rodent droppings “all over” the kitchen area.

The New Courthouse Coffee Shop on 964 East Harrison scored 38 demerits.

It was the dirtiest kitchen featured this week by the Food Patrol.

Food handlers were caught wearing open-toe shoes and not wearing hairnets or washing hands.

A health inspector noted on the report how there were “a lot of rodent droppings all over the kitchen.”

Dirty photos of the kitchen area showed trails of droppings on the food prep table and torn bags of food believed to be from rodents.

The Food Patrol confronted the owner’s sister who was present during the health inspection.

Gracie Gutierrez admitted the kitchen was dirty.

She blamed a worker for not doing her “job.”

Food Patrol fans who saw the dirty photos called for the coffee shop which serves food to judges and attorneys to be shutdown.

Source = Valley Central.com

George Williams
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA

Click image to enlarge

What the picture shows is pretty disgraceful. It is a bait station that is used to hold rodenticide. It was in a garage at a home and it was a not tamper-resistant bait station, it was a cheap/inexpensive one. Worse yet is it had no company or rodenticide information on the station! By law we must use a tamper resistant bait station in areas where it is accessible to non-target organisms (children and pets). You must also, by law, have contact information on the station plus what material is being used. Unfortunately too many companies in our industry use these stations. Not EHS! No matter what the situation we always use tamper-resistant stations!

What makes this picture even more disturbing is that they had a company come in several times per year to “control” mice. They called us because they still had mice. The stations they put out were completely emptied out by mice. You can see the hundreds of mice fecal droppings, signs that it was very active with mice. The previous company did not have nearly enough stations in place to quell the infestation. I can not understand how companies can operate like this?!

We sealed up all the entry points, installed a few door sweeps, and put a program in place to eliminate the mice. The customer raved about the results after a few weeks! It’s really not that hard, all you need to do is know what you are doing plus care about solving the issue.

Mark Tremblay
Service Specialist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA

More Rodents Carrying Hantavirus Found

Six more rodents trapped by County Vector Control technicians last week have tested positive for the sometimes-deadly hantavirus, County officials said this week.

The rodents, four Harvest mice and two California Meadow Voles, were trapped in Fairbanks Ranch and northern Escondido near the San Luis Rey River bringing this year’s total to 16 rodents testing positive for hantavirus, a news release stated. In 2010, a total of 21 rodents tested positive for hantavirus.

“Recent rains have created an abundance of food for rodents, which can increase the rodent population,” said County Environmental Health Director Jack Miller. “More rodents can lead to more hantavirus.” People should never sweep up or vacuum rodent droppings and nesting materials. Instead, ventilate closed areas and use wet cleaning methods with a 10 percent bleach solution or other full strength disinfectant. The best way to prevent the disease is to keep mice out of houses, garages and sheds by sealing all holes larger than the size of a dime, the news release stated.

Wild rodents, primarily deer mice, carry hantavirus. People can contract it by inhaling dust particles from rodent droppings and nesting materials that contain the virus. The virus can cause hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS), which begins with flu-like symptoms, but can graduate to severe breathing difficulties and even death, according to the news release. There is no vaccine or specific treatment for hantavirus and the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that HPS has killed 36 percent of all the people known to have contracted the disease.

How to Avoid Exposure:

• Eliminate rodent infestations immediately.
• Avoid rodent infested areas. Do not stir up dust or materials that may be contaminated with feces and urine.
• Clean up rodent droppings and urine using the wet cleaning method described below.

Use “wet-cleaning” methods to prevent inhaling the virus:

• DO NOT SWEEP OR VACUUM INFESTED AREAS.
• Ventilate affected area by opening doors and windows for at least 30 minutes.
• Use rubber gloves. Spray a 10 percent bleach solution (2 tablespoons bleach to 1 cup of water), or other full strength disinfectant onto dead rodents, rodent droppings, nests, contaminated traps, and surrounding areas and let the disinfectant stand for at least 15 minutes before cleaning. Clean with a sponge or a mop.
• Place disinfected rodents and debris into two plastic bags, seal them and discard in the trash.
• Wash gloves in a bleach solution, then soap and water, and dispose of them using the same double-bag method. Thoroughly wash your bare hands with soap and water.

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA

Rats are a formidable a foe. They will do just about anything to survive. In this case a new client of ours was having a rat infestation that previous pest control companies could not solve. Since rats were inside the structure using a rodenticide was not an option as they could die inside & cause an awful smell. For this reason we used mechanical traps to crash the problem. The rats were inside wall, ceiling, & floor voids and there was evidence of chewed wires. With the risk of fire high we needed to crash the population fast. After the initial visit we returned three days later to find a trail of blood to a wall void with just a snap trap. It looks like the rat could not pull the trap off him so he chewed his paws off. This is the challenge we are faced with rats, they have a stronger will to survive, even more so than humans. We offer humane control of nuisance pests but with commensal rodents (rats & mice deriving benefits from man) we are forced to use whatever means possible to eliminate the serious health & safety risk they pose to our quality of life.