RI, MA EHS Pest Control Blog

You have a food handling facility i.e. restaurant, bar, dining hall, etc. and you have a bad roach problem that your current pest control company just cant solve. The problem is getting worse. Your employees complain about seeing roaches. You complain to the pest control company about the roaches. They show up but it keeps on being an issue. Now you have a customer complaint!!!

YOU HAVE THE WRONG COMPANY! You should NEVER tolerate having pests in your establishment where you serve the general public! You have a responsibility to protect the public from the health risks that pests can cause. You will lose customers and your reputation will be destroyed with an ongoing pest issue. It is SOOO much more risky today because a bad customer experience goes viral with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.

The attached picture shows you how crappy some pest control companies do work. It is a recipe for disaster! You need to call EHS to protect your brand! For over 26 years we have been the commercial pest control solutions company!

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

I get amazed at how lazy some companies get when it comes to pest control. If there was ever a pest to not take lightly it is the Norway rat. When they are established + committed to structure you BETTER get aggressive and creative! EHS took on this commercial account after the owner was fed up that the previous pest control company could not solve the rat problem. In fact it had gotten worse. He called in EHS and we knew exactly what needed to be done and we clearly explained this to the business owner and he trusted us. He had to, his reputation & livelihood was at stake! We knew he needed structural exclusion, aggressive service frequency, and numerous traps. No way was rodenticide an option as rats had already breached the structure and a dead rat in a wall would smell for weeks! After four weeks we had removed 30 rats and the problem was solved. We then made recommendations on altering the structure to prevent this from happening again. Just another successful elimination and one very happy client! TRUST EHS for pest SOLUTIONS!

Johnny Maiocchi
Service Specialist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

(click to enlarge)

I work for a pest control company so these things should not freak me out, right? I am still a woman, mom, etc. My husband calls me a “girlie-girl”.

Doing stuff around the house on the weekend I move a tarp on my back deck and SCREAM in horror at the hundred and hundreds of ants under there. The ants were freaking out as well, not sure if it was due to my scream or the fact that I shed light on their hidden condo.

The picture is of a few dead ants but mostly all the ant pupae. They look like rice krispies! That is freakin awesome!

Melissa Charnitsky
Customer Care Specialist
Environmental Health Services, Inc.

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

Bats Disturbing High School

They're baaack. Bats are lurking in a Charlotte-area high school and it's not the first time.

Students first spotted one bat in a classroom at North Mecklenburg High School before Christmas break. The building was evacuated and the problem was supposedly taken care of. But Monday morning before school, a staffer found another one.

The N Hall is a building on campus that normally houses six classes. It’s closed and quarantined after the health department removed eight bats from inside.

Senior Guy McCrary admitted he’s grossed out. Other students are, too. But they’re not surprised because North Mecklenburg High is 60-years-old.

“It does freak you out. Bats, rabbits, cockroaches, mice—what’s next,” he added.

“They keep finding more and more. I don't feel safe with my daughter back in that hall,” said one student’s mother, who did not want to be identified.

Principal Matt Hayes says when they closed the hole the first time around, some bats were trapped inside.

“By closing the hole, other bats were hiding. We had bats hiding. Now that we closed the hole they don’t have an exit point,” he said.

Instead, he says there is a one-way door to flush them out. In addition, CMS has removed all ceiling tiles to verify there are no other holes.

The problem, they say, is that bats only need a hole the size of a nickel to squeeze through. A private pest control company is working with CMS to get rid of the bats and students are expected to be allowed back in those classrooms on Monday.

A health department spokesman says they tested one bat and it came back negative for rabies. He says they don’t have to test all of the bats because no one came in contact with the others.

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

Roaches With a Side of Mice? Health Dept. Says 17% More Eateries Failed Inspection in 2011

These numbers could make you sick.

The tally of restaurants shuttered by city health inspectors jumped more than 17% last year to 1,504 - up from 1,282 in 2010, the Daily News has learned.

The closures are fueled by a new letter grading system, which has also led to skyrocketing restaurant fines.

The Health Department banked $42.3 million in fines last year, nearly $10 million more than in 2010.

Restaurant owners fume that the violations are often trumped up and are eating away at profits.

"I haven't heard of an equivalent reduction in the number of food-borne illnesses as a result of the new system," said Andrew Rigie, executive vice president of the New York State Restaurant Association.

The Bloomberg administration argues that the beefed-up inspections are compelling restaurants to clean up their act.

"The Department of Health will be looking at food-borne illnesses over time, but it is too early to know," agency spokesman John Kelly said.

Kelly noted that many of the shuttered restaurants reopened several days after fixing the cited problems.

Dirty floors and food that's been left out in the open, unprotected from mice and other rodents, topped the list of violations linked to a specific reason, records show.

There was a 35% increase in fines issued for mice discovered around food. The number of fines blamed on mice reached 18,384 during the fiscal year ending June 30, up from 13,657 in 2010.

Under the new system, eateries that don't ace their first tests get reinspected within about a month.

Restaurants can appeal their final score. If the owner appeals, a "Grade Pending" sign must be posted outside until an administrative judge reviews the case, generally in about four weeks.

The increased fines were expected, officials said.

"The agency actually anticipated an increase, because poorer-performing restaurants are now being inspected more quickly," Kelly said. "However, since the inception of the restaurant grading program, restaurants are improving, cycle to cycle."

That's in part due to help from high-priced consultants hired by many big-name restaurants.

"The Health Department has created an entire industry of consultants to help them pass their inspections," said Rigie.

"No one wants to see their customers get sick."

One Brooklyn restaurant owner said she has lost thousands of dollars appealing fines at administrative hearings. Fines range from $200 to $2,000.

"They are putting me out of business," said the owner, who did not want her name used. "How can I afford to pay $2,000 fines in this economy?"

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

Squirrels Do 17% of the Damage to Fiber Optic Network

Fred Lawler, senior vice president of global field services at Level 3, said that "squirrel chews" account for a whopping 17 percent of the company's damage repairs this year, across 57,000 miles of intercity and 27,000 miles of metropolitan fiber.

Lawler noted, "Of all the animals in the whole world, almost all of our animal damage comes from this furry little nut eater. Squirrel chews account for a whopping 17% of our damages so far this year! But let me add that it is down from 28% just last year and it continues to decrease since we added cable guards to our plant. Honestly, I don’t understand what the big attraction is or why they feel compelled to gnaw through cables. Our guys in the field have given this some thought and jokingly suspect the cable manufacturers of using peanut oil in the sheathing. If you have any new ideas on how we can combat these wayward rodents, I’d love to hear from you. We are always looking for ways to improve."

George Williams
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA

The call came into the EHS office that the customer hears a squeaking and scratching noise mostly in at nighttime. We suspect either mice or possibly squirrels so we set up a free inspection to determine the pest activity if any, and proposal for service if needed.

I get there and inspect the outside of the house then inside and find no evidence of a pest. The customer is insistent that he is hearing the noise and he really heard it just before I got there. He thinks it is coming from the attic.

So I go up in the attic and I find nothing. I tell the customer that I am going to stay quiet for a bit to find out if I can hear the squeaking. It’s July, I am in an attic sitting perfectly still for 15 minutes, the outside temperature reads 92 degrees, this means the attic is at least 120 degrees! After 15 min I am a good 2-3lbs lighter and I tell the customer I can’t see or hear anything so I am coming down. As I close the door to the attic the customer yells that he is hearing it again. I run to where he is and listen.

Is that the sound you hear? “YEP that’s it”, he replies. The sound you are hearing is coming from your VHS player!!! The customer apologized profusely. I suggested he go out and buy a DVD player!

Mike McGoldrick
Service Supervisor
Environmental Health Services, Inc.

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA

I am the rat killer of Boston!!! Frank the tank! This picture shows just some of my vic’s!

Seriously, we get a call about a large number of rats in a parking garage. The previous pest control company had not been able to solve the problem after months of trying. I see rub marks from the rats and follow their trail to a locked room. At the door it has a seriously strong rat odor. Those in the industry know what I mean! I tell the maintenance guy that this is the mother ship and we need to get inside. He does not have a key and said the other guy never went inside there. I told him that is why you still have rats.

Once we get inside there are rat droppings EVERYWHERE in the room. There is no doubt that this is where they are coming from but why? I find a lead out tunnel that heads into the MBTA subway system and that is the source. I set up snap traps and schedule us to come back every 3-5 days. The seven rats you see are just three days after I placed them down! In 10 days I have caught a whopping 35 rats!!! Based on rat breeding I have literally removed over 300 potential rats from the city of Boston…WHOAH!!! I should get a key to the city!

The battle is still going on as of this blog post but once we go 2 weeks with no catches I will seal off the tunnel with stainless steel mesh screening and this will eliminate the issue.

Frank Diaz
Service Specialist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA

Flea's Jump Analyzed By Scientists

The age-old mystery of how fleas jump 100 times their height has been solved - and it's their toes not legs that are key.

It has long been known that fleas store the energy needed to catapult themselves up in an elastic-like pad above the hind legs.

But there has been 44 years of constant debate about how the tiny insects use this energy to travel around 100 times their height.

And now, in the first study of its kind, two researchers used high speed recording equipment to examine the exact movements involved and proved that they push off using their toes.

Using hedgehog fleas, they filmed 51 jumps from 10 of the animals.

In the majority of jumps, two parts of the flea's complicated legs - the toe and knee - were in contact with the ground for the push off.

But in 10 per cent of the jumps, only the toe touched the ground.

The duo could see that the insects continued accelerating during take-off - even when the knee was no longer pushing down - and those that jumped without using the knee accelerated in exactly the same way as those that jumped using both the knee and toe.

Furthermore, when they looked at the flea's leg with scanning electron microscopy - a microscope in which a finely focused beam of electrons is scanned across them - the shin and toe had gripping claws but the knee was completely smooth - so it couldn't get a good enough grip to push off.

They suspected that the insects push down through the shin onto the toe, as previous research has suggested, but they needed a mathematical model to reproduce the flea's movement and prove their argument.

Source = The telegraph

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA

Warehouse Must Deal with Insect and Rodent Infestation

A New Hope, MN food warehouse was infested with rodents, insects and birds in July, according to a warning letter issued this month by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The FDA ordered the company, New Wha Ming Trading of MN, Inc. to correct violations within 15 days or explain why it needs more time.

During five visits in July, inspectors noticed live and dead rodents, including several in traps; droppings in 17 locations on food and elsewhere; nesting material and gnawed containers.

Bags of food were stained with urine. There were bird droppings on cans of condensed milk. Insects were found on bags and on a dead rodent.

Owner Weizhen Lin said Wednesday he had not received the FDA letter but the company is "working on the issues."

George Williams,
General Manager

Pest Control, MA ,  Pest Control, RI