RI, MA EHS Pest Control Blog

So you bought an electronic pest repeller for $9.99 and plug it into an outlet and it repels all insects from your entire house. That’s how it works right? I mean if it were that good there would be no pest control industry! These gimmick devices have been soundly disproven by science again and again. The problem is that people do not believe science and facts so millions of these stupid things are still being sold every year!

Well, here is some visual proof that proves yet again that these things are a gimmick. This ultrasonic unit was plugged into an outlet in an apartment in Boston. As you can see it did absolutely nothing to repel or control the German Cockroaches. In fact they seemed to love the extra warmth it provided as evident by the copious amounts of fecal matter. Perhaps I should go into the snake oil sales business?

Jon Hinthorne
Service Specialist
Environmental Health Services, Inc.

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

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

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 center of Copenhagen on Wednesday evening. Apparently this is common behavior 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

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