RI, MA EHS Pest Control Blog

Post Office Overrun by RATS as Rodents Devour Parcels........
So if You Don't Get Any Presents This Year Now You Know Why

With 16.5 billion letters, packages and cards expected through the U.S. Postal Service this holiday season, the last obstacle senders might expect their packages to face, are thieving rats.

A post office in Manhattan is fighting a rat infestation leaving chewed boxes and envelopes that carries any item found edible, by both human and rodent taste.

Packages found deliverable despite their outside damage of visible gnawing and gaping holes are showing up in the hands of their recipients as mere shells. The little animals can smell the chocolate and goodies,' Maureen Marion, a USPS spokeswoman for the North East told the New York Times, whose office has found the most reported damaged packages.

At Midtown they’ve been very good at putting things in cabinets to keep them away from nibbles, but this time of year they just have more packages than they do have space to accommodate them,' Ms Marion said.

One New York Times employee expecting a treat from The Vermont Brownie Company says they opened a gnawed box to find only a card inside.

Our brownies are individually wrapped so they stay fresh,' the company's note read to the recipient.

Other more sturdy boxes, in one example holding a gift of international chocolates, arrived to their office building more lucky they report with mere teeth marks around the packaging.

It's a surprise since the kind of rats that infest New York City called the Norway rat, are capable of chewing through glass, cinder block, wire, aluminum and lead, according to the National Pest Management Association.

Without the total number of known packages destroyed at other post office branches around the city, with a report by the Gothamist suggesting a second office in the city, a worker at the midtown office signaled to a Times' reporter:

They do have a problem with rats here,' a worker at the office confessed to their reporter.

I've seen one, downstairs on the work floor. It was big, they said.

In size, the average subway rat in Manhattan is 16 inches long, with its thick, tapering tail accounting for about half of that length, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. On Monday the post office changed its usual visitation by an exterminator from every two weeks to once a week.

Ms Marion says that for items damaged in handling,' unless they were insured, there is no ability for compensation, 'regardless of the nature of the damage

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

Housing Worker Kills Monster, 3ft Rat .... and Says There Are More

A huge rat has been speared to death by a pitchfork at a sprawling New York housing project.

Jose Rivera, a Housing Authority worker, was clearing a rat hole at the Marcy Houses in Brooklyn when three of the creatures popped out.

He was only able to nab one. It appears to be almost three feet long, including the tail, is covered in white fur and looks well-fed.

Mr Rivera, 48, said: 'I hit it one time and it was still moving.

'I hit it another time and that's when it died. I'm not scared of rats but I was scared of being bitten.'

Naomi Colon, head of the Marcy Houses Tenant Association, said there have been sightings of the outsize rat for at least six years.

She said: 'The residents have told me that they've seen it running around with other rats.

'She lived with them. She ran into the same hole they ran in.'

Animal experts have identified the monster rodent as a Gambian pouched rat, which is a fairly common pet rat.

They are nocturnal, can grow to three feet, weigh four pounds or more and live seven or eight years, the New York Daily News reports.

Imports have been banned since 2003, when the rats were blamed for a monkeypox outbreak that affected 100 people.

Dr Paul Calle, director of zoological health at the Wildlife Conservation Society, said the Marcy Houses specimen was probably an escaped or discarded pet who decided to join the regular rats.

He said: 'They are a very social animal and live in big groups in the wild.

'Our Norway rats are the closest big rodents it could accompany.'

He said they can be trained to sniff out landmines,adding that 'they're pretty remarkable animals'.

Tenants fear that the Gambian rat has been breeding with the Norway rats and spawning a super-breed of rodents.

But Mr Calle said the imported rat probably would not mate with local rats, and it couldn't reproduce if it did, because each is from a different genus.

One Marcy Houses resident, who declined to be named for fear of reprisals from city or property management, described the conditions there.

'In one day eight big size rats were killed,' he said, adding that they have been seen in the playground.

Another resident said: 'Adults had to grab children and run because a lot of rats came on the playground. The kids were screaming.'

Resident Stephanie Davis, 44, said: 'Even the cats are afraid of the rats. They get together and gang up on the cats.'

Pam Davis, 43, added: 'They're here day and night. We don't dodge bullets. We dodge rats. They're so big, they should charge them rent.'

Alex Johnson
Service Specialist
Environmental Health Services, Inc.

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA

Health Violations Cited in Palm Beach County School Inspections

Palm Beach County public and private schools are frequently cited by health inspectors for a variety of violations, which run from rodent droppings in classrooms and broken drinking fountains and toilets, to locked bathrooms used as storage closets, according to reports.

Since 2009, schools have racked up 128 violations for vermin problems and 479 citations for faulty fountains, among other repeated offenses, records show.

But despite these unsanitary conditions, schools rarely are fined or receive unsatisfactory ratings, because the violations usually are not considered dangerous for students and teachers. And most importantly, education typically continues despite the nuisances.

A review of inspection reports show what some students face during the school day:

Rat waste in two rooms in a classroom building at Royal Palm Beach High School: "School buildings must be rat proofed," an inspector wrote in the school's satisfactory June report. "Note: Staff suspects a rodent nest above ceiling tiles." Pest control is a never-ending concern, he added, with cases flaring up at about one out of every 10 campuses, records show.

"When you start seeing rodents and roaches and vermin, there are sources of water and food at the school," Mets said. "You have to find the access points and seal them up."

A public outcry last year about an abundance of rodents and roaches at three aging elementary schools in the Glades helped to persuade the Palm Beach County School Board to approve three major school renovation projects. In 2007, the district spent more than $150,000 on rat-proofing building repairs at Loxahatchee Groves Elementary School. The campus became susceptible to vermin because of hurricane damage in 2004 and a later air conditioner replacement that exposed holes in ceilings.

School rodent problems rarely get so bad they disrupt classes, but in December eight kindergarten classes at Tamarac Elementary in Broward County were relocated to other rooms. To attack the infestation, the school trimmed nearby trees and set traps.

One of the worst local problems in recent years occurred at St. Juliana Catholic School in West Palm Beach. In 2007, a barrage of rats and mice forced the school to close for three days while a pest-control company exterminated the property. It was reopened after the Health Department conducted an inspection with school officials.

Routine inspections usually take one to two hours and cover eight major categories, including school sanitation, bathrooms, trash and vermin control. Even something as minor as a broken paper towel holder is checked off.

"Anything that might cause harm, a broken window, that's something they would deal with right away," said Wilson, the county inspector. "We take everything seriously."

Source = Associated Press

George Williams
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA