Posts Tagged ‘cockroaches’

Who cares about bugs and rodents?

Each and every day I’m reminded of the valuable service ProBest Pest Management offers, why you ask? Let me share some of my most memorable days of Public Health:

• Customer called me because they couldn’t even get into their home because the fleas were so plentiful.
• In all my 20+ years I had never seen Bed Bugs until 2009, that year we received our first call. In 2012 I witnessed over 1000 Bed Bugs in a very small home – I was amazed and also creeped out and itched all day. We were able to alleviate the problem but it stills worries me that people will put up with something like this until it virtually becomes a real BIG problem.
• A young woman continued to call about Ticks, we treated her yard but she wouldn’t let us inspect her home. We did find ticks inside under a couch and solved the problem after finally finding the source.
• I may have mentioned this before but a mobile home with at the every least 5 million cockroaches. I’m not kidding, I felt almost hopeless for this family. It took some time but I think we did a good job for them.
• I once had the task of doing some Drywood Termite work in a church, the tower or steeple had more pigeon feces than I had ever seen. It was probably 10 foot deep and went down walls and was just gross, we fumigated the building and they had someone remove the feces and prevent them from gaining entry anymore.
• Sometimes architecture often allows entry points into a structure, stucco not properly sealed or pipes or cable opening not sealed. I once particpated with a fumigation for cockroaches and never thought about rodents until the job was completed. Many, many dead rodents, by the way do you know that rodents love cockroaches?

Well anyway you get the picture, Public Health equals quality pest control.

How often do you check your A/C filters?

I think most replacement filters suggest every 60 days, but I think a more appropriate answer is when they are dirty. The rest of the answer is how many contaminates are involved with your home? Do you have pets, do you live in an area where they have smog days and how many people live in your home? What about allergies, do you or someone living in your home have allergies? If you answered yes, then you should consider special filters that collect more contaminates. Dust mites, German Cockroaches and other pests can increase asthma conditions and should be prevented.

What exactly is a Cockroach clean-out?

The number 1 dreaded issue in any home or restaurant is probably cockroaches and the worse of the worse is the German Cockroach. So lets discuss why they are such a problem once in your home or restaurant. German Cockroaches can and will get into everything – they love to hide in cracks and crevices, they multiply so fast that it could make your head spin, and they can survive for months without food and up to two weeks without water. So you see they can quickly cause a BIG problem and they are difficult to control without the knowledge of how they live.

If you see one there are a whole lot more you are not seeing. If they have moved from a kitchen or bathroom into a living room or bedroom you have a serious problem. Why you ask? They generally like to hang out near their food and water source, and will only leave that area when their numbers force them to expand. Sanitation is the key, keep it clean!

The Clean-out:

Since they love to hide, the pest control company has to get to their hideouts. That is your back of cabinets, or the corners where they can hide. They can also hide in the molding of the refrigerator, or the interior walls of the stove. This is why you must clean out the cabinets and by the way if someone says they can do it without removing dishes or groceries from the cabinets – call someone else. There are great and improved products that are fantastic in getting rid of roaches but the real trick is that you must kill at least 97% on the initial service or it will not work at all.  So here is how ProBest Pest Management does an initial service for German Cockroaches.

We use an actisol machine (changes a liquid into atomized particles), Avert bait (dry bait), Temprid and Gentrol (IGR Insect growth regulator)and we almost always require a second visit.

If we can’t get to the roach we can’t always kill the roach.

What can you do when you find a bug at a restaurant?

As much as none of us want to deal with a situation like this I think it is important to address the issue with the staff or management of the restaurant. Why is it such a big deal? A complaint isn’t always a complaint, it is a way of solving a mystery or potential problem. What if the issue was a bug in a salad, was it washed properly before serving? Was it an issue with the kitchen and cleanliness? Here are a few tips for a restaurant and sanitation.

1. Sanitation is and always will be the key to a clean and well managed restaurant! The kitchen must be cleaned every night and once a month or more depending on clean-up procedures that are in place. A single cockroach could live on a spot of grease for a month.
2. When taking in supplies, as soon as possible discard the boxes. Empty the boxes into other containers, cockroaches love to hide in boxes and will disperse the longer they are left in the building.
3. I don’t care what kind of restaurant you are but you need a Pest Management Professional at the very least on call for advice, I really believe every restaurant needs a regular service.
4. If you spot one (1) bug it is time for action, grab the bug by the horns (its a play on words) and find the solution to the problem. In the pest management industry we use a word called threshold – it is the number of a pest that determines the action – for example if a food facility has a 0 limit threshold that equals shutting down the line until the issue is resolved.
5. As I stated in number 3, if you want advice please call me. Some of advice is free and if it becomes a longer amount of time I will discuss the fee.

part 2 tomorrow will be, what you as a consumer can do… 

The scourge of kitchens and restaurants. The German Cockroach

What can you do to keep them out of your kitchen?

1. German Roaches love to hang out with their tops and bottoms of their body touching, so a cardboard box is a great place for a roach. So if you bring home boxes, take them apart and throw them out. Store the contents in Tupperware type containers.
2. These roaches don’t live outside, so if you caught something trying to get in – it’s not a German Roach.
3. Sanitation is important, I often find (I’m guilty of this as well) that you need to clean the sides of whatever is next to the stove. Grease splatters and a single roach can make dinner of a grease spot for a long period of time. These roaches will eat enything.
4. See that thing attached to the right hand roach, that is an egg-case and it contains 30 eggs and potentially 30 brand new roaches.
5. Don’t use a bug bomb, it will drive them deeper and make it all the more difficult to get rid of them.
6. These bugs carry and transmit diseases and germs so it is extremely important to stop them in their tracks.
7. If you find one, figure out where you think it came from and maybe it is time to call a Pest Management Professional.