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If you scroll through local health department reports, late summer always brings a wave of "red placard" closures. From high-profile venue shutdowns in Florida to resort closures in Hawaii, municipal inspectors are dropping the hammer on commercial kitchens over severe pest activity—hundreds of roach sightings, heavy rodent droppings, and drain flies over prep surfaces. The public reaction is usually immediate outrage. As part of the pest control industry, and having spent pl

The FIFA World Cup is here, and the numbers being tossed around are staggering. A recent piece by food safety expert Francine Shaw highlighted a logistics nightmare: one host city expects up to 10 million visitors but only has 28 health inspectors on staff. Yep, that’s my city of Atlanta. Let that sink in. Ten million international fans. Thousands of temporary food trucks, pop-up tents, and fan zones. The Atlanta airport has new food stalls in many terminals. All being monito

One of the reasons I have the best job is that I get to troubleshoot. I get to try to put puzzles together, often without all the pieces. I tend to have a “standard” set of questions I start with to pry out additional information, and then I let my brain start working through the problem. I know that when a question gets to me, it’s likely the client has already tried all the “basic” IPM steps so it’s always exciting to start thinking about how to get creative with pest contr

This episode marks my five year anniversary. That’s officially five years of weekly (ranting) writing about all things urban pest related...

I fly a lot for work and for fun. I’ve been flying since I was about three. Aside from being locked in a metal tube with 100 people you...

Pesticides often get a bad reputation, especially in the media, and can be viewed as “nasty chemicals” or “harmful” or even just “evil”....

As sometimes happens, I have a blog post almost ready to go. Then something happens, or I see an article, or my news feed lights up. What...

Buckle up for a deep dive. We have some of the safest food in the US, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t issues. Here’s what’s going on...

House flies, bottle flies, flesh flies, and more can all get inside structures. They are all known to carry food-borne diseases. They can...

This episode marks the 210th weekly blog post. That’s more than four years of weekly (ranting) writing about all things urban pest...

I have a small compost bucket I keep under my kitchen counter until it is ready to be taken out. That means it sits there for maybe two...

Buckle up folks, I’ve got a great one for you this week: someone had to pay for pest control services! Oh, the horror! Let’s break this...