Photo Album: Multiple rodent entry points in Keansburg commercial building

As part of my routine servicing one of my commercial accounts, in Keansburg, I thoroughly inspect the cafeteria. Any location that stores and serves food to the public requires heightened vigilance for possible insect or rodent infestations. I make it a practice to inspect beyond the kitchen and also inspect the customer seating areas as well, especially under and behind the booth areas. While mice may go into the kitchen for food, they don’t necessarily stay there, and often find nearby locations to hide and breed. A thorough pest control inspection requires far more than a quick cursory run-through. Pests like to hide in the smallest of nooks and crannies, so that’s where you have to look. I always tell any new pest control technician that I’m training, when it comes to pest inspections, if you ain’t bending, you’re just pretending! When it comes to restaurants, strict sanitation protocols are so important to prevent rodent and insect infestations. When food debris or grease accumulates under and around counters and appliances, it is only a question of time before cockroaches, rodents, and other scavengers take advantage the situation. Whenever there are cleanliness issues, I immediately let the manager know about it, so the staff can be reminded of the importance of keeping their work areas and the customer seating areas clean. I brought the cafeteria manager over to these areas and showed her my findings and what needed to be cleaned up and what areas needed to be sealed to prevent food from dropping into fare-to-reach places.

Mice droppings found in Keansburg, New Jersey

When it comes to restaurants, strict sanitation protocols are so important to prevent rodent and insect infestations. When food debris or grease accumulates under and around counters and appliances, it is only a question of time before cockroaches, rodents, and other scavengers take advantage the situation. Whenever there are cleanliness issues, I immediately let the manager know about it, so the staff can be reminded of the importance of keeping their work areas and the customer seating areas clean. I brought the cafeteria manager over to these areas and showed her my findings and what needed to be cleaned up and what areas needed to be sealed to prevent food from dropping into fare-to-reach places.

Moving furniture to thoroughly clean areas

In most cafeterias, including this one, the booths have removable bench seats for easy cleaning and replacement, if needed. While removing one of the seats to see what may be lurking underneath, I found some food debris and mouse droppings (see picture). This was one smart mouse who understood that when it comes to real estate, it's all about location. This particular booth was right next to a soda cooler, which made for a perfect harborage area. The mouse had a ready supply of water from the condensation drip pan as well as heat from the appliance motor. And whenever this mouse was hungry, he could go to any of the booths with collected food debris, and a hop and a skip away from the booth was the salad bar. From my experience with restaurants, salad bar displays can have a lot of spillage from customers dropping food left and right. If salad bar areas are not kept up with, they can be a source of problems for pest infestations.This one was no exception. While inspecting behind the salad bar, I observed that any mouse would have had is own mini-salad bar buffet.

Gaps around pipes let mice into the home in Keansburg

Finally, whenever there is a rodent problem, I am always concerned about potential access points. While inspecting exterior areas nearby the cafeteria, I found some pipe chases (false walls for hiding pipes) that needed to be rodent-proofed. Management assured me these areas would be sealed to prevent this prolific breeder and carrier of disease, the house mouse (Mus musculus), from entering their property at will.