Last week was another busy week for cockroaches, as several of the unpleasant insects were found in numerous restaurants and fast food joints all over the world. Of course, cockroaches, much like bed bugs, can be found in nearly every hospitable location on the planet. They are also attracted to human food and waste, and they can move very fast when locating a source of sustenance. These attributes make cockroaches a very difficult insect pest to control, and it also explains why they gravitate toward restaurants. Nothing satiates a cockroaches’ hunger like piles of discarded restaurant food, and it seems that they have a particular liking for Subway.
Last week a Subway restaurant located on Liberty Avenue in Downtown Pittsburgh was hit with a consumer alert warning over the heavy cockroach infestation that inspectors found within the popular eatery. Typically, people hear about forced closings or reprimands that come as a result of insect infestations within restaurants, but Subway’s consumer alert warning is proving to be a humiliating punishment for the businesses’ failure to properly handle their cockroach problem. The location was slapped with several health code violations, most of which directly related to the cockroaches present in the business during the time of inspection. Numerous roaches were found in multiple areas within the Subway location. These areas included the radiators, under the drink machine, and in a cabinet under a sink. This infestation comes at a time when Subway can really do without the bad publicity.
Shortly after the consumer alert warning was issued to the public, a news team dropped by the location in order to report on the infestation. Before the news team had a chance to enter the establishment, a roach scurried out of the door right in front of the news team’s photographer. Before officials remove the consumer alert, they will reinspect the location, but don’t expect to “eat fresh” at this Subway location. In other international cockroach news, a restaurant called Old Hong Kong Kitchen in Singapore has had its business license suspended for two weeks after inspectors noted two seperate cockroach infestations within the establishment in only a twelve month period.
Will you start worrying about roaches in the kitchen of your favorite eatery after realizing how common the insects are within restaurant kitchens?