German Cockroach Case Study

Editor’s note: As part of PCT’s July cockroach control issue, veteran industry professional Bery Pannkuk wrote the feature “Cockroach Emergency.” The following online extra is a case German cockroach case study from Pannkuk.    

Simply put, German roaches were always being flushed out of an area behind a cooking line. Deep fryers and steaming equipment that was not moveable were blocking easy access to the stainless steel wall behind these units. On the “other side” of this area was a similar hollow block wall. It was decided that it would be acceptable to drill this area and use an Actisol unit to inject flushing agents into the void. The wall behind the cook line was stainless steel and we noted the gas from the actisol unit finally coming out from underneath the steel lined wall. When this was noted we asked permission to drill the stainless steel wall and that led us to finding another area about 3-feet deep that was just simply a void that the cockroaches found but we couldn’t. Nice and warm, water available as well as constant food supply just 1/8th of an inch away under the stainless steel wall.