Each year, health departments in every city in the United States receive a plethora of calls from angry consumers complaining about insect pest sightings in local restaurants and eateries. However, officials working at the Amherst Health Department had been receiving complaints about insect pests within the Lone Wolf Cafe for years before the location was finally forced to close by health authorities.
Numerous emails written by residents describing cockroaches and other pest sightings within the Lone Wolf Cafe were sent to Amherst public health officials frequently up until the mid 2010s. One of these emails, titled “Bugs in Food at The Lone Wolf,” by Lisa Wilson, has become particularly well known among residents since it was sent directly to the city’s Public Health and Community Services Director, Julie Federman, back in December of 2015. In the email, Wilson describes an incident in which her daughter and her group of friends visited the cafe only to be served omelets that contained “bugs.”
While many emails of this sort were sent to the director, Wilson’s email was largely credited with the restaurant’s much anticipated closing. The Amherst Health Inspector chose to close the Lone Wolf Cafe after publicly labeling the restaurant a threat to public health. Now local news reporters have uncovered a stack of files that detail the restaurant’s long history with persistent and seemingly ineradicable cockroach pests.
According to numerous past pest control reports concerning the Lone Wolf Cafe’s condition, the restaurant had been seeing cockroach infestations on and off for over a decade, but during recent years the infestation became permanent. In order to fully eradicate the roach pests from the restaurant, public health officials demanded that the entire building where the restaurant is located be treated for insect pests. Subsequent inspections uncovered numerous structural issues that had likely been contributing to the cockroach presence within the cafe. These structural issues included rainwater leaks from a compromised roof and waterlogged structural wood. The moist conditions made the building an ideal roach habitat.
Have you ever found cockroaches within any public or private building?