ROACHES DOG ANIMAL SHELTER

An army of cockroaches infesting an animal shelter is described as "biblical," a "plague" and "an explosion."

Since mid-July, workers at the Lied Animal Shelter have fought a hardy strain of roaches that invaded the dog kennels and now swarm the canines' chow.

Mike Garvin, a shelter employee, wheeled a garbage pail filled with dry food through a kennel on Thursday. He stopped to point at a dozen roaches crawling down a wall.

"When they smell the food," he said, "here they come."

Garvin grabbed a bowl full of food from a dog's cage and shook it. Roaches leaped and scampered amid the grainy nuggets.

"I'll be honest with you. Yes, we have a problem, and we're working on it," said Gordon Smith, the shelter's operations manager. "It was not a gradual thing. It was an explosion."

Smith traced the infestation to 500 pounds of donated dog food that he believes contained the pests. Many of the bags were opened before delivery, which would allow vermin to slip inside, he said.

Before then, Smith, who has worked at the shelter 18 months, would spot a few roaches here and there.

But suddenly more roaches appeared. And more. And more.

By late August, the proliferating pests carpeted the aisles of some dog kennels at feeding time.

"You couldn't walk through here without stepping on them," Smith said.

It didn't matter that workers scoured and disinfected the kennel areas three times a day, or that a pest-control company did routine sprayings, Smith said. The resilient roaches seemed to shrug off all efforts to combat them.

Standing water left on the floors after the wash-downs combined with dog food help the roaches thrive, Smith said.

Still, Smith and Garvin observed that far fewer marauding bugs appeared while food was served Thursday.

All the sanitizing might be paying off, Garvin said. "They really, really subsided in the last week or so."

Smith said he is bringing in a different exterminator that he hopes will snuff out the bugs.

Truly Nolen Pest Control will apply an animal-safe insecticide in the infested areas next week at no cost. After that, the company will negotiate a yearlong contract with the shelter at a discounted rate, said Chris Blaisdell, a Truly Nolen technician.

"They had a pretty bad infestation there," Blaisdell said. "It's not a problem that got there overnight, and there's no way it can be fixed overnight."

He noted that the pests are German cockroaches.

The insects are adept at evading pest control because they are small, they hide in tiny crevices, and a female carries the eggs with her rather than depositing them in places where they can be wiped out, according to online data about the bug.

Smith said people should not liken the infestation to the unsanitary conditions in early 2007 that led to 1,000 animals being euthanized in a week.

No longer are multiple animals crammed into a cage for an excessive length of time, he said. Now, one animal occupies one cage unless it's a mother and her babies.

And the animals are pushed through with shorter stays, he said, which means that, yes, some will be euthanized.

The goal now is to eradicate the roaches and ensure this kind of infestation never happens again, Smith said.

Keeping the shelter pest-free demands vigilance, he said.

"You're never going to be able to finish them all off."

Contact reporter Scott Wyland at swyland@reviewjournal.com or 702-455-4519.