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What the...? Nasty!


Paraflier

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OK. I am at a loss here..... Maybe you all can help me out..... Here's the story:

I self placed 3 1800 triple head in a new account. The night before, I completely broke down the machines, and got it all squeaky clean. I rebuild them the next morning, and put 'em in the back of the van.

Stopped at Sams to grab some product (PMM, MM, and Good 'n Plenty's). Brand new, unopened bags.

Dropped of the machines at three different buildings. Left.

The other day I go to check on them and there is a moth (or miller) in my Good 'n Plenty's! Now... They are nasty before... They don't need any more strikes against them!  He (or she... I have no idea) was hanging out inside my center head, walking around, and flying a little.

My question.... How did it get there??? The machines were spotless. The product was new in the bag. Is Sam's importing moths in their Good 'n Plenty's?

Anyone ever run into this?

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Mike, how often do you come across that sort of thing?

And back to the maggots... How did that situation go down?

Not very often. But........ When you do. make sure you take everything apart and check for eggs. I have found them in the coin mechs just about everytime. If you dont get them youll have them right back in the machine.

Mike

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I had one location that had roaches.  I cleaned out the machine in the parking lot and I tied the machine in a plastic bag.  It had a cheap tempo stand so I just threw it away in the dumpster.  I brought it home and cleaned it more, but I noticed that there started to be much more roaches in my house.  I had to give the garage a major cleaning before they all went away.

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Watch out for Bed Bugs too!  :o

I had some a couple of years ago and I am sure they came from a Shootin Hoops located in a nasty roach motel for recovering drug addicts.  I inherited the location from a route I bought  in case you are wondering.  Always inspect the inside of the pipe stand also since you never know what may be hiding in the pipe.  As a rule, I only store machines in the storage unit and never in the home any more.  They are pain to kill since they only feed on blood - preferably human, so bait traps don't work like they do with common roaches since they are not attracted to the bait.

I read that Bed Bugs are becoming a bigger problem with all of the international traveling.  They hitch hike in luggage and freight from abroad.  They were almost completely eliminated in the USA in the 1970's from DDT.  Even 5 star hotels get them now!

 

So husbands take note!  There is no better way to damper or kill your vending dreams than a hysterical wife upset over bugs from your vending machines invading the household!  Nothing is ever simple, is it??!!

Do a web search or Google on bed bugs for more info!

Jax

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Some sort of contamination during the manufacturing process is entirely possible. I had a lady eat half a bag of trail mix out of one of my machines that was infested with maggots. That was not a pleasant situation.

That is why I would never vend nuts or trail mix from a bulk vending machine - just a big problem waiting to happen.  Fortunately, MMP are OK due to the candy shell around the nut.  Over the years, I have read a number of horror stories on nuts and maggots in the globe - some so bad that they throw the entire globe away and don't try to clean it!  I took the advice of all the experienced vendors at that time and was told to NEVER vend nuts - and I never have!

I once lost a very good restaurant that had a 4 way mini-rack with toys on charity - no commissions.  A noob eventually also got in there with a vendstar and had peanuts in them.  Well, you can guess the end of this story!  The noob did not service his machine often enough (nuts MUST be thrown away after 30 days) and the maggots eventually took over.  The owner was furious and kicked us all out and threw his machine into the parking lot!  That was a $100 per month spot!  I wanted to take a baseball bat to that precious vendstar!

Jax

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