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Roach infestation lands Mama Maria's on Dirty Dining

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Posted at 4:44 PM, Feb 13, 2019
and last updated 2019-02-14 02:42:27-05

LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The menu for tonight's Dirty Dining includes Mexican food, cookies and ice cream and a whole lot of roaches. 13 Chief Investigator Darcy Spears uncovers a pest control problem that got seriously out of control.

Mama Maria's on Lake Mead Blvd. near Mt. Hood was shut down January 28 after inspectors validated a customer complaint.

The customer told the Health District she ordered fajitas and found a roach in her food. She said she spoke to an employee who admitted they have roaches and rats but said the owner doesn't want to address the problem.

"A customer found a roach in her fajitas!" Darcy Spears said to Owner Arturo Marquez. "You never want to see that happen."

"No! No," he agreed. "Never."

Marquez says there were far more roaches on the restaurant side than the bakery.

When the inspector investigated the complaint, she saw live roaches and multiple sticky boards covered with at least 20 dead multi-generational roaches per trap.

Marquez said the sticky traps were the restaurant's idea to prove to their pest control guy that whatever he was doing wasn't working.

"Before he did a good job but after last time I don't know what happened, you know?" Marquez said. "Now he do a good job because he spray all the ceiling and everything."

The Health District told Mama Maria's to do a deep cleaning after a full inspection resulted in more violations including an excessive amount of debris and grease build-up on flooring, walls and underneath equipment.

There were also food items at the steam table and make table in the splash zone of the hand sink and an employee's open beverage on a prep table.

Mama Maria's cleared up all their issues and reopened January 31 with a zero-demerit A grade.

"They no got it no more, you know?" Marquez said. "Because that's no good for us or for the customers."

Speaking of no good, health inspectors shut down a roach-infested Dairy Queen on Falcon Ridge in Mesquite on January 31.

The imminent health hazard was present throughout the kitchen with multi-generational roaches crawling on floors and walls. There were also plenty of dead ones in light covers.

Inspectors also found hair in the ice box near the drive-through window that was in direct contact with customers' ice.

Hot dogs and grilled chicken were at unsafe temperatures.

Super Glue was stored on the cake decorating prep table.

There was excessive heavy black build-up on soda dispensers, dirty cutting boards, and yellow mold in the ice machine.

Dairy Queen was back to a zero-demerit A grade on February 4. The owner said they have bi-weekly pest control but thinks the company didn't use the right chemical. They switched to a different company and will monitor things more regularly. He said they depended on their pest control company and the company failed them.

Lastly, Honolulu Cookie Company's sampling station at the Linq was shut down January 30 for the imminent health hazard of no hot water. The company says instead of pieces, it handed out full, sealed cookies as samples while waiting for a part to fix their hot water heater. It was back to a zero-demerit A grade on February 8.

Health report for Mama Maria's

Complaint for Mama Maria's

Health report for Dairy Queen

Health report for Honolulu Cookie Company