2/20/2011 How Not To Let The Bedbugs Bite: New BedBug Book Chock Full Of Information On Prevention & Treatment

Humans have been tormented by insects since we first entered caves, but the bedbug is in a class of its own. They’re tiny, tenacious and love to travel.

New York-based entomologist Ralph Maestre makes a strong argument in The Bed Bug Book(released this week by Skyhorse Publishing) that we shouldn’t let sleeping arthropods lie — even if our own sleeping quarters aren’t infested.

He wrote the book, he says, to “intrigue, horrify, entertain and be useful.”

It is chock-full of information on the bedbug, its history, its life cycle and its current place in our ecosystem. Most importantly, the book is a useful guide for prevention of bedbugs and treatment if they do show up.

The key, Maestre says, is vigilance — and to make simple changes to thwart them. He says one reason our forebears put legs on beds is to keep the bedding off the ground and away from the bugs. We’ve forgotten that, and today we often put bedskirts under our mattresses — providing a perfect ladder for bedbugs to climb up and move in.

What follows is an edited version of the Star’s recent telephone interview with Maestre.

You say there is no other pest like the bedbug?

Because of the fear it induces in the human psyche. Even when an infestation is gone, there’s a lingering psychological recovery period of up to six months. It brings a lot of deep nightmares to the forefront.

Maybe it’s because they’re in our beds while we’re sleeping?

It’s also how we perceive the bedbug. If you have them you feel shame — because at some level you think it means you’re dirty or you’re poor or you’re not a good housekeeper. And if you have an allergic reaction it can feel like you’re being bitten again and again.

These were long periods when they went under the radar and you didn’t hear much about bedbugs. Why?

There’s many reasons for that. Many people thought that DDT wiped them out, and that’s not necessarily the case. Our appreciation of the importance of sanitation and the proper disposal of garbage helped. We changed — our furniture changed, our lifestyle changed, the way we did things changed. Then when they went away, we changed back. Now that this pest has returned we have to start thinking along those lines yet again.

Is pest management busier now than ever?

It’s a growing industry because the population continues to grow. But world travel is also allowing all sorts of new invasive species to enter the country, and bedbugs are just one.

So what are we doing wrong and what are we doing right?

What we’re doing wrong is panicking. There is absolutely no need. What we’re doing right (and it’s started in this past year) is that there are many people in the pest-control industry and government who are performing the research necessary to control these pests and educate the public. It’s vigilance that’s going to be the key to all of this: education, learning what they are, what they look like. Slowly but steadily, government is coming into the picture and realizing what steps are going to be needed to really help society.

You recommend checking for bedbugs everywhere. Do you really check every seam of your coat and every seat before you plant your butt?

I’m not talking about taking 15 minutes, but as you’re putting your coat on take a look-see on the outside, on the inside, stick your hands in the pockets and pull them inside out. And just that little bit, which takes maybe 10 to 15 seconds is probably going to be enough. If you know the location has had a bedbug problem then you want to be more thorough. If you’re staying in a hotel absolutely go through everything. If you go into a movie theatre, go through everything a little more thoroughly than you normally would. If you’re taking the train or the bus, take just a quick look-see.

Travel seems to be a big culprit.

One person may introduce the bedbug into a hotel room and then the next person is in the hotel room the next night. They may pick up one or two of them and then leave. Then a third person checks in. The exposure becomes exponential. That’s why vigilance in that situation is so important. It may take several days before the hotel itself becomes aware that there’s a problem in the room and reacts to it.

So there’s still much to learn about these guys.

They’re doing so at university levels all the time, learning about the behaviour. One example: There are 10 to 12 different pheromones that will attract bedbugs. Most males and nymphs (young ones) will congregate in and around that area, and so do females that aren’t pregnant. But for those females already pregnant, it acts as a repellent. That’s why no one has been able to come up with some sort of trap, like a roach motel, to attract bedbugs. You’ll catch some, but you’re not going to catch all of them.

Continue Reading More: How Not To Let The Bedbugs Bite

2/18/2011 New England Bedbug Outbreak Leads To One Day Summit: Attendees Gather To Learn New Techniques To Battle Bedbugs

Scores of property managers, pest exterminators, and others are gathering today at a Dedham hotel to learn new inspection techniques and treatments for bedbug infestations.

Throughout the day, about 200 attendees will learn new methods for finding and treating bedbugs, the biology behind the pests, and results of new studies on the bugs.

“Unfortunately, the problems are growing in New England and throughout the country,” said Missy Henriksen, the National Pest Management Association’s vice president for public affairs.

2/14/2011 Meet Lola: London’s Bedbug Sniffing Wonder Dog

I don’t like dogs as a rule. But as the Jack Russell is released from her cage into my hallway I’m pinning my hopes on her. “Run, Lola, run!” I whisper as she darts towards the living room. For this is a dog with special powers that I’m hoping can bring to an end a painful chapter in my life.

Lola was born on a farm in Wales two years ago, bought soon after by entrepreneur Mark Astley, and sent to America to get an education. After a few months at the made-up sounding National Entomology Scent Detection Canine Association, she started work in London’s hotels and homes. She has the distinction of being the only certified bedbug sniffer dog in Europe.

So how did this highly trained animal come to be rootling around my Tooting front room?

Back in September at the height of the panic in New York over a bedbug plague, I wrote a piece for the BBC. It was based on a survey of a thousand pest control firms suggesting that the bedbug problem was becoming, in the words of Missy Henriksen of America’s National Pest Management Association, a “bedbug pandemic”. The one ray of hope in all this apocalyptic talk was the arrival of Lola, who had begun working for Trust K9, the firm founded by Astley. But I never thought that a few months later I’d be asking for Lola’s help.

It was in December that I first started to itch. After a few days away over Christmas, I came back and the bites multiplied. Clearly whatever it was had been missing my blood. Soon the red marks turned to scabs, which bled at inconvenient moments. But still I wasn’t sure. Maybe it’s an allergy, fleas or something else, I thought.

“Go and get your Bs!” Astley commands Lola using their code – hotels don’t like clients hearing about bedbugs. On a lead she pulls her handler around the living room. Her white face with its splodge of brown around her right eye is the epitome of cuteness but her eagerness makes her resemble a Heathrow sniffer dog trying to impress a visiting Home Secretary. After a few minutes, Astley is satisfied. The room is clean. At this point he shows us what Lola would have done had she found something. He hides a vial of live bedbugs in the sofa when she’s not looking but within 15 seconds Lola has detected the smell, pounced, and is pawing deep under the cushion.
Where dogs win out over humans is in picking up an infestation early before visual clues such as blood spots appear. However, it’s not cheap, with a callout costing £275. But for hotels or people with large rambling homes, Lola makes sense.

“Dogs seem to be working well,” confirms Richard Moseley, technical manager at the British Pest Control Association (BPCA). “Of course it depends how well-trained the animal is but the benefit is it can check a large area in a short time with a minimum of pesticides.”

As Lola approaches my bedroom she arches her back and tugs at the lead. “From her behaviour there’s a lot of [bedbug] scent in this room,” Astley translates. She does a few laps of the bed, sniffs the skirting board, then leaps up onto the bed and buries her nose in the duvet. “Because you’ve had bugs in here for a while, the whole room smells of them. She’s trying to find the greatest source,” he explains.

Then Lola’s up by the pillows and pawing frantically between the mattress and headboard. Bingo! She doesn’t physically unearth a bug – her skill is to give a positive ID of the smell. “Good girl,” Astley shouts in a decent approximation of the late dog trainer, Barbara Woodhouse. Lola barks in triumph and leaps up to receive a handful of biscuity treats.

I’m relieved. You can put up with it for a while. But in the past month I’ve started to regard my bed with disgust. Then two weeks ago I found a bedbug in a clean T-shirt I was about to put on. It was light brown, wafer thin, and about the size of an apple pip. More and more my life seemed to be dominated by the little blighters. When I met my girlfriend’s father for the first time the other day he lifted up his shirt to show me the bites on his belly. As if acting out some primitive ritual, I responded by pointing out the scabs on my arm and neck. The following evening at the cinema there was so much scratching going on around me that it was hard to concentrate on the movie. I even happened to hear Radio 3 playing Shostakovich’s The Bedbug. “It sends people a little bit loopy,” agrees Astley. “And it breaks couples up. Often one of them is suffering more than the other and one says the other’s paranoid and it destroys things.”

The rest of the flat turns out to be clean. So where have these bugs come from? It could have been second-hand furniture, on our clothes or in a carrier bag. With rumours rife that the Tube is infested we decide to take Lola for a trip on the Northern line. When we board the train at Tooting Broadway a man is sleeping at the far end. He wakes bemused to see a Jack Russell sniffing the blue upholstery of the carriage. Lola appears to find something at the penultimate seat. It’s not conclusive proof this time, however. Astley says she’s a little hesitant and may be distracted by all the attention from the Standard’s photographer.

While one bedbug operative in the capital does put the blame squarely on the Northern line for outbreaks on its route through south London, a senior figure in the pest control industry who didn’t want to be named said the problem wasn’t confined to one section of the Tube network. “I’m aware of the Northern line having a problem but it’s not just one line, it’s the Piccadilly line, Central line and others as well. Just as with the outbreak in New York, anywhere like the Tube could transfer bedbugs on to people,” he said. He added that Transport for London had been made aware of specific outbreaks but had failed to give complainants evidence that it had taken action to resolve the problem.

According to the BPCA’s Moseley, bedbugs are known to inhabit aircraft seats and overhead lockers from where they can get into people’s luggage or clothing. The same was theoretically possible on the Tube, he said. Clive Boase, a British entomologist who runs the Pest Management Consultancy, urged people not to overreact: “I’m not saying there aren’t any bedbugs on the Tube but it’s far from common.” Pest control firm Bed-bugs.co.uk takes a more robust line in its literature and cites “public transport” as one of the most common sources of infestations. In the “Control Steps needed” for minimising the risk on public transport, it advises: “Do not sit down. Stand or get a shooting stick.”

It’s a relief to have my own bedbug problem confirmed. Astley can now prepare for the next stage – heat treatment, which costs an eye-watering £1,200 and involves moving everything on his proscribed list out of the affected room (including all food, plants, aerosols, old plasma TVs but not necessarily artwork). If you’re desperate, it may be worth it. For, unlike pesticides, which can take three weeks to kill the bugs, very high temperatures kill instantly. By the time you read this, my flat will be an oven-like 57 degrees Celsius thanks to three strategically placed heat exchangers. If all goes to plan, it’ll be roast bedbugs all round tonight. For the first time in a long while, I’m looking forward to getting into bed.

DON’T LED THE BEDBUGS BITE
The common bedbug (Cimex lectularius) feeds on blood, preferably human. It is mainly nocturnal and, since it takes 5-10 minutes to finish feeding, you are usually bitten while asleep. A single feed can sustain a bedbug for 5-10 days and it can go without food for months.
If carried into the home, a female can lay about 200 eggs over its lifetime, five or six eggs a day.

Be aware that bedbugs can live in carpets, sofas, skirting boards and picture frames. Don’t allow clutter to build up, particularly where you sleep. Don’t take in second-hand beds or mattresses.

Natural predators include ants, spiders, moths – and cockroaches.

Continue Reading More: Meet Lola London’s Bedbug Sniffing Wonder Dog

2/14/2011 Seven Bedbug Mistakes: Common Reactions That Make An Awful Problem Worse

What’s the first thing people do when they think they have bed bugs? They panic. A natural reaction, considering they’ve been the nighttime dish on a blood-sucking buffet. “The moment you discover bed bugs in your home, it is normal to feel violated, disgusted, and a sense of urgency to get rid of everything you own and get out of your house,” says Jeff Klein, owner of A3 Superior Pest Control in Milford, who’s seen his bed bug clients in the Philadelphia area nearly double in the last six months. “Unfortunately, these steps only worsen the infestation and prolong the length of the bed bug treatment process.”

Here, the common mistakes people make when they discover their home has been infiltrated by the bedtime beasts—and why it only makes the shudder-inducing problem worse.

Mistake No. 1: They stop sleeping in the bug-infested bed. “As difficult as it is, it’s imperative that you continue sleeping in your bed once you discover bed bugs,” says Klein. “Many victims decide to begin sleeping on the couch, and this is not a solution. Bed bugs are fast movers, and can travel up to 30 feet in six minutes. Bed bugs are also attracted to the carbon dioxide that we emit when we exhale—and will come to you wherever you are sleeping.” Which means sleeping on your couch will do nothing but spread the infestation to your couch.  “Confined bed bug infestations are the easiest to treat—do not worsen the problem,” stresses Klein.

Mistake No. 2: They don’t buy mattress covers. “If you are infested with bed bugs, most likely the infestation is based in your mattress and box spring,” says Klein, noting that it may take up to three days for a pest control professional to come to your home. In the meantime, purchase bed bug covers for both your mattress and box spring. “This will not end your infestation,” says Klein. “However, this will prevent live bed bugs from coming out, prevent other bed bugs from getting in and significantly reduce the amount of bed bugs that are free to feed on you during the night.”

While Klein regularly recommends Protect-a-Bed mattress covers to clients, there are lower-priced options available at stores like Target. “The most important thing to remember when using other brands is that it’s imperative to make sure the zippers are sealed,” says Klein. “Cover the zipper with masking tape to make sure bugs cannot get in or out. A bed bug can get through any opening where that a single sheet of paper can fit.”

Mistake No. 3: They sleep at a friend’s or relative’s house. “You do not want to be the one to give bed bugs to someone you care about,” says Klein. “Take comfort in knowing that bed bugs do not spread disease, and that thousands of others have successfully eradicated the same problem.”

Mistake No. 4: They hide it from their landlord. “It is crucial that you notify your landlord immediately once you discover bed bugs,” says Klein. “Because it is difficult to track the source of bed bugs, they may have come into your apartment from a neighbor. In this case, surrounding units—or the entire building—may need to be treated. “ Also, depending on your lease agreement, your landlord may handle the cost of bed bug treatment.

Mistake No. 5: They try to treat the problem themselves. While professional treatments aren’t cheap—A3 charges $1-$3 per square foot—it’s the best way eradict the problem. Do-it-yourself treatments tend to spreads bed bugs within the home and, if you live in an apartment building, among neighbors. “Chemicals like sprays and bombs that can be purchased in hardware stores are not strong enough to kill bed bugs, but bed bugs are averse to the chemicals and will scatter into other areas of your home or through the walls to your neighbors,”  warns Klein. When choosing an exterminator, make sure to ask for references from customers and that the company will guarantee its work. “Typically, a guarantee is for 30 or 60 days following treatment,” says Klein. “If they do not offer a guarantee, go elsewhere.”

Mistake No. 6: They don’t insist on an inspection. “When the pest control operator arrives, he or she should ask questions about what you have seen and the symptoms you’ve experienced,” says Klein. “They should also do an inspection of your home, especially in the bedroom. If they do not inspect the bedroom before they begin discussing treatment options, go elsewhere. Honest professionals will want to make sure you truly have bed bugs before they begin treatment.”

Mistake No. 7: They don’t ask for a K9. “Due to their exceptional sense of smell, dogs are 95-percent more accurate in detecting bed bugs than trained technicians,” says Klein, who currently uses two K9s that have been certified with the National Entomology Scent Detection Canine Association (NESDCA). “It’s important to make sure bed bug dogs are NESDCA-certified,” says Klein. “These dogs follow a code of ethics, are re-certified annually, and are trained only to find live insects and their eggs.”

Continue Reading More: Seven Budbug Mistakes

2/12/2011 NYC’s Bedbug Problem Has Spread To London: Sitings In Hotels, Houses & Theaters

Avoiding New York and boiling your suitcase might not be enough for Londoners to dodge the global bed bug pandemic – they’re already here, probably in a hotel, house or cinema near you.

Apple seed-sized, flat, brownish bed bugs (also known as Cimicidae) were once rife all over the world but had been largely wiped out by the banned pesticide DDT. During the past few decades, like head lice, they have been mounting a comeback, pest control firms say.

Wrongly linked to poverty or poor hygiene, today’s jet-setting bed bugs travel on all airline classes in luggage, aircraft seats and clothes to wherever people sleep or rest.

This week there were over 42,000 references to bed bugs on customer feedback travel website www.tripadvisor.com and pest control firm Rentokil Plc said there has been a 24 percent increase in bed bug jobs over the last year in Britain.

“Bed bugs are a worldwide and growing problem,” Rentokil Technical Director Savvas Othon told Reuters. “People carry bed bugs unknowingly in clothes and bags…”

2/9/2011 Bedbug Cases Triple In New York City Schools: Average Sightings Up To 340 Times Per Month

Bedbugs are popping up in the city’s public schools at triple the rate they were last year, the latest Department of Education statistics show.

The blood-sucking nuisances were confirmed in schools an average of 340 times per month from September through January this school year — compared to 104 times per month in the 2009-10 school year.

Even more disturbing is that the already high rate increased even more so in November, December and January — when an average of 458 bedbug sightings were confirmed per month.

“In many buildings, bedbugs are not managed correctly, and therefore not eliminated. Why would it be surprising that reports are increasing in schools?” said Renee Corea, who was on a city advisory board last year on how to contain the critters.

“If the schools took a proactive role, they could help tremendously,” she added. “As it is, with a purely reactive stance, they are not helping the situation.”

Department officials emphasized that each incident was likely prompted by a single bedbug found on a child’s clothing, rather than an outbreak of greater proportions.

“Schools are not hospitable environments for bedbugs,” said a department spokeswoman.

There were 542 confirmed bedbug cases in schools in 2008-09, and 1,019 in 2009-10, according to city data.

If this year’s number of incidents holds steady, the total could easily top 3,000 cases by the end of the school year.

Ray Lopez, director of the environmental health program at Little Sisters of the Assumption Family Health Service in East Harlem, urged the city to speed up completion of a Web portal that he recommended it create last year as part of the bedbug advisory board.

The portal, which will be funded with a portion of the $500,000 in City Council funds dedicated toward fighting the spread of the critters in July, will serve as a source of best practice protocols for landlords and tenants to follow.

Continue Reading More: Bedbug Cases Triple In NYC Schools

2/8/2011 Bedbugs In Brooklyn Car: Owners Leave Note Stating Infestation & Asking Not Be Ticketed

No criminal would think of stealing this car — but nothing stops the city’s traffic agents.

A note on the windshield of thisJeepparked on Pacific Street in Boerum Hill said the vehicle was infested with bedbugs — and begged, to no avail, that it not be ticketed.

The owner, who asked not to be identified, told The Post that he noticed bites recently and “we were trying an experiment.”

“We wanted to see if we had them in the house by not using the car at all for two weeks.

“They still ticketed us, though.”

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2/6/2011 Minnesota Home Worst BedBug Infestation Exterminator Has Seen:  Minneapolis Bungalow Needs $6,000 In Extermination Services

It is in many ways an all-American home.

Well kept and tidy, with the Stars and Stripes fluttering near the sidewalk.

It could belong to your grandmother, but inside the Minneapolis bungalow, trouble scampers beneath the sheets.

“We’re seeing all types of adults, nymphs, basically all stages of bedbug activity here,” says Chris Garcia of Adam’s Pest Control as he lifts a mattress to expose dozens of crawling creatures, some as large as pencil erasers.

The elderly owner of the home sleeps in one of the bedrooms, her head just inches from an electrical outlet swarming with bedbugs.

At night they feed on her.

Blood stains have soaked into her pillow.

“This is definitely the worst I’ve seen,” says Garcia, who works with the efficiency of an exterminator who has seen a lot.

“This is fecal matter,” Garcia points out as he lifts a stained mattress in another bedroom used for sleeping by an elderly man.

Bedbugs scamper.

The woman and her housemate have tried for more than two years to gain control of the infestation, ripping up carpets and spraying over-the-counter pesticides — but it is obvious their efforts failed. In a bedroom closet, hundreds of bedbugs crawl over each other inside a running shoe.

The infestation is extreme, but it is hardly isolated.

Once nearly wiped out by strong – but now banned – pesticides like DDT, bedbugs have waged an aggressive comeback.

“Bedbugs are hitchhikers so they spread by getting on your luggage and on your clothes,” explains Todd Leyse, the president of Adam’s Pest Control. “Every year we’re seeing 30 to 100 percent more bedbug jobs than the previous year, for about the last 11 years.”

Leyse and his crew are using portable furnaces to heat the Minneapolis house to 135 degrees – a temperature lethal for bedbugs.

It’s a costly procedure.

The owner of the home was given an estimate of more than $6000 to rid her house of the pests. It was more than she could afford. She would have been lost without a new program called “Project Good Night,” launched by Adam’s Pest Control and the non-profit group Bridging Inc.

Bridging hopes to raise $150,000 in private donations to help others who don’t have the means to eradicate bedbugs from their homes. Adam’s has pledged another $150,000 in matching funds.

“I thought that we would meet the needs of everyone in a very short period of time, but the need continues and it’s getting worse,” said Jim Elfering, operations manager for Bridging.

Garcia says the Minneapolis home will likely need follow-up visits to kill every last bedbug, but even in the midst of the worst infestation he’s ever seen, he is optimistic.

“We’re going to save this house.”

Continue Reading More: Minnesota Home: Worst BedBug Infestation Exterminator Has Ever Seen

2/4/2011 New York City Asks Feds For Money On Bedbug War: City Wants Federal Govt. To Dive Into Fight

NEW YORK — After battling a rising — and itchy — tide of bedbug infestations, the City Council wants the federal government to dive in to the fight.

With the Environmental Protection Agency convening a National Bedbug Summit Tuesday, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and several council members called on federal officials to put money into initiatives to fight the minuscule, resilient creatures.

“Given the difficulty of exterminating bed bugs, we are calling upon the (EPA) to conduct further research and development of effective pesticides,” the council members said in a letter to the EPA and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Scientists have said the critters have become more resistant to certain pesticides.

The letter also asked the EPA to regulate how pesticides are used to kill the bugs and called on HUD to allocate funds for bedbug extermination in public housing, where residents are particularly vulnerable.

The council has given the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene $500,000 to research and educate the public on how to combat the bloodsucking pests, which are each about the size of an apple seed and have been found everywhere from the city’s high-end clothing stores to its movie theaters.

Experts have theorized that the surge in New York and elsewhere around the country may be partly due to an increase in global travel and the banning of certain pesticides. In 2009, a city Health Department survey found more than 6 percent of New Yorkers — one in 15 adults — said they had battled the pests in the past year.

“In particular, urban centers are affected by bed bugs, and we must come together to create a comprehensive and integrated response,” the council’s letter said.

The EPA had no immediate comment in response to the letter. HUD did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

—Copyright 2011 Associated Press