9/30/2011 Bedbug Entrepreneurs Compete To Create Best Products

Some want to bake them. Others prefer to freeze them. Still others dehydrate them.

Inventors will try just about anything to kill bed bugs, those nasty, reddish-brown, blood-sucking parasites that are the worst nightmare of many hotel guests.

America’s obsession with bed bugs has led to a rush of entrepreneurs seeking profit from exterminating them, and about 75 companies gathered this week in hopes of launching the perfect beg bug killer.

“I never figured I’d be in Chicago for a bed bug conference. I never thought that in my wildest dreams,” Mike Bourdeau, operations manager at Flynn Pest Control in Massachusetts, said at the second annual Bed Bug University.

Bourdeau said bed bug business is booming. It went from virtually zero percent of Flynn Pest Control’s business less than five years ago to about 20 percent of what the company brings in today.

“It’s probably going to be a big part of our business for … the next ten years,” he said.

A study this year by University of Kentucky researchers and the National Pest Management Association showed 80 percent of surveyed pest control companies had treated hotels for bed bugs within a year, up from 67 percent a year ago.

More than 80 percent of the surveyed companies said they believed bed bug infestations were on the rise.

Whether there are more bed bugs these days or just more publicity about them is hotly debated, but there is general agreement that the problem is here to stay.

“It will become like roaches and ants. It’s not going anywhere. We will deal with bed bugs the rest of our lives,” said Phillip Cooper, chief executive officer of BedBug Central, a research and information firm.
Companies attending the conference showed search and destroy methods ranging from bug-sniffing dogs to vacuum-like machines that spout carbon dioxide to freeze the bugs.

For example, The Bed Bug Baker features a heated tent that can hold a dining room’s worth of furniture to bake away bed bugs at home. For hotel room infestations, there’s an electric heater that can bake the whole room.

Another product is a dust made of crushed fossils called diatomaceous earth that can be sprinkled on floors. It kills bed bugs by dehydrating their shell. Bed bugs walk through the dust, which is also a desiccant, and gradually dry out, said Jeffrey White, an entomologist with BedBug Central.

The measures might seem exotic, but academics and inventors say the number of bed bug hiding spots in hospitals, hotels, homes or even on public transportation, make it hard to apply a “silver bullet” treatment.

While hotel infestations get the most attention, a new study conducted by the University of Kentucky showed college dormitories, nursing homes, hospitals and office buildings are the new battlegrounds. Pest control companies report double-digit growth from last year in treating bed bugs at each place.

“It’s no longer going to be the hotels that are the problem,” said Mike Lindsey, president of Bedbug Boxes. “So you’re going to have to keep chasing it around and find that solution for that particular place.”

Lindsey quit his six figures engineering job to chase the dream of being a bed bug entrepreneur.

He invented a box lined with what look like solar panels to heat clothes or luggage to temperatures that kill bed bugs after his family brought the pests home to Colorado from a Mexico vacation. Now he is marketing a suitcase that uses the same strips to roast any bed bugs inside.

Kenneth F. Haynes, a professor who studies insect behavior at the University of Kentucky, said people have a stigma about bed bugs, and are often embarrassed to get help treating an infestation. The industry is trying to defeat the stigma, which could unlock more customers.

For now, a scramble is on to tap a growing market. Once extermination products for the pest are widely accepted the need for a gathering of experts will fade away.

“We don’t have a roach conference. We don’t have a mouse conference. So, once we get to that point, there will be no need for a bed bug conference,” Cooper said.

9/29/2011 Milwaukee Puts Out Health Alert Against Bedbug Motel: Diamond Inn Has Massive Bedbug Problem With 279 Violations

The City of Milwaukee has put out a health alert at a motel in the city.

Prompted by repeat complaints, the Department of Neighborhood Services says the Diamond Inn, on the 6200 block of West Fond du Lac Avenue, has a massive bed bug problem.

The manager says they’re working on it.

Lakisha Lewis stayed there on Tuesday night, and she claims she was bit.

She showed TODAY’S TMJ4′s Diane Pathieu bit marks up and down her arm.

“I woke up this morning and I was itching,” said Lewis.

“My guy told me it was bed bugs.  I showed him the marks on my arm.”

This building is no stranger to problems.

“They have 279 violations since 2007, so it does have a history of a number of issues, both building code violations and sanitary and environmental conditions,” said Todd Weiler of the Department of Neighborhood Services.

This time, it was bed bugs.  Of the eight complaints received, all eight of the rooms were infested with bed bugs.

Shanda Rice cleans the rooms at the hotel, and she claims hotel staff has been aware of the problem.

“We’re treating it.  Every room is getting new carpet, everything else like that.”

The manager on site explained that the hotel’s owner is planning on re-doing the whole place, with new furniture, carpeting and beds in two weeks.

Until then, the DNS is warning them to clean up their act.

“We’re going to issue an order to restore it to clean and sanitary condition,” said Weiler.

“We’ll give them 30 days to do that, and also prove that they’ve specifically been treated for bed bugs by a professional.”

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9/28/2011 Hollywood Casino Illinois Sued Over Bedbugs: Blue Island Couple Suing Over Infested Hotel Room

A Blue Island couple is suing the Hollywood Casino Joliet and its hotel, saying they found bed bugs in their room more than six months ago.

Tamara Layman and Leo Gonzales filed the lawsuit in Will County this month. Layman said she first tried asking a manager there to simply reimburse her for doctor visits, lost property and a ruined weekend. But she said she’s had no success.

“I’m having to replace things that I never should have had to replace,” she said.

A Hollywood Casino representative declined to comment.

The lawsuit said Layman and Gonzales checked into the casino’s hotel March 5, left their luggage in their room and went to the casino. They returned a few hours later and went to sleep. But Layman said she woke up at 1:30 a.m. and noticed a bug on a pillow.

Gonzales killed the bug, and Layman carried it in a tissue to the hotel’s front desk, where an employee offered to give them another room.

When Layman returned to her original room, though, she and Gonzales said they pulled down the covers and discovered red bugs running on the sheets. Layman said she videotaped the bugs with her cell phone.

“I was sleeping with those things,” Layman said.

A hotel employee again offered the couple a new room, the lawsuit said, but Layman and Gonzales declined. After they returned home, they said Gonzales noticed bite marks on Layman’s shoulder. She said a doctor confirmed she was bitten by bed bugs, and the couple’s suit said a Hollywood Casino manager acknowledged the pests were bed bugs.

Layman and Gonzales said they threw out most, if not all, of what they brought to the casino including luggage. They also said it took 17 days for the hotel to send an exterminator to their home for an inspection.

Layman said she wants the hotel’s staff to offer instructions to future visitors if they find bed bugs in their rooms. That way people will know how to keep the bugs from traveling with them to their homes.

“They gave us no information,” Layman said. “When we left there, we were clueless.”

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9/27/2011 Bedbug Summit Discusses Latest Trends & Weapons

Bed bugs have become an increasing problem at hotels across the country. This week, dozens of experts invaded Chicago to gather for a summit about how to deal with those pesky bugs. They have some innovative ways to get rid of them.

 They are adaptable and not all pesticides work on them. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cautions residents to get professional help for bed bugs. The agency found over 100 people got sick and one woman died after using bed bugs pesticides.

Experts in town this week are swapping information about the latest techniques to keep bed bugs at bay.

The little guys are the stuff of nightmares. Bed bugs can range from the size of a sesame seed to the size of an apple seed. Their food source is you — so what better place to get to you than those overnight hours when we’re sleeping? It’s a veritable buffet for the bugs. As disturbing as that notion may be, they are not life threatening.

“There is awareness of this pest, but people are freaked out and the wrong messages are sticking,” said bed bug central/entomologist Allison Taisey.

Pest control specialists will swarm Rosemont for the next two days for the Bed Bug University North American Summit.

To start, there are special detections devices. There is a kind of coaster for your bed leg: the bugs can crawl in but can’t crawl out. There is an active monitor, which emits heat and CO2 like a person, irresistible to bed bugs.

Mattress and bed spring covers will allow you to see the bugs, as there are no nooks and crannies to hide.

To control the insects:

• Heat has proven effective if the item or area is heated to 120 degrees for an hour.
• There are portable heaters for rooms.
• And there is a device to kill any bed bugs you make have picked up on your journey.

Experts say the key to detecting and controlling the bugs is getting professional help.

“They’re really hard to find for one thing, and the products we have available to us&it takes a trained professional to use them,” said Taisey.

The Safer Pest Control Project has been monitoring pest activity in the Chicago area for 17 years. The project reports bed bugs are particularly a problem in multiple-dwelling structures — public and private.

The project’s executive director says, while the beds bug may not lead to the health problems of other pests, controlling these particular bugs can be more expensive.

“bed bugs, they don’t discern between any economics, cleanliness. It’s like, you are the food, so you are like the most delicious thing they’ve ever met. They need you to survive,” said Safer Pest Control’s Rachel Lerner Rosenberg.

The bugs can be hard to see. The marks can be hard to see. And some people don’t react to bed bugs — so some people may not know they have been bitten.

Some good things to know: they don’t fly, they don’t jump and they are not known to carry disease.

Continue Reading More/Watching Video: Bedbug Summit Discusses Latest Trends & Weapons

9/26/2011 Washington Area Rescue Dog Sniffs Out Bedbugs

9/25/2011 How To Avoid Hotel Bedbugs: 5 Tips To Minimize Risk

The creepiest thing about making a hotel reservation these days is worrying about whether you’ll be greeted by bedbugs at your destination soon after you slide the key card into your door.

Unfortunately, the more frequently you travel the greater the risk. An alarming new report from the hotel review website Raveable suggests that the odds of actually encountering bedbugs on a trip are 660 percent greater this year than last (based on data from January 1- September 1, 2011). The worst may yet be to come, warns Raveable CEO Philip Vaughn, because the highest number of bedbug reports are generally filed between September and November.

Of course, the problem isn’t confined to hotels. The critters are turning up in movie theatres, trendy shops, offices, moving vans, laundromats, public transportation, and yes, even in ambulances. But you’re more likely to think about bedbugs when you think about beds!

Here are some of the precautions you can take to help avoid them the next time you check into a hotel:

1) Search before you go

Before you book a room, check out whether your hotel has been cited for bedbugs by other travelers. Sometimes hotel reviews on Trip, Advisor, Yelp and IgoUgo include reports. The Raveable site specifically compiles bedbug reports from travelers. Bedbug Registry is a free, public database of 20,000 user-submitted reports covering 12,000 locations. Yes, user reporting isn’t always accurate but wouldn’t you rather stay at a property that isn’t listed?

2) Know thy enemy

Know what a bedbug looks like. The bugs are oval flat and brown — about the size of an apple seed (although size depends on life stage). Attracted to warmth and carbon dioxide, they tend to come out at night and can hide in the tiniest cracks and crevices. The health risks are minimal but the “yuk” factor is extremely high if you bring them home. Getting rid of them can be an expensive and time-consuming inconvenience.

3) Check out your room

Before you take off your shoes and get under the covers, do a cursory check of your room. It pays to look for reddish-brown specks on pillowcases, sheets, covers and the mattress (especially at seams and corners); this is a sure sign that the bugs have been feeding there. If you have a few extra minutes, check the bedframe and headboard.

4) Pack and unpack accordingly

Although bedbugs don’t fly, they are great long-distance crawlers hitchhikers who are adept at getting into luggage, shopping bags or shoes. Only take whatever clothing or personal articles you really need and use sealed plastic bags to pack. Try to avoid hotel drawers and leaving suitcases or other personal belongings on carpeted floors. If you are totally bedbug-phobic, wrap your suitcases in large plastic trash bags and store them in the bathroom. Don’t use your laptop in bed; the heat of the unit can attract bedbugs that will decide to stay behind the keys. Check for any signs of bedbugs immediately when you return home (preferably before you enter your house).

5) Pay it forward

If you find any evidence of a hotel bedbug infestation, report it both to the hotel management and to user sites like those previously mentioned. If you do find traces of them at home, don’t try to do-it-yourself. Hire a professional.

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9/24/2011 How New Jersey Universities Are Dealing With Bedbugs

As the host of Bed Bug TV, Jeff White has gotten nearly half a million hits on You Tube over the past two years.

“It’s the best way to reach college kids,” he said of the video blog.

As students return to school, officials want them to be on guard against the pest whose resurgence has affected hotels, offices, homes and dorm rooms.

There have been no widespread outbreaks at local residence halls but vigilance is key in preventing sporadic outbreaks from becoming widespread, experts say.

“The bottom line is information; you have to be proactive,” said White, who works for Bed Bug Central, a consulting information service used by Fairleigh Dickinson University. “Sticking your head in the sand is the worst thing you could do.”

FDU’s website contains a link to Bed Bug Central to give students and parents information about the pests.

The company has seen its business grow as the problem has spread. It has consulted for colleges, offices and summer camps.

“A lot of colleges are at least paying attention at some level,” said White. “A plan prevents problems from spiraling out of control.”

Area colleges and universities all say rooms have been cleaned and inspected and they have contingency plans ready — and exterminators on call — should outbreaks occur.

The bedbug was all but stamped out in the 1950s with harmful pesticides such as DDT that are no longer in use. But the pest has returned in a big way – and spawned an industry to deal with it. September has been dubbed bedbug awareness month, and White and other experts are heading to Chicago for a bedbug summit, which is expected to draw as many as 800 people.

There are different methods of eradicating bedbugs: steam, extreme cold, vacuuming and other chemicals. And just as many ways to prevent their spread, including bed encasements and bug interception devices.

“It takes time to do the treatment and there is no simple solution,” White said, noting that it can cost between $400 and $800 to de-bug a dorm room.

Local colleges advise students to notify their dorm directors and go right to the campus health centers if they suspect they’ve been bitten.

William Paterson University in Wayne had four cases out of more than 2,200 dorm beds during the last school year. The school is handing out literature on the subject to students and is ready to hire an exterminator if the bugs return, said John Martone, vice president of student development.

“You can see that some of the best hotels and offices have them … it’s just the nature of people moving,” said Martone.

Montclair State University has opted for new mattresses with interior seams as a preventive measure. “That has really dramatically reduced them [bed bugs] living here,” said Terry Giardino, assistant director for facilities and services.

Last year, the university had one confirmed case and one suspected case of bedbugs. The key, the experts say, is to act quickly to limit the spread.

Awareness is one of the best tools for containment. “It can spider-web throughout a dorm so you need to make sure your residence life person knows what to look for, and what to listen for, if students are talking about it,” said White. “There’s no true way to prevent it from coming in the first place. It’s about learning how to identify it and get on it.”

Continue Reading More: How NJ Universities Are Dealing With Bedbugs

9/23/2011 Bedbug Pesticide Illnesses On The Rise: Several States Report Incidents

As more people in the United States are feeling the bed bug’s bite, there has been a spike in illnesses from pesticides used to kill the insects, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC.L reported on Thursday.

From 2003 to 2010, 111 people were sickened and one died from bed bug insecticide, the government agency reported in a study that is the first of its kind in the country.

Nearly three quarters of the illnesses occurred from 2008 to 2010 as the bed bug population in the United States increased.

Pesticide-related illnesses occurred in seven states: California, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, New York, Texas and Washington. Some 81 percent of cases were not severe.

New York City, where there were increasing reports of bed bug infestations, had the largest number of cases at 58 percent. Nationwide, 93 percent of the cases were in private homes, the study found.

Although the CDC said there have not been enough cases of serious illness to suggest a large public health burden, the numbers might continue to increase as bed bugs become more resistant to common pesticides.

Bed bugs are wingless, reddish-brown insects that suck blood from humans and other mammals and birds. They do not carry disease but, according to the CDC, “can reduce quality of life by causing anxiety, discomfort and sleeplessness.”

Illness can result from misusing pesticides to kill the bugs, the CDC said. Two of the most common causes of illness were excessive insecticide application and failing to wash or change pesticide-treated bedding.

Common symptoms included headaches, dizziness, nausea and vomiting, the CDC said.

The lone fatality was in North Carolina in 2010, and the 65-year-old victim had a long list of health problems including diabetes and renal failure, the CDC said.

Her husband applied pesticides in the home that were not registered for use on bed bugs. The woman also applied a bed bug and flea insecticide to her arms, sores on her chest, and on her hair.

The CDC recommends using both nonchemical and chemical approaches to fight bed bugs, including hiring an expert to heat infested rooms or cool them to kill the bugs.

The agency also advises against buying used mattresses and box springs and urges anyone with a bed bug problem to hire only certified insecticide applicators.

“Insecticide labels that are easy to read and understand also can help prevent illnesses associated with bed bug control,” the agency said. (Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Cynthia Johnston)

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9/22/2011 How Texas Wildfires Have Fueled Bedbugs

With many Texans displaced by recent wildfires, bed bugs may become another unwanted irritation during relocation, said Texas AgriLife Extension Service and Texas AgriLife Research experts.

“With so many people being displaced and having to find accommodations in hotels or motels, it’s important for them to be aware of the possibility of encountering bed bugs and to know something about their behavior and biology,” said Wizzie Brown, AgriLife Extension integrated pest management specialist in Travis County.

Brown said bed bugs have been a growing problem throughout the U.S. and beyond, especially in urban areas with a large volume of visitors.

And national media have noted complaints of bed bugs by people in accommodations ranging from low-end motels to five-star hotels.

“However, I also get calls from student housing on campus, people in apartments, in homes and other locations,” Brown said.

“It’s not just hotels or motels. People can even  be exposed to bed bugs while staying in the home of a friend who doesn’t know they have them.”

Bed bugs often leave dried blood or rust-colored stains in mattresses, especially on the mattress folds and tufts, she said.

“When you get to your hotel or motel room, pull back the bedding to expose the mattress and box springs and check the mattress, especially the areas near the seams and tags,” Brown said. “It’s also a good idea to inspect the headboard as well as items near the bed, such as a lamp base or nightstand.”

While bed bugs, as their name implies, prefer beds and bedding, they also can be found under cushions, behind picture frames, near lamp stands, behind baseboards, in back of electrical switch plates and in other locations, she said.

Inspect the room where you plan to stay before bringing up your belongings, Brown suggested.

If there’s evidence of bed bugs upon a thorough room inspection, request a different room or, if possible, go to a different location.

“But the more hotels and motels you stay in, the greater the probability of being bitten by bed bugs,” said Dr. Roger Gold, urban and public health entomologist with AgriLife Research in College Station.

“They have really proliferated over the past several years throughout Texas and the rest of the U.S.”

Gold said newly hatched bed bugs are about the same size as a sesame seed, only flatter, and can hide in a variety of cracks, crevices, nooks and crannies.

A large adult bed bug, about the size of an apple seed, can be mistaken for a tick.

Brown and Gold said there are some steps travelers can take to protect themselves from these pests and reduce the risk of bringing them home.

The first is to have housekeeping vacuum thoroughly to remove as many bed bugs and their eggs from mattresses, box springs, carpets and other areas, concentrating particularly on mattress and box springs seams, tufts and edges, as well as where baseboards and carpet meet.

Entomologists say bed bugs are thought to locate their human hosts by body heat and the carbon dioxide exhaled during respiration, but some bed bugs may wander before they locate a host.

Therefore,  people should take steps to  reduce the risk of taking the pests home with them when they leave their temporary accommodations.

Since bed bugs crawl into cracks and crevices near the bed, they suggested keeping suitcases off the floor.

“Placing luggage in the bath tub may be an option since it has smooth sides and may be harder for bed bugs to access,” Brown noted.

“If there’s any positive at all to bed bug bites, it’s that they’re relatively painless,” Gold said. “Typically they’ll feed and be gone and you won’t even know it.”

However, about half of all people bitten have an allergic reaction to the saliva injected while bed bugs feed, Brown said.

“It’s the people with the allergic reaction who develop the welts,” she said. “This also explains why there have been many cases where people are unaware that they have bed bugs – because they aren’t reacting to the bite – as well as why one person develops welts while another in the same room doesn’t.”

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9/21/2011 Bedbugs Infest Ohio Homeless Shelter: Toledo’s Cherry Street Mission Latest Victim Of Critters

Since spring, bedbugs have infested the Cherry Street Mission, which provides shelter and food for Toledo’s needy.

The pesky bugs have already been a problem in Ohio hotels and college dorms.

Exterminators have been brought in at least twice.

A man who lives there but did not want to be identified was bitten several times overnight on his arms.

“It’s like a burning, like a sting, like an open wound, you know what I mean?” he said. “The bad part is you open it up. Once you open it up, it spreads. You know the itching, the red marks and all that.”

The bedbugs are concentrating in the third floor bedrooms.

Blankets provide a great place to hide, and they can move from clothing to clothing, guest to guest.

“For a while one of our bunk rooms had carpet in it and we figured out that it was a giant bedbug hotel. And so we took out the carpet,” Steve North of the Cherry Street Mission said.

North says the shelter is above capacity, 170 men a night, and bedbugs are likely transferred as they come and go.

Besides the exterminators, they’ve even tried putting mattresses in freezers to freeze the bugs to death!

They keep coming back.

And it’s not just the Cherry Street Mission that is affected.

“I know for certain one of my staff members here in the men’s facility has been bitten by bedbugs himself, and that they have shown up at his house,” North said.

Guests have been told to use a bleach and water mixture to spray under their beds and their bed frames.

The Mission promises to continue treating the problem.

Continue Reading More: Bedbugs Infest Ohio Homeless Shelter