10/31/2011 South Bend Indiana Apartment Residents Overtaken By Bedbugs

Trash bins overflowed with mattresses and furniture last month at a South Bend apartment complex. But anyone tempted to repurpose the loot would have been in for a nasty surprise.

The bedding and furnishings were infested with bedbugs.

The bugs had moved into several of the complex’s buildings and were “spreading like wildfire” from apartment to apartment, according to one resident, who didn’t want to be named for fear of eviction.

“I noticed the bites first and I was thinking, ‘I’m breaking out or I have the measles,’ ” she said. “But then I saw a little bug.”

She called the complex office and they sent Terminix to look at her place. They confirmed that she had the bugs.

So did her daughter and grandchildren, who live in a nearby apartment.

“They are bit up bad,” she said. “My daughter and her friend threw away everything.”

The family is sleeping on the floor until the problem is resolved.

Meanwhile, the woman is concerned that the bugs might spread through the complex’s schoolchildren.

“My grandson goes to school and other kids out here go to school,” she said. “They say (the bugs) can travel on people’s clothing or purses.”

She’s right. Bedbugs don’t stay put.

“They are the best hitchhikers there are,” said Tim Harvey, manager of Terminix’s South Bend branch.

“They ride from place to place on clothing, luggage. They can even get on your pants and travel from room to room or be transported anywhere.

“It has nothing to do with sanitation or cleanliness. They are just good hitchhikers,” he said.

They tend to infest places with a lot of traffic: college dorms, hotels and motels, nursing homes, office buildings, schools and day cares, hospitals, public transportation and movie theaters.

Last year, Hawthorne Elementary School in Elkhart dealt with an infestation. In August, the Niles Housing Commission’s Hi Rise apartments had to call in a company with a bedbug-sniffing dog to deal with an infestation. There have been several reports of bedbugs at hotels in Michiana. And, of course, there are homes.

“I’ve actually gotten double the calls this year than we did previous years,” said Harvey. “We probably do an average of two to three jobs per week.”

Science and health

Bedbugs are small, flat, oval insects that feed solely on blood, preferably that of humans. They are usually active at night and prefer to hide close to where people sleep – especially in the crevices of the mattress, box spring, bed frame and headboard. They cannot fly, but will crawl as far as 20 feet to obtain a blood meal, said Marc Lame, an entomologist at Indiana University Bloomington.

Bedbugs feed by piercing exposed skin like a mosquito. They are not able to burrow into skin or through material. It takes them about five to 10 minutes to feed, but people seldom know they are being bitten.

“Basically their whole survival depends on getting on, getting a blood meal and getting off without being squished,” Lame said. “They inject an anticoagulant to make the blood flow faster and an anesthetic so they can remain undetected.”

Some people develop an itchy red welt similar to a mosquito bite within a day to two weeks of being bitten, while others have little or no reaction.

Female bedbugs might lay 200 to 500 eggs during their lifetime. When they first hatch, the bugs are about the size of a pinhead. As they grow, they molt or shed their skin five times. Before each stage of the life cycle, the bugs must have a blood meal. However, they can go for months, as many as 10 to 12, without eating, Lame said. If conditions are right, they can mature within a month – which means they can produce several generations in one year.

While a lot of research is still being done on the subject, studies so far have shown that bedbugs do not transmit disease.

However, the government is beginning to recognize the bugs as a serious health concern. Just last year, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a joint statement on the matter. This is because the bugs have a psychological effect on people, Lame said.

“If you think you’re sleeping with bedbugs, you are not going to sleep very well,” he said. “Which causes you to function very poorly – from crazy to just darn tired.”

That, in turn, can impair reflexes and contribute to other health problems.

“After they get rid of (the bugs), it can take three weeks or three months for (a person) to psychologically get over the infestation,” Lame said. “I’ve even had some sleepless nights after bedbug calls that were heavily infested – where they were really numerous and gross.”

Some people become obsessed and would do anything to rid their homes or themselves of the bugs, including “dousing themselves with pesticides or bedbug bombs,” Lame said, or scraping their skin with sharp objects.

A North Carolina woman died after she and her husband used several chemicals in their home in an attempt to rid it of bedbugs.

“We could all have bedbugs and survive,” Lame said, but when it reaches an epidemic and causes anxiety in people, public health officials play an important role.

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10/30/2011 Preventing Bedbugs During Holiday Travel: Tips To Stay Bedbug Free

The holidays are a time for celebration, gift-giving and visiting with family and friends. Travel wisely this winter to ensure that you do not bring any unwanted visitors, such as bed bugs, back home with you.

Once thought to be a thing of the past, bed bug populations have increased by approximately 500 percent in the United States in recent years, according to Congress’ “Don’t Let the Bed Bugs Bite” Act of 2009. Bed bugs spread by hitching a ride on travelers’ possessions, and with our highly mobile society, bed bugs have been able to spread quickly across the United States. This makes it important for travelers to educate themselves on bed bugs. Becoming familiar with the bug, its habits and methods of detecting, treating and preventing an infestation is an essential and effective first step.

The facts on bed bugs:

Identification: Bed bugs are easily identifiable if you know what you are looking for. They are small, but still large enough to see. These pests are flat, oval and wingless, with antennae and six legs. Adults are 5 millimeters long, about the same size and color of an apple seed. Eggs are the size of a pin head,colorless and incredibly hard to see.

What attracts bed bugs: Bed bugs are attracted to warmth and carbon dioxide from people and animals. They feed at night for about five minutes every three to seven days. Bed bugs usually reside within five feet of a food source, but can travel up to 100 feet to find a meal.

Lifespan: A bed bug will live for approximately three to nine months if well fed, but can survive for six months or more without feeding. Females can lay as many as five eggs per day – or up to 200 in their lifetime.

Travel wisely:

Travel lightly and do not bring your own bedding or pillows when visiting a hotel. Take a few minutes upon arrival to inspect your surroundings. Here is a list of recommendations on the way to inspect your accommodation before settling in for the night.

When entering a hotel room:

2. Exhale gently across the top and sides of the headboard.

4. Using your flashlight, inspect the rolled seams at the top and bottom edges of the mattress at each corner, looking for bed bugs, spotting or cast skins.

6. Look at the edge of the carpet and baseboard under the corners of the bed to inspect for spotting and cast skins. Put the corners back together.

8. Using your flashlight, inspect the skirting along the bottom of the bed, looking for bed bugs, spotting and cast skins within the inside folds of the fabric.

10. Inspect the portable luggage rack looking for signs of bed bugs.

Upon return from travel, place all items that may have been exposed (including suitcase when possible) into the dryer, and place on high heat for 15 minutes.

With just a little preparation and some caution, holiday travel can be relaxing and you can rest assured that you will return home without any uninvited pests.

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10/29/2011 How To Keep Bedbugs Out Of Luggage: Remember These Tips For Safer Travel

If you are ever unfortunate to stay in a hotel room that is infested with bed bugs, then you will know how uncomfortable they can make you feel. If you are not careful they can get into your luggage and before you know it you have given them a free ride to your house.

Prevention is obviously better than cure, but if you suspect that you might be at risk of picking up some passengers then there are some precautions that you can take to try and minimize the risks of having some new bed bug pets at your home. Try not to put your clothes or luggage directly onto your bed, and if possible store your luggage on a metal luggage rack or in the bathtub when possible as bed bugs can’t climb metal or porcelain. Also, try to pack everything in plastic bags and pack a plastic bag large enough to hold your luggage.

If you suspect that you might have picked up some passengers, make sure you wash everything thoroughly in hot water and then dry it for a minimum of thirty minutes at the highest dryer setting. For more delicate items, soak in warm water with lots of laundry soap for several hours before rinsing. Other items can be put into a dryer for thirty minutes to eliminate bed bugs.

Your luggage itself should be vacuumed as thoroughly as possible before scrubbing with a stiff brush to dislodge any eggs that you missed. The vacuum bag should be sealed and emptied immediately. You can store the luggage in your garage to prevent any that survive from getting into your house.

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10/28/2011 New Monitoring Device For Bedbugs Revealed: The Bed Bug Plug Is New For Early Detection & Prevention Of Bedbugs

The Bed Bug Plug is a new device for the early and active detection of bed bugs. The goal is to quickly detect a Bed Bug problem before a new or recurring infestation occurs. When designing the Bed Bug Plug, many different ideas and studies were taken into consideration. The design is unique because it uses heat as an attractant and is desirable for the bed bug as it simulates an ideal feeding and resting environment, the manufacturer reports.

When bed bugs want to feed they sense the body heat and CO2 from a person. They instinctively use “Thermal Graphic Radar” to zone in on their meal. In addition to looking for heat, Bed Bugs seek rest in a comfortable, warm, textured hiding place, typically a crack or crevice. The Bed Bug Plug embodies all of these attributes. The Bed Bug Plug utilizes a heating element that mimics the heat radiated from a human being. The bottom portion is slightly cooler, at a temperature ideal for the Bed Bug to rest and hide until the next feeding. As they crawl curiously deeper into the specially designed cave, they push themselves against the glue adhesive on the roof of the device. This will permanently catch them, providing a perfect sample specimen for a pest control professional.

According to the manufacturer, the laboratory test results show that the device was effective in detecting bed bugs in a standard room environment. Moreover, the company reports that its results show Bed Bug Plug to be very effective on newly introduced bed bugs.

The Bed Bug Plug design allows the device to be attached to a wall socket and has a dual socket where you can plug other electronics directly into the device making it discreet and easily hidden. The Bed Bug Plug is designed to accept cartridges which contain the special glue boards. This makes it both clean and easy to check if the device has caught any bedbugs and also to replace the glue boards.

The Bed Bug Plug will be available in the first quarter of 2012.
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10/27/2011 Bedbugs Keep Hawaii Homeless Out Of Shelters: Seek Other Campsites Instead Of Other Shelters

Homeless campers forced off of a Beretania Street sidewalk early Monday morning said bedbugs in homeless shelters are keeping them on the streets.

The Institute for Human Services canvassed the homeless encampment across from Aala Park to prepare dozens of homeless campers for their move, after the landowner decided to make improvements on the property.IHS said it had 40 spaces available for homeless men and no spaces available for women as of last week.

But instead of seeking shelter at IHS or other homeless facilities, most campers remain on the streets.Cal Theriault spent about four months at IHS before he moved to the sidewalk on Beretania and Aala Streets last month.”I was happy to leave because they had a big bug infestation. I used to get bit a lot. I thought it was mosquito bites biting me. When I opened up my blanket, I saw these little creatures,” Theriault said.

The bedbug bites forced Theriault to seek medical attention.”The irritation got so bad, that I went to the hospital for relief just to make sure it was just bedbugs. I thought it might have been scabies or something. It was more convenient for me to sleep in the tent rather than go through the anguish of having uncomfortable sleep,” Theriault said.But IHS said it follows strict protocols to avoid infestations, including bag checks when new residents check-in.”

So if there are some items that are infested, we basically ask people not to bring them in. And if we find any bedbugs on any upholstered kind of furniture, we dump those,” said Connie Mitchell, IHS executive director.Mitchell said the facility is fumigated once a week with non-toxic, unscented substances.And mats are disinfected daily.

But if there is an infestation, “We basically strip all the bedding, we make everyone wash in hot, hot water so that we can kill all the bedbugs,” Mitchell said.IHS believes most homeless people avoid the shelters not because of bedbugs, but because of the strict rules in place for residents.”

And unfortunately, it is an abnormal living situation because it’s congregate living. But it is meant to really promote and protect the health and welfare of everyone that’s here,” Mitchell said.IHS says it currently does NOT have a bedbug infestation although it is an on-going battle.Bedbugs are found at the facility fairly frequently — about once a month, Mitchell said.

10/26/2011 Bedbug Lawsuit Awards Baltimore Woman $40k: Hunting Hills Apt Took Over 40 Days To Fumigate & Jury Agrees With Negligence

Kristen Y. Saunders said it took managers of her apartment building 48 days to fumigate her apartment infested with bedbugs, leading to a plaintiff’s verdict in the first case of its type in Baltimore.

A Baltimore City Circuit Court jury awarded Saunders $40,000 in her negligence suit against the building’s owners and operators. The verdict came last week after a three-day trial.

Saunders, who has since moved to Edgewater, lived in the Hunting Hills apartments in the 4700 block of Sayer Avenue from February 2009 through February 2010.

Her attorney, Daniel Whitney, said this is the first bedbug trial in Baltimore. Identified in The Washington Post last year as “Maryland’s bedbug barrister,” Whitney said he regards the case as a “bellwether” of what’s to come in cases involving the pests.

Whitney, of Whitney & Bogris LLP in Towson, said he has been contacted by more than 200 people in the last couple years as the bedbug outbreak hit the region. He said he has 18 other cases that have not gone to trial yet.

Attorneys for Continental Realty Corp., Hunting Hills LLC and Hunting Hills Limited Partnership LLLP, refuted Saunders’ claim that it took 48 days for treatment. Peter Coleman, with Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker LLP in Baltimore, said the management company first learned of the problem in January 2010 and quickly took action.

Continue Reading More: Bedbug Lawsuit Awards Baltimore Woman $40k

10/25/2011 NY Artist Works On Bedbug Street Art: Mini Hotel Structures Doubles As Public Service Announcement On Front Of Buildings

Earlier this year, Hunter Fine and his friend Jeff Greenspan gained some viral notoriety for their street art: starting with “Hipster Traps” (where PBR and goofy sunglasses were set as bait inside a cardboard bear trap) in New York City, the two soon expanded their repertoire to include “Tea Party Traps” and “Bridge and Tunnel Traps.”

Now Mr. Fine is working solo on a new kind of public service, one that alerts new residents that their LES apartment may actually be a front for a bed bug hotel.

Inspired by a friend who suffered the plight of New York’s most notorious bugs, Mr. Fine — who works in advertising but declined to elaborate — began setting up these mini-hotel structures just this weekend on the Lower East Side. So far he has nine built, and a Tumblr for the project, encouraging others to make their own “Bed Bug Hotels” and place them outside residents that are infected. If you email him a photo, he’ll even put it up on the site.

“It’s not a viral marketing campaign,” Mr. Fine told us by phone. “It’s an art project.” But not one meant to humiliate those renters who have to walk past a structure declaring their apartment bug-riddled every day. It’s to shame the landlords into doing something about their infestations. “There’s laws against landlords not alerting tenants to bug problems…they’re obligated to care of it. But it hardly ever happens.”

As for using street art to get the message out, Mr. Fine gives all the credit to the Internet. “Using a street for a canvas, something about that’s really cool. But with the Internet…with Reddit and other sites…it’s entirely changed how many people can be reached. You get a much larger audience: that’s what’s cool about social media.”

If others start jumping on the project, Bed Bug Hotels may start being as ubiquitous as the little critters themselves.

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10/24/2011 Bedbugs Invade Brockton Senior Housing Complex: Kennedy Drive Apartments For Elderly & Disabled Amongst Affefected

Barbara Owens tried sleeping in her Kennedy Drive apartment, but it creeped her out – literally.

Knowing there were tiny bedbugs biting at her arms, legs and neck while she slept was too much for her.

“I couldn’t sleep that night. I was waiting for them to come out,” she said. “I left the next morning.”

Since last weekend, Owens has been staying with her sister in Rhode Island to escape the bugs that left quarter-sized welts on her skin.

Owens is not alone.

Executive Health Officer Louis Tartaglia said bedbugs have been a problem throughout the city.

Health Inspector Mark Zeoli said he gets about one call a week for bedbugs, including a couple of recent complaints from the Kennedy Drive complex, a which is managed by the Brockton Housing Authority for elderly and disabled individuals.

Bedbug treatment is more involved than for mice or roaches, said Owen Ahearn, facilities manager for the authority, as it requires a series of three treatments and a lot of cooperation from the tenant to make sure bedding and clothing is properly laundered and de-bugged so that the bugs aren’t reintroduced after the treatment.

Jeffrey White, a research entomologist and technician for BedBug Central, a bedbug information and exterminator referral company, said reporting and treating bed bugs right away is important.

“As an infestation grows, the chances it’s going to spread from one apartment to another is greater,” he said. “The sooner you deal with it the better.”

He said a realistic response time should be between one and five days.

While you’re waiting for the exterminator, White said, there are things you can do to provide relief, such as vacuuming the carpet and the bottom of the box spring, installing a plastic cover over the mattress, and installing bug traps that slip under the pedestals of the bed.

“That will dramatically reduce your problem,” he said.

The worst thing you can do, he added, is apply your own pesticide. If you spray your bed with pesticide, it merely pushes the bugs into other areas of the house or apartment, spreading the infestation.

“I can deal with an infestation that hasn’t been treated with pesticides way easier than one where they’re been spraying,” he said. “If they haven’t been spraying, I know where they are.”

10/23/2011 How Hotels Are Trained To Handle Bedbugs: Experts Write Proper Procedure To Follow When Guests Complain              Hopefully you will never have to deal with bedbugs in your hotel.  However, if you do, below is the way the hotel should deal with the matter:

We know all too well there is always a risk that hitchhiking bed bugs will be introduced into one of your hotel guestrooms. Catching bed bugs ahead of a guest sighting/attack is clearly the best possible outcome.  

Unfortunately, there will still be the occasion where a guest comes forward with a bed bug report. With endless media reports of bed bugs, there is little doubt that travelers are on heightened alert. Add to this that guests will often confuse other insect activity with that of bed bugs. 

Basically, there are two possibilities for bed bug reports: a guest reports having seen what they believe to be bed bugs (but is not complaining of bites), or a guest is complaining they have received bed bug bites at your hotel.

Under either scenario, there are common “response” and “action” steps to take.

RESPONSE
Whenever a guest complains of sighting a live bed bug (and/or bed bug indicators) or comes forward with a complaint of bites, it is important for the staff to take quick and decisive actions. As part of my efforts with B3G (a company whose mission is to eradicate bed bug infestations at hotels), I have developed an easy-to-remember response protocol. This approach starts with using the response acronym “LOCATE.” Think of the bed bug epidemic as a battle against tiny terrorists. Before you can take proper actions, you need to locate the enemy’s base of operations. “Locate” as our acronym helps you remember the six elements of the proper response.

Step 1: Listen. Listen completely to the guest’s bed bug report without interruption.

Step 2: Offer a different room. As soon as you have completed listening to the guest’s bed bug account, let the guest know that you are prepared to offer them an alternative room.

Step 3: Comfort. Comfort the guest and provide reassurance that bed bug prevention is taken very seriously at your hotel.

Step 4: Ask. Ask for the details that led to the guest reporting bed bug activity within their room. Fact gathering basics include: what did they see; where did they see it; how much did they see?

Step 5: Tend to needs. Typically, the guest will request an alternative room. Relocating the guest should be seamless via the help of hotel staff.

Step 6: Explain. Explain the steps that the hotel will take as a result of a guest report. Continue to keep the guest informed throughout the process.

ACTION
Responding to the guest is important but without taking quick and appropriate physical action, the hotel will lose credibility.

Just as there is an acronym for the appropriate response, B3G has developed an easy to remember list of actions to be taken by the staff following a report of bed bug activity in a guest room. The easy to remember acronym is “ACTION,” which was selected in order to help your staff remember the six steps that need to be completed.

Step 1: Attend to guest. Attending to the guest is synonymous with the response protocol, LOCATE (Listen, Offer, Ask, Comfort, Tend, and Explain).

Step 2: Contain. Avoid cross-contamination. Do not relocate a guest reporting activity without completing an inspection. If the inspection results are positive for BB activity, take appropriate steps regarding the guest’s belongings.

Step 3: Treat. Any report of bed bug activity will result in treatment and taking extra preventative maintenance measures.

Step 4: Impart seamless service. Imparting seamless service means that the staff is aligned to tend to the guest’s needs and provides timely and appropriate assistance.

Step 5: Offers. Follow your hotel’s protocol for problem resolution. Then, follow-up with the guest to ensure that they are satisfied with the hotel’s response to their bed bug report/complaint.

Step 6: Notes. After taking care of the guest and all steps to inspect and treat a guestroom, properly reporting the situation is the final action.

THE FOUR “DON’Ts”

1.    Don’t delay in responding to the guest (best practice is to extend an immediate response by GM or MOD).

2.    Don’t be defensive about the possibility that the guestroom has bed bug activity.

3.    Don’t disregard the inconvenience the guest will experience as a result of making report.

4.    Don’t drop the ball—complete all the following steps:

a.    Do your fact gathering

b.    Tend to the guest’s needs at all points of the process

c.     Keep the guest informed along the way

d.    Complete an incident report and make entries into your hotel’s bed bug log.
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10/22/2011 Todays Bedbugs Are Stronger Than Years Past: Resistance Has Grown To Pesticides Since 1950′s

US researchers have uncovered the genetic mechanism that bed bugs use to resist powerful insecticides, according to a study, leading to the hope of more effective ways to combat the pests.

Bed bugs, which have been largely absent from the United States since the 1950s, have returned in force in the last decade in the US, and notably other Western countries in Europe.

They have, in this time, developed unique resistance to the insecticides that are mainly used against them — deltamethrin and beta-cyfluthrin, both leading pyrethroids.

The genetic research released Wednesday in the journal PLoS One, published by the Public Library, offers new hope to understand their resistance and find new ways to eradicate the blood-sucking bugs.

“Different bed bug populations within the US and throughout the world may differ in their levels of resistance and resistance strategies, so there is the need for continuous surveillance,” said lead author Zach Adelman, associate professor of entomology at Virginia Tech.

Adelman and the other researchers in the study assessed two populations of bed bugs — “a robust, resistant population” found in 2008, and a “non-resistant population” that has been raised in a lab since 1973.

The study determined how each strain succumbed to the pyrethroids, if at all, and determined that over a 24 hour period it required “5,200 times more deltamethrin or 111 times more beta-cyfulthrin” to kill the modern bed bugs compared to the older specimens.

The bed bug’s bite is a little painful rather than dangerous, but many people are scared because the creature mainly attacks when people are asleep.

Continue Reading More:  Todays Bedbugs Are Stronger Than Years Past