1/14/2012 Scientists Find New Ways To Kill Bedbugs

FEW things destroy the reputation of a high-class hotel faster than bed bugs. These vampiric arthropods, which almost disappeared from human dwellings with the introduction of synthetic insecticides after the second world war, are making a comeback. They can drink seven times their own weight in blood in a night, leaving itchy welts on the victim’s skin and blood spots on his sheets as they do so. That is enough to send anyone scurrying to hotel-rating internet sites—and even, possibly, to lawyers.

New York is worst-hit at the moment: neither five-star hotels nor top-notch apartments have been spared. But other places, too, are starting to panic. Hotel staff from Los Angeles to London are scrutinising the seams of mattresses and the backs of skirting boards, where the bugs often hide during the day, with more than usual zeal. But frequently this is to no avail. Bed bugs are hard to spot. Even trained pest-control inspectors can miss them. What is needed is a way to flush them into the open. And James Logan, Emma Weeks and their colleagues at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Rothamsted Research think they have one: a bed-bug trap baited with something the bugs find irresistible—the smell of their own droppings.

The reason the bugs are attracted to this smell is that they use it to navigate back to their hidey-holes after a night of feeding. To develop the bait for the new trap, Dr Weeks therefore analysed the chemicals given off by bed-bug faeces and attempted to work out which of the components were acting as signposts. She did this by puffing air collected from a jar containing bed-bug faeces into a machine called a gas chromatograph, which separated the components from one another, and then through a mass spectrometer, to identify each component from its molecular weight. Having found what the smell consisted of, she wafted the chemicals in question, one by one, at bed bugs that had their antennae wired up to micro-electrodes, to see which of them provoked a response.

The result, the details of which the team is keeping secret for the moment for commercial reasons, is used to bait a trap, designed by Dr Logan, that is about the size of a standard mouse trap and has a sticky floor similar to fly paper. And it works. To paraphrase the slogan of Roach Motel, a brand of traps aimed at a different sort of insect pest, bed bugs check in, but they don’t check out.

The new trap could be used both to assess whether a hotel room or apartment is infested and also to kill the insects without dousing everything in insecticide—which is, in any case, an increasingly futile exercise, as many have now evolved resistance. Ralph Waldo Emerson, a 19th-century American sage, is supposed to have said that if a man built a better mousetrap than his neighbour, the world would make a beaten path to his door. Dr Logan and Dr Weeks are about to find out if the same thing applies to bed-bug traps.

Continue Reading More: Scientists Find New Ways To Kill Bedbugs

11/12/2011 ‘X-Factor’ Contestants Attacked By Bedbugs At Los Angeles’ Grafton Hotel

Several “X Factor” finalists claim they were nearly eaten alive at their L.A. hotel this week, TMZ has learned — after a swarm of bloodthirsty bed bugs feasted on their flesh … while they slept.

Sources close to the contestants tell TMZ, the unidentified singers in question were staying at the Grafton Hotel … and when four of them woke up in the morning, they were covered in bites.

We’re told the contestants did a little digging and claim they discovered the hotel had a massive bed bug infestation — so they bailed asap, and notified “X Factor” producers … who then dealt with the hotel and found new digs for the singers.

Sources connected to production say the hotel acknowledged the bed bug problem. A rep for the Grafton had no comment when we called.

Sleep tight.

Continue Reading More: ‘X Factor’ Contestants Attacked By Bedbugs

7/1/2011 How To Protect Yourself Against Bedbugs This Summer

If you’re worried about encountering bed bugs this summer, or — poor you — you’re already coping with them, you’re in good company. One in five Americans has had bed bugs or knows someone who has, and 80 percent are afraid of encountering them in hotels, according to a survey by the National Pest Management Association. And for once, a public health panic is reasonably well-founded; bed bugs are indeed turning up in hot spots all over the country, with new infestations in major cities hitting the news with regularity.

I’ve been reporting on bed bugs for quite awhile. I’ve covered how to protect yourself from bed bugs when you travel, including a new spray product reputed to fend them off from hitching home in your luggage, and how to get rid of bed bugs if you are unfortunate enough to bring them home with you. I’ve even offered additional bed bug prevention tips for frequent travelers.  In fact, I’ve become something of a reluctant expert in the science of bed bugs and bed bug-prevention. So now I’m going to tell you what you really need to know about bed bugs that no one else is telling you.

1. Know Your Danger Spots. If your summer vacation is going to take you touring the National parks of the West or Southwest, you probably don’t have to take more than routine precautions against bed bugs. They really haven’t made it out to the hinterlands in great numbers yet. But if your summer travel is going to take you to a major cities, particularly one in the midwest or eastern seaboard, watch out. The list of contenders for the “top 10″ danger zones in constantly changing as new pest reports come in, but Cincinnati, New York, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and, perhaps surprisingly, Denver and Los Angeles consistently make the list. Boston and Baltimore made a recent list issued by pest management company Terminix, which also included Dallas and San Francisco for the first time. Other midwestern cities with major bed bug problems include Dayton, Cleveland, and Columbus, Ohio (in fact the entire state of Ohio is under siege, according to pest management experts), Indianapolis, Minneapolis, and Louisville, Kentucky. Another list added Houston and Las Vegas to the list of western cities newly introduced to the bed bug disaster. (Thanks to Terminix, Orkin, and ChemtecPest for these lists.) If you want to know how bad bed bugs are in your summer vacation destination, look it up in the bed bug registry, which keeps up-to-date reports which can even be searched by hotel. Warning: gross-out factor high. Be aware, however, that you may be looking at reports from a year or more ago, in which case the particular hotel may have cleaned up its act.

3. Travel Prepared. The last thing you want to do is arrive and start worrying about bed bugs. Take the worry out of travel by bringing protective supplies, including plastic bags to store your clothes in (those air-lock travel bags do double-duty by making extra room in your suitcase, as well as keeping bugs out.) Don’t be tempted to hang your clothes in hotel closets or leave them strewn over chairs, unless you’re 100-percent certain the room’s bug free; bed bugs are now known to favor upholstered furniture and yes, they can climb walls. Put your suitcase on a luggage rack and pull it out from the wall. If you’re going to New York, Ohio, or anywhere else where bed bugs are known to be, well, practically everywhere, you ca also bring a household remedy reputed to keep them at bay. (No guarantees here.) These can include Vaseline, which some say you use to coat the legs and rails of the bed so the bugs can’t climb up, and an herbal spray, Rest Easy, that promises to repel bed bugs. I travel with it and spray it around the edges of my suitcase and all over the luggage rack, just in case. Or you can take the extreme measure being recommended by some and bathe the bed rails, headboard, and the edges of the mattresses in a mixture of rubbing alcohol and floor cleaner. (Seriously, people recommend this but it smells so vile you’re probably better off staying home.) When I come home from a trip, I wash everything I’ve brought with me and dry it in a hot dryer and leave my suitcase stored in a plastic garbage bag for two weeks, also with “just in case” in mind.

There’s a lot more to say about bed bugs, but I’ve probably disgusted you enough for one day. More posts to come, including how to get rid of bed bugs once you’ve got ‘em. Still excited about that summer vacation? Just kidding.

 Continue Reading More: How To Protect Yourself Against Bedbugs This Summer

5/24/2011 2011 Most Bedbug Plagued Cities List: NYC Takes Top Spot According To Pest Control Giant Terminix

New York, for the second year in a row, according to a study just released by pest-control giant Terminix. Not really a surprise, since NYC is a populous metropolis with well-publicized infestations everywhere from apartment buildings to businesses such as department stores, magazine offices, even Lincoln Center.

Terminix reports an increase in bed bug infestations in most states during the past year, in part because consumers are more aware and on the lookout for the tiny pests, Terminix entymologist Paul Curtis told me.

The company’s list of most bed bug-plagued cities, based on customer complaints validated by Terminix and infestations discovered during pest calls:

1. New York
2. Cincinnati
3. Detroit
4. Chicago
5. Philadelphia
6. Denver
7. Washington, D.C.
8. Los Angeles
9. Boston
10. San Francisco
11. Columbus, Ohio
12. Dayton, Ohio
13. Baltimore
14. Louisville, Ky.
15. Dallas

This is the second year Terminix has put out a list. Baltimore, Dallas and San Francisco appear on it for the first time this year, replacing Indianapolis, Cleveland and Minneapolis.

Bed bugs have always been around, especially since strong chemicals such as DDT were banned, says bug expert Curtis. But today, “People are more aware and communicating” about the issue,” though “there’s still a stigma attached to having bed bugs,” he says. Businesses such as hotels are loath to let customers know about infestations, because that would deter potential clientele. So it can be very difficult to gather accurate information on the extent of bed bug infestation.

I asked Curtis whether it’s true that you can get bitten in seats on planes, trains and buses or in theaters. “There’s no question,” he said. “This is an insect looking for a dark place with a human host, looking to get a blood meal” And bed bugs are “consummate hitchhikers,” moving around easily on people and in bags, he says. Plus, they inject an anesthetic when they bite, so you may not feel it. Some people don’t get bite marks, he says. In other cases, a bite may not show up for a few days, making it hard to tell where you got it.

What to do? Be really careful bringing traveling bags and clothes into your home, he says. “When I get home I put my clothes in a plastic bag. They go into the washer and then the dryer on high (heat kills bed bugs). I vacuum my luggage.”

In hotels, Curtis always strips covers off the mattress and inspects it and the area behind the headboard and under box springs for dark spots (bed bug fecal matter), blood (from a feeding), the bugs themselves (which can range from head-of-a-pin size to appleseed-like), or for rows of tiny eggs.

He does not use hotel drawers and keeps his luggage on a rack as far away from the bed as he can. Bed bugs like to “harbor close to their food sources,” he says. So watch out for beds and upholstered seating. If you want to get extreme, you can place suitcases in big plastic bags that zip closed and you can leave luggage in the bathroom, which is less likely to harbor bed bugs. “But there is no silver bullet” for eradicating them, he says. Heat, cold and multiple treatments are often tried, especially since bugs can lie dormant for a long time.

Terminix has a bed bug learning center online, with answers to many questions about the critters. Other pest control companies, such as Orkin, have posted tips for bed bug detection and treatment.

The good news is that bed bug bites generally don’t cause harm and that “30%-40% of people never have a reaction to them,” Curtis says. Many never realize they were bitten.

Prevention is the key to avoiding extensive and expensive treatments of homes and businesses (which can mean throwing out mattresses and replacing carpets). You also can look at bedbugregistry.com, which contains about 20,000 user-submitted reports, to see if any infestations have been reported at hotels where you’re planning to stay. I checked out a couple of fleabags where I have stayed (and one where I refused to check in because the room looked sketchy), and both had client reports of bed bug bites. In those cases, I was surprised to see how unsympathetc and unhelpful users say management was in responding to the issue.

Continue Reading More: 2011 Most Bedbug Plagued Cities List, NYC Takes Top Spot

5/5/2011 Los Angeles Woman Settles Motel Bedbug Lawsuit: Bitten 167 Times In Glendale Motel

Three women who sued a Glendale motel, saying they suffered more than 100 bed-bug bites, have settled out of court for an undisclosed amount, attorneys said Monday.

Attorneys representing the three women — Nichole Eatman, Vera Domini and Regina Martocci — said they met with representatives for Rodeway Inn-Regalodge Motel, at 200 W. Colorado St., and its franchiser, Choice Hotels International Inc., last week, to reach the settlement.

They filed a motion Thursday to dismiss the case, according to Los Angeles County Superior Court documents.

Eatman, Domini and Martocci claimed they stayed three nights in a motel room that was infested with bed bugs and their larvae. Domini sustained 167 bed bug bites while staying at the motel, DeArmas said.

Continue Reading More: Los Angeles Woman Settles Motel Bedbug Lawsuit

4/16/2011 Beware Of Bedbug Exterminator Scams: Warnings From Around The Country Of Consumers Getting Duped

Bed bugs are a national obsession, and with good reason. Their population has jumped by 500 percent in the United States in just the last few years, and many of us would try just about anything to get rid of them.

“Early Show” Consumer Correspondent Susan Koeppen has learned firsthand just how annoying bed bugs can be. She got them.

Koeppen said, “One thing I’ve learned – getting rid of bed bugs can cost you big bucks. Bed bugs are becoming big business. But now, even some in the pest control industry are warning you may get ripped off trying to get rid of bed bugs.”

Just six months ago, Koeppen attended a bed bug summit in Chicago where she asked this important question: “I’m in hotels every week. What are the chances I’m bringing them home?”

Phil Cooper, of Bed Bug Central, a website devoted to bed bug information, replied, “You will be bringing them home.”

Sure enough, after a recent ski trip in Utah, bed bugs hitched a ride home in her ski bag.

After suffering bites and hiring a bed bug-sniffing dog to find the little suckers, Koeppen had to pack up her closets, launder and dry-clean everything, so the exterminators could go to work.

Because she’s done so many stories about bed bugs, Koeppen knew how to find a reputable company to do the job. But warnings about bed bug scams are popping up across the country, and it’s no wonder. Revenues from bed bug extermination are exploding, from $98 million in 2006 to $319 million in 2010.

When Shantel Woon-Sue got bed bugs, she says she got scammed.

She paid an exterminator $1,500, but despite taking her money, he never got rid of the bedbugs.

Woon-Sue said, “I do feel cheated. The company came out, and I thought it was taken care of, but in actuality, it wasn’t.”

And she’s not the only one feeling scammed. In a hidden camera investigation, the CBS News station in Los Angeles found one man trying to charge $350 to get rid of bed bugs. Another also wanted money after finding the pests. But there was just one problem: the house had already been inspected and found to be bed bug-free.

So what should you look for if you want your house inspected for bed bugs?

John Russell is a bed bug specialist. His company has done more than 50,000 bed bug inspections.

He says bed bug sniffing dogs are up to 98 percent accurate.

He says a visual inspection alone is not nearly as effective.

Russell said, “A proper visual inspection can take … an hour. You know really looking into every dresser drawer, flipping the dressers, looking into everything it can take a long time.”

The National Pest Management Association says consumers need to be careful when hiring a company to handle bed bugs.

Missy Henriksen, of the National Pest Management Association, said, “During the bed bug scare, consumers need to understand that there is good news. There are trained professionals throughout the country who know how to deal with bed bugs properly.”

As for Woon-Sue, she finally got rid of her bedbugs after hiring a bed bug sniffing dog and spending hundreds of dollars more than she expected.

Woon-Sue said, “I was extremely disappointed because it really does interfere with your entire life.”

Koeppen added, “It’s a lot of work to get rid of bed bugs, so it’s very important to hire someone that knows how to handle them.”

She advised consumers look for someone who is licensed. And if you are hiring a bed bug sniffing dog, find out if he is certified and how long he has been working with his handler.

Koeppen said her bed bugs are now gone by all indications. but added the bugs do a number on your mind.

“So far, so good. No more bites,” she said. “But it does a number on your brain. Every little piece of fuzz I see on the bed, ‘Oh, it’s a bed bug.’ Every little itch. ‘Oh, my God it’s a bed bug!’ But so far so good.”

Koeppen added, “We were in a beautiful place (when we picked up the bugs). A place I would go back to because it was so nice. And I stay in hotels every single week. I’m in a hotel today. I could bring home bed bugs tonight. You never know.”

To protect yourself at home, Koeppen recommended these products:

Protect-A-Bed: $50 to $90, depending on the size of your bed.

These wrap around your mattress, your box spring, to keep the bugs either in or keep them out from nesting in your mattress.

Continue Reading More/Watch Video: Beware Of Bedbug Exterminator Scams

3/1/2011 Bedbugs On Two British Airways Jumbo Jets: Airlines Ground Jets After Woman Shows Multiple Bedbug Bites

British Airways grounded two jumbo jets after a passenger complained of being badly bitten by bed bugs during two separate long-haul flights.

The airline fumigated one of the planes on which it confirmed there had been an infestation and apologised to the woman for her ordeal.

Businesswoman Zane Selkirk revealed her body was ‘crawling’ with bugs and ‘covered with bites’ during a ten-hour transatlantic flight from Los Angeles to London Heathrow in January.

The 28-year-old believes she was also bitten on a second flight in February during a business trip from Bangalore in India to Heathrow.

BA grounded the two 350-seat Boeing 747-400s after computer industry executive Miss Selkirk – fed up by the poor response of the airline’s customer services – set up a website detailing her ordeal.

Miss Selkirk, who works for internet company Yahoo!’s media group, said she set up her protest website ‘after two horrendous flights’.

She used the site – www.ba-bites.com – to post graphic pictures of the injuries on her body.

Stung by her online protest, BA confirmed bugs had been found on the LA to Heathrow plane, which was then fumigated before being put back into service.

But a spokesman said the airline had not discovered any evidence of infestation on the Bangalore to Heathrow flight.

The revelations will certainly resonate throughout the U.S., where there has been a massive resurgence in bed-bug outbreaks.

The mites are invading public schools at an alarming rate, with 1,700 confirmed cases reported in New York City’s schools alone in the last five months.

The figure is on track to triple last year’s total of 1,019 cases in the city.

A spokesman from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said that while in the past the infestations were concentrated in ‘hot spots’,  they were now spreading all over the country.

Miss Selkirk, who lives in Los Angeles and has dual British and U.S. nationality, said she had also noticed other references on the internet to passengers being bitten by bugs, but didn’t feel BA was taking the issue seriously enough.

12/22/10 USA’s Most Bedbug Infested Cities: Cincinnati Ohio Rank’s Number 1

Going out of town for the holidays? Traffic, blizzards or spending a long weekend with your crazy uncle may put a damper on the holiday cheer, but in your haste to come home make sure you’re not transporting six-legged souvenirs: bed bugs.

A decade ago bed bugs were still the vermin of lore–blood-sucking creepy-crawlies laid to waste by the amazingly effective (and toxic) pesticide DDT.

These pesky insects have made quite the stateside comeback lately.This year bed bug outbreaks have been reported everywhere from homes to office buildings, hotels, stores, schools and hospitals. No less than former president Bill Clinton’s Manhattan offices suffered an outbreak.

Although the exact cause remains a mystery, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency chalk up the resurgence of these tiny terrors to “increased resistance of bed bugs to available pesticides, greater international and domestic travel, lack of knowledge regarding control of bed bugs due to their prolonged absence, and the continuing decline or elimination of effective vector/pest control programs at state and local public health agencies.”

Translation: Bed bugs are great travelers. Every region of the country has been besieged, with bed bugs hitchhiking rides in handbags, the folds of clothes, luggage, planes, trains, cars–even ambulances.

While every major metropolis has reported infestations in 2010 (as well as a rapidly increasing number of smaller towns), some cities have been harder hit than others. We tapped the nation’s two largest pest exterminators, Orkin LLC and Terminix, to find the cities with the worst bed bug infestations. Each company has 400 offices nationwide and compiled a list of the hardest-hit metros, based on the number of calls they’ve received and bed bug jobs performed relative to population. From their lists of the 15 cities with the worst bed bug problems, we then focused in on 13 cited by both.

“This list is based on our experience, and it’s not to say that other cities might not be as bad,” stresses Ron Harrison, Orkin entomologist and director of technical services.

Bob Young, Division Service Manager for the Northeast and Mid-South Divisions at Terminix, explains his company’s methodology like this: “We based it on sheer number of calls that come into our service centers…plus the services that we perform…basically total that and measure the increase that we’ve been seeing, and it’s been growing exponentially over the years.”

The results? Bustling densely populated urban epicenters with high turnovers of tourists and business travelers are among the worst sufferers. Those cities include New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.

The state most afflicted by bed bugs is a bit of a surprise: Ohio. Three of the Buckeye state’s cities–Cincinnati, Columbus and Dayton–are on the exterminators’ bed bug-infested lists.

“At this point we don’t know, nor does anyone know, why cities in Ohio seem to have a much higher influx of bed bugs per capita than larger cities,” says Orkin’s Harrison.

Continue Reading More: USA’s Most Bedbug Infested Cities

12/7/10 BedBug Prevention For Your Home: Stay Safe This Holiday Season While Traveling & At Home From BedBugs

If you’re a junk collector or you occasionally shop at flea markets, second hand stores or even pull stuff off the curb to repaint, you need to be careful because bedbugs are on the rise. Second hand mattresses and even new products and clothing could be infested with bedbugs.

Another major problem relating to bedbugs? Travel. With the holiday travel season upon us we have to be extra vigilant to prevent picking up bedbugs or inadvertently giving them to a relative. Travel

I recently stayed at a major brand hotel in New York and after pulling the bed sheets off to check for bedbugs I had an unpleasant surprise. Although I didn’t see any live bedbugs the mattress was riddled with what appeared to be fresh red blood stains.

I asked to be moved to another room. Although I didn’t see any blood on that mattress I still had two sleepless nights in that hotel, just the thought of bedbugs had me itching for two days.

I called the headquarters of the reward program to let them know of my disgust and was told to contact the manager of that location. He told me that the mattress had been tested and the spots were chocolate stains. I asked to get a copy of the report, but have not received it as of yet.

Regardless of the cause, the mess is not good for business especially since New York is fighting a war with bedbugs. You would expect them to check each bed carefully when they prepare it for the next guest, but as evidenced by my experience that is not the case.

I was lucky this time and avoided a possible situation. But you must be diligent when traveling or bringing anything into your home because it won’t matter how great your decor is if your home is infested with bedbugs.

Here are a few tips to keep your home bedbug free:

— When traveling, keep your clothes in your suitcase and zipped. Avoid placing your clothes on the bed.

— Always check the bed for blood stains and bugs immediately after you arrive in the room. The most common area to find blood stains are in the seams of the mattress. You should also look on the wall for any signs of blood spots.

— After you return home vacuum your bags in the garage to get rid of any bugs that may have tried to hitch a ride from the airport or taxi.

— Wash all of your clothing in hot water, if possible. Avoid placing the suitcase on your bed. Store your suitcase in a large plastic bag away from your bed.

— Check all of the items you bring into your home to add to your decor or wardrobe. Vacuum everything out, even new furniture, and wash your new clothes and rugs. If you see a bedbug or signs of a bedbug contact an exterminator immediately.

— If you are expecting guests be sure to take the same precautions when they arrive at your home. At the very least vacuum their bags in the garage.

———

TOP CITIES WITH BEDBUGS

A recent report compiled by Terminix ranked the top 15 cities with the most bedbugs in the United States in August of 2010.

1. New York

2. Philadelphia

3. Detroit

4. Cincinnati

5. Chicago

6. Denver

7. Columbus, Ohio

8. Dayton, Ohio

9. Washington

10. Los Angeles

11. Boston

12. Indianapolis

13. Louisville, Ky.

14. Cleveland

15. Minneapolis

Continue Reading More: BedBug Prevention For Your Home