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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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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9/22/2011 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.”

Continue Reading More: How Texas Wildfires Have Fueled Bedbugs

8/30/2011 Are We In A Bedbug Cycle Of Growth? 

“Good night, sleep tight. Don’t let the bed bugs bite.” Largely eradicated by the early 1940s, bed bugs were almost unheard of until recently. As infestations continue to rise, some exterminators say avoiding bed bugs is becoming more difficult for area residents.

Fogle’s Pest Control owner Jimmie Fogle said he has seen a “moderate increase” in the number of cases over the last several months.

“They are coming back, but they are not as bad as 30-40 years ago,” Fogle said. “DDT was used then to kill them before it was banned by the government.

“They are attracted to cotton and wool. We find them mostly in bedrooms and the mattresses.”

The exact cause of bed bug resurgence remains unclear, although many exterminators feel increased travel is a key factor. According to the recently released NPMA/University of Kentucky 2011 “Bugs Without Borders” survey, 99 percent of pest control specialists have seen bed bug infestations in the past year.

Gressette Pest Management has seen a 30-40 percent increase in the number of bed bug calls this year over 2010. Company representative Gene Kizer says the insects have no mode of transportation except humans.

“I have my own theory, too,” Kizer said. “We see cycles of insects come and go and we are in a cycle of bed bug growth now. That happens with all insects.”

Orkin Pest Control entomologist Stoney Bachman said the number of bed bug cases has remained steady over the last three years.

“I’d say prior to that, they were unheard of in this area,” Bachman said. “Only recently have they become a household issue. Infestations can also spread in apartments because they can travel through walls.

“Five-star hotels in New York are having bed bug problems. More are actually seen in high-end homes because those individuals often travel more.”

The blood-feeding insects are reddish-brown in color, flat and about a quarter-inch long. Signs of activity include sores on the body where bites have occurred.

Gressette pest control technician L.W. Strock III said many people don’t attribute the bites to bed bugs unless it continues to happen.

“You will see blood stains on the bed sheets,” Strock said. “Having a lot of clutter in the room also gives them ample places to hide, which requires more invasive methods of treatment.

“Stores sell pesticides labeled for bed bugs and they can be somewhat effective as long as you follow the label to its entirety. But it will take you even longer to rid the problem using that compared to what is available to exterminators.”

Although some online information sites suggest there are simple precautions travelers can take to reduce the chance of transporting bed bugs, Kizer said there is little that can be done to prevent them. The eggs are smaller than a pinhead and can be transported on shoes.

Immature or even adult bugs can often stow away in luggage without detection.

“If people are suspicious they have bed bugs, they need to call an exterminator to come out and assess the situation,” Kizer said. “They are easy to identify and are not mistaken for any other insect.”

Bedbugs On Way Up Says National Pest Association

Yuck.

Bedbugs are on the uptick in hotels, on public transport and in other public places.

So says a new survey from the National Pest Management Association (NPMA) survey. It found that infestations — even in hospitals — are up over last year.

Even the pest-control industry “has been surprised” by the resurgence of bedbugs and “where they’re being found,” NPMA public affairs VP Missy Henriksen tells me.

According to the just-released NPMA/University of Kentucky 2011 “Bugs Without Borders Survey,” involving 415 pest-control specialists, the creepy crawlers have multiplied and are found in places you might not expect.

Survey findings include:

* 99% of pest professionals have seen bedbug infestations in the past year (up from 95% in 2010)

*80% of pest professionals have treated bedbugs in hotels/motels, compared with 67% in 2010

*73% of pest professionals believe bedbugs are the most difficult pest to treat
*54% have treated bedbugs in college dorms, up from 35% in 2010
*46% have treated bedbugs in nursing homes, vs. 25% in 2010
*38% have treated bedbugs in office buildings, compared with 18% in 2010
* 36% have treated bedbugs in schools and day care centers, vs. 10% in 2010. That’s an amazing increase, as is the 31% who say they’ve found bedbugs in hospitals, vs. 12% in 2010
*18% have treated bedbugs in trains, buses or taxis, compared with 9% in 2010
*17% have dealt with bedbugs in movie theaters; 5% in 2010

RELATED:  Does your hotel have bedbugs? Check this registry

Why the increase? “Bedbugs are hitchhikers,” Henriksen says. More of us are traveling, and we lead increasingly mobile lives. Also, strong chemicals formerly used to treat bedbugs haven’t been allowed for decades, freeing the little biters to thrive.

The good news, if one can call it that, is that infestations can be treated, by steam, heat, freezing, chemicals, vacuuming or a combination of the above, Henriksen says. She offers some tips for travelers:

*When checking into a hotel, check behind the headboard and on the mattress for stains — blood or fecal matter indicating bedbugs may be present.

*Try to avoid leaving luggage on upholstered surfaces. The safest place is in the bathroom, on counters or in the shower, because the bugs don’t like uncarpeted or non-upholstered surfaces with no place to hide.

*While many find sites such as bedbugregistry.com, which contain reports by travelers and others about infestations, useful, Henriksen warns that since complaints are anonymous, they could be written by disgruntled competitors or employees. And a bedbug infestation that’s here today could be gone tomorrow if the hotel has a good pest control policy, she says. “And hotels are much more proactive now,” she says. Maybe, but if I see multiple, detailed reports of problems at a hotel, I don’t make a reservation. Better to be safe than sorry.

*The bad news is that more bedbugs are being found on trains and planes, she says. So it’s important to be vigilant when you arrive home.

That means immediately taking out all clothes and washing and drying them on “hot,” she says. Or bag them and send them to the dry cleaner if they’re delicate. Vacuum the suitcase thoroughly and dispose of the vacuum bag, she says.

Good tips. Do readers have any more? Have any of you brought bedbugs home from a trip and how did you eradicate them?

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7/3/2011 Top 10 BedBug Myths: The insects, making a comeback around the globe, cannot fly and are really not interested in hanging out on your body–but they do occasionally bite during the day

Once a pest of the past, bedbugs now infest every state in the U.S.. Cimex lectularius—small, flattened insects that feed solely on mammalian and avian blood—have been living with humans since ancient times. Abundant in the U.S. prior to World War II , bedbugs all but vanished during the 1940s and ’50s thanks to improvements in hygiene and the use of pesticides. In the past 10 years, however, the pests have staged a comeback worldwide—an outbreak after the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney was a harbinger of things to come. This revival may be the worst yet, experts say, due to densely populated urban areas, global travel and increasing pesticide resistance—something to consider as the summer travel season gets underway.

“By every metric that we use, it’s getting worse and worse,” says Coby Schal, an entomologist at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. Health authorities and pest control operators are regularly flooded with calls, and the epidemic may not have yet peaked. And because bedbugs are indoor pests, there are no high or low seasons throughout the year, he adds, only continual bombardment. “It’s just the beginning of the problem in the U.S.,” Schal says.

Spreading rapidly with the bedbugs is a mass of misinformation about their biology and behavior. Straight from the experts, here are the facts behind some of the most notorious myths about the diminutive bloodsuckers.

Myth 1: Bedbugs can fly
Bedbugs lack wings, and therefore cannot fly. That is unless you put a blow dryer behind them, says Stephen Kells, a bedbug researcher at the University of Minnesota. Then they’ll fly about 1.2 meters. On their own, bedbugs crawl about a meter a minute, he says.

Myth 2: Bedbugs reproduce quickly
Compared with other insects, bedbugs are slow to reproduce: Each adult female produces about one egg per day; a common housefly lays 500 eggs over three to four days. Each bedbug egg takes 10 days to hatch and another five to six weeks for the offspring to develop into an adult.

Myth 3: Bedbugs can typically live a year without a meal
Scientists debate this point, but evidence suggests that at normal room temperature, about 23 degrees Celsius, bedbugs can only survive two to three months without a blood meal. But because they are cold-blooded, their metabolism will slow down in chillier climates, and the insects may live up to a year without feeding.

Myth 4: Bedbugs bite only at night
Although bedbugs are generally nocturnal, they’re like humans—if they’re hungry, they’ll get up and get something to eat. “If you go away to visit a friend for a week and you come back and sit down on the couch, even though it’s daytime the bedbugs will come looking for you,” Schal says. Keeping a light on, then, unfortunately does not keep these tiny vampires away.

Myth 5: Bedbugs live exclusively in mattresses
“‘Bedbug’ is such a misnomer,” Kells says. “They should also be called pet bugs and suitcase bugs and train bugs and movie theater bugs.” Bedbugs spread away from beds into living areas and can be seen on any surface, he says, including chairs, railings and ceilings.

Myth 6: Bedbugs prefer unsanitary, urban conditions
“Bedbugs are terribly nondiscriminatory,” Schal says. Bedbugs can be found anywhere from ritzy high-rises to homeless shelters. The prevalence of the bugs in low-income housing is therefore not a result of the insect’s preference, but of dense populations and the lack of money to pay for proper elimination strategies. “Any location is vulnerable,” Kells says. “But some people are going to have a harder time getting control of them because it is such an expensive treatment.”

Myth 7: Bedbugs travel on our bodies
Bedbugs do not like heat, Kells says. They therefore do not stick in hair or on skin, like lice or ticks, and prefer not to remain in our clothes close to our bodily heat. Bedbugs are more likely to travel on backpacks, luggage, shoes and other items farther removed from our bodies.

Myth 8: Bedbugs transmit disease
Bedbug bites can lead to anxiety, sleeplessness and even secondary infections, but there have been no reported cases of bedbugs transmitting disease to humans. They do, however, harbor human pathogens: At least 27 viruses, bacteria, protozoa and more have been found in bedbugs, although these microbes do not reproduce or multiply within the insects. Canadian researchers announced (pdf) in the June issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases that bedbugs isolated from three individuals in a Vancouver hospital carried methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, aka MRSA. Still, there have been no reported cases that the bugs actually transmit human disease.

Myth 9: We should bring back DDT
When the controversial pesticide DDT was banned in 1972, most bed bugs were already resistant to it, Schal says, and today’s populations are even more widely resistant thanks to the use of a new class of pesticides. Pyrethroids, the main class of pesticides used against bedbugs today, targets sodium channels in bedbug cells, just like DDT. Consequently, as bedbugs develop resistance to pyrethroids, they also become cross-resistant to DDT.

Myth 10: You can spray bedbugs away
Thanks to pesticide resistance, those cans of spray at your local hardware store simply will not do, Schal says, adding: “Relying strictly on chemicals is generally not a good solution.” The most effective solutions are fumigation and heat treatments, but these can cost a cool $2,000 to $3,000 apiece for a single-family home. Scientists are diligently pursuing other strategies, including freezing and bait similar to that used for cockroaches. In the October 2010 issue of the Journal of Economic Entomology Schal and colleagues at the U.S. Department of Agriculture published a technique that employs inexpensive infrared and vibration sensors to track bedbug movement, which could be applied to the development of automated traps that detect the pests.

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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

6/28/2011 BedBugs On The Rise In Albany New York Area: Exterminators Getting Many Calls A Day

Bed bugs are on the rise in the Capital Region, according to Northeast Pest Control.

The company says they’re getting five to six calls a day as opposed to just one or two calls a season a decade ago.

There may be another reason for the rise: the summer months.

Russell Yake says that the summer months are particularly prone to bed bugs, primarily because people do more travelling.

“It’s a little bit warmer so they travel around more freely in the summer as opposed to the winter.”

So what can you do to prevent bed bugs? To start, Russell Yake says be vigilant and be aware.

“When you come home unpack your luggage before you come into the house I recommend putting it in the dryer. Anything over 115 degrees will kill them,” he said.

Northeast Pest Control uses heat vacuuming and placement of traps to get rid of the bugs. Russel Yake says that if you’ve got them, professional help is probably your best bet.

Continue Reading/Watching Video: Bedbugs On The Rise In Albany

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

4/6/2011 Bedbug Task Force Created In Nassau County NY: County Executive Edward Mangano & District Attorney Kathleen Rice Team Up On Creation

(Long Island, N.Y.) This week the newly-created Bed Bug Task Force will hold a workshop meeting in Freeport’s Recreation Center for property managers, housing inspectors, and landlords interested in bed bug management. Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano and Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice have teamed up to create the Bed Bug Task Force. A second meeting is also available for tenants and homeowners.

The task force began after the Nassau County Department of Health Complex in Uniondale for Health and Human Services was infected with the pests last year. Several meetings were arranged between county officials and members of the Civil Service Employee Association Local 830, including the union’s president, to deal with the issue of bed bugs in the workplace. The problem was ongoing, spanning at least a few months, and some sources claimed that the bed bugs were resisting efforts of removal.

The Nassau County Department of Health Complex was not the first significant government building to address the problem. In September of 2009 the New York City Department of Health Offices were infected, and some reports have stated that these types of buildings may be more at risk of infestation. Also, the Bronx Psychiatric Center in Morris Park was documented for a bed bug epidemic. The facility had between three and four hundred beds when union members working in the building reported the issue.

The Civil Services Employee Association Local 401 represented the facility’s nurses, housekeepers, and maintenance workers, totaling over five hundred and fifty employees. These workers spotted the bed bugs at a nursing station and tracked them to bedrooms inside a ward. The employees also filed a Public Employee Safety and Health Bureau compliant, and criticized the treatment procedure. They claimed that the bed bug outbreak was treated from room to room rather than by evacuating individual wards.

Following this action, the State Labor Department inspected the building, and bed bugs were found in at least two other wards on different occasions. A second union, the Public Employees Federation, which represents the hospital’s psychologists, psychiatrists, and secretaries, also took action against the bed bug issue. Bed bugs are able to bite anyone, whether it is patients or staff. They often cause anxiety, sleeplessness, and ailments that are especially devastating in a mental health facility.

According to the Nassau County Department of Health website, bed bug infestations declined after World War II but have been on the rise over the last decade. Reasons for the recent increase of these pests can include changes in pest management strategies, increase in travel, and transference of used furniture. The website lists contact numbers for tenants experiencing bed bug issues, leading them to the Nassau County Department of Health’s Office of Community Sanitation. Homeowners with infestation issues are directed to the Nassau County Department of Health Healthy Homes Program, and hotel/motel owners should reach the Nassau County Department of Health Bureau of Environmental Sanitation.

The new task force will include a worker from the New York State Integrated Pest Management Program and New York City Bed Bug Advisory Board. According to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene website, bed bugs are classified as small insects that feed on human blood. The can survive for months without feeding, and turn a brighter shade of red as their bodies swell with blood. They are largely nocturnal and affect humans while they are sleeping. The bites are painless but will become large, itchy welts in time, though they are not known to spread any diseases. They are transferred in luggage, furniture, and clothing and can travel between cracks in floors and walls.

Continue Reading More: Bedbug Task Force Created In Nassau County NY