Got bed bugs? Sometimes it can be hard to tell, but determining whether you have them may be getting easier. The Bed Bug Beacon is an inexpensive active bed bug monitor for at-home use. It looks like David James, creator of the Packtite, has come up with another winner. Like the DIY dry ice monitor developed by Changlu Wang at Rutgers, it uses CO2 to detect bed bugs, but without all the dry ice hassle.
Changlu Wang’s DIY dry ice monitor is an excellent development in bed bug detection, but there were some reasons why it may not be a great tool for everyone who is trying to figure out if they have bed bugs.
First, you have to properly locate all the materials. Dry ice is the main challenge, and buying it is not easy, convenient or cheap, as some forum users discovered. In this forum thread, user New Blood reported s/he was only able to find dry ice for sale in quantities of 10 lbs. for $20. Even if dry ice is found in ideal quantities of 3 lb. a day (at $2 a lb.), and purchased every evening, New Blood estimated it would cost around $40 a week just for the dry ice. Therefore, initial setup of the DIY dry ice monitor would take it well over $50 for the first week’s use. And you have to shop for dry ice every evening.
Second, the DIY monitor requires users to do research and carefully follow directions. The most important of which concern dry ice, which is dangerous to handle.
Like the DIY dry ice monitor, the new Bed Bug Beacon uses CO2 to detect bed bugs, and gives the DIY monitor a run for its money; the manufacturer says it will be priced under $50. However, it uses pellets which are safer for the user, and easier and cheaper to obtain. The Bed Bug Beacon is reusable and comes with enough supplies to last 2 weeks; refills cost about $10 for 3 weeks more monitoring.
In effect, it’s cheaper and easier than making your own DIY monitor with dry ice. And in tests, David James found the Bed Bug Beacon to be as effective as the DIY monitor in side by side tests. (See video below for more on the trials.)
It’s important to remember, the purpose of this tool is detecting whether you have bed bugs, or still have them after treatment. It is not a tool for controlling a bed bug population. (Neither is the DIY dry ice monitor, though some of the press on it would have you thinking so.)
Supplies may be limited at the product’s launch, but you can pre-order the Bed Bug Beacon CO2 Monitor from US Bed Bugs now, for an expected shipping date of March 22 (where it currently lists at $49.95 with free shipping using code BBFREE).Quantities at this time are limited to one per customer.The Bed Bug Beacon will also be available soon on the manufacturer’s website and from other distributors.
Note: your purchase via our link to US Bed Bugs helps support the running of this site at no cost to you; please read this site’s Disclosure Policy for more information.
Click below to watch the promotional video with information on field trials.
In case the embedded YouTube videos are not kind to you, click here.
I exchanged some emails with Penelope Green when she was writing the story, and I think she did a good job overall. I figured this was a good time to add a FAQ to our repertoire about bed bug sniffing dogs and what you need to know if you’re thinking of hiring one.
(My comments below are about bed bug sniffing dog teams generally, and are not specifically in reference to the firm or dog team referenced in the article.)
The most important thing for customers to know is that bed bug sniffing dog alerts need to be visually verified — by this, I mean the dog handler looks carefully in the vicinity where the dog alerted, to find evidence of bed bugs.
As I said to Penelope Green in an email last week,
Dogs that are trained [well] can be effective in sniffing out bed bugs. However, it’s important that when a dog alerts to bed bugs, its handler follows up by visually confirming the presence of bed bugs. Without a visual confirmation, the customer has no way of knowing if this is a false alert, and false alerts do happen.
False alerts have led to customers spending thousands of dollars on treatments. And in one case, a user of our forums received differing results from one bed bug sniffing dog after another (at hundreds of dollars a pop), as she tried to determine whether she had bed bugs or not.
A visual confirmation is the only way to be sure you did not receive a false alert. This is not just my own personal opinion. It’s the opinion of others who know a lot more about this topic than I do.
One of these is Dr. Michael Potter of the University of Kentucky, one of the foremost bed bug experts on in the world. Dr. Potter concurs that bed bug sniffing k9s can be very effective, and as he says, he’s followed at least five teams closely while they were at work.
Dr. Potter says a good bed bug canine team can be especially helpful in situations like movie theaters, where a large amount of space must be searched. But Dr. Potter feels dog alerts should be visually confirmed with a careful search.
Watch him in this brief video from the fall 2009 New York Pest Expo (Bed Bug Edition), where in reference to this problem of bed bug sniffing dogs alerting (without alerts being visually confirmed), Dr. Potter describes a dog handler who marks each spot where the dog “signs” and does not visually inspect these.
In response, Potter exhorts handlers to “Show me the bugs!”
So, if you’re considering hiring a dog team it is especially important to talk to the handlers about whether they visually confirm bed bug alerts. If they say this is impossible or unnecessary, remember that there are other handlers will do this, and it will give you peace of mind. As Dr. Potter says in the video above, it is not always possible to find a bed bug (e.g. one hidden inside a box spring or sofa). However, in many cases it is possible.
If a company tells you their dog is 100% effective, be vary wary. No dog (or human) is 100% effective in detecting bed bugs, and some are much less so.
If you hire a bed bug sniffing k9, here are some other things which would be helpful to ask in advance of hiring a team I am paraphrasing the recommendations of a handler in our forums who goes by the username LVK9 (a Las Vegas bed bug k9 handler):
What is included in the inspection?
Do handlers mark areas where the dog alerts?
Do handlers visually confirm alerts?
What type of documentation is left with the customer?
How much time is included in the visit?
If the k9 inspection company is also a pest control firm, can you use the pest control firm of your choice for any necessary treatment?
If you choose to use a different firm for treatment, does the price of the k9 inspection change?
Other handlers suggested you may also choose to ask what the charge would be for a follow-up inspection after treatment.
One thing consumers should be aware of is that there are warring camps in the bed bug k9 industry. One of the places the war has played out is on our forums, among handlers from different schools of thought; if you want to ask questions of those in the industry about differing approaches to dog training, certification, or protocols, this forum thread is one place to do so.
Except for this June, 2009 article from the Atlantic, the news media does not tend to mention that there are various schools of thought about bed bug sniffing dogs; instead, articles typically refer to only one team or one trainer’s dogs and protocol. As the Atlantic story clarifies, methods and protocols can vary a great deal.
Handlers with dogs from one trainer or another, or whose bed bug sniffing dog is certified by NESDCA, or not certified by NESDCA, are often adamant that what they have is what you need. So let me cut through some of the politics for you:
There are a number of companies which appear to effectively train bed bug sniffing dogs (including J&K Canine, who trained the dog mentioned in today’s NY Times article, Florida Canine Academy, and others). The name of a trainer alone is not insurance that the dog is effective, since continued training and effective handling are key.
It’s also not enough to ask whether the dog is “certified;” it’s my understanding that effective bed bug sniffing canines may or may not be certified by NESDCA. Florida Canine Academy also re-certifies its dogs yearly. Additional certification bodies may be springing up as I write this (remember, this is more or less a brand new sub-industry in canine scent detection). Recommendations from other customers and a confirmation that the handler visually confirms alerts should do a lot to guide you in selecting a dog.
Keep in mind that bed bug sniffing dogs can be a wonderful tool, but they are not all alike. And remember that every time one sits or scratches or paws at something in your home, it does not necessarily mean there are bed bugs there.
Be like Dr. Mike Potter, and ask your dog handler to “Show me the bugs!”
(What Cruiser does is detect the scent of a bug or an egg; it’s up to an exterminator, said Mr. Ecker, to visually confirm the presence of bedbugs in the spots a dog has noted.)
This means customers may have to hire a pest control firm, after already hiring the dog team, before they ever find out with any certainty that they have bed bugs present. This is why we recommend you hire a dog team which visually confirms any alerts (or at least makes a concerted effort to visually verify each alert).
Lou Sorkin also reminded me about the following statement in the article, which I did not comment on above:
Like all scent-detecting dogs, Cruiser and Freedom work for food; put another way, they are fed only when they find their target, which keeps them accurate and keen on their jobs.
It is not true that all bed bug sniffing dogs are trained with food rewards. This practice is the source of some controversy.
—
Note: this is a FAQ and a work in progress. As such, your insightful comments and suggestions are appreciated below! If you have a connection with the bed bug canine scent detection industry, you may mention this in your response, but please do not use the comments as a forum for advertising your services.
Christopher Francoeur was evicted from 415 MacLaren St. in Ottawa, after refusing to have his apartment in the infested 249-unit building treated for bed bugs.
According to a Landlord and Tenant Board ruling, the resident, Christopher Francoeur, refused to let anyone in to spray.
Francoeur claims he simply got home late from an appointment, but it does not explain why the city was turned away or locked out on seven previous occasions. The article claims the city
. . . visited Unit 1908 at least eight times. Each time, the bedbug warriors were turned away for different reasons — once because, they say, Francoeur, a 35-year-old convicted drug dealer, changed the locks.
Francoeur claims the public housing building had bed bugs before he moved in. However, this is no reason not to try and cooperate with the city’s plan to treat all the units. It is hard enough to get rid of bed bugs in a multi-unit building. If the landlord is willing to treat all units concurrently (and repeatedly, we hope), the other tenants have a better chance of getting rid of this problem.
The board ruled last month that Francoeur “substantially interfered with the reasonable enjoyment of the residential complex by the other tenants.”
We hear all of the time about such cases, where a tenant — for whatever reason — refuses treatment.
(And I love, by the way, how “reasonable enjoyment of the residential complex” translates to “trying to eliminate a blood-sucking parasite.”)
A NYC reader emailed today telling me that while she does not have bed bugs yet, she just heard someone in her building — a number of floors above her – is refusing treatment.
Even though laws may allow such tenants to be forced to cooperate with treatment or evicted, the process of enforcing them may take some time.
A bed bug was spotted on a second grade student at Sardinia Elementary School in Ohio. It’s a brand new school, and the school responded by sending the child home with information for her parents about what they needed to do.
The superintendent says the precautions are necessary to make sure other students and staff are not affected. The superintendent says cleaning crews removed carpet and used steam cleaners in classrooms. Busses were thoroughly cleaned as well.
“One was spotted and that was enough we wanted to make sure we got in front of it In the afternoon the students’ book bags and backpacks which is what could carry the insect, they put those all in clear plastic bags and gave a handout to the parents to notify them of what had happened and how they’re supposed to handle that.”
Steam can effectively kill bed bugs but if they are harboring on the premises, multiple treatments with steam as well as residual pesticides and dusts may be warranted.
I have a serious problem with several things here:
1) Just because a bed bug in the school is spotted on a particular student does not mean that student brought the bed bug in. A bed bug could crawl from the school itself, from another student’s desk or bag, and so on. The bug could have been picked up in a school bus or other transportation, or at any location in the school. Even in a brand new school, as the story stresses in this case.
2) A recent study showed nearly 1 in 6 people in Cincinnati had had bed bugs. A really high number of Ohio residents have them right now. Any student, teacher, or staff member could have brought that bed bug in, and so banning the student from school while her parents carry out certain steps is not warranted in my mind. Perhaps it would be if we had confirmation that the family did indeed have a bed bug infestation. But I would guess any number of people in that school have an active bed bug infestation right now, and it’s unfair to single out the person caught with a bed bug on them.
3) “Cleaning” does not eliminate bed bugs reliably. Even steam cleaning, which will kill bed bugs if done properly, needs to be repeated in most cases and augmented with other treatment methods. I hope this school is getting good assistance from experts who know their bed bugs.
You can watch the Local 12 news video here. I did not embed it because it’s one of those annoying ones that does not wait for one to press the “play” key, instead simply loading as the page loads.
AFP reports that the government in Madrid, Spain is educating its public about bed bugs and how to get rid of them:
Authorities in Madrid have declared war on a growing and formidable enemy — bed bugs that are infesting hotel rooms throughout the country at an alarming rate.
The government for the Madrid region has published a manual to make people and businesses more aware of the tiny pests and how to get rid of them.
The number of bed bugs actually declined in Spain in the 1950s and 60s.
But “today the situation seems to have completely changed, the declared number of cases has risen, in some cases quite significantly, approaching the level of an epidemic,” said the manual, seen by AFP on Wednesday.
It’s important for everyone in Madrid to realize that any location can become infested, not just hotel rooms.
Bed bugs seem to be spreading very quickly in all well-traveled areas of the globe. Few cities or regions are willing to declare them as “approaching an epidemic,” perhaps out of fear that tourists will stay away.
In fact, I’d much rather visit a place where business owners and individuals are educated about and talk about the prevalence of this pest, how to detect them, and how to get rid of bed bugs, as opposed to visiting a city where the hotel industry is mum on the issue, as if it did not exist.
Providing additional resources and directing the CDC to provide leadership on the bed bug issue.
Authorizing “a research program to helped develop effective methods of controlling bed bugs and other resurgent household pests.”
That
When EPA registers new products, alters or reevaluates the registration of existing products or considers petitions for emergency exemptions, it should consider factors such as (1) the impact on Americans “quality of life” when residential and other pests are not able to be controlled; (2) the risks that arise when consumers resort to overapplying ineffective products or use unregistered products or other homemade remedies and 3) the opportunity for the proliferation of inefficacious or “snake oil” type products when affordable, effective products do not exist.
And that
. . . efficacy data for all pesticide products claiming to control bed bugs, to provide assurance to the professional industry, consumers and federal and state regulatory officials that such products work as advertised. This is especially important for bed bugs control products because it is not immediately obvious when a product does not work.
Making a “concerted federal effort” to address the bed bug crisis, including the formation of a Federal Advisory Board; suggestions were made that
Congress should require the Secretaries of the Departments of Health and Human Services, Commerce and Housing and Urban Development and EPA Administrator to report to Congress on steps the federal government could take to combat the bed bug epidemic. Congress should demand greater intergovernmental cooperation and coordination by instructing the Secretaries of the Departments of Health and Human Services, Commerce and Housing and Urban Development and EPA Administrator to take measures to coordinate the federal government’s response to the crisis.
If legislators hear about the bed bug crisis and gain information on the issues above, perhaps the Federal government will be able to take some action to help improve the situation.
Research by pest controllers Rentokil shows that, on average, a single train compartment houses a staggering 1,000 cockroaches, 200 bed bugs, 200 fleas, 500 dust mites and 100 carpet beetles.
Well, blimey! Someone should do something about that!
It’s not that bed bugs and other pests can’t infest train carriages (they surely do), or buses and cars.
But stating the “average” number of insects in a train compartment is just a bit sensational.
Some compartments will be wildly infested with bed bugs, others not so much. I fear that implying every train compartment has 200 of the suckers in it just makes some people think, “why bother.”
Rentokil’s message of doom in the Daily Mail coincides with its launch of Entotherm, a thermal treatment for trains, buses, and cars in the UK.
Of course, I am glad thermal is being used in public transportation and — I assume — to treat personal vehicles which are infested with bed bugs.
How can you hate bed bugs and not love thermal?
However, the message seems to be that, on average, every vehicle is infested with bed bugs, which of course is not true. (And yes, cars can harbor roaches, but not every car will be secreting 20 of them.)
Public transportation would benefit from routine treatments of this sort, if it is economically feasible. Since the economy is lousy in the UK as it is in my neck of the woods, I fear suggesting frequent thermal remediation of the entire fleet of trains, underground trains, buses, and taxis would not go over well.
And let’s be honest: thermal does not keep bed bugs away. So treating every train compartment with thermal is a control measure, but how often can you do it? The very next day someone will bring in new bed bugs. A bit of residual would not go amiss here.
How do we make sure infestations in public transportation are handled swiftly?
Pest control workers, transportation staff, and customers should all be educated about how to look closely and critically at these vehicles — and, d’oh! they also need to look at their homes and other places they frequent — on a routine basis.
They should do these inspections.
They should know who to report to if they see anything suspicious.
And any signs of bed bugs should be followed up on, aggressively.
Dayton detectives raided an apartment for drugs Friday night, and found the home infested with bed bugs, WDTN news reports.
But, the worst part for detectives was having to collect the evidence from a bed bug infested apartment.
Lieutenant Brian Johns of The Dayton Police Department said, “I’ve been itching ever since, but I’ll be okay. If you just saw all the bite marks all over her body. I know they are juveniles, but I can’t understand why you would want to lay your head in a place like that.”
Three people were arrested.
Officers say they will follow up with apartment management for help cleaning up the drug and bug problem.
It makes sense that someone with signs of illegal activity in their home would not seek help for bed bugs. It is especially sad that children are living under these conditions. However, the officers would probably be surprised to learn how many people were seeking treatment for bed bugs and still living with the problem.
I don’t envy the officers picking through bugs to find the evidence they were after. I hope they took precautions to avoid spreading bed bugs to their cars, precinct, and homes.
I also hope the building management not only deals with this home’s infestation but also inspects units attached on all sides, since bed bugs spread easily from one apartment to another.
There have been a flurry of articles on bed bugs in Hamilton, Ontario this week. Today, the Hamilton Spectator brings our attention to the Good Shepherd Works Program, which assists people in Hamilton who are dealing with bed bugs. Ralph Guarino was one of those who benefitted:
“Oh my God, you’re sleeping and you get itchy. You start scratching and you can’t sleep anymore. It was pretty awful,” he says of his two year battle to get rid of them. “When you scratch too much, you start bleeding.”
The 45-year-old schizophrenia sufferer is finally bedbug-free thanks to a Good Shepherd crew that thoroughly vacuums and steam-cleans a place before pest control spraying and then returns in 10 to 14 days to do it all again if necessary.
Guarino is among hundreds of mostly poor Hamiltonians with bedbug infestations this past year. Many weren’t as lucky in getting rid of them.
“It’s a huge problem right now, and I don’t think people are grasping this,” says Matt Bowen, manager of the Good Shepherd Works Program, a social enterprise concentrating on the social aspects of business by giving jobs to people with employment barriers such as mental illness or learning disabilities.
The roster of 80 workers are paid $9.50 to $12 an hour to clean, paint, landscape and do lawn maintenance, but “the bedbug problem is our meat and potatoes,” treating 250 apartments a year, Bowen says. Hamilton’s social housing is their biggest client.
If you’re on a low income and dealing with bed bugs in Hamilton, Good Works may be able to help you. The article notes,
The Good Shepherd Works Program can offer advice and sometimes advocacy for people who call its bedbug hotline at 905-525-5188, ext. 23.
We’ve long been fans of Toronto’s Bug and Scrub — another service that hires people who need work — in this case, shelter guests who are trained and paid to do bed bug prep and treatment, treatment which is priced right for those on low incomes.
What could be better than helping people who need work get work, and helping people who need help with bed bug prep and treatment to get good treatment?
Bed bugs in your room in a Kansas hotel? The state will no longer be inspecting rooms to enforce code violations.
An article in Sunday’s Wichita Eagle recounts the story of hotel guest Becky Andrews, who was itching and scratching in a Bonner Springs, Kansas Super 8 bed, until she discovered the cause: bed bug bites.
She claims she took a live bed bug to the hotel’s front desk, but was not taken seriously, so she filed a complaint with the state.
A Kansas Department of Agriculture inspector visited the hotel on Nov. 3 and confirmed that Room 406 was infested with bed bugs. The hotel was ordered to fix the problem, and a follow-up inspection was scheduled for Dec. 3. But the follow-up never occurred. The state announced that day it was suspending its lodging inspection program because of budget cuts. In Kansas today, no government agency is working to ensure that hotel rooms are free of bed bugs, showers are free of mildew, evacuation routes are conspicuously posted, and drinking glasses are properly prepackaged. “This is the painful reality of our current economic climate,” Josh Svaty, acting agriculture secretary, said in a news release issued that day. “Whether the department will be able to resume inspections will depend on future funding levels. “In what has turned out to be a tight budget year, it seems unlikely that the state will find the $240,000 it needs to fund the lodging inspection program for another year. Andrews said she finds that unsettling.
[Emphasis added.]
This sure is an unsettling state of affairs. And it is not just bed bugs that I’m worried about. How can the State of Kansas enforce laws which apply to hotel conditions, if it does not have a lodging inspection program? I know money is tight, but safety is a concern.
If there was ever a reason to hand out buttons bearing such a slogan, this is it.
AlisaS writes on lifestyle forum The Nest ,
One of my patients told me her friend had a big garage sale to get rid of all of his bed bug infested furniture and didn’t disclose.
This happens more than you would [...]
Molly McAleer offers The AWL’s readers a different first person account of bed bugs, illustrated with bite pictures (and yes, those are definitely different too).
She is another bed bug survivor, with a deadbeat landlord and infested neighbors in Koreatown, Los Angeles.
But the article is not your typical tale of bed bug woe.
As commenter KarenUhOh wrote,
