Comments on: Houston Chronicle update on the U of Arkansas / Texas A&M research on bed bugs in chicken breeding facilities

By: Bed bugs, chickens and DNA: a Q&A with Dr. James Austin

Bed bugs, chickens and DNA: a Q&A with Dr. James Austin — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 02:45:17 +0000

[…] has been following the fascinating genetic research on bed bugs, a collaboration between the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville’s Insect Genetics […]

By: lieutenantdan

lieutenantdan — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 19:51:52 +0000

Hi nobugsonme,
I actually had the dvd sent to me from someone that I spoke to at Bayer. I viewed it when I first discovered my infestation back in Oct 2006, it was disgusting, it freaked me out. At that time I wondered if our infestation started with a bug or two that was hitching in a store bought chicken or chicken parts. We understand that bed bugs can survive freezing cold temps so it did concern me. The dvd was put together to inform professionals about bed bugs but was of course pro company. I probably have it somewhere but I would be concerned to put it up for view because of probable legal issues. The dvd also showed procedures on how to exterminate a room, they used a hotel room. The instructor gave a step by step demo taking apart the beds headboard, taking out drawers and behind picture frames and of course using his companies products. I felt that it was true to heart though, procedures were correct. His partner also had bbs in a jar that he held up to his arm and let the bbs bite him, just like Lou does. The chicken coupe was a very short segment showing swarms of what they said was bed bugs running across the floor. The swarm kind of resembled a bird swarm during maybe a migration. I could not tell if they were actually bed bugs but my heart tells me that they probably were, especially now that we have seen writings and info on this from other sources.

By: nobugsonme

nobugsonme — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 16:29:24 +0000

HI Dan,
That does seem a bit extreme.
Did you watch this industry video online? Is it something we can watch for ourselves?

By: lieutenantdan

lieutenantdan — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 15:24:23 +0000

Maybe I am way off in thinking this way but here it goes.
If so many bbs exist in chicken breeding facilities could bbs be in the packaging and shipping trucks and could they then infest your home because of bb infested shipping containers etc…? I viewed a promo video a year ago from Bayer that is meant to be viewed by the Pest Control industry only and it has some pest industry notable guys educating the PCOs about bbs. They talk about chicken coupes being infested and even show crude video of what is supposed to be a facility and bbs running in swarms. They speak about how they tried to exterminate a government barracks somewhere in Alaska and all human barrack population left for the winter due to freezing temps and came back in the spring only to find that the bbs were still thriving, so freezing cold did not kill the bbs.

By: parakeets

parakeets — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 00:38:46 +0000

I picked my name, Parakeets, partly because bedbugs bit my parakeets, and the pesticides my landlord used probably killed my parakeets since after our building was treated, all the parakeets in the building died. From anecdotal evidence of bedbugs in my own apartment biting my birds, I could see this research being very interesting. If they were called “blood-sucking chicken bugs” instead of bedbugs, maybe we’d get more response from the government in controlling them.

By: nobugsonme

nobugsonme — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 20:11:40 +0000

True, though I am sure it is possible to run a “clean” non-battery set-up.

By: James Buggles

James Buggles — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 19:11:09 +0000

It’s ironic that the factory practices criticized by animal rights activists may turn out to be the best way to prevent the spread of at least one “disease” — bed bugs.