It seems like a lot of work for one out of the dozens of insects (hundreds?) you could potentially find when you get down on the carpet and look. And from that perspective it seems silly to think we can really educate people.

At the same time people now seem so out of touch with nature. If you go to Sydney, it’s a concrete jungle where trees are a rarity. Even now, as a person living in the city, aside from all the pigeons and seagulls I don’t see a whole lot of nature.

And while I can identify some birds and bugs (especially bugs, now - I bet nobody else in my social circle knows what a carpet beetle is) there’s still a lot of things I see here and there that I don’t know what they are.

I think at the same time, getting general information about natural phenomenon to people is difficult! If I could go to a bookstore right now and get a small book that lists the 100 or 1000 most common birds, trees, and insects I’d see in and around my house with pictures and names and short descriptions, I’d buy it! I’m interested in that kind of thing. But no such resources exist!

Even on the net, there’s a HANDFUL of sites run by entymologists who discuss just the rarest of interesting cases for the public. And what are the chances of me taking a few hours of work to go to a University, track down an enytyomology professor (if we even have them here), and get some of his time to identify some of the things around our house, even if he could.

On the other hand, wouldn’t that be a cool thing to do, to collect a bunch of that stuff, take it to them, then document it all on the net? “Hey these are the 10 most common birds trees and insects you’ll see around your house in Western Australia”. That would rock.

If you Google search the news right now, you’ll see a study that was just released that shows half of British children aged 10-12 don’t even know what magpies or an oak tree look like, but 9/10 can identify Yoda from Star Wars.

That’s what I’m talking about. And being an adult isn’t much easier.

(Yeah, it’s a bit bigger picture than I normally comment on, but there it is).

Thanks for the information!

And yes– it sounds like the Australian public (and Australian Pest Control Operators) are in more or less the same position as US/Canadian/UK people (and PCOs) as far as knowledge of bed bugs and/or how to deal with them.

The UV system that you may have seen has nothing to do with bed bugs and will not kill them, it was designed purely for the purpose of sanitising mattresses in Hotels.
Upon detection of bed bugs we call an Australian pest control governing body who gives us a list of companies in the area who have specific training in Bed Bugs, we then pass the information on.
However the technicians are trained to inspect for bed bugs because if they were not then there is the risk of spreading the bugs through the property.
I will also add to the assumption of all Australians knowing about Bed Bugs, the fact is most Pest Controllers know little about bed bugs.

Angela, sorry for your infestation.

(I should have “Sorry for your bed bug infestation” cards printed, but then they’d add to the clutter people usually have to clear to deal with bed bugs!)

Anyway, yes– your relatives in NZ are in for a shock. Alaska has a bed bug problem. The map shows bed bugs in northern Canada.

And New Zealand looks to be as bad as Oz.

Do you also perform the UV services depicted, and can you tell us if they are being used against bed bugs, and how?

Thanks!

But as you know the media love to put their twist on things, possibly unintentionally and the story sometimes gets distorted eg. comments like you are sleeping with millions of bed bugs every night
Dust mites and bed bugs get mixed up and sometimes cause a little confusion.
As a result, the Australian public know very little on the subject on bed bugs along with some of the Pest Control industry. Obviously there are companies trained to deal with bed bugs but from our experience there are equally as many who have no idea.

I also agree - get a specialised pest manager in