The Australian show “The New Inventors”(ABC) features several new inventions in an episode, with a panel of judges choosing the best of the lot.

Inventor Tony Abrahams won episode 16 (20 May 2009) with his passive bed bug monitor, the “Bed Bug Barrier,” which either attaches above the feet of the bed, or sits under the feet of the bed, trapping bed bugs attempting to crawl up onto the bed in a glue. (Based on the placement of the glue under the rim of the device, it is not clear to me whether bed bugs would also be intercepted if they tried to crawl off a bed, rather than onto it, as would be true with the Climbup TM Interceptor.)

There’s some iffy science here (for example, I don’t think anyone can prove the inventor’s claim that bed bugs cannot harbor on a mattress encasement). One judge is concerned that bed bugs brought onto a bed via a suitcase (rather than climbling up the bed leg) will not be hindered by this tool, and this judge is apparently correct. Bed bugs can live on beds. This device will not get rid of bed bugs living in the bed frame, on the mattress, or for that matter, on chairs or in other parts of the room.

This does not mean the trap is useless, but it does mean it is not a total solution. I would like to see independent test data demonstrating the effectiveness of any bed bug monitors. And I would like to know whether bed bugs are 100% trapped while entering or leaving a bed, since from what I can see, there’s some possibility bed bugs exiting a bed could drop down without crawling on the underside (glued) region of the trap.

Clearly, the passive bed bug monitor is an idea that is blooming in lots of different forms, and time (and independent peer reviewed research, we hope!) will tell which is best.

You can read about other currently available bed bug monitors such as the Climbup TM Interceptors — which provide a barrier for bed bugs climbing onto or off of beds — here, or read about David Cain’s soon-to-be-widely-available bbalert monitors — which provide a harborage for bed bugs somewhere on the bed frame itself — here and here.

I love that a bed bug-related product won this contest. Interestingly, Tony Abrahams got the idea for this product because he was in the business of renting out accommodations to travelers. His invention beat out a device which weighs beehives and some kind of portable refrigeration/food heating device.

Let’s face it: bed bugs in the popular media are always a good thing: one of the judges notes she will change her hotel room behaviors based on this presentation (presumably, she won’t be leaving luggage on the bed anymore!) If news about the problem of bed bugs reached many other Australians via this show, that in itself is a very good thing.

Click below to watch!

Thanks to Paula for the tip!Similar Posts:

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The Korea Times reports that in December 2007, researchers claim they found the first bed bug sighted in Korea in 20 years.  And they say it must have come from America, perhaps with a recent transplant from New Jersey.

Renee of New York vs. Bed Bugs does a good job of clarifying some other possible scenarios.

Someone who I believe to be the neighbor of this “first Korean bed bug victim” came onto our Bedbugger forums in December 2007.  The poster, named hegemon1, was concerned about catching bed bugs from the neighbor — who had a confirmed case of bed bugs.  This was considered so rare in Korea, hegemon1 told us university researchers were looking into the puzzling case.

Interestingly, although the researchers told her this was the first known case of bed bugs in Korea, hegemon1 found at least one Korean exterminator who had claimed to have previously killed bed bugs several times:

The fumigator has prior experience eliminating bedbugs from the rooms of other Americans who have brought bugs with them to Korea.

Always Americans, huh?

hegemon1 said her entire building was being sprayed, but only the foreign students’ rooms. Not the rooms of native-born Koreans.

And if this is true, it is where the researchers’ working theory (”maybe the woman brought bed bugs from New Jersey”) turned a xenophobic corner (”only the apartments in the building where foreigners reside could also become infested”).

Despite any cultural, linguistic, or political differences, I believe Americans and Koreans have the same kind of blood.  That, my friends, is what bed bugs are after.  They don’t check passports.

The researchers cited in the Korea Times said, they thought this case happened because an “American bedbug that penetrated through the quarantine system.”  I am not sure what kind of quarantine Korea has in place, but unless it involves extreme measures being taken with luggage and human travelers alike, it won’t keep bed bugs out of Korea (that is, assuming for a moment that there weren’t bed bugs in Korea to begin with; that’s a big “if,” and I refer you to Renee for more on that).

I don’t doubt that bed bugs can travel, and that moving from one place to another can assist them in their spread.  I think we all have to admit it is possible to carry bed bugs from one place to another.  After all, a good number of people do claim to have gotten bed bugs from hotels.  They can crawl into luggage, come out on the other end, and infest your new digs.  People “move” bed bugs from one apartment to another, and it’s conceivable they do it across borders and oceans all the time.

But they also migrate within buildings.  Not treating the residences of native citizens living in the same building as foreigners (who are being treated for bed bugs) shows a high level of ignorance about how bed bugs behave.

Given this attitude, even if bed bugs were not a Korean problem, they surely have now become one.

The silliness here is that bed bugs are spreading everywhere.  And everyone wants to think the “source” is outside their own borders. Some New Yorkers may think they got bed bugs from India, Mexico, or Poland, Thais think they got bed bugs from American backpackers, Australians blame the influx of foreigners who visited the Sydney Olympics, Koreans blame Americans.

Where does it end?!?

The bed bug blame game is a pointless waste of time.

The only thing to do about bed bugs is try and halt their spread.   And to share information — good information — about the real enemy: not people, bed bugs.Similar Posts:

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Bed bugs bite year round, but they breed more quickly in warmer weather.

Bed bug expert entomologist Dr. Stephen Doggett of Westmead Hospital spoke to Australia’s Daily Telegraph about the problem, which appears to be as bad down under as anywhere.

Calls about the problem increased 4500% from 2000-2006, and “Westmead’s entomology unit had calculated the bugs cost $100 million in lost hotel revenue and eradication costs in Australia” during the same six-year period.

$100 million in lost revenue and eradication costs.

We can only assume the same is happening in other places with bed bug problems, like New York, Toronto, Boston, San Francisco, Halifax, London, and, well, everywhere else.

You’d think that the hotel industry would be falling over itself to sponsor research and development into better solutions, and lobbying for legislation to help curb the problem.

But I suspect that everywhere, just as Doggett told the Daily Telegraph about the local situation, “The accommodation industry does not want to admit the scale of the problem.”

And we all know what the first step is, right folks?

Admitting you have a big problem.

Well, okay. Perhaps the 12-steppers have it wrong.

Perhaps the first step is education.

The Daily Telegraph tells us, “Westmead Hospital will, for the first time, run courses on how to detect and control the blood suckers next year.”

And if anyone knows, they do. Doggett, and Westmead, are behind this amazing publication.Similar Posts:

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A new article in The West Australian warns readers of the spread of bed bugs, citing some Australian statistics:

Their numbers declined until about 10 years ago – rendering risks to travellers within Australia and many other parts of the world relatively low.

But the bugs have bounced back – with a vengeance.

“I’ve seen a mind-boggling 7000 per cent increase in reported cases of bed bug infestation in Australia since 2003,” reveals Garry Jones, operations manager at Sydney-based Ecolab Pest Elimination Group.

“That’s utterly astounding,” adds Jones, who belongs to an academic working party studying ways to combat the pesky critters.

The article also refers to Stephen Doggett’s oft-cited statistic:

“Reported cases in Australia have increased by 4,500 in the past eight years,” says Stephen Doggett, senior research scientist in the medical entomology department at Sydney’s Westmead Hospital.

Doggett is the author of the ever-impressive and useful A Code of Practice for the Control of Bed Bugs in Australia (click for PDF of 2nd Ed., November 2007).

Useful, I want to stress, in any country where you find yourself facing down bed bugs.

The article also provides suggestions on bed bug identification, treatment, and avoidance from Jones and Doggett.

You can read the full article, “Bed bugs back biting,” here.Similar Posts:

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It turns out the newscaster’s classic and so-tired opening to a bed bug story: “Good night, sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite,” is only marginally more interesting when delivered in a different accent.

Nonetheless, I was interested to see this news report from Down Under, on Today Tonight (If the right video doesn’t load, click “Bed Bugs on the Increase” under Video Archives. And hurry — it may not last long.)

The video features families who encountered bed bugs (experiencing as many as 75-100 bed bug bites) in four-star hotels in Brisbane and Perth, including a man who inspected his luggage after one of these encounters found 40-60 bed bugs on his suitcase.

The people interviewed reported on a range of bed bug bite presentations (from small scabby bites to large wheals), and there was footage of some of the variations, and of (unfortunately) really badly bitten people.

The report also veers off into the related but lesser perils of dirty mattresses — fungi, dust and dirt — and a man demonstrates UV sanitation for those purposes. This is kind of a distraction, since bed bugs are really a different scenario, and can afflict even those with clean homes and brand new mattresses.

However, the key component of the report, for me, was seeing the famous medical entomologist Stephen Doggett, who wrote and revised the Bed Bug Code of Practice (you can download the Nov. 2007 second edition here).

He reports (and we’ve heard this statistic before) that bed bugs in Australia have increased 5000% since 1999.

Because Doggett’s first bed bug code of practice was published in 2005, we often think of Australia as being ahead of many countries in the game of dealing with bed bugs.

But an Australian friend’s comments recently made me wonder if Australians as a whole were just as clueless about bed bugs, and just as surprised when they encountered bed bugs, as we Americans are. My friend did not know bed bugs were something to be concerned about, didn’t seem to know of anyone who’d had them (”know” being the key word here).

“You Americans!” he said.

He says this a lot, in fact, and I often have to nod in agreement.

But in this case, he’s wrong. Bed bugs are, unfortunately, now as Australian as vegemite, Foster’s, Dame Edna, and Rupert Murdoch, and Aussies need to know they’re out there and how to avoid them at home and abroad, and how to get rid of them if need be.

(We’re with Stephen Doggett: get a professional in.)

Thanks to the Aussie reader who sent the link for this report!Similar Posts:

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The Age had an article on bed bugs on Sunday, “Bed Bug Infestations on the Increase,” citing Sydney entomologist Stephen Doggett’s data on the spread of bed bugs there:

. . . a survey of 121 pest managers undertaken last year by Sydney entomologist Stephen Doggett found that, across Australia, bedbug infestations had risen by a dramatic 4500% since 1999, with the biggest rise in Victoria.

And, though Australia is the home of Doggett’s Bed Bug Code of Practice, and therefore many of us think of it as a place of enlightenment as far as recognizing the seriousness of bed bugs and the proper ways to deal with them.  Nevertheless, the problem is still growing there. For example,

Exopest director and entomologist Simon Dixon said his Melbourne-based company treated 46 commercial and domestic bedbug infestations in 2007, compared with 35 in 2006 and 10 in 2005.

Other exterminators have noticed a similar rise. Melbourne Pest Control director Mark Chell has fielded nine calls about the problem in the past two weeks. In 2007, he treated about 12 to 15 infestations a month; in 2006, it was only five a month.

You’re thinking 46 a year sounds not so bad. But a rise from 12-15 a month to 9 in the last two weeks seems like a rapid rise. And these are individual PCOs. Add them all together and it’s one big problem. I have been criticized in the past by at least one professional as being alarmist for referring to a bed bug “epidemic;” unfortunately, I still believe that critic was wrong. I’m going with medical entomologist Doggett’s assessment: it’s not just an epidemic, it’s a pandemic:

The bedbug problem is part of a worldwide pandemic, according to Mr Doggett, the author of the Australian code of practice for bedbugs infestations. The code was updated last year as a result of the rise in cases.

The insects have built a strong resistance to traditional pyrethroid insecticides, and pest controllers have to deploy almost 1000 times the concentration of insecticide used on other creepy crawlies, he said.

And “extreme infestations” have been noticed among socially disadvantaged groups, involving thousands to even tens of thousands of bugs in a single dwelling.

Mr Doggett said these occupants usually do not have the money to pay for bedbug control or sometimes are unaware of the bedbugs.

In one case, he was called to a guesthouse in Sydney where a man who suffered from cognitive difficulties was found to be living in a room infested with tens of thousands of bedbugs.

“He would have been losing a significant amount of blood each night (and) he was probably anaemic,” Mr Doggett said.

I hear these extreme stories from NYC PCOs and entomologists too.

If you read about the “extreme infestations” and think, “Poor guy. Well, I’d put a stop to it before it got that bad!” — think again: we’re all connected, and this serious case will lead to many more cases. We need to locate and stop infestations before they grow to this point. For the sake of that sufferer, and also that of everyone around him.Similar Posts:

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Londonist: Sleeping And Dreaming: The Wellcome Collection (exhibit on sleep includes bed bugs)

“This is an all-embracing examination of our need to sleep. . . . The very practical logistics of sleeping are also tackled: bedbugs and the luxury of a bed to oneself.” Bed bugs figure in exhibit on sleep at medical-themed-art centre in London.

Cincinnati YWCA Women’s Emergency Shelter has bed bugs, according to Porkopolis

“Now only new clothing can be accepted for donation, and all personal belongings of residents must be stored in large plastic bins. They’re also looking at replacing the sturdy, familiar wooden bunk beds with metal ones to help reduce infestations.”

RealTravel – Hotel Paradiso! | Bargara Travel Blog | Bargara Travel Reviews

Travel blogger claims Bargara, Queensland hostel was bedbugged, and more: “There were rats, mice, possums, bed-bugs, and one morning a kitchen full of maggots. gross. there were curious looking stains on the carpets, especially in our bedroom and there was possum s–t on our floor.”

Bed bugs, or incontinent possums: which is worse?  I’ll take the possums any day, mate.Similar Posts:

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Vacancy-bell-(3)

Originally uploaded by sonicksjs

Finally, someone in the business arena sees the light about bed bugs and the bottom line: and it’s not the flashing dollar signs of the over-the-counter bed bug spray industry, either. Kerry Miller published an article entitled “The Cost of Bed Bugs” yesterday in Business Week, about how business owners are suffering financial losses due to bed bugs in their rental properties, hotels, and other establishments.

While many with bed bugs in their homes might say, “So what, how does that help me?” I feel this is really good news–because if big business declares bed bugs a problem for their bottom line, we might see some more action in terms of halting their spread. And that helps all of us. But judging from this article, we’re not quite there yet.

Miller begins with the story of Rosemary Salinas, a manager for five buildings in San Francisco, who in 2004 dealt with an infested apartment in one of those properties, where the bed bugs spread to four other units, the hallways, and walls of the building. Eliminating it cost $40K plus a $9 payout to a tenant who threatened to sue.

Salinas now issues regular notices in every building she supervises reminding tenants to call management immediately if they suspect a bedbug infestation. Still, the property owners she has talked to haven’t been eager to do the same. “They don’t want anybody to suspect that they have them, or to think that they could have them,” she says.

Rental property owners aren’t the only ones with that attitude. In a statement on its Web site, the American Hotel & Lodging Assn.—an industry group that co-hosted an international bedbug symposium last fall—says the resurgence of bedbugs in the U.S. has “had a minimal impact on the vast majority of hotels, which maintain state-of-the-art sanitation and adhere to strict standards of cleanliness,” adding, for good measure: “Bedbugs are brought into hotels by guests; it is not a hotel sanitation issue.”

Where bed bug denial and the bed bug blame game meet, it’s not a pretty sight. Bed bugs are certainly brought into hotels by guests (or workers, or management, or in shipments). But they leave with other paying guests. And that is definitely the hotel’s problem. (We’ve talked about the American Hotel and Lodging Association’s head-in-the-sand attitudes about bed bugs before.)

One PCO had actual statistics on hotels they had worked on:

A study by the Steritech Group, a commercial and institutional pest management company, found that nearly 25% of the 700 hotels it tracked over a three-and-a-half year period between November, 2002, and April, 2006, required treatment for bedbugs, though of the 76,000 hotel rooms in the study, fewer than 1% were found to be infested. But the public stigma that bedbugs carry makes the line between discretion and transparency a delicate one to tread.

And, it appears that bed bugs have spread a lot since the 2002-2006 period Steritech studied.

The article goes on to describe how mattress encasements designed to protect against bed bugs have to be marketed as “allergen-proof” not bed bug-proof, in order to sell to hotels, and how bed bug dog services have to pretend they’re sniffing for mold when they visit nursing homes. I don’t mind not making clients panic, but lots of us actually do want to know hotels are trying to protect us from bed bugs.

A loss-control agent at an insurance company mentions he first started seeing bedbug-related claims from property owners two years ago.

Then there are other costs: the negative publicity, erosion in brand value, and drop in business that can result from a poorly handled infestation. Damage control (BusinessWeek.com, 10/17/07) is tricky since unhappy bedbug victims can easily spread word of infestations online via blogs or user-submitted travel review sites such as TripAdvisor (EXPE). “How many people hear about a hotel that had bedbugs and don’t stay there because of it? You just don’t know,” Morello says. Last year an Australian study estimated that bedbugs cost the Australian tourism industry $75 million annually. (No such estimates are available for the U.S.)

Therein lies part of the problem: we haven’t studied it yet in the US. We should learn from Australia–how much does their tourism industry take in per year? What sort of comparison can be made on the impact in the US if the rates of bed bugs are comparable?

Other interesting tidbits here:
Most property owners prefer to settle bed bug claims out of court.

Oh, and–

To treat infested units in her San Francisco building, Salinas hired a company to empty each apartment and freeze the contents for 48 hours. (Extreme temperatures are one of the few reliable ways to kill bedbugs.) The cost: about $2,000 per unit.

It must have been very, very sub-zero freezing. And something must have been done to the rooms themselves. But I would love to know more about companies willing to remove and freeze your stuff. It would be wonderful for people trying to move (many of whom hire someone to gas their belongings with vikane to avoid moving bed bugs). Both methods are exhorbitant, but surely when they become commonplace, the prices must come down?

There’s so much more here, I can’t respond to it all, but let me leave you with the ominous (and stupid) ideas with which the article closed:

[Lawyer Christian] Hardigree has fielded phone calls from property owners interested in putting an addendum to lease agreements holding tenants responsible for bedbug infestations. Others are interested in tweaking the language of contracts with pest-control companies so they can sue if the bedbugs return. (Her response to both: “You can put that language in, but I can’t tell you it would be upheld by a court.”) In any case, bedbugs aren’t a problem that can be solved by the wave of a gavel.

These ideas are based on a misunderstanding of how bed bugs work, from a scientific standpoint. You cannot blame the person who discovers and complains of bed bugs, for bringing them in. There really is no way of knowing when and how bed bugs were introduced into a unit. There’s no way of proving how long they were there, since people do not necessarily react to bites, or see bugs. And even if they do react, it may take them a long time to do so.

As for the second idea, many good PCOs who know bed bugs will only offer a brief warranty (60 days is considered pretty good right now). My understanding is that this is because (a) the property owner may be refusing to properly inspect and treat the whole building, and so resurgence may be inevitable in some cases, (b) people can bring in bed bugs repeatedly even they do not realize the source, and (c) bed bugs can be very stealthy–it would be hard to prove the bed bugs were not hiding out in a sealed bag, for example, that was unpacked. (This happens.)

On the other hand, many infestations take 3, 4, or more treatments by traditional methods. If PCOs re-treat aggressively at proper intervals throughout a 60 day period, then customers have a good shot at waving bed bugs goodbye. However, some PCOs are not up to date on the latest methods, or the stealthy habits of bed bugs. And in those cases, unfortunate customers often end up having to seek another treatment provider after the sixty days. It’s bad for the business reputation of the original guys, but some people are just out to make a fast buck. In the long run, let’s hope the best PCOs thrive and expand without compromising on quality.

I would hope that we can press for tenants, owners, and PCOs to be accountable and to use best practices, cooperatively, to fight bed bugs. There are people busy figuring out what those best practices might be. Give up the denial and the bed bug blame game: it’s pointless. Let’s fight the real enemy.Similar Posts:

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In an article today entitled “Hard-worker sniffs out bedbugs,” from the Taranaki Daily News (New Zealand), Sharon Marris writes about bed bug dog Joni who works with Pro-Tek Systems owner John Morley in New Zealand.

We’re familiar with bed bug dogs, here at Bedbugger, but it is interesting to read of the situation in NZ.

“She’s not big, she’s clean and she’s a clever dog,” Mr Morley said of the three-year-old. “She can get into little places and sniff inside mattresses.”

Well, I bet she’s less clean when she comes out of some of those mattresses.

Yesterday Joni worked through 20 rooms and even detected bedbugs that were behind a headboard fixed to the wall.

When she finds something, she will tap at it with her paw before Mr Morley asks her to check again with her nose. After bedbugs are found, each surface of the room can be treated with steam within a day whereas chemical treatments could see a room shut off for many days. Mr Morley says the combination of Joni and steam produces a 98 per cent success rate. Manual treatments have a 20 per cent success rate.

I found this interesting, and I’d like to hear more about companies working with a combination of dogs and steam. What it sounds like Morley is describing is a situation in which the dog pinpoints the exact location of bed bugs (or eggs, which the article tells us she can also detect), and then that area is carefully steamed (I assume with a dry steam machine). Steaming that pinpoints a specific area does seem both more reliable and easier than steaming the whole area, hoping to strike bed bug gold.

I’d also like to know what that 98% success rate represents: I assume it means 98% of cases need not be serviced twice. (Or does it mean most cases eliminate 98% of their bed bugs? Big difference, no?)

This does sound promising, though as a customer, I would not mind if they then employed a bit of residual or mechanical (dust) killer to seal the deal. When it comes to killing bed bugs, I don’t think there’s such a thing as overkill.

It sounds like Joni does a lot of sleuthing looking for bed bugs in hotels, and a regular run through with the bedbug dog and an industrial steamer would be greatly reassuring to me as a prospective hotel guest.

In Australia, similar dogs are used to sniff out termites, which mainly affect the coastal urban areas of the country. Joni was trained in Queensland, one of five dogs around the world trained to sniff out bedbugs.

I think this may be based on outdated statistics, since I know of at least five bed bug-sniffing dogs currently working in the United States! Nevertheless, it does sound like bedbuggers in New Zealand and at least some parts of Australia have or will soon have access to this service, which is spreading quickly, as is (unfortunately) the need for it.

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Such an interesting assortment of bed bug news came through my inbox this evening.

First, WLNS of Lansing, Michigan warns that bed bugs are the pest of the 21st century, that they “wreak havoc on your skin and your life,” their incidence has increased 75% n five years (oh, I’d say much more than that), and fighting an infestation is costly, upwards of $300 per room. After scaring the living bejaysus out of the good (Lansonians? Lansineers?), what one, tiny pithy nugget of practical advice do they give?

When returning from a trip, experts say it’s a good idea to vacuum out your suitcase.

Well, it’s not bad advice, but is that the only thing you’ve got for us WLNS? Looks like your readers might need them a few Bedbugger FAQs.

WVLT in Tennessee also seems to have latched on to the phrase “bug of the 21st century.” (All right, which entomologist let that one out of the bag? Well, if it replaces that nursery-rhyme mumbo-jumbo, then we’re on to a good thing, I guess.)

More suggestions here, including suitcase-vacuuming (again, I’m sensing a pattern here), and the warning to those who are thinking it’s a bedsheet issue,

If you’re leaving for a trip, don’t think taking your own bedding will help. They live in the mattress.

Just make sure and check the bed before bringing your stuff to the room.

Well, sorta, but not quite: they also live in the baseboards, bed frame, electrical sockets, light fixtures, ceiling, floor, and sofa, among other places. The information is more plentiful for Tennessee than for Lansing, Michigan, but the quality is a bit hit-or-miss. They’re obsessed with bed bugs being “in the mattress,” but they also warn people not to toss vacuum bags in the trash, and so on. (Tennesee is also playing a bit fast and loose with the rules of punctuation, spelling, and grammar, so compulsive proofreaders and your high school English teacher should steer clear!)

OSU’s student paper The Lantern reports that an infested grad student dorm at Ohio State University is getting some serious “fumigation” in response to bed bugs. The collection of all students’ non-washable belongings—isolated, bagged, placed in red carts—sounds promising. It’s a bit mysterious what will happen to that stuff (in the red carts, they have to be red carts!), but hopefully it will be picked through with a fine-toothed comb by PCOs with bed bug knowledge, and returned.

If this is so, and if OSU also follows up at 10-14 day intervals (follow-up was not mentioned at all in the article), this would not be unlike the Stanford bed bug protocol, which we believe to be the best reported in any response to college dorm bed bugs. (You can scroll down this list to see past coverage on Bedbugger of Stanford bed bug cases, and gawk at the love fest I’ve put on for Stanford upon hearing the descriptions of how San Francisco’s Crane PCO and the Stanford admin dealt with those cases. It’s beautiful, really.) I only note this because reports have also come from many other colleges of poor bed bug procedures.

Update 5/25: 100 rooms on 3 floors are being treated. Bed bugs were found on the 9th and 11th floors, and they’re treating the 10th as well. (What about the 8th?)

Finally, Australians appear to have been battling bed bugs a wee bit longer than those of us in the US. (Canada, too, a bit ahead in the Bed Bug Olympics.) So no surprise that they’re at the forefront of innovation: this dry steamer does the bed bug killing job, without getting your stuff all wet (that’s dry steam, i.e. no mold!) Their website says,

Duplex Cleaning Machines has a variety of industrial and commercial strength steam products to tackle bed bug epidemic including the Jet Steam, Tosca and JetVac range.

The JetVac Professional Plus is an ideal solution to the bed bug problem as it delivers 160°+ Dry Steam with a tool which applies the steam evenly without blowing the bugs away and then also vacuums away the dead bugs and their eggs.

Wait, they have a steamer named Tosca? Puccini must be tossing in his grave.

But the question on everyone’s mind: when will my PCO have one? I can just see it now, integrated pest management: first, they bring in the bed bug dog. Then the dry steaming and caulking. And finally, the chemical and mechanical onslaught begins. Well, the bug of the 21st century needs the PCO of the 21st century, no?Similar Posts:

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