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Footage from the recent New York Pest Expo: Bed Bug Edition

nobugsonme — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:33:14 +0000

Bug Off Pest Center in NYC recently hosted an event called the New York Pest Expo: Bed Bug Edition. Frank Andorka notes in his PMP column that it attracted 500 pest management professionals. And we New Yorkers can be glad — that’s 500 PMPs who sat down and heard bed bug experts Dr. Dini Miller of Virginia Tech and Dr. Michael Potter of the University of Kentucky, who Andorka said spoke for a total of around six hours. (Pest Management Professional magazine was a sponsor of the event.)

Frank Andorka shared the following video highlights of the event (among others) on his blog (Thanks to Frank for making this footage available on YouTube):

Dr. Dini Miller talking about the use of Temp-Air thermal treatments at Virginia Tech University.

Dini Miller mentions the problem of bed bugs getting through some encasement teeth, and encourages PCOs to tell customers who can’t afford encasements on both the mattess and box to put a high quality encasement on the box spring:

Dr. Michael Potter talks about the challenges of treating apartment buildings for bed bugs. Potter mentions the need for periodic inspections of occupied and vacant units, and suggests 28% of tenants won’t complain about bed bugs (because they don’t react to bites, or don’t want to cause trouble, among other reasons):

Here, Potter talks about how effecive bed bug dogs can be and how much of a commitment they are for the company. He distinguishes between good bed bug dogs and bad bed bug dogs:

Mike Potter recommends PCOs issue gloves to techs working on bed bug jobs. One Chicago tech got a needle stick doing bed bug inspections:

And last but not least, listen to participants field questions in the Great American Bed Bug Challenge. If only journalists were exposed to this quiz, the treatment of bed bugs in the media might improve a bit:

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Scholastic Headquarters treated for bed bugs; update on Penguin

nobugsonme — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 05:40:12 +0000

The New York Observer reports that a second New York publishing company has been treated for bed bugs in one week.

Scholastic became the second New York publishing house in a week to suffer a bedbug scare this past Friday afternoon, as employees were told to put whatever belongings they needed over the weekend into plastic bags and asked to go home. As was widely reported at the time, a similar scene had taken place at Penguin’s offices in Hudson Square just days earlier.

The inspection happened after an employee reported having bed bugs at home.

A Scholastic spokesperson told the Observer that a bed bug sniffing dog was brought in (and barked, “which meant there was a possibility that bed bugs were in the building”). No actual evidence of bed bugs was found. They had a spray treatment for bed bugs anyway, and will retreat in 14 days.

What is the purpose of those plastic bags? I am always intrigued by these kinds of instructions. You can put infested items in plastic bags and seal them away. You can put uninfested items in plastic bags and seal them while in an infested environment.

But the purpose of placing your items from a possibly infested workplace into a plastic bag before taking them to a probably uninfested home (presumably only to open the bags up and use the items, since these are “belongings [employees] needed”) is — what, exactly?

Meanwhile, Penguin is playing down their recent bed bug scare. The Observer reports,

Marilyn Ducksworth, the corporate spokeswoman for Penguin, said today that the sweep carried out two weekends ago was “a preventative measure.”

“There was never an infestation,” she said. “Not one bug was found in either building.”

However, the memo staffers at Penguin received was said to have told staffers of an “insect issue in certain areas” on several floors (see the Galleycat post and the Observer’s report).

It would be interesting to hear more about what was discovered in each of these cases that led to the evacuation of staffers and pest control being called in.Similar Posts:

Brief report on Seattle NPMA Bed Bug Symposium; bed bug dog awareness among customers

nobugsonme — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 05:43:59 +0000

A brief report from KOMO in Seattle on Thursday’s NPMA Bed Bug Symposium.

It was interesting that the reporter noted that attendees who run hotels and buildings do not want to be filmed. They feared people would think their buildings have bed bugs, and they’d lose customers.

Since bed bugs can infest any multi-unit building, or any hotel, I would personally prefer to rent an apartment from a property manager (or a hotel room from a hotel manager) who attended educational events such as this one, and learned how to prevent, detect, and get rid of bed bugs in their property. I am sure many would agree with me on this.

One concern I have based on the KOMO news video alone is the reporter’s claim that bed bug sniffing k9 April “can come to your house and right away, let you know if you have a [bed bug] problem.”

Bed bug sniffing dogs can be a useful technology in the fight against bed bugs. But they are simply a tool: they alert to the presence of bed bugs; a diligent and careful search by the human handler is required to verify the presence of bed bugs.

Ideally, the dog’s alert is part of the process, not the entire procedure, but many dog handlers apparently don’t confirm the presence of bed bugs after an alert. I am not sure customers are generally knowledgeable about this — and news reports about the bed bug k9 industry are often misleading about how dog inspections should be carried out. In her discussion last night with David Letterman, Mary-Louise Parker also focused on the bed bug sniffing dog’s alert (”the dog sits!”) rather than the actual confirmation of the alert by a handler.

Perhaps Sean Rollo (of the Bed Bug Resource) or others who attended the Seattle symposium will share some highlights or other comments?

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Milwaukee Housing Authority purchases bed bug sniffing dog

nobugsonme — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:12:07 +0000

Milwaukee is ~~probably the first city~~ the second city we know of in the US (if not everywhere) to have its own bed bug sniffing dog.

Gracie the terrier was acquired from Pepe Peruyero’s canine scent detection training program and will be used to detect live bed bugs or eggs in Milwaukee Housing Authority (public housing) units.

See: City Hires Terrier To Terrorize Bedbugs | Today’s TMJ4.

Back in January, we reported that the Seattle Housing Authority was getting a canine scent detection dog to sniff out bed bugs in public housing. (Seattle, you will recall, is also investing in thermal remediation technology.)

Thanks to Doug for the reminder. I confess that after 1,138 blog posts, I am having trouble remembering all the “firsts.” Similar Posts:

Bakersfield family gets bed bug help from the Discovery Channel

nobugsonme — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 02:48:54 +0000

Remember Kay Hammer, in Bakersfield, who we told you about last November? She had tossed out most of the family’s furniture. The landlord would not deal with the problem, so she called Eyewitness News 29.

Iso Tech Pest Management’s Mike Masterson brought in a bed bug dog and did a thermal treatment. They also found bed bugs in several other units of the building and in her daughter’s home across town.

The story will air on the Discover Channel’s Verminators series, probably in the summer. You can view the Eyewitness News 29 segment below.

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None Found

Offer of free bed bug k9 inspections in Hudson Valley, NY

nobugsonme — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 23:38:19 +0000

Last week we shared a generous offer from Orkin in Vancouver. That offer of a bed bug dog inspection was made to people who had had a PCO inspect and find no evidence of bed bugs. (Read more about it here if you missed it.)

This week, Pestmaster Services of Kingston, NY makes a different, but equally generous, offer. Paul Alley emailed me to ask me to post this offer here:

Pestmaster services serving the Hudson Valley of NY is offering Free Inspection with our Bed Bug dog ~~to customers that are still battling Bed Bugs after a pest control company has serviced~~. This is a limited time offer to ANYONE in our normal service area that thinks they may have bed bugs OR has had an unsuccesful treatment. Please contact Paul Alley at Pestmaster Services of Kingston: 845-340-9700.

We ask that Pestmaster, or readers who respond, let us know once the offer is no longer valid. Thanks!

Note: The terms and conditions of this deal are between you and Pestmaster Services and you should contact them for information. We have no connection with these companies, haven’t personally used them, and can’t therefore recommend them, but we definitely appreciate them sharing these offers with our readers!

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University of Central Missouri (and other Missouri colleges) vs. bed bugs

Bed bugs bite in Edmonton sleep disorder clinic

nobugsonme — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 05:42:34 +0000

It’s a pretty unlucky scenario when patients who checked into the Edmonton General Hospital sleep disorder clinic in order to find the cause of their sleep disturbances are woken in the middle of the night and sent home due to bed bugs. This article from the Edmonton Journal describes just such a situation.

Sleep disorder clinic patient Dawn Blue was sent home in the middle of the night after another clinic patient saw bed bugs climbing up the wall of the next room.

The clinic had been closed after bed bugs were first discovered on December 17th:

When staff members first noticed bedbugs Dec. 17, they immediately closed the clinic, contacting both a public health inspector and a pest extermination company.

The mattresses and furniture were sprayed and the rooms were fumigated.

The clinic remained closed for its annual Christmas hiatus, from Dec. 19 to Jan. 5, during which time it was sprayed again.

The public health inspector and the exterminator returned before it reopened, and, following a thorough examination, gave the clinic a clean bill of health.

It resumed normal operations, until Monday, that is, when Blue was sent home and the clinic closed once more to allow for more fumigation.

The article states that Dawn Blue discovered the itchy effects of bed bug bites on various parts of her body the next morning.

The time-line is this: bed bugs were spotted 12/17, there were two spray treatments in less than three weeks, and the public health inspector and exterminator then declared the facility bed bug-free on 1/5. The next bed bugs were found two weeks later on 1/19.

It is not surprising that the clinic would become infested with bed bugs in the first place, since guests were allowed to bring their own pyjamas, pillows, and other items (on order to simulate a comfortable, home-like environment).

What is surprising, however, is that according to the article, the Alberta Health Services spokesperson Rob Stevenson appears to believe that the reappearance of bed bugs in January was “a terrible coincidence.”

He says,

“In the most unfortunate of coincidences and, despite the fact that every day all of the material in the clinic goes through a specific laundering process, between Jan. 5 and Jan. 19, one of the participants brought bedbugs in with their belongings,” Stevenson said.

He appears to be claiming that this is a new infestation, not the re-surfacing of an existing problem that was not 100% eliminated as they had thought. I am really not sure how someone can make this claim with any certainty, given the circumstances.

In my mind, the appearance of bed bugs one month after their first discovery, and after two spray treatments, does not necessarily mean the facility was “coincidentally” infested a second time by a new patient, as Stevenson seems to think, even if inspectors were able to find no signs of bed bugs in a visual inspection.

Many cases of bed bugs take more than two treatments. There is no way of being sure the facility did not harbor some bed bugs after being pronounced “clear.” We’re told even very experienced professionals cannot be 100% sure a space is bed bug-free. Human visual inspections are imperfect, and even well-trained bed bug sniffing dogs — which have a much better success record — are not 100% effective in detecting bed bugs.

Although a new patient can certainly bring in bed bugs at any time (and many Edmonton residents are, sadly, well-acquainted with Mr. Cimex Lectularius), it seems like the odds are also good that some bed bugs and/or eggs remained after the second treatment and simply were not spotted by the inspectors.

Anyway, the good news is that patients will no longer be able to bring items from home into their beds.

Other hospitals take note: we’ve heard complaints from people who believed they brought bed bugs home from maternity wards and sleep disorder clinics.

Steps need to be taken to reduce the spread of bed bugs, and as much as people need to be comforted while in the hospital, it is of the utmost importance that they do not suffer from bed bug bites there; it’s even more important they don’t bring bed bugs home.

You can read the full article here.Similar Posts:

Seattle Housing Authority, you are smart about bed bugs

nobugsonme — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 06:45:23 +0000

The Seattle Housing Authority (SHA) is buying a bed bug dog to sniff out public housing buildings for bed bugs. NWCN reports:

In Seattle Housing Authority low-income buildings over the past three months the problem has exploded. The critters are becoming resistant to insecticides.

Now the SHA is spending $35,000 to take control.

Smart thinking — because we’re told many (if not most) people do not react to bed bug bites.

If you don’t react, and you don’t see bed bugs, you do not complain. And so your apartment stays infested with no one the wiser.

A pro-active inspection program is a great idea for any apartment building. No, bed bug dogs are not 100% effective in sniffing out bed bugs, but they do a lot better than most humans, I’d venture.

Done properly — with a well-trained bed bug k9 and a knowledgeable trainer — this detection method can be effective. And less time-consuming than having an experienced PCO search (which, many tell us, takes more than an hour to do properly, in a not-very-big apartment).

The SHA is also investing in thermal remediation technology (ThermaPure Heat). And the SHA will be educating residents on how to spot bed bugs.

But one of the best things they can do is keep that bed bug k9 “Bugsy” circulating around and around the units of SHA buildings, before anyone complains about a single bite or sighting.

Combining an effective and pro-active detection method with an effective bed bug remediation method?

Smart, Seattle Housing Authority. Smart.

Go to NWCN.com to see the video.Similar Posts:

KillerQueen speaks! Over at New York vs. Bed Bugs…

nobugsonme — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 02:37:25 +0000

The NYC Pest Control Operator known as KillerQueen on our Bedbugger Forums is, in fact, John Furman, who runs Boot-a-Pest.

The hardest working bed bug activist and blogger, Renee Corea, did a nice in-depth interview with him over on New York vs. Bed Bugs.

Furman’s magic secret may be his belief in careful, detailed inspections:

The inspection for bed bugs takes time. Not 10 or 15 minutes either. My inspections for low level infestations take an hour and a half or more. I don’t do free inspections and if you have a problem, I will usually find it. I turn furniture upside down, I remove the batting on your box spring, and I spend a half hour just looking at your bed. I check behind pictures, pull the edges of carpeting up, etc. This type of inspection and service I can’t do for free.

But the importance of a thorough inspection is paramount. I have done inspections for people suffering from fleas, carpet beetles, etc. they insisted they had bed bugs but no evidence proved there suspicions. They were confident in my findings and moved on to resolve the true problem at hand.

Many PCOs will search for bed bugs, but readers regularly report their inspections lasted for fifteen minutes or less. Some people watch as a PCO pokes around for ten minutes before declaring them “bed bug free.”

Some people, of course, don’t have bed bugs. But the industry really needs to face the fact that cursory “inspections” won’t do.

The next step for many who have such a cursory inspection, but who cannot determine any other reason for their skin problems, is to bring a bed bug k9 team in to inspect. And dogs can be a real help in many cases.

Here’s the problem: if your dog alerts to bed bugs, but the PCO who subsequently comes in to treat still does not inspect carefully, won’t it be difficult to make sure all harborages are detected and treated?

Be sure and read the rest of Renee’s discussion with John Furman, here.Similar Posts:

Bed bugs on Today with Meredith Viera and Janice Lieberman, today

nobugsonme — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 17:46:20 +0000

The video below, from the the Today Show, focuses on the tenacity of bed bugs (giving the example of one family who spent $6000 on treatment and then had a dog come in because they still had bed bugs). What went wrong?

It contains some not quite precise information (Bill Whitstine of Florida Canine Academy is credited as Bill Whitestone). The show also cited the University of Florida bed bug k9 research, saying a recent study found “dogs were 98% accurate in finding bed bugs.”

Bed bug dogs can be an effective tool for detecting the presence of bed bugs. But the statement out of context is misleading to consumers new to the idea of bed bug detecting dogs, since it does not clarify that the training a dog receives and the handler it is working with probably make a big difference in terms of the dog’s effectiveness for the job. The site conditions are also relevant to the effectiveness of the dog, or so we have been told.

Nevertheless, we are always glad to see bed bugs in the news, because it helps raise awareness. Consumers need to be aware of how costly and difficult it can be to get rid of bed bugs.

Update (10 minutes later): Doug Summers, who is the bed bug dog handler featured (but not named) in the video, tells us the home had four vikane treatments. The family is probably being reinfested via some source. See Doug’s comments in the forums.Similar Posts: