Author Paul Bello interviewed PCOs in various cities about their current bed bug-fighting tactics, including Austin Frishman of AMF Pest Management Services in Boca Raton, Fla., who did many bed bug jobs forty or so years ago, and said of those times, “When I was a technician, we used cyanide egg gas pellets.” Do not try this at home, please.

“Bed bugs are not a simple problem to get rid of,” stresses Frishman. “They require knowledge and a willingness to work hard. As an industry, we are needed more now than ever.”

Ain’t that the truth.

The article offers these recommendations to professionals dealing with Sneaky Simes:

Bed Bug Management: Steps to Success

* Properly train your service technicians.
* Provide customers with written pre-treatment preparation instructions.
* Provide customers with a clearly written description of the scope of your services and reasonable expectations.
* Ensure your service agreement states what you intended.
* Provide your customers with viable prevention recommendations.
* Be thorough.
* Use all viable control means available.
* Use non-traditional control techniques, combined with insecticide treatments.
* Use suitable vacuums.
* Use suitable steamers.
* Use the best-available products at the appropriate label rates.
* Use mattress encasements.
* Follow up in a timely and adequate fashion.
* Consider getting additional help for problem bed bug accounts.

Part 2 is said to be “coming in April” but doesn’t seem to be available online yet.

Thanks to hopelessnomo for the tip!

• FAQ: advice on getting treatment to eliminate your bed bugs
• Consumers, before you hire one, find out what that bed bug dog can do!
• how stealthy bed bugs can be
• new mattress protectors available

ShareThis

It contains lots of solid advice about not picking up curbside furniture, being wary of Craigslist finds, and searching for fecal spots and blood stains. But it also contains some advice we don’t normally see. Especially pertinent, this comment from our friend Lou Sorkin, an entomologist at the American Museum of Natural History. (Hear him talk about bed bugs and other pests today–Tuesday–at 10:40 on 99.5 WBAI in NYC, or listen to the streaming live audio here.)

The telltale signs of their presence are itchy welts on your body, frequently in clusters of three or more. You might see tiny red or brown marks on your sheets where you’ve crushed bugs in the night. If you suspect infestation, check under carpets and in moldings, and survey mattresses, box springs, and bed frames. Look for feces and shed skins. And look for nymphs: “Ninety-nine percent of papers written on bedbugs neglect to mention that a bedbug starts as a tiny egg and hatches from it to become a [1- to 1.6-mm.] nymph that’s translucent white,” says Louis Sorkin, entomologist at the American Museum of Natural History. “If people knew to look for nymphs, they could head off the problem much sooner.” The bugs pass through six stages of development and feed at least once during each, which means you can get bites before there are full-grown adults visible. If you think you have a problem but can’t find anything, press packing tape or a lint roller underneath carpet and in the corners of beds. Nymphs and eggs will stick to it.

Lou is bringing up a really important point here: many people first see a bed bug that is a fed or unfed nymph. And neither bed bug will look much like the image of an adult bed bug typically pictured in a media story. The first five photos in our page with photos of bed bugs and signs of bed bugs convey the enormous visual difference between fed vs. unfed first instar nymphs, and between nymphs vs. adults. Since people who have not yet had bed bugs often hear of them via the two-minute segment on Fox, or an article in their local paper, it would be best if more news outlets would feature a visual comparison giving people some awareness of this range when and if they do encounter a bed bug.

The article warns people against self-treating with Raid or foggers / bombs, and talks about the importance of dealing with clothing properly, notifying neighbors, and getting a professional in.

What I found most interesting was the final paragraph, which was centered around the need for action on the part of the city:

SEE SOMETHING (DISGUSTING), SAY SOMETHING

Last week, bedbugged tenants mounted a Craigslist-based attack on their Greenpoint building, and protesters in front of the Department of Health demanded action on asthma-exacerbating roaches and rats. They’re not the only ones who think the city could do more to crush creeping menaces. “Bedbugs are a major mental-health issue. I get tired of the Department of Health saying, ‘It’s not a physical issue, so we’re not going to focus on it,’” says Upper West Side council member Gale Brewer. She (and many exterminators) advocate a campaign along the lines of the subway-safety ads to spread word about bug-suppressing preventive steps. Other strategies: certification of bedbug-specialist exterminators and bans on mattress resales. To fight other pests, exterminators would like the DOH to enforce pre-demolition extermination laws more aggressively and hire more pest-control experts to manage parks and public spaces. For its part, the DOH says it has retrained staff after the KFC/Taco Bell rat debacle and is working on plans to combat residential bedbug and rodent problems.

I am really glad that Gale Brewer, who originally proposed the ban on reselling used mattresses in NYC, is still speaking out against bed bugs and their very real negative effects on health. I hope we will get an update on the NY City Council Bed Bug Task Force that was begun over a year ago, but is yet to take action (to our knowledge).

The recommendations here–enforcement of pre-demolition extermination laws, the mattress re-sale ban, and the certification of bed bug specialist PCOs are all good ones. We’ve been talking about the need for a public education campaign (subway ads, TV ads, and so on) since Bedbugger.com started.

Finally, Kirsch said, when describing what to do when you determine you do have bed bugs,

Don’t terrify yourself with horror stories on the Internet; check informative sites like Bedbugger.com.

Informative is good: thanks, Melissa Kirsch! We’re doing our best to get information out there and help people with bed bugs stay as calm as possible, so they can fight bed bugs in an effective way.

I hope we can also have something to do with getting people involved–maybe not so calmly–in fighting for change in public policies, like the ones suggested in this article. It’s always a good time to call your city council representative, or to write to the mayor, about bed bugs. Wherever you live, whether it’s New York, Halifax, Melbourne, or Lexington, Kentucky, take a moment to tell a local politician that bed bugs had a serious impact on your life–whether it was on your family, your finances, your job, and your health.

New Yorkers:
Click here to email Mayor Bloomberg.
Click here to look up and email your city council representative.
Click here to email Gale Brewer about the Bed Bug Task Force even if you’re not in her district.

And here’s a few words from the Rolling Stones–way back in 1978–that still ring true:

Don’t you know the crime rate is going up, up, up, up, up
To live in this town you must be tough, tough, tough, tough, tough, tough, tough!
You got rats on the west side,
Bed bugs uptown!
What a mess– this town’s in tatters
I’ve been shattered
My brain’s been battered, splattered all over Manhattan

Pop this mp3 on your iPod and muse on how little things have changed. And don’t forget: email your city council representative and remind them there are, once more, “bed bugs uptown.”

• NYC Bed Bug Task Force / City Council Update
• Update on New York State bed bug legislation (parental notification re: bed bugs in school)
• Finally, somebody does something: Cincinnati’s new Bed Bug Remediation Commission
• Urgent: if you’re in Cincinnati…

ShareThis

WCPO.com’s Lynn Groud reported on the event last Monday. Hundreds of bed bug sufferers turned out. One speaker said:

“For many older adults, they are a 24-hour a day problem. Their homes are so infested they are visible during the day, crawling on the older adult, crawling on the walls,” said one speaker.

City, county and state leaders answered questions, acknowledging that bed bugs are multiplying and moving in to more and more homes at an alarming rate.

“Some of the bed bugs will go into the mattress, they will put their eggs into the mattress,” said Ken Hippner, of Command Pest Management. “So, we go out and kill what we can see – then go weeks or months later – and the eggs hatch and have new bed bugs emerging.”

But hiring an exterminator can cost hundreds of dollars – and many at the town meeting were hoping the city would offer more help.

“That’s what I want to know,” said Collins. “Are they gonna come out and do this free, because I can’t afford it and neither can these poor people.”

That’s what we want to know too!

WCPO reports that the Cincinnati Bed Bug Task Force “are planning an emergency meeting and hope to come back in December with more solutions.” Lets hope financial assistance for landlords and homeowners is at the top of the list.

Click to watch WCPO.com’s video or read the article.

However, one reader, entoman, apparently attended the event, and had this to say:

entoman said:

November 6th, 2007 at 10:19 am edit

The Bed Bug Town Hall meeting was very confusing. Obviously the people on the Bed Bug Task Force did not compare notes before they presented their information. The Commissioner of Cincinnati Health Department stated you do not need a professional, you need an integrated plan that would include the use of soap and water. Another official stated temperatures of 98 degees will kill all bed bugs. Even another stated that pesticides do not work. Hamilton County Health Director said to sleep with the lights on (this would prevent bed bugs from biting). He also said to use 90% isopropyl alcohol (there are legal issues with this in Ohio). The information pamphlets that were handed out contradicted all of this and said home remedies do not work.

The only positive thing is that Susan Jones from Ohio State is on the Task Force. Dr. Jones is known for her research with termites but is starting to get into bed bugs. Hopefully she will be the voice of reason.

As I said in the other thread, I really appreciate having the perspective of an actual attendee (and one who is, judging from his pseudonym and his comments, an entomologist). The recommendations quoted above are a reason why government officials need to have all their ducks in a row, when it comes to speaking to the public about bed bugs. Bed bug experts need to be involved in the planning, and officials need to get their story straight as far as what to recommend and what not to recommend. Having pamphlets that recommend one thing and speakers suggesting the opposite is not going to help attendees fight their bed bugs.

Public education around bed bugs is needed for consumers, but to make a difference, and avoid confusion, we have to start by educating the people who are working in government and social services.

• Urgent: if you’re in Cincinnati…
• Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana hold tri-state “Emergency Meeting” about bed bugs
• Finally, somebody does something: Cincinnati’s new Bed Bug Remediation Commission
• Cincinnati city/county combined bed bug task force drafts bed bug plan, not a moment too soon

ShareThis

• bed bugs in Toronto; Vancouver; Billings, MT,
• bed bug news for 2007-11-09
• Bed bugs in homeless shelters, casinos, hotels, apartments: Waynesboro, Atlantic City, Greenpoint, Toronto
• bed bug news for 2007-11-16

ShareThis

First, Donna Freydkin published twin articles in USA Today on Tuesday: one about her personal experiences with bed bugs, and one about others’ experiences. There was also a sidebar alerting people to the dangers of curbside mattresses, the problems of foggers, and other important stuff. Especially interesting, since USA Today is distributed free in hotels around the USA, is this warning to travelers:

Be careful where you put your suitcase when you travel. “These guys are fantastic hitchhikers,” says the University of Maryland’s Michael Raupp. “If you have a luggage rack with metal racks, put your suitcase on that.”

Check behind a hotel headboard. That’s one of their favorite spots, Raupp says. Pull back the comforter and sheets and look for the fecal stains on the mattress seams and ticking. Shine a penlight behind the headboard and look for dark fecal stains.

There are some points in the article that are not fully explained and might mislead people (for example, drying for ten minutes on hot will not be enough if the item being dried is wet, an important bit of information if anyone is actually going to treat their clothing based on such a recommendation). Also, many pros recommend not getting rid of your mattress or box springs. Doing so when unnecessary is a good way to give your neighbors bed bugs; a good mattress encasement will usually be enough. However, despite these details, Ms. Freydkin did speak with Dr. Michael Potter, whose unofficial fan club is right here. And bed bug news in such a popular paper is always good.

Meanwhile, in other news, the Minnesota Star Tribune asks, “How safe are your kids at college?” and among the many other concerns addressed, bed bugs:

Look for evidence of bedbugs — fecal staining that resembles an accumulation or a scattering of pepper — around baseboards, along cracks and crevices and furniture in rooms where people rest, such as bedrooms or TV rooms.

Prevent infestation: Resist the temptation to scavenge mattresses, sofas or other furniture set out by curbs or behind stores, said [University of Minnesota Assistant Professor of Entomology Stephen Kells]. They can harbor bedbugs. Don’t encourage cockroaches. Keep counters clean and remove garbage regularly. Wipe surfaces and sweep floors frequently. Pick up papers, boxes and other clutter that gives cockroaches places to hide.

Ask about infestation: Ask the landlord the last time the place was evaluated for infestations and if the building is on a regular control and prevention program, said Kells. Remember, treating just one apartment for infestation is ineffective. The whole building needs treatment, combined with prevention tactics.

Good advice.

Finally, from the good-blog capital of Brooklyn, Greenpointers has posted an image of an ad that appeared on Craigslist Monday, in which current or former tenants of the Astral put up a bed bug warning to potential tenants.

The ad (NYC ad #469469878) reads:

This is a warning: two former tenants of the astral (the large beautiful building in greenpoint on the corner of java and franklin) have moved out due to a BEDBUG infestation, and it is rumored that the entire floor is moving out because of the same problem.

Make sure that you discuss this with your realtor/potential roomate before moving in!

This is a serious posting, not a prank–I thought it was something people should know before moving in, to protect themselves! I would want to know.

You can go to Greenpointers to see an image of the actual ad. (Clever bloggers: Craigslist usually removes these kinds of ads tout de suite.)

We’re not breaking the news on the Astral-bed bugs allegation. But Curbed, NewYorkShitty, and the BedBugBlog commenters have that covered. The building also has two entries on the Bed Bug Registry. Rumor has it Mae West once lived in the Astral.

• Bed bugs in homeless shelters, casinos, hotels, apartments: Waynesboro, Atlantic City, Greenpoint, Toronto
• Sunday, Buggy Sunday
• When I say the title of the blog, it makes me feel like Sean Connery
• Forget black mattress stains, bed bugs, shells, and eggs: NMPA press release tells consumers to look for “blood spots”

ShareThis

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.

• Bed bug dogs in the news
• Consumers, before you hire one, find out what that bed bug dog can do!
• University of Florida tests bed bug dogs
• Abbey the Bed Bug Dog: news report

ShareThis

Terry says, “A pest control program for bed bugs is very detailed. You’ve got to get all the crevices. We are doing a little more than we really need to, but it’s to make sure we don’t have a problem in the future.”

That means Terry’s son, Tony, has to bag contents of every locker in the school, and then spray those contents with an insecticide.

Tony and his mother are wearing only gloves now, but when the heavy fumigation gets underway, they’ll be wearing face masks, too.

I am interested in these methods, since I have not heard PCOs here talking about spraying into bags of belongings. Perhaps a PCO would tell us what this might be.

I initially thought it was a good thing that Bracken County Schools were taking bed bugs seriously after finding a bed bug in school, since cities like New York City are so slow to take action against similar situations. My initial positive sense was based on Bracken County’s willingness to treat schools for bed bugs. I thought that their treatment of every school in the district was based on a sense that bed bugs must be more widespread than in just this one school.

Now, however, I am becoming more concerned about the community’s response, especially their apparent obsession with pinpointing its source. It betrays a lack of education about bed bugs and their behavior, which appears to be a prevalent problem elsewhere too.

Parents in Brooksville are divided about the schools closing an extra day just for bed bugs.

Elizabeth Aulick, a mother of two Bracken County students says, “Yeah, it does concern me, but the letter I got said they only found one bug. If it’s one bug isolated to one child, keep him home for a few days.”

A mother of three Bracken County students, including one at the Middle School says, “I guess it’s a little unexpected. I never expected something like this, but I guess it’s a good thing. Just to be on the safe side. It didn’t both me, I said, ‘Well, that’s fine.’”

The school fumigation in Bracken County is getting the full support of the county health department there.

I am glad the health department in Bracken County recognizes bed bugs as a concern, since many don’t. However, I have to say that what’s being said about the child in this case is absurd.

People in Bracken County must not associate the schools’ bed bug issue, if they indeed have one, with this one student who may have had the bed bug on his things or on his clothing. Bed bugs can live and breed in schools or in school buses or public transportation, and they can crawl onto students at any of these locations (as well as many others). As we have taken pains to explain in the past, the presence of a bed bug on a person or their things absolutely does not prove the person brought the bed bug in.

All parents, including those of the child who was bitten by the bed bug, must search at home and have a qualified PCO inspect if anyone is complaining of bites or if they see any bed bugs or possible signs. However, it is crucial that parents and school officials realize that bed bugs are not lice, and do not live on people. They crawl on, feed, and run away. If a bed bug is found on a person in a school, it does not mean the person brought the bed bug to the school.

I would assume the Bracken County School officials know this, since they are treating every school, and not just the one the bed bug was found in. And yet it does not sound like the parents or media have been picking up on that fact.

If the child did indeed have had an infestation at home and brought them into the school, then his family, too, caught them from somewhere. They spread easily. And everyone should be alert. Everyone should be asking where this family might have picked up bed bugs: parents’ workplace? YMCA? School? Bus? Motel? Because where they got them, you can get them too.

However, the child should not be blamed, nor should he be kept home. People with active infestations need to take some steps to avoid spreading bed bugs. Treating the child himself as if he were contagious is an ignorant mistake.

• Schools in Bracken County, KY shut down due to bed bugs
• NYC Bedbuggers: time to have some local politicians over for a bite or two
• New York City public schools continue to be treated for bed bugs
• Spring break bed bug warnings!

ShareThis

Blogger 5chw4r7z in Cincinnati snapped this photo of a sign hawking coffee with this come-on:

“Got Bed Bugs? Get *Pronto* / Folgers Classic Roast Coffee $1.99.”

No, the sign is not telling you to buy Folgers right away to help you stay up late at night washing, drying, and bagging. “Pronto” is a spray.

This is Pronto:

Active Ingredients: 3-Phenoxybenzyl-(1RS, 3RS, 1RS, 2 SR)-2,2-Dimethyl-3-(2-Methylprop-1-Enyl) Cyclopropane Carboxylate 0.4%; N-Octyl Bicycloheptene Dicarboxamide 1.6%.

People of Cincinnati, this spray is not going to wipe out your bed bug problems. Bed bugs are seriously difficult to treat. If they were this easy, that would be the end of the blog, and we could all buy a bottle and spray it out and call it a day. We’re here because even with experienced help, it can take weeks and months to eliminate bed bugs from your home–even a small infestation. And if you start treating it yourself, you can even make things worse.

The Cincinnati Bed Bug Remediation Commission seems to be pushing furniture removals (when, in fact, tossing your furniture is often not necessary). Are they getting word out to residents that they need professional help in fighting their bed bugs? This applies to homeowners, and renters as well. It is hard enough eliminating bed bugs from a single-family home. But if you are in a multi-unit building, your neighbors are likely infested too. Those units above, below, or on all sides of your apartment must be professionally inspected and treated if necessary. (Just because someone has not noticed bed bugs does not mean they do not have them.) In some cases, entire buildings will need treatment. Landlords or building management must be involved and they must get a professional who knows bed bugs in to deal with the problem.

And Cincinnati also advises its citizens not to hop down to the convenience store, but to get professional help for bed bugs. According to a Q&A on the Fox News website,

Q: Who do I call if I think my home or apartment has bedbugs?

A: You may choose to contact a licensed pest control to determine if you have an infestation and to provide bug control services. The Cincinnati Health Department does not conduct inspections for bed bugs, but can provide information.

Q: What number do I call for information about bed bugs?

A: Call 591-6000 and press option 1 for Health Information and option 2 for Trash Collection Information.

Notice there is no option to “Ask for help paying for treatment.” In Boston, the Allston-Brighton Community Development Corporation did provide such assistance to homeowners, with corporate grants as well as state funding. And they’re doing it again this year. I believe that bed bugs are going to continue to spread if they aren’t properly treated, and so the government must step in and provide help for those who cannot afford treatment.

If you are a landlord, or homeowner, and you are forced to forego treatment, under-treat, or self-treat because you cannot afford professional pest control services, you need to call the city’s bed bug hotline, local politicians, and local news media, and spread the word. You need to agitate until the city does more than cart away bed bug-infested furniture.

Bed bugs are not roaches or ants.
Bed bugs are not roaches or ants.
Bed bugs are not roaches or ants.

They are much harder to eradicate.

So do not walk into a convenience store. Get real help. Do your homework: start here.

• Saskatoon professional development conference apparently bedbugged
• Pray and Spray
• Bed Bug Success Stories: Collette and a professional steamer
• Spraying is just the beginning…

ShareThis

The plaintiff Elizabeth Glenn and her daughter stayed at the Rodeway Inn, and later experienced itchy welts. Glenn called the local health department, who inspected the room.

An official later inspected the room where she and her daughter stayed and found bed bugs in the bed. Glenn and her daughter’s belongings were damaged when they were sprayed with a sanitizing liquid and insect killer.

In the lawsuit, attorney Barry R. Taylor said it was the hotel’s responsibility to maintain the premises and take reasonable precautions to protect guests. However, the hotel breached those duties when it allowed the rooms to become infested with biting, disease-carrying bed bugs, he said.

“The defendant’s conduct was so outrageous and egregious that it offends the community standards of morals and decency,” wrote Taylor in the suit.

A manager who answered the telephone at Rodeway Inn said the hotel had not been served the lawsuit on Monday and declined to comment on any insect problems.

This is the second recent article in which hotel guests who saw (or in this case suspected) bed bugs in the hotel room, called the health department and had the room inspected by them and found to have bed bugs. I would definitely recommend that people call the local health department, as well as leaving a review on tripadvisor.com, and in the Bed Bug Registry (see links), whenever they encounter (or think they encounter) bed bugs in a hotel or motel.

UPDATE (11/4):

According to Patrick Terpstra of WVEC.com,health inspectors found “one living bed bug,” and ordered the hotel to “clean”:

The Health Department searched room 208, where the family stayed, and found one living bed bug in the room. Inspectors ordered the hotel to clean the room immediately.

The owner, Sanjay Gandhi, says he’s kept 208 off the market ever since and threw out the sheets and mattresses.

“I’ve never saw any bed bugs here and I don’t know what else I can say,” said Gandhi.

It does not sound like a pest control operator was employed. If there were more bed bugs in the room, then closing it off may have encouraged them to spread and seek other sources of food.

This does not sound good, if the story is accurate.

• bed bugs in Virginia Beach (again), Brown County, Ohio, and potential health risks
• Rockford, IL: half of Red Roof Inn shut down due to bed bugs
• Winnipeg HoJo gets sued over bed bugs
• Bed bugs in hotels: how to report (and check up on) bed bug infestations

ShareThis

“There’s a lot of folks who don’t bother to call us. They’re embarrassed. The social connotation goes back to the early 1900s; they were associated with slummy places. And that’s not the case now,” said Michael Waldvogel, an entomologist with the N.C. Cooperative Extension. The bugs are a problem all over the country, experts say.

Waldvogel says he has gotten reports of bedbugs from across the state — some tied to vacationers bringing them home from beach houses or hotels.

Perhaps a few of them can also be tied to the reselling of used, unsanitized mattresses in Charlotte, N.C. This woman claimed to purchase a heavily infested bedroom suite from another N.C. retailer. Judging from these two stories alone, we can see how easily North Carolina, or any other state, would acquire a bed bug epidemic.

Getting back to the article,

… getting rid of [bed bugs] isn’t simple. Waldvogel advises hiring a skilled professional, in part because it’s important to consider carefully what chemicals to spray in living areas such as bedrooms.

“The person who treats your home should spend more time with a flashlight than a sprayer,” he said.

We’ve heard that advice before, but Bedbuggers tell us this PCO is a rare find indeed.

At Bayer Environmental Science in Research Triangle Park, entomologists are working to develop new techniques and make existing products more effective against bedbugs. Training is a big component of Bayer’s work, said Byron Reid, product development manager.

“There are thousands of pest control professionals out there who have never had to do the bedbug job,” he said. Bayer runs a training facility for pest control operators in Clayton, N.C., where it can re-create bedrooms and apartments to train in proper techniques.

If they want additional training grounds, maybe Advanced Hotel Services in Charlotte could just hand over a list of hotels who purchased mattresses from them while they had 600 unsanitized used hotel mattresses in stock. And then the hotels could hand over a list of people who stayed in the rooms in which those mattresses are used.

I bet some of them are suffering pretty badly right now and would not mind some PCOs coming in and learning bed bug-fighting techniques in their homes. Break out those flashlights, fellas!

• inspectors find 600 unsanitized mattresses at Charlotte, N.C. used furniture store
• Stirring up anti-immigrant sentiment in Charlotte: let’s start the blame game
• Mr. K, a North Carolina bed bug dog, in action
• Bed bugs: what’s really working?

ShareThis