Joe Fiorito has an excellent new article today, and it represents a departure from many of his past bed bug stories, which focused on individual stories of life with bed bugs, often focusing on low-income and elderly tenants.

This time, Fiorito reports on a presentation by Dr. Michael Potter, long one of our favorite entomologists, who spoke at a Canadian pest control conference recently.

He describes the wonders of thermal treatment (which we agree is very appealing, but will not work and should not be tried as a do-it-yourself remedy). He also notes that bed bugs developed resistance to DDT (which we already knew).

Fiorito also notes that Potter questions why health departments are so reluctant to declare bed bugs a public health pest:

Potter noted that cities were quite willing in the past to declare bedbugs a public health menace. He seemed puzzled by our reluctance to do so today. He said, “This is the most serious pest of our generation.”

He’s right.

It’s important to remember that while having your city actively engaged in fighting bed bugs (as Toronto is, and most cities aren’t) is hugely important, it is not a cure-all. It’s just a start.

Bed bugs remain, and they stink.

Please do read Bed Bug News Only Gets Worse in the Toronto Star, today.Similar Posts:

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I was poking around some historical items, for reasons which will soon become revealed to you, dear readers, when I found an interesting document from the Commission for Environmental Cooperation which outlines the history of DDT in Canada, the US (the three countries represented on the CEC) until 1997.  Click here to load a PDF of History of DDT in North America to 1997, from the CEC.

Please understand: we don’t think DDT is a solution for bed bugs now. Sure — despite being ecologically-minded and kind of nervous around pesticides in general — like many of you, my first reaction to bed bugs was “Bring back DDT!”  However, learning more made me realize this was not practical, and not even an effective solution anymore. I don’t want to entertain a discussion of this.

The fact is, bed bugs started showing resistance to DDT as early as 1948 in Hawaii, and reports from the 1950s and 1960s, as well more recently, tell us that bed bugs were not killed when spraying with DDT was done for malarial mosquitos. (This BBC article from 2001 claims that DDT spraying for malarial mosquitos in South Africa made bed bugs more active. Shudder.)

If you don’t believe bed bugs are resistant to DDT, Renee has previously laid out all the evidence for you at New York vs. Bed Bugs, in this post, and I encourage you to check it out.

However, I do think this CEC history of DDT is relevant to us today, in terms of thinking about the laws around pesticides.

In 1969, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) cancelled the registration of certain uses of DDT (on shade trees, on tobacco, in the home, and in aquatic environments) after studying the persistence of DDT residues in the environment. Applications on crops, commercial plants, wood products, and for building purposes were cancelled by the USDA in 1970. Under the authority of the EPA, the registrations of the remaining DDT products and DDT-metabolites were cancelled on 4 January 1973, with the following exemptions: public health use for control of vector-borne diseases, USDA or military use for health quarantine, and use in prescription drugs for controlling body lice. All of these remaining uses were voluntarily cancelled (due to failure to pay maintenance fees) by October 1989.

Emphasis mine.

I had not realized that even after being outlawed in the US for home and agricultural use in 1970, and after being prohibited for most other uses in 1973, you could still legally get DDT until 1989 for some purposes including treating pests which caused vector-borne diseases (a category which does not include bed bugs) and for body lice.

This is relevant because, while DDT does not appear to be one of them, there are classes of chemicals which are currently outlawed in certain areas which are effective against bed bugs.  It is worth remembering that agencies can make exceptions to allow some of those substances to be labeled for bed bug use and allowed in controlled situations.  Winston gives us a glimpse of one product not available for this use in the US, Ficam, here:

… as mentioned in my first piece, misguided legislation have forced many products out of the market. Some due to legitimate concerns, some due to a lack of true scientific evaluation and feel-good politics, and some because they simply could not afford to maintain registration due to increased requirements. A prime example of this is Ficam, a material which is used elsewhere with a degree of success, but here in the US is no more. The same in fact would have been true of Drione, one of the remaining effective dusts. Prior to the bed bug outbreak this product was due to go by the wayside simply because of economics, and now it is probably one of the good long-term materials when used properly in wall voids, outlet covers and cracks and crevices.

As Winston has reminded us elsewhere, even pyrethrins are outlawed for use in city-owned buildings by Local Law 37.  Despite pyrethroid-resistance, pyrethrins can be an important part of a bed bug treatment plan.  This law is misguided and means residents of public housing, homes, kids in public school classrooms and people in city-run institutions may have less effective bed bug treatment.

And while some might think LL 37 is protecting New York citizens’ health, you have to ask yourself: if the pesticides prohibited in publicly-owned buildings, then they’d be outlawed in private schools and apartment  buildings too, not just in the city-owned buildings.

In New York, it’s one reason we need to encourage the city to take action.  Some legislative changes can help in the fight against bed bugs.

As Michael Potter said last summer at the PCT Bed Bug Seminar,

“If there is a classic example of why you don’t eliminate entire classes of pesticides,” Potter said, “bed bugs are it. We’re in a heap of trouble in terms of the products we have available to fight this pest,” citing several classes of chemistry that are no longer available (e.g., organophosphates, carbamates, etc.) and the growing threat of pyrethroid resistance. As a result, he said, “I don’t see how this problem is going to get better. I think it’s going to get chaotic. This is the most challenging pest I’ve encountered in my career. We’re in big trouble.”

We are in big trouble.

I don’t even know how to begin to help lobby for better pesticides.  I assume pest control operators, entomologists, and their professional organizations are doing so.  Maybe they can tell us if there’s something we bed bug activists can do to help.   It seems so essential that we get all the help we can get in fighting bed bugs.

Finally, because someone always asks: I am not pesticide-happy. I am, in fact, more enthusiastic about non-chemical solutions to bed bugs. Not only because they do develop resistance to pesticides, but also because I seek safe, ecologically-friendly, easy solutions to bed bug problems.

Steaming, thermal treatments, and other solutions are labor-intensive. Steam requires dedicated, persistent, repetead work (and in most cases, probably requires the backup use of targeted use of dusts or sprays).

Thermal treatments require an experienced operator and expensive equipment. For those who can afford it, and who have access to knowledgeable providers, this can be a good option. We can only hope that effective non-chemical options will become more widely available and less costly.

When we’re talking about the extensive spread of bed bugs, though, we have to be realistic about the types of treatment likely to be implemented. Making sure the most effective pesticides (or at least, a variety of pesticides, to help offset resistance to individual chemicals) is probably better for both people living with bed bugs, as well as the environment.  Because getting rid of the problem more quickly means less pesticides will be needed.

Once the bed bug epidemic is under control, and we’re back where we were in the 1970s, with isolated outbreaks, then we might be able to deal with the problem in other ways. We’re a long way from that situation.  And we will probably never get there again if pest control operators are not able to use whatever tools they can safely use in order to eliminate them.Similar Posts:

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Renee has an excellent interview with UK entomologist and bed bug expert Clive Boase posted over at New York vs. Bed Bugs today.

One of the strongest messages coming from the discussion is that, in the UK at least, bed bugs were declining in the 1930s — well before DDT was available — due to better management of infestations:

. . . regarding DDT, this is often claimed as being responsible for the demise of the bed bug in the late 1940s and 50s. However, here in the UK, bedbug infestation levels were declining fast in the late 1930s, some years before DDT was introduced. This decline coincided with the introduction of the Public Health Act 1936, which gave local authorities (i.e., local government organisations) powers and responsibilities to deal with vermin, including bedbugs. To me this suggests that effective bedbug control is as much about organisation and management, as it is about using high performance insecticides, although of course they help.

This should give us a lot of hope as to the possibility of getting a handle on bed bugs again — just by dealing with them in a smarter, more organized way.

To this end, Boase makes recommendations that will come as no surprise (and I am paraphrasing here): detecting infestations early (which requires a pro-active, not reactive stance), the availability of good pest control to everyone who needs it, laws that support access to dwellings to carry out necessary treatment, getting residents to fully participate with treatment, aggressive treatments to eliminate (not just reduce) bed bug numbers in a dwelling, and, finally, follow-up inspections, to make sure bed bugs are really gone.

While, as I say, these recommendations are no surprise, they nevertheless elude us at this time. From where I stand, most bed bug eradication activity is reactive and comes after someone complains (and generally only to the someone who complains).

We need to get to a place where that complaint leads to careful inspections (and possibly treatment) in attached or adjacent units. And where that treatment is routinely followed up by treatment and inspections ensuring the problem is entirely gone.

I strongly recommend everyone read this New York vs. Bed Bugs article in its entirety.

And after you’ve done so, New Yorkers, join our NY vs. Bed Bugs campaign. Because without government support, I can’t imagine us getting to the solutions Boase describes.Similar Posts:

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PCTOnline has a new article out in which Dr. Michael Potter explores bed bug history, and relates past bed bug stories to today’s situation.

The article is enlightening in that it describes how our ancestors, recent and long-past, dealt with bed bugs. Before they came under control (with the widespread use of DDT) in the early fifties, bed bugs were everywhere:

One interesting account from World War I states, “In the East African campaign the bugs invaded the cork lining of the sun helmets of the soldiers. As the helmets were piled together at night, all soon became infested and the soldiers complained of bugs attacking their heads.” (Medical Entomology, 1932). Bed bugs also occupied warships and the nooks and crannies of submarines.

But civilians had even more ingrained bed bug problems:

… bed bugs were common years ago in laundries, dressing rooms, factories and furniture upholstery shops. Theaters had big problems and sometimes had to tear out entire rows of seats and install new ones. Coat rooms and lockers in schools were commonly infested, as is happening again today. All modes of transport including trains, buses, taxicabs and airplanes were spreaders of bed bugs. A 1930s survey of 3,000 moving vans in Sweden found bed bugs on 47 percent, foretelling big concerns for moving and storage companies today. Perhaps most unnerving was that bed bugs used to be common in hospitals — another pattern from the past which has resurfaced in recent years (see “The Business of Bed Bugs,” Pest Management Professional, 2008). Heavy infestations of bed bugs likewise once occurred in poultry houses and were spread via the crates in which birds were shipped or held at market. A similar pattern in poultry production is reappearing today.

What resurfaces again and again above is that in regards to bed bugs in schools, moving and storage companies, hospitals, chicken production: “a similar pattern … is reappearing today.”

The article goes on to examine how treatments for bed bugs have evolved over the years.

Those new to the bed bug problem commonly call for the return of DDT. But the evidence is that this would not be the powerful solution today that it was when it was first released. Today’s bed bugs’ resistance to pyrethroids is mirrored in the resistance bed bugs began to show to DDT as early as 1947!

Failures were first noted in barracks of the Naval Receiving Station at Pearl Harbor in 1947 — only a few years after the product was introduced. During the next 10 years, other cases of DDT resistance were confirmed, and by 1956, the National Pest Control Association was recommending malathion as an alternative.

Other methods followed for sporadic bed bug infestations in the years after DDT came along:

Other products used during the 1950s to 1970s to control occasional infestations of bed bugs included diazinon (when the bugs became resistant to malathion), lindane, chlordane and dichlorvos (DDVP). Mattresses were sprayed and aired as part of the overall treatment. As with DDT, a single application often did the job, provided spraying was thorough. Sporadic recurrences of bed bugs during the 1980s were eliminated with organophosphate or carbamate insecticides, none of which are available today.

Dr. Potter’s words describing the future outlook are nothing if not foreboding:

All of society will be affected as infestations appear in the same places they had before. Besides homes and hotels, watch for them in such places as schools, theaters, and especially health care facilities. Small cities and towns will be spared for awhile but not for long. There will be new challenges this time around including an unprecedented mix and movement of people from across town and across the globe; more bug-friendly belongings and clutter in which to hide; fewer options and more restrictions in respect to fumigation; societal apprehensions about pesticides; and a pervasive feeling today that when someone is harmed they should sue.

Bed bug management will be handicapped until the chemical industry invents a safe, residually potent product with a permissive label. This will not be easy given the priorities and challenges facing our industry partners.

Today, on the downside, we have a much more mobile society, a lot more stuff, fewer chemical treatment options.

The upside is that we now have powerful dry vapor steamers and ziploc bags. Those two factors alone tell me it may be easier in some ways to live with bed bugs these days, but it may actually be harder to get rid of bed bugs.

And there lies the problem: don’t we really want to get rid of them? After all, bed bug bites are every bit as uncomfortable now as they were then.

Your best bet for getting rid of bed bugs is the same today as it was in 1940: thoroughness; Dr. Potter’s footnotes cite the following words of wisdom, from a 1940 pest control manual:

“Thoroughness is the key word and only experience will teach a man how to best find every possible place bed bugs may be harbored. Most operators take the beds completely apart and remove the casters from the bed legs. Dresser drawers are removed, rugs rolled back and pictures taken from the walls. Floor lamps are upturned, moldings pried loose in some cases and books and papers carefully examined…” — Bed Bug Spraying, Pests and Their Control, 1940.

Be sure to read the rest of Dr. Potter’s Lessons from the Past in the current PCTOnline magazine.

And if you want to learn more about current challenges with bed bugs and pesticide resistance, check out this PCTOnline article Insecticide-Resistant Bed Bugs–Implications for the Industry by Alvaro Romero, Michael F. Potter and Kenneth F. Haynes.

Similar Posts:

• NYC Department of Education advertises for bed bug killer
• “Bed bugs are back, and we’re not ready,” Sean Meagher tells Toronto
• Woman notifies hotel desk about bed bugs in room, is evicted from hotel
• Lou Sorkin, “The man who lets the bed bugs bite”
• Article on Lou Sorkin’s work in forensic entomology

by hopelessnomo

Bedbugger has been following the fascinating genetic research on bed bugs, a collaboration between the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville’s Insect Genetics Laboratory and Texas A&M’s Center for Urban & Structural Entomology, that illuminates a new perspective on the bed bug resurgence: the possibility that bed bugs were continuously present in the United States throughout the period when they were presumed to have been nearly eradicated.

Present and enjoying well-fed lives in chicken coops across the land.

This research has several interesting components and includes the successful isolation of human DNA from bed bugs, evaluations of pesticide resistance and population genetics.

Texas A&M associate research scientist Dr. James W. Austin was exceedingly kind to answer our questions via email.

Bedbugger: News reports about the research indicate the possibility that bed bugs are spreading or have spread in the past via chickens from breeder houses to poultry workers and to the community, is that correct? How significant a factor could this be in the bed bug resurgence in this country and others? And do New Yorkers, who live in a city of seventy or more viveros need to be concerned that urban live poultry markets may also be a conduit, not just via chickens but also via the business next door (structurally, the markets can be in the ground level of apartment buildings) and its employees and even customers?

James Austin: Yes, we have found significant populations of bed bugs in poultry facilities and given their unique ability to phoretically transfer (hitching rides on other organisms), bed bugs are very likely using alternate hosts (such as chickens) to fulfill their dietary needs. This could be a significant factor in the resurgence of bed bugs globally…not just in the USA. To suggest that all bed bug occurrences have emanated from international travel is unrealistic. There are undoubtedly endemic occurrences that are contributing to the resurgence phenomenon.

As for New Yorkers being concerned about live chicken markets…I would be concerned. You have to put bed bug history into context here. Likely, bed bugs were first associated with bats, moved onto humans that probably dwelled in caves, and then onto poultry. When you look at other Cimicids there is a significant number that have direct relationships to various domestic and wild birds, so it isn’t a stretch to see how bed bugs have utilized chickens (and other galliformes) as their food source.

Bedbugger: You have isolated human DNA from bed bugs. Do bed bugs have the potential of becoming a common and significant forensic indicator? Have they already been used in criminal cases?

James Austin: Bed bugs have tremendous potential for assisting forensic experts in criminal investigations, because unlike other obligate blood feeders both male and female bugs must consume a blood meal prior to molting. Bed bugs won’t stray too far away from their hosts if they are consistently available. This means that if you wanted to link a suspect in a criminal investigation to an exact location, you could get pretty darn close. Besides demonstrating that the recovery of human blood from bed bugs is possible, we have also conducted time course analyses and have demonstrated that we can recover mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) up to 7 days after feeding and short tandem repeat DNA (or STRs) up to 60 days. This offers a significant time window of opportunity for forensic investigators to possibly recover blood samples from bugs that were in proximity to a location of interest. There were no specific differences between male and females in terms of recovering human DNA. To our knowledge, there has not been a criminal investigation where human DNA recovered from bed bugs has been used, but this offers another view to forensic experts if all the right pieces of the jigsaw puzzle are there.

Bedbugger: What is the relevance of genetic population studies of bed bugs to the issues of pesticide resistance and what are the findings so far?

James Austin: If you contextualize genetics and resistance together an alarming (and not too unfamiliar) picture emerges. Based on our use of both mtDNA and nuclear DNA (nDNA) we find significant variation without population structure and support recency of the whole resurgence phenomenon. In other words, we genetically demonstrate no variation in nDNA (which supports recency of resurgence scenarios) and the lack of population structure with mtDNA suggests rapid movement of populations. Basically, this research supports what a lot of researchers believed was true without supporting it empirically.

Bedbugger: We want to make sure we understand the findings. You tested samples from chicken breeding facilities and also from field collections elsewhere in the U.S., is that correct? The genetic variation and population structure you found point to a) populations of bed bugs surviving over a continuous period (presumably on alternate hosts like the poor chickens), and b) a recent expansion of these bed bug populations. Or can we speak of a single, genetically simple population of bed bugs?

James Austin: Yes…we looked at populations collected from numerous locations in addition to poultry facilities. We employed two classes of genetic markers, mtDNA and nDNA. mtDNA provides a glimpse at the maternal lineage of any successive population since this is maternally inherited. nDNA share both parental contributions so you can at least get some perspective of the paternal input as well. In most cases it encodes more of the genome than the mtDNA and is passed sexually rather than matrilineally. Both genes can coevolve within the same populations at different rates. It takes significantly longer to observe changes in nDNA sequences than in mtDNA sequences.

By applying both to these disjunct populations, we are able to definitely support that bed bug resurgence is more recent (if there was significant variation here you would imply that change was going on and continued to go on for some time) and that the absence of population structure from mtDNA sequences supports large scale mixing of populations (if populations were isolated, you would likely detect geographic correlations with where certain haplotypes (of mtDNA) occur). I think it would be too simplistic to believe that all our bed bug problems originated from a single founding population. If this were so, you would have essentially no mtDNA variation because they would all be related. No…in this case there have been several points of origination and likely mixing of several populations which have culminated into the situation we have at hand.

Bedbugger: And the U.S. bed bug population genetic picture with regard to pesticide resistance? What is a “genetic bottleneck” and what are the implications?

James Austin: While screening multiple populations of bed bugs against various insecticides we have found virtually all populations were 100% resistant to DDT. This is not a surprise given that the first observances of DDT resistance were noted almost 50 years ago. It is a little surprising that they continue to be so completely resistant to DDT. This fact would support a “genetic bottleneck” where DDT susceptible populations were so aggressively challenged to DDT that it wiped them all out…only the highly resistant populations might have survived (a bottleneck), hence the relative freedom we have had from bed bugs for so many years. There are examples from other organisms that demonstrate cross resistance from one insecticide to another insecticide (largely because they have similar modes of action), but this doesn’t seem to be as common in bed bugs that we have evaluated from poultry facilities. Without doubt, we find resistant populations that have been challenged with organophosphates (OPs) and the like, so it is too early to assume anything yet. The bottom line here is that when it comes to treating bed bug infestations, careful lessons learned from cockroach management apply (rotate chemicals, good sanitation, applying push and pull techniques, etc.).

Bedbugger: But that is a tall order when it comes to bed bugs, isn’t it? Rotating chemical classes and push-pull (which, and please correct us if we’re wrong, we understand is a strategy to move insects towards treated surfaces via the use of attractants) is going to be hard because, well, we got nothing at present. Or is there hope in any of these areas? Can their aggregating habits favoring feces-marked locations be turned against them?

James Austin: You are correct in that the strategy of push-pull applications focuses movement to a desired area. However, it doesn’t necessarily mean towards a treated area. It is relatively clear that bed bugs favor warm foci for obvious reasons (if you are an obligate blood feeder, you can only find blood from a warm blooded animal…heat=possible meal). Push and pull techniques might employ non-repellent chemistries and heated target zones (or possibly traps). There is good evidence that bed bugs do prefer harboring in areas where feces is deposited. Studies on C. lectularius and other cimicids appear consistent in that they prefer these areas. Your last inquiry about turning their preferred roosting areas against them is one that you will see a lot more of in the near future.

Bedbugger: Can we hope that bed bugs will one day have the research footprint of termites or other economically important pests?

James Austin: In the short run they very well may already have that footprint. One of the reasons termites get people’s ire up so much is the thought of an unseen invader eating one of their most valued possessions, their home. Like termites, nothing would get my ire up a lot more than being fed on while I sleep or thinking about them on my children. This will take a little time, but I think there will be significant interest in bed bug research in the years to come.

Bedbugger: We want to end with a thought about the chickens. What is being done to alleviate their condition? It pains us to think of chickens suffering bed bug bites. Are current control methods having an effect?

James Austin: Unfortunately, no. Many large-scale poultry producers do not even have entomologists on staff to consider ways to manage resistance in these insects. Until producers change their ways, they are more likely to contribute to the problem than assist with correcting it. Now, to be fair to them, it isn’t their fault either. These insects have been around many, many years and they are doing what they do best, surviving at all costs. So, we needn’t be too alarmed that this has occurred, but we can’t just sit on our duffs hoping for better days either.

Heartfelt thanks to Dr. Austin for his generosity and this wonderful discussion.

You can access the bed bug human DNA forensics paper on the publications page at the Insect Genetics Lab and while you’re there, check out the video and photo resources.

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Update 9/09/08: North Carolina State University researchers have been awarded a USDA-NRI grant to, ambitiously, use bed bug population genetics to determine the source and movement of bed bugs, within buildings, cities and surrounding areas, and even between countries… and between poultry farms/urban environments, to determine whether poultry farms are important sources of the spread.  We look forward to hearing more from the researchers on the project, Warren Booth, Ed Vargo, and Coby Schal.Similar Posts:

• Bed Bug Lessons from the Past
• Article on Lou Sorkin’s work in forensic entomology
• More rumors of bed bugs at Fox News
• New York Mayor Bloomberg signs Bed Bug Advisory Board legislation
• The Simpsons namechecks our little friends

[Deleted.]

Sorry– the post is gone: removed at the request of the young person who wants to forget the whole thing ever happened. Traditional steps are being taken to eradicate bed bugs, and we wish this individual well.

Sorry to delete your comments which were so well-conceived, but we were all young once– Nobugs too!Similar Posts:

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An article in the New York Times today suggests we give some thought to the words of I. L. Baldwin, a man who suggested Rachel Carson was a bit too hard on pesticides.

Ms. Carson presented DDT as a dangerous human carcinogen, but Dr. Baldwin said the question was open and noted that most scientists “feel that the danger of damage is slight.” He acknowledged that pesticides were sometimes badly misused, but he also quoted an adage: “There are no harmless chemicals, only harmless use of chemicals.”

As you can guess, the outcome depends on your definition of “harmless use of chemicals.”

I share this article because you should read it. But perhaps we could all refrain from commenting unless we can be as balanced and calm as this article. I will too.

I can hear you now, “No, you did not just blog on the immigration-bed bugs smokescreen, and a DDT article in the Times in one day!”

Yes, I did. What third item of news would make this a Bedbugger Controversial Topics Trifecta?

I shudder to think.Similar Posts:

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This article is from a group that I would admittedly consider to have a bias but I’m allowing them to be the strange bedfellow in my bed (of course on risers) on this issue.

Bedbug Outbreak Hits All 50 States Thanks to DDT Ban

Written By: James Hoare
Published In: Environment News
Publication Date: June 1, 2007
Publisher: The Heartland Institute

Some excerpts:

“The irony is, as a pest problem bedbugs were virtually eliminated in the U.S. in the 1950s thanks to the use of DDT,” said Leonard Douglen, executive director of the New Jersey Pest Management Association, in an April 10 news release.

“Bedbug infestations have been on the increase in the United States for many years,” said Jay Lehr, science director for The Heartland Institute. “Hotels have been complaining about it for some time. There is little doubt that the loss of DDT in the Third World has allowed for the continuing increase.”

Many developing nations have banned DDT because the European Union has long refused to buy produce from nations where the effective pesticide is used.
Infestations Rising

….

Without DDT or other effective pesticides, bedbug colonies are difficult to exterminate. They may withstand weeks of treatment by today’s less effective pesticides.

….

“Perhaps as bedbugs hit home in the United States a stronger case can be made for returning to the use of the most important chemical ever produced by man,” said Lehr. Despite some environmentalists’ claims, “DDT has never thinned a bird egg or was a carcinogen to man. It is the best weapon humans have against disease-carrying insects.”

Click to read the entire article here.Similar Posts:

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