Today’s Room for Debate, entitled Bedbugs (Itch, Itch, Scratch, Scratch)! (hosted by the New York Times) has an excellent virtual roundtable, including posts by fabulous entomologists Lou Sorkin, Michael Potter, and Susan C. Jones.

Although Bonnie Friedman’s contribution waxes nostalgically for DDT (which isn’t going to happen, for all kinds of good reasons), we did also appreciate the presence of a former bed bug sufferer among the respondents.

As Renee said on New York vs. Bed Bugs today, the posts by Sorkin, Potter and Jones in particular would be a great resource for people anywhere trying to educate others about bed bugs.

Bookmark and share them with your skeptical, under-responsive or unresponsive landlord, health department, or legislator!Similar Posts:

• Bed bugs in the media: David Cain on British radio, Dr. Susan Jones in the Plain Dealer
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Bed bug specialists David Cain (of Bed-bugs.co.uk and active in our Bedbugger Forums) and Dr. Susan C. Jones (of Ohio State University) have been in the press this week, spreading good information about bed bugs.

David Cain was interviewed by BBC Derby’s Aleena Naylor on her morning show today. The approximately ten-minute interview starts at 1:42:35, so you can scroll through to it once the player loads.

It’s basically “bed bugs for beginners,” covering the basics, including these facts:

• bed bugs are not spread by lack of hygiene,
• they’re visible but you might not see them,
• they bite, but you may not react to bed bug bites,
• bed bug problems “can and should be controlled,” and
• people need to learn to inspect for bed bugs and their signs.

Have a listen before it disappears!

Also, last week, entomologist Dr. Susan C. Jones warned readers of Cleveland’s Plain Dealer about the spread of bed bugs.

Jones’s article focuses on the spread of bed bugs via people traveling and college students returning home.  It gives extensive advice about avoiding bed bugs while traveling, how to search a hotel room for bed bugs, what to do if you spot them in a hotel room, and key treatment advice:

If you suspect an infestation in your home, immediately contact a pest control company with experience in dealing with bed bugs. Don’t wait, because the problem will just get worse. And don’t use bug bombs. They rarely kill bed bugs but instead cause the bugs to scatter into areas you wouldn’t usually find them, such as your bathroom or kitchen.

Dr. Jones also recommends against boric acid, which we know does not work against bed bugs, and stresses that people should have their pest professional inspect a sample to ensure it is a bed bug (bat bugs and other creatures need different or additional kinds of treatment and action).  Dr. Jones also gives this excellent advice:

Always report bed bugs, although it may be difficult to know where to report such infestations. Start with your local health department, and if that’s not the right agency, ask who is responsible.

Not knowing who to report to is confusing and exhausting, readers tell me, but we have seen many instances reported in the media where health departments or other authorities took action and monitored situations, improving and speeding treatment to heavily infested properties.  It certainly cannot hurt, and it can definitely help.

Making these phone calls also reminds health department officials (and others they may pass you on to) that bed bugs are a problem where you live.  Your local officials need to understand this.

Thanks to David and to Dr. Jones for their tireless and valuable work in educating the public about bed bugs, their behavior, and how to spot and react to their presence.  The first battle in the fight against bed bugs is the battle against ignorance.Similar Posts:

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• Bed bug education event on Mississippi’s Gulf Coast Tuesday focused on prevention and IPM

Protect-a-Bed is hosting a live Twitter Q&A session about bed bugs with Bed Bug Central entomologists Richard Cooper and Jeff White (who is well known to Bedbugger Forum users).  (I quote below directly from a Press Release Protect-a-Bed sent me; thanks Laura!)

Beginning at 2 p.m. EST, on Tuesday, June 23, Protect-A-Bed is inviting the general public to log on to Twitter for a live Q&A session, where they can get instant answers to all of their burning bed bug questions. The nation’s leading provider of mattress protection products has partnered with BedBugCentral.com experts, entomologists Rick Cooper and Jeff White, who will be fielding questions and providing immediate feedback to participants during the discussion.

“The number of bed bug mentions on Twitter right now is right in sync with the recent surge in bed bug conversations taking place all across the board in other online communities,” said James Bell, CEO of Protect-A-Bed. “It all adds up to an incredibly troublesome issue and Protect-A-Bed is committed to educating the public on ways to control the problem before it gets even worse.”

All you need to do is go onto twitter on Tuesday, June 23rd at 2 pm, and post a tweet with the hash tag #PAB.  This will help Cooper and White to see your questions, and also enter you for a prize drawing from Protect-a-Bed (makers of bed bug proof encasements).

By using the hash tag “#PAB” in their tweets, participants’ questions will automatically be added to the queue of questions and answered in the order they are submitted. Participants will also be entered in a random drawing to win one of three prize giveaways, each including a Protect-A-Bed mattress encasement and set of pillow protectors.

Mattress encasements and pillow protectors are one of many bed bug management tools Cooper and White will likely address in their responses during the Q&A session on Twitter. Even before the issue held as prominent a spot as it does now at the national level, the experts have been immersed in the subject matter and have seen the drastic effects the pests can have on both private homes and public establishments all across the country.

“Getting rid of bed bugs is no easy task, but what so many people don’t realize is how easy it is to prevent an infestation in the first place,” said Cooper, co-author of Bed Bug Handbook- The Complete Guide to Bed Bugs and Their Control, which is the only comprehensive text about bed bugs and their control. “We’re hoping Protect-A-Bed’s Q&A will prompt some questions and conversations that get people thinking about ways they can prevent the onset of bed bugs, or at least identify an infestation before it gets out of hand. Jeff and I have a wealth of knowledge to share on this topic and we are excited to give people the opportunity to interact with us one-on-one in a space as popular as Twitter.”

Although we’re happy to say that people regularly get advice from excellent entomologists and bed bug professionals (as well as fellow bedbuggers) every day in our Bedbugger Forums, this seems like a nice opportunity to ask a quick question and get a quick answer.

And I stress quick: if you’re not familiar with Twitter, you have 140 characters per tweet.  That’s it!

If you’ve never used Twitter, don’t let this put you off of participating.  Just go to Twitter.com and sign up.  It’s free and easy.  You might want to join up before Tuesday at 2 pm, so you know you’ll be good to go then.

Once you sign on, you can “follow” people.  You can keep up with their tweets at the Twitter website, or get a Twitter client for your phone or other device.

You might want to follow Bedbugger!

And if you do join Twitter, please give us a shoutout by posting a tweet directed @bedbugger, so I know you’re out there.

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Entomologist Mike Merchant of Texas AgriLife Extension wrote on his “Insects in the City” blog Thursday about bug bombs, and why they are not a good treatment for bed bugs.

A highlighted quote in PMP magazine’s Buzz Online caught my eye today. Alex Barbarin is a graduate student at Penn State University studying bed bugs and their effects on low income households. Speaking of his insect study subjects, he noted that,

“If you set off a bomb in your room, [the bedbugs will] just move to your neighbors’ rooms. It’s like date night for them.”

I’d like to link to that article that quotes Alex Barbarin, and I will, as soon as I find it.  (It seems to have been removed, for now, from the latest PMP Buzz Online.)

Merchant also said,

The chemicals in aerosol generators are generally short-lived, remain airborne for a limited time and must be carried on air currents if they are to reach into corners and hidden areas in a room. It is unlikely that typical bug bomb products flush and kill many pests who are well protected in furniture, mattresses, behind baseboards and even picture frames, per Alex’s bed bug observation. Because of the repellent nature of some of the active ingredients in aerosol generators, if anything insects are likely to be driven deeper into their hiding places or into adjacent rooms, businesses or apartments.

[Emphasis added.]

We’ve been telling readers just this for a long time, but not nearly so eloquently.

And it’s hard to find documentation on this, so I am very glad to be able to point readers to this post.

See: Insects in the City: Bombs Away.Similar Posts:

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The news was abuzz today with reports about a new report in the Journal of the American Medical Association, from Jerome Goddard and Richard DeShazo. It’s a review of past research on the question of whether bed bugs transmit disease.

. . . in the April 1 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers reviewed all of the studies done on the pesky critters to date and found no evidence of disease transmission.They did find that some people have reactions to the bites, but these reactions are usually short-lived.

“While there is a nuisance effect from bed bug bites, the public health significance is minimal,” said study author Jerome Goddard, an associate professor of entomology at Mississippi State University in Jackson. “It’s not good. Nobody wants to have blood sucked out of them, but in the scheme of things, they’re not carrying malaria or anything like that.”

Goddard and his colleague, Dr. Richard deShazo from the University of Mississippi Medical Center, reviewed 53 studies on bed bugs published over the past 50 years.

Interestingly, they found that only about half of the people who are bitten show signs of a bite. And, for those who do react, the reaction can vary from a slight red spot that’s intensely itchy like a mosquito bite to anaphylactic shock (a life-threatening allergic reaction), according to Goddard. But, he noted, anaphylactic shock is very rare.

via Yahoo’s Bed Bugs Bring No Disease Danger.

7ONLINE.COM in New York also picked up this story.

I do appreciate what the study is doing to bring together knowledge from prior studies done on this question. Bed bugs are not now known to be transmitting a disease like malaria, and believe me, I am glad. It’s important to note, however, that we don’t know whether this will always be the case.

Even if it were, I feel strongly that if itchy skin reactions, sleeplessness, and stress were the only health effects caused by bed bugs, that these — in many cases — can be seen as significant health problems for sufferers.

But those are not the only health effects caused by bed bugs.

We have heard from readers of this website who went to the ER with anaphylactic shock because of bed bug bites, and those who have been diagnosed as having an Acute Traumatic Stress Disorder arising from the anxiety of living with a chronic bed bug infestation.

While such reactions are rare, many people do not sleep properly, often while battling bed bugs for many months (or longer).

There are also people on low incomes who have to decide between spending precious funds on nourishing foods, medicines, and other necessities, or on bed bug sprays, plastic bags, and endless loads of laundry.  In this economic climate, surely bed bugs are affecting the health of children and elderly people in these situations?

And what about people who — in acts of desperation and in the absence of good, affordable, professional help — attempt to self-treat their bed bug problems, harming themselves by inhaling pool-grade diatomaceous earth, or over- and mis-applying pesticide sprays?

As the Yahoo article notes, bed bugs can be extremely hard to treat, especially in multi-unit dwellings.  More people than you think are living with chronic, ongoing bed bug infestations.

The media keeps telling us that stress or a chronic lack of sleep in and of themselves may contribute to serious health problems and even to the onset of disease.

The World Health Organization thought enough of the public health significance of bed bugs to put them on the cover of their 2008 report entitled The Public Health Significance of Urban Pests, which you can download here.

The WHO said in this report last year,

Besides the effects of direct bites, airborne common bedbug allergens that are always released during infestations may produce bronchial asthma. Within a group of 54 asthmatic Egyptian patients, 37.1% reacted positively to a common bedbug head and thorax extract, and 50.1% reacted positively to an abdominal common bedbug extract (Abou Gamra et al., 1991). Numerous routine bedbug bites can contribute to anaemia and may even make a person more susceptible to common diseases (Usinger, 1966; Snetsinger, 1997). Some people can develop a general malaise from numerous bedbug bites; that, along with the loss of sleep and extreme itching of bug bites, can lower a person’s vitality and make individuals listless and almost constantly uncomfortable (2008: 138-139).

And, the WHO recommended that

Research should be encouraged and carried out to determine whether or not bedbugs can successfully transmit human pathogens, especially those that cause new or emerging diseases (2008: 149).

And that

Research should be encouraged and carried out to further characterize the nature and effective treatment of the effects on people of unusual, extreme or very persistent bedbug bites (2008: 149).

Let’s definitely be grateful bed bugs have not yet been shown to transmit disease, but let’s also hope entomologists continue to study this question — and other questions about bed bugs’ effect on our health — with continuing research.Similar Posts:

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An excellent youtube video from Bill Schutt (the author of Dark Banquet) featuring Lou Sorkin feeding his “pets.” We’re big fans of Lou Sorkin, and we can’t thank him (and all the other entomologists who do this) enough for enduring bed bug bites in the sake of research.

As Lou quips, “Without me, what are they gonna do?”
Indeed!

This is Bill Schutt’s book, Dark Banquet:

New paperback out 10/2009:

Many thanks to Lou and Bill Schutt for the informative video below!

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The web is buzzing about a new pyrethroid-resistance study of New York City bed bugs by researchers at the University of Massachusetts and Seoul National University. Pyrethroid-resistance is just one reason it is often so hard to get rid of bed bugs.

Two of the many articles picking up on the study’s results included this item in the U.S. News and World Report Health Blog today, and this article from Monday’s LiveScience.

As the U.S. News Health blogger reported,

Bed bugs in New York City, where infestations have grown in recent years, appear to have developed nerve cell mutations that weaken the effect of the pyrethroid toxins, such as deltamethrin, commonly used against them, according to a report in the current issue of the Journal of Medical Entomology. Such nervous system poisons normally would paralyze and kill the nocturnal blood suckers.

Toxicologists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Korea’s Seoul National University found that the New York City bed bugs are now as much as 264 times more resistant to deltamethrin than an easier-to-kill type of bed bug found in Florida.

Pyrethroid-resistance is no surprise to us, since it has been found elsewhere.

Unfortunately, the current round of press coverage of the U Mass-Amherst / Seoul National U study may give those not in the know about pyrethroid-resistance the sense that this is a “New York City” problem, which it isn’t.

This 2007 article in PCT Online from Alvero Romero, Michael Potter and Kenneth F. Haynes outlines a study comparing pyrethroid-resistance found in populations from around the US:

Further testing of third-to-fifth instar nymphs from 16 different field populations indicated that pyrethroid resistance in bed bugs, while not universal, may be widespread (see accompanying map and table on pages 44 and 48). Using a “discriminating” dose equivalent to 10 times the labeled rate of deltamethrin (0.6 percent), 14 of 16 populations collected in Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, New York, Massachusetts, Virginia, Florida and California were resistant (0 percent mortality), one field population from New Jersey was deemed “intermediate” (45 percent mortality), and one of the two populations collected from the same building in California was relatively susceptible (100 percent mortality).

(Information on getting a copy of this study follows at the bottom of the post.)

The Livescience article helps put the new pyrethroid-resistance data in perspective, with the help of Dr. Lou Sorkin, a friend to Bedbuggers everywhere:

Unless the researchers sampled every population of bed bugs in New York, it is unlikely that all NYC bed bugs are resistant to the insecticide, said Louis Sorkin, an entomologist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Also, most pest control companies rely on more than one insecticide to combat bed bugs, he said. The ideal is to use a combination of chemicals that have different modes of action — perhaps one is good at killing the adults and nymphal stages immediately while another is better at lingering and killing bugs days later — and come from different chemical families, not just pyrethroids, Sorkin said.

Exterminators also have different ways to administer insecticides, which can make a difference — foams, powders, aerosols. However, over-the-counter aerosol bombs are not recommended. They just cause the bugs to scatter, Sorkin said, and fail to get inside cracks where bugs can hide.

“Some people don’t like to say they have bed bugs. They try to take care of it themselves,” Sorkin said. But amateur attempts often just push the bugs away for a while and spread them into neighboring properties.

Lou reminds us not to take an infestation lightly. If you’re using traditional treatments for bed bugs, a multi-pronged approach is best. The article notes that Integrated Pest Management (IPM) solutions go beyond sprays and dusts:

Techniques include caulking, spackling and using other sealants to fill cracks and crevices, refinishing and sealing floors, injecting frozen carbon dioxide “snow” into electronics to freeze pests, re-painting walls and other surfaces, using low-moisture steam and clothes dryer heat to kill bugs, and injecting bug-killing dust into electrical outlets and switches.

Commodity fumigation (usually done by sulfuryl fluoride gas, including Vikane TM) is also mentioned by Lou in the article. (The home itself obviously must be treated thoroughly if items are to be gassed and returned to it.)

Thermal heat is not specifically mentioned, but is now an option which can be effective.

If done properly, no bed bug is resistant to sulfuryl fluoride (Vikane TM) or thermal heat. However, these options can be more expensive, and are not available everywhere.

Pyrethroid-resistance is a good reason for the pest control industry to keep seeking alternative solutions to bed bugs and for all pest professionals, landlords, tenants, and property owners to get serious about an aggrerssive, multi-pronged approach to fighting bed bugs.

The new research study referred to in these articles is:

Yoon, K. S., Kown, D. H., Strycharz, J. P., Hollingsworth, C. S., Lee, S. H., and Clark, J. M. 2008. Biochemical and Molecular Analysis of Deltamethrin Resistance in the Common Bed Bug (Hemiptera: Cimicidae). J. Med. Entomol. 45(6): 1092-1101.

(Use accession number 185379 to get a PDF of this item from the Armed Forces Pest Management Board Literature Retrieval System! Accession numbers for items below are also noted where available.)

Also see the study referenced in the PCT Online article above:

Romero, A., M.F. Potter, D.A. Potter and K.F. Haynes. 2007. Insecticide resistance in the bed bug: a factor in the pest’s sudden resurgence? J. Med. Entomol. 44 (2):175-178. Accession number 183531.

The PCT Online article linked to above also suggests the following articles:

Myamba, J, C.A. Maxwell, A. Asidi and C.F. Curtis. 2002. Pyrethroid resistance in tropical bed bugs, Cimex hemipterus, associated with use of treated bednets. Med. and Vet. Entomol. 16, 448-451. Accession number 175921.

Boase, C.J., G. Small, and R. Naylor. 2006. Interim report on insecticide susceptibility status of UK bedbugs. Professional Pest Controller. Summer 2006:6-7.

Karunaratne, S.H.P.P., B.T. Damayanthi, M.H.J. Fareena, V. Imbuldeniya, and J. Hemingway. 2007. Insecticide resistance in the tropical bed bug Cimex hemipterus. Pestic. Bochem. Physiol. 88, 102-107. Abstract.

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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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Pest Management Professional’s articles are often so good, but in the past, you had to know to look for them. (Thank goodness they added an RSS feed so we can subscribe.)

Mark Sheperdigian brings the bed bug information in three “new to us” articles: the first is on what consumers need to know about bed bugs.

In short:

• They’re not microscopic. (Lou Sorkin always helpfully reminds us, and the authors of run-of-the-mill newspaper stories that bed bugs come in a range of sizes and colors depending on life stage and whether they’ve eaten or not (lovely, yes?)
• You can’t get an infestation from a single egg (though you can get one from a single pregnant female).
• You can’t clean them away.
• And you can’t prevent them.  (You can reduce the risk, but never 100%.)

You’ll want to read the rest of this article here.

The next article is about choosing pesticides, and is really for the bed bug pros among us, but is enlightening to us laypeople too.  In particular, the beginners’ guide to pyrethroids.  And neonicotinoids? New to me.

The choicest nugget here, though, was the suggestion that PCOs test a bed bug population as to its pyrethroid-resistance.  Simple, not foolproof by any means, but really smart:

If the bed bugs are resistant to pyrethroids, you should either know this going in or ensure that pyrethroids are not your main line of defense. How can you know if your bed bug population is resistant without having to send them to a researcher somewhere? You could try this procedure, which has been suggested from a number of sources:

At least a day before the treatment, collect some bed bugs and hold them overnight in a jar on a cloth or paper towel that has been treated (and dried) with your pyrethroid of choice. If all of the bed bugs are dead in the morning, you may fire when ready. If half the bed bugs are dead, be sure to incorporate other non-pyrethroid materials into your program. If the bed bugs are all alive, you should rethink your strategy — leaving pyrethroids out of the mix altogether.

This is not real science and will not lead to dramatic headlines that rock the pest management world, but it may help you avoid a follow-up treatment or two…or three.

Up until now, this might have only worked in large infestations, where “collecting a sample of bed bugs” is simple.  However, new bed bug monitors like the CDC 3000 will mean that even smaller infestations can be tested in this way.

Cool, huh?

(As always, I do not recommend you self-treat for bed bugs.  I am not a PCO but I think a good one is going to get rid of your problem more quickly and more fully than you ever will.  A good PCO will be able to do so safely and will know how to avoid making the problem worse.)

Finally, I found this PMP article enlightening.  In it, Sheperdigian pokes some holes in common theories about bed bug resurgence.

His point appears to be not so much that an end to baseboard spraying or the survival of bed bugs in chicken houses (for example) did not contribute to the resurgence of bed bugs, but that no one theory alone fully accounts for bed bugs’ reappearance, in such numbers, at this time, and their degree of pyrethroid resistance.

Read this one for the sub-headings alone.  (”Harlan hears a who?”  Priceless.) 

And know just how indebted we are to Dr. Harold Harlan, who kept his bed bug colony all those years before there seemed an obvious need for one.  And boy, do we ever need them as research subjects now.

Thanks to Renee for article suggestions!Similar Posts:

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I don’t have enough time at this moment to do much commentary on this, but I want to point you to New York vs. Bed Bugs, where Renee of New York vs. Bed Bugs posted a new podcast with David Cain of Bed Bugs Limited (many readers will also know David from our Bedbugger forums, both for his knowledge of bed bugs and his sense of humor).

Among other things, the discussion covers David’s recent London Bed Bug Survey, and various types of bed bug monitors.

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