. . . recent stats show that ticks and bedbugs have been ramping up their itty-bitty attacks. Luckily, it’s easier than you think to KO the little creeps.

How easy is it to get rid of bed bugs?
Is it possible? yes.
Worth doing? absolutely.
Easier than you think? Maybe not so much.

It was nevertheless good to see bed bugs listed in an article about how to get rid of biting insects such as chiggers, deer ticks, and fleas.

Our number one enemy in the fight against bed bugs is lack of awareness.

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So it’s no surprise that methods like Vikane gas and thermal treatment appeal to many.  Ozone has been mentioned in the past as one of several possibilities for treating bed bugs, but up until now, except for one reader’s informal experiments, we hadn’t seen any actual data about its effectiveness in eradicating bed bugs.

Cooper Pest has now run several tests using ozone treatments of a bed bug-infested single family home and a bed bug-infested office space.

According a post on Bed Bug Central (Cooper Pest’s blog) on 3/27,

None of the treatments were effective (no mortality was observed). Based upon our observations we have significant concerns regarding the ability to generate, and hold high enough concentrations of ozone, to achieve mortality within a structure. There are additional concerns regarding the ability of ozone to effectively penetrate all of the environments used as harborages by bed bugs. At the current time we do not view ozone as a viable alternative for treatment of structures infested with bed bugs.

Although it does not sound like ozone is a good option right now, Bed Bug Central noted that it may show itself to be useful in containerized treatments, for example. More research is in order.

It’s great to finally have some data on ozone’s effectiveness. Thanks, Cooper Pest!

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At Rose Pest Solutions in Troy [Michigan], where Sheperdigian reigns as vice president for technical services, the number of bedbug jobs has risen from one or two in 2001 to about 160 last year, with continued rapid growth expected in 2008.

The article goes beyond the standard “bed bugs are in our area now” articles which are popping up weekly, delving into the origins of the problem, as well as various ways to get rid of bed bugs.

Interestingly, Rubin cites Sheperdigian as challenging the theory that bed bugs came back due to increased travel:

One theory says that bedbugs have reemerged because Americans are traveling more to countries where they never quite went away. The problem is, Sheperdigian says, his research shows we were traveling more in the ’80s and ’90s.

“This isn’t a matter of reintroduction,” he says. “There’s something deeper happening that we don’t understand.”

Rubin also cites Sheperdigian’s opinion on Cryonite:

. . . Sheperdigian’s opinion of one of the trendy new methods of bedbug-whacking, an icy carbon dioxide spray that’s supposed to freeze them in their creepy little tracks. He says it mostly blows them around.

As far as I am concerned, the jury is still out on Cryonite, but I have not personally seen any effectiveness studies yet.

For good measure, the article also notes that, as far as treatment is concerned,

Rose Pest Solutions uses a combination of vacuums, steam and insecticides. Others favor bedbug-sniffing dogs or the equivalent of gigantic hair dryers.

None are foolproof.

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CHARGES to get rid of bed bugs and vermin are to rocket as part of a hike of council fees and charges in Southampton.

Residents with a five-bedroom house in need of council assistance over the bugs will be charged £135 a visit - up £64.

Previously residents were charged between £50 and £60 depending on the size of their home.

£135 is about US$269 today. Most PCOs here in New York don’t seem to charge by the visit, so it’s hard to make a comparison, but I’d be interested in know what good private treatment goes for in Southampton (compared with London, a city more likely to be comparable to NYC).

Yanks have previously expressed jealousy that Brits can get Council treatment for bed bugs, but perhaps it’s not that much of a savings on private treatment after all.

Interestingly, the article states that rats and mice are treated for £10 upfront and £15 for follow-ups (I wonder why follow-ups cost more?), and it costs £83 to have someone spray for fleas or carpet beetles.

Not only do bed bugs cost the most to treat (and I don’t doubt this is related to the care required to properly inspect and treat), but they typically require 3 or more treatments.  And that sure takes a bite out of your wallet.

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Starling said she went back the motel, captured some of the bugs and gave some to Gaston County health officials. Specialist Doc Thompson said they found three or four bed bugs in 20 of the rooms. He said the bugs can’t carry disease, but they can cause dermatitis. He said he advised the owner of the steps needed to get rid of the bugs and gave them 2 weeks to start with exterminations.

Officials “found bed bugs in 58 percent of the rooms available to daily rental.” I would venture that if they found 3-4 bed bugs in 20 rooms, even more may have infestations. PCOs tell us finding bed bugs in infested rooms is not that easy.

But that’s not the whole story.

Eyewitness News asked why the health department couldn’t just shut down the motel until the bugs are gone. Thompson said that a motel has to get a grade of 70 or less before they can shut it down. Even with the bed bugs, the Super 8 had a rating of 85. He said if they do not take steps to get rid of the bugs by next Thursday, then he can serve them with a notice of intent to suspend. Then after 30 days, if nothing has changed, the department can pull the motel’s permit and shut it down.

The hotel manager told journalists, “she has an exterminator who comes by once a month.”

Whatever routine treatments a building already gets won’t necessarily do it. I hope the hotel manager is getting good advice from a PCO who knows bed bugs, and that they’ll do everything they can to get rid of bed bugs quickly.

Once a month treatments are not likely to eliminate bed bugs. In my understanding, “the steps needed to get rid of bed bugs” include more frequent, aggressive treatment as well as ensuring infested furnishings are properly treated or discarded.

It is not clear to me whether even having bed bugs in all the rooms would constitute a grade below 70, worthy of shutting the hotel down, or if other violations would be needed to dip that number low enough. This is wrong. Bed bugs are a serious problem, even if they are not known to spread disease. Hotel guests who stay one night and port bed bugs home with them can bring home a problem that causes thousands of dollars of damage and months of suffering.

I am not litigation-crazy. I agree with some bed bug lawsuits and not others.  But if someone stays in a hotel room known by a hotel to have bed bugs, and gets bitten or brings bed bugs home, I hope they’ll sue the pants off that company.

It is very disturbing that customers will apparently continue to rent the 20 bed bug-infested rooms. Not only is the hotel given two weeks to even begin treating for bed bugs, which is far too long, but it appears they can keep renting out those rooms.

If they don’t exist, new regulations should be put in place to prevent hotels from renting infested rooms.

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Creepy crawly creatures have always been a predictable, if dreaded, part of multi-housing life because of the ease with which they move from unit to unit along shared pipes, wires and cable lines.

Landlords and buildings managers typically address these concerns with monthly inspections and treatments while urging tenants to adopt neater lifestyles and garbage disposal methods.

Now, say area pest control companies, bedbugs have replaced cockroaches and mice at the top of the creature list, and none of these treatments help.

“In New Jersey we’re seeing bedbugs in epidemic proportions,” says Tony Yochum, commercial sales manager for Viking Pest Control with offices in Saddle Brook and throughout northern New Jersey. “They are the cockroach of the new millennium.”

It seems obvious to us Bedbuggers that the problem is spreading rapidly and also that it can be difficult to get rid of bed bugs. But sometimes news articles are more reserved about saying so outright. Sometimes they even seem to state the opposite.

They also often do not mention how easily bed bugs can be transported from place to place:

“You can pick them up at college, a movie theater, in furniture,” [Abarb Pest Service’s George] Forst said. “They spread like wildfire.”

For the general public, it is helpful to consider that bed bugs can come from a wide variety of sources, and travel in all directions.

That kind of talk can make some people paranoid, of course. It is not true that you will encounter bed bugs everywhere you go, nor is it true–having had bed bugs–that you will likely reinfest yourself again and again from random locations once your bed bugs are gone.

It is worth taking precautions against spreading them if you have them, and it’s worth being alert wherever you go, since picking up bed bugs is always a possibility.

Jim McCale, owner of J.P. McCale Pest Management in Boonton is quoted as saying

We also recommend inspecting the units above, below and diagonal to the infected unit, but this can be hard. Residents don’t want other tenants to know.

What I hear from Bedbugger readers is most often that the landlord does not want to inspect all adjacent units (because, after all, they may then have to pay to treat them). Another common complaint is that the landlord will inspect, but some tenants will refuse either inspection or treatment.

We almost never hear of tenants who themselves do not want the landlord to have neighbors’ units inspected. (And anyway, if all adjacent units are being inspected, why would the other tenants need to know which tenant made the original complaint, if the landlord is the one calling for inspections?)

It is true, however, that our readers are self-selecting–they’re the information-seekers and proactive ones. Often this comes of necessity–when people have a bad allergic response to bed bugs, they not only come looking for solutions, they also are willing to do almost anything to get rid of the problem. So I guess many of us Bedbuggers might not be typical clients.

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First, an entire apartment building is being treated for bed bugs in the Fairhaven area of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan after “a couple isolated incidents” of bed bugs. This appears to be a fairly proactive move, if it is true that the incidents were isolated and few in number.

The StarPhoenix says the building is being “fumigated,” but don’t let the word fool you, since residents are only required to evacuate for 6 hours, we can assume traditional spraying is being done. This article from the StarPhoenix focuses on one couple–Richard Pain and his wife have respiratory problems and must evacuate for a week with nowhere to go.

This highlights a common problem–the hidden costs tenants face while dealing with bed bugs.

And the article also gives a sense (albeit based on anecdotal evidence) of the recent rise of bed bugs in Saskatoon:

Lesley Willfong of Poulin Pest Control in Saskatoon said the number of reported cases of bed bugs is way up from last year.

“It seems like every other call we get is for bed bugs,” said Willfong. “Before last year, it was only a couple times a week.”

The first sign of a bed bug infestation is the appearance of small brown or red spots on bed linens or a noticeable swelling or itching where someone has been bitten.

Willfong said her colleagues in Winnipeg were talking about bed-bug problems a few months before the problem escalated in Saskatoon.

Read the full story: Bed bugs biting at Fairhaven apartment complex from The StarPhoenix.

Another article from the Deseret Morning News in Utah is a basic introduction to bed bugs–but with some iffy advice.

For example, this article suggests you might get rid of bed bugs by vacuuming. While vacuuming certainly has a place in a bed bug control and avoidance program, I don’t think enthusiastic vacuuming is an alternative to professional help, especially if bed bugs are spotted. But these quotations from Diane Keay, environmental health area supervisor in the Salt Lake Valley Health Department, suggest otherwise:

She recommends vacuuming a lot. Although they’re not associated with poor housekeeping, as some people have suggested, “none of us vacuum around the bed every day.” You must, if you want to eradicate them without chemicals. And they’re not just in the bed. They can be in carpets and wall baseboards and other places nearby. Be aware, as well, that they may settle in or around a favorite chair or hitch a ride in the fold of the backpack that’s so often on you.

There are ways to eradicate bed bugs “without chemicals,” but they involve steam, or gas, or heat. Possibly cold, or ozone. But not simply vacuuming.

Later, again,

You don’t usually need to toss things, Keay says. Just trap the bugs and vacuum, vacuum, vacuum or have a professional deal with serious infestations.

I agree “tossing things” is usually not necessary and often just spreads bed bugs to your neighbors. However, the advice to “vacuum, vacuum, vacuum,” grates, as does the newspaper’s graphic of the happy blonde brandishing her canister vac.

Near the end of the article, we’re told that

People don’t feel the introductory bites. The reaction, sometimes quite severe, develops over time. In the meantime, the little creatures reproduce.

This statement that “People don’t feel the introductory bite,” is inaccurate. Bed bugs are designed to bite us without our knowing until after the fact. If we ever have a clue, that is.

Some people never react to the bites. (Up to 50%, Michael Potter says, do not react to bed bug bites.) Others get reactions from the start, but almost nobody feels them as they occur.

Other advice in the article is good–keeping luggage away from hotel beds, using pesticides only as labeled–but overall, the Deseret Morning News needs to do more research on bed bugs.

You can read the Deseret Morning News article Bugged? Bed bugs making a comeback, even in Utah here.

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The article implies that treatments have occurred at four-week intervals:

Gateway Center officials said that after the first bug was found on the third floor in October, all floors were chemically treated.

Those treatments are scheduled on a monthly basis, officials said.

On the one hand, employees were said to have been educated on what bed bugs look like, and as many as five bugs have been found in the last few weeks (despite several PCO treatments):

The IRS building employs 5,000 workers at its Covington offices, and it told employees for what to look when they find a bug.

An IRS representative said that employees have found as many as five bugs in the past couple weeks, but the representative said that the company has been working with OSHA and an exterminator to keep things in check for the past two months.

“In check” is not enough. And monthly treatments may not be–many PCOs tell us they treat at about 2-week intervals. We know bed bug eggs can hatch within that timeframe, and leaving things longer can mean more hatch, feed, and begin growing to where they can breed.

And apparently, other employees claim they don’t know what to look for:

“I don’t even really know what they look like,” Gateway Center employee Joy Fox said.

Maybe the memo was not enough.

It sounds like the building needs to employ the most knowledgeable PCO firm they can, enlist their help in educating all employees not just on what bed bugs look like, but how they travel from here to there. Every single employee should (in my opinion) have their home inspected for bed bugs. People could be bringing them from home repeatedly. However, since it sounds like the sightings are not isolated to one person or department, it is “people,” rather than one person.

And wherever the bed bugs came from, they can now be going home with just about anyone.

Those employees need to know how to identify bed bugs, and they also need to know that Dr. Michael Potter estimates as many as 50% of people may be bitten and have no itchy bites (source linked here). Everyone should realize that seeing five bed bugs in broad daylight means there will probably be many more present.

One also wonders what’s being done besides spraying and (some kind of) an education campaign? If people getting treatment in their homes and dorms have to have posessions carefully inspected, possibly bagged for some part of treatment, and carefully exposed, then surely a place of business would have some kind of “prep” on its hands as well?

You can read the rest of the article from WLWT online here.

Update 1/12/2008:  Although WLWT says the Gateway Center is in Covington, Ohio, a reader pointed out that it appears to be in Covington, KY.

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The article conveys the scope of the problem and the speed at which it seems to be spreading:

To get a full sense of the bedbug boom, ask any pest control expert. [Carlo] Panacci, for one, used to have a 1-800 number for his company, Cain Pest Control, but cancelled it because he was getting overwhelmed by cries for help from people in B.C., Newfoundland and everywhere in between. He now averages about eight to 10 bedbug inquiries a day. “I got so busy with bedbugs I gave up on raccoons and squirrels,” he says. Doug Wadlow, who runs Orkin Pest Control in Edmonton, says bedbug calls are up 300 per cent from 2004. Meanwhile, John Mitten, branch manager of Poulin’s Pest Control in Vancouver, says bedbugs will total 25 per cent of his firm’s work this year. That’s up from 13 per cent in ‘06. Some U.S. companies are getting as many as 50 bedbug calls a day. “You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to see which way this is headed,” says Michael Potter, an entomology professor at the University of Kentucky and one of the world’s top bedbug researchers. Potter describes the spread of bedbugs as “a bit like a communicable disease.”

Although he acknowledges that bed bugs “don’t transmit disease,” the author nevertheless seems to get that bed bugs do have an adverse effect on mental health. Anecdotes convey the strain of a bed bug infestation, as well as the anxiety people feel even after the bed bugs are apparently gone–the fear they might still be there, the nervousness.

One study of pest control professionals found that 60 per cent of clients are more upset by the discovery of bedbugs than ro­­dents, termites or roaches. It’s no wonder bedbug support groups and message boards have popped up on­­line.

Indeed.

Intini also conveys the anxiety of professionals who fear bringing their work home:

Even pest control ex­­­­perts suffer the occasional anxiety attack. “A couple of times, I’ve woken up in the middle of the night, felt some­­thing crawl on me, and just freaked out,” says Goldman. “It turned out to be my wife’s hair.”

Intini notes that “If anyone should be frightened of bedbugs, it’s those in the hotel business,” and describes some of the steps hotels are taking to avoid bed bugs, and to get rid of them.

A new statistic from Dr. Potter on bed bug-reactive people (ie those with itchy bite marks):

“I’ve been in places where the wife is getting slaughtered and the husband, who is sleeping in the same bed, doesn’t react at all,” says Potter. As much as half the population, he says, won’t show any signs.

We’ve seen statistics as high as 70% bandied about, but I’m willing to go with Potter’s 50%. (Of course, it’s hard to know: some who are non-reactive may not be bitten.)

And finally, somber words from Dr. Potter:

And, says Potter, “it doesn’t look like there is a silver-bullet bedbug eliminator coming down the pipe any time soon.”

We have heard this before, but wait, there’s more:

Even if one did, he says, the liability of spraying beds and couches with it would restrict its use. “Bedbugs live in all the places that we’ve been training the pest control industry in the last 20 years not to spray,” says Potter. “Back in the days of DDT, it was recommended practice to spray the pillows, the entire mattress. Nothing wasn’t dripping when you walked out.” Before then, bedbugs were a whole lot more common. “I’ve read diaries from the ’30s where they wrote about springtime bedbug cleaning,” says Potter. “They’d throw boiling water on the walls, pour oil into the crevices of the wood floors, sleep for two weeks and then start the process again. It was part of life.”

I found this helpful in elucidating why it isn’t just about bringing back a banned pesticide or creating a new one; the whole culture on pesticides has changed since we last had to deal with bed bugs in North America (on a large scale, anyway).

All in all, nothing terribly new, but lots of good soundbites, and all in all, a good consciousness-raising piece.

Nice work John Intini and Maclean’s!

Read the article here.

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David Saunders from Paramount Pest Control tells CFRA News the [bed bug] problem is rampant in rooming houses and hostels.

But Saunders adds it’s just as bad in homes and hotels across the capital.

“Even a year ago from right now I would get maybe a call a month or something. I’m receiving three to five calls a day for bed bugs now, ” Saunders says.

This kind of statistic, from individual PCOs, is very compelling.  In the absence of government tracking of bed bug infestations, it is also all we have sometimes.

There was also some advice for travelers about avoiding bed bugs:

Saunders suggests, if you’re staying in a hotel, you can leave your luggage in your vehicle and wash your clothes at an off-site facility.

We don’t usually suggest leaving items in the car or doing laundry regardless of known exposure to bed bugs, but they are not bad ideas, not at all.  Certainly easier than worrying about how to get rid of bed bugs once you have them.

Saunders suggests that

a lack of awareness about bed bugs, and areas not being treated properly have contributed to the boom over the last year.

Although these factors are obvious contributors to the spread of bed bugs, they actually aren’t articulated very often, especially in news articles which seem to gravitate towards other, hoarier chestnuts (DTT, global travel, etc.).

You can read the article here.

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