Dacorum Borough Council used to provide free treatment for bed bugs to householders who could not afford it.  Alas, no longer.

One local resident, Alex Francis, was concerned:

“If there are people with bed bugs or mites who can’t afford to have them treated privately, will they just be living in those conditions, whereas before they could have them treated?” he said.

Well put.

It is understandable that the council is trying to save money at this time, and since bed bug cases are growing everywhere, the borough’s cost of providing treatment is likely to get bigger and bigger.

The move was included in cuts of £2.8million agreed by the council as part of its budget in February.

And,

Cutting the pest control service will save £84,000.

John Clarke, head of public protection at the council, advised residents with problems to use a private contractor.

This does not help people who cannot afford treatment.

Interestingly, the council will continue to treat for rats:

“From April 1 the council only offers a free rat treatment service for domestic premises, as they are a danger to public health,” he said.

(Emphasis mine.)

While it is true that bed bugs are not currently known to spread disease (as rats most decidedly do), they are nonetheless a public health problem.

I fear that this loss of service will mean many in the borough are forced to live with this problem because they cannot afford proper treatment to get rid of bed bugs.

And here’s a reminder to the people of Hemel Hempstead:  if your neighbors have bed bugs, you have bed bugs.

When it comes to bed bug treatment, it really is best for everyone if no one is left behind.

via Pest control cuts start to bite – Hemelhempstead Today.Similar Posts:

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This morning, a bit of history: the Post Office London Directory in two volumes, 1939, discovered at the New York Public Library. (Sorry for the graininess but let’s just say this was an accidental find — the camera phone was the only option.)

Note the advertisement around the edges: We Destroy Rats, Mice, Beetles, Moths, etc. on one side, a prominent picture of a bed bug on others.

The 1939 Post Office London Directory (apparently published by Kelly’s) in two volumes was the 1939 London “phone book.”  It tells us a few things:

• Bed bugs were big business: the company that could afford the most prominent advertising in London was a Bayswater (W1) pest control company.
• Bed bugs were a big problem in 1939: the only picture included in the ad is a really big bed bug.  Not a mouse, a rat, a beetle, a moth: the ad is primarily about bed bugs.
• This also tells us that: bed bugs were visually recognizable to all.

1939 was, of course, before DDT.

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The Fermanagh Herald reports that Erne Hospital in Enniskillen had 28 call-outs from pest control in 2008, including those for bed bugs; facilities in the Western Health and Social Care Trust had 128 pest control call-outs in total.  (A small percentage of these were routine visits.)

A Western Trust spokesperson said,

“Visits are often to deal with one-off sightings of pests.”

I hope “one-off sightings” of bed bugs are not treated as “one-off sightings,” since it is so rare to see even one bed bug, and it may represent the presence of many more.

The spokesperson continued,

The most common types of pests dealt with were mice, rats, fleas, silverfish and bedbugs. Pest control specialists carry out treatments following each visit as appropriate. They also provide specialist advice to the Trust following the contract visits, for example, in relation to minor repairs to the building, reviewing housekeeping/cleaning arrangements and monitoring.

Contractors also had to treat bedbugs at staff accommodation at Altnagelvin Hospital as well as in areas of the Erne Hospital and Tyrone and Fermanagh Hospital.

Emphasis mine.

This is not the first report from Northern Ireland hospitals and medical residences. Or from Northern Ireland, where lorry drivers identified the problem as something they were bringing in via ferries from Scotland and the Continent. Similar Posts:

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The Evening Leader reports that Wrexham Council is offering its tenants an inspection to rule out bed bugs.

A FREE inspection and advice service is available from Wrexham Council for residents who may be worried about the possibility their home has bed bugs.

People wanting to make use of the facility should telephone 01978 298989 to arrange for a pest control officer to visit.

Private tenants should report bed bug problems to their landlord. If the landlord is not prepared to carry out the treatment, the tenant should contact the local authority with the landlord’s details.

While it is true that small or moderate infestations might not be easily detected by a human inspector, I certainly appreciate the council’s effort, as it signals a willingness to detect bed bug infestations before the tenants even notice them.

Since there are always some folks who cannot or will not ask for such help, an even better idea would be mandatory inspections of all council flats by a bed bug professional working with a reputable bed bug dog. (I am not sure what the local laws dictate regarding this.) Second best would be voluntary inspections with a bed bug dog. A human who takes the time to search carefully can also do a nice job.

Wrexham Council also have a section of their website on pest control which is devoted to bed bugs. Residents of Wexham take note: it’s not perfect; one fact it does not mention is that tenants may not feel itchy bites and may also not see anything, at least at first.Similar Posts:

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Well, okay, not Zen exactly.

I enjoyed reading some of New 2 The City’s blog entries about bed bugs.  In this post, she describes going through her books over the bathtub, before bagging them and placing them in sealed containers:

Upon confirming that my apartment was infested with BBs, I was instructed to put everything in my apartment into heavy-duty, black contractor bags. Currently I am fanning books over the white tub to determine whether or not the book hosts a fat bedbug. After fanning, I put the book stacks into plastic bags, suck out the air, repeat the process with a second bag–first spaying pesticide– then putting the bags into plastic containers.

Warning: Since people often rush to “do something” when they notice bed bugs, I want to note, for other readers’ benefit, that no one should be bagging anything (or spraying pesticides!) without the explicit instructions of their pest professional (preferably one they believe to have extensive experience getting rid of bed bugs).  PCOs each have their own ideas about prep and you should never do anything until someone has confirmed the presence of bed bugs (and, hopefully, gotten some idea of their harborages) and then told you what to do.  “Bagging” is not a given, and in fact, can mean wildly different things as this FAQ explains.

Anyway, back to the story.  In the course of this book inspection and bagging procedure, New 2 The City encounters her copy of Shakti Gawain’s Creative Visualization, and contemplates the glass-half-full side of having bed bugs:

As much as this experience with bedbugs has created a overwhelming amount of stress in my world, I am grateful for the opportunity for contemplation that is at hand.

Similar sentiments tonight from fedupwithbb in the forums (that’s the woman featured on the Today show this week whose home had four vikane gas fumigation treatments (four!), and who still has bed bugs, and no idea where they’re coming from); she writes:

I suppose this kind of slow house fire (as I like to call it) does have one advantage… It gives you a new perspective on the idea that “it’s just stuff.” It has been sad to let go of a few things, but somewhat liberating to realize that I don’t need a lot of what I have in my house, you know? I mean, it creates a terrible carbon footprint because I can’t re-use, I can’t continue my cloth diapering, I use crazy amounts of water, energy for heat, plastic bags, disposable diapers, etc., etc. But it does paint a very clear picture of the few things I have that *really* matter. The rest, I am learning, I can live without. That’s a good thing to be reminded of.

What an amazing attitude!

Make no mistake, bed bugs are a nightmare in many respects.  But we have to do what we have to do, and bravo to these ladies for seeing the other side of the coin.

Creative visualization.  Let’s all go visualize bed bugs disappearing.

Can’t hurt, right?

Creative Visualization: Use the Power of Your Imagination to Create What You Want in Your Life (Gawain, Shakti)
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Alice Miles of the Times (UK), clad protective garb, follows City of Westminster pest control operator Uriel Bowen as he treats for bed bugs, mice, and more bed bugs.Similar Posts:

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The Winnipeg Free Press has a new article Thursday about bed bugs in the city.

Reporter Murray McNeill spoke to local Pest Control Operator Lincoln Poulin:

So how big has the bedbug problem become in Winnipeg?

Poulin said that in his first six years as a full-time exterminator — he’s been doing it for nine years — he only handled two bedbug calls. Last week, the company handled 15 in a single day.

“We also get 10 to 15 people per day, on average, coming into our store to buy sprays and dusts,” he said.

What’s more unnerving is that Poulin said he thinks this is just the tip of the iceberg.

“I don’t even think we’ve started to see the peak in bedbug activity yet. I think the bedbugs will get a lot worse.”

That’s because the critters multiply like crazy, and a lot of Winnipeggers refuse to believe it’s a problem.

“People say, ‘bedbugs? What are you talking about! Bedbugs don’t exist here!’” Poulin said. “But believe me, bedbugs are no longer just a bedtime story.”

Because people are in such denial about the existence of bed bugs, the problem keeps growing. This is big business for Poulin’s, which is experiencing phenomenal growth. And bad news for all of us, as bed bugs spread, and spread, and spread, and bed bugs bite, and bite, and bite.

Public Health Canada entomologist Robbin Lindsay is also cited in the article:

Lindsay said because governments don’t track bedbug counts, it’s hard to say how much they’ve increased in recent years.

And, as we’ve always maintained here at Bedbugger.com, governments need to track bed bug counts. But they’re in denial too: as long as they do not have an accurate gauge of the scope of the problem, they don’t have to take action.

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Two articles today, from the BBC and the Telegraph, report British National Health Service facilities are battling lots of vermin, including bed bugs.

The Telegraph reports that 127 of 171 hospital trusts responded to a survey, and 100 had kept detailed information on the types of infestations:

Of the trusts that collected detailed information 80 per cent had problems with ants, 66 per cent had rats, 77 per cent had mice, 59 per cent had problems with cockroaches, 65 per cent had biting insects or fleas, 24 per cent had problems with bed bugs and 6 per cent had maggots.

It goes without saying that mice, rats, fleas, flies and cockroaches constitute a definite hygiene and health issue.

But which of these pests can cause itchy bites which may become infected, and can also hitchhike a ride home and cause months and months of misery, the loss of possessions, time, sleep and money?

That’s right: bed bugs.

Bed bugs in hospitals are not exclusively an NHS problem; I don’t doubt for a minute that bed bugs are appearing in hospitals everywhere. (Lest the Conservative politicians who requested this data try and argue the private sector would provide bed bug-free hospitals.)

Just like hotels, hospitals are going to get bed bugs. They come with the people. But the key is: how quickly do they detect them, and how aggressively do they eliminate them?

The information was obtained by the Freedom of Information Act, and it’s a reminder that just because we don’t usually hear in the media that our local hospital has bed bugs, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t.
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While most claims of an effective bed bug trap have to date been much ado about nothing, a new product which seems to be the real deal is only a month or two away.

The trap I am talking about is the NightWatch by Biosensory, Inc.

In the past, this innovative company has produced an effective mosquito product and some other units which use inhibitors or attractants or both. This new unit attracts bed bugs via CO2 heat and a 7-part kairomone lure. The results have been studied for over a year by independent housing authorities and respected individuals and now the trap is scheduled for distribution early October.

The price for a unit which covers a 16×16 room will be around $400 [editor's note: we're not sure of the price at this time]. Overnight, the trapped bed bugs will be contained in a pit which you empty each morning. This trap sounds like a great step forward but remember they themselves state that the unit is for detection, monitoring and as part of an Integrated Pest Management program. In addition the manufacturers state, “If the premises have not been treated with additional EPA-registered insecticide(s) and/or steam heat, this protocol should be considered.”

Having been involved in trying to develop a prototype trap not associated with this one, as well as having dealt with bed bugs from an educational and control standpoint, I think this will be a great tool in the war against bedbugs. Sleep tight.

Editor’s note: Thanks, Winston!

Winston O. Buggy is the pseudonym of a bed bug professional. Read more about the science behind NightWatch here.

Update 10/5/2008:

Editor’s note: Sean of the Bed Bug Resource points us to a Canadian distributor offering pre-orders. (I don’t know anything about the store, personally.) For $100 CA or $95 US down (out of the total cost $400 CA / $380 US), they say your Nightwatch trap will ship when released (11/15 is the expected date). They will be sold to anyone, apparently. The protocol on the Nightwatch website does appear to be something laypeople could do.

Note: They haven’t been released yet so we can’t really say much about them (but I do know someone with bed bugs, if Nightwatch wants to send me one to review (hint, hint!)

The data looks promising, but read all the info. on the Biosensory site, and caveat emptor.

Update: 5/2009: the Nightwatch has been available for several weeks and has now been voluntarily recalled, so the manufacturer can fix a potentially defective switch. Similar Posts:

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MSNBC reports that an Eatontown, NJ man blew his apartment up while trying to get rid of insects with bug spray in his apartment:

The accident occurred as [Isias Vidal] Maceda was spraying for pests in his kitchen. Somehow the bug spray ignited a blast that blew out the apartment’s front windows and triggered a fire that quickly spread, the newspaper said.

Eighty percent of the apartment was destroyed and the neighboring apartment suffered smoke damage.

There’s no indication of whether the problem was bed bugs, though it would not surprise me, as this is one pest people often try and self treat, rather than admit to their landlords that they need help.

I think this is more true with bed bugs than with other pests because people often feel embarrassed about having bed bugs, especially if they normally keep their homes pest-free. Since this is one pest that is not attracted to messy or dirty homes, it’s impossible to prevent.

Bedbugger doesn’t recommend self-treatment of bed bugs for a variety of reasons, one of which is that they can be dangerous if misused.

An even more tragic story featuring an attempt at self-treating for bed bugs is here.

If you’re still tempted to do it yourself, read this, and remember: if you must use pesticides, always use them carefully and as labeled.
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