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:

• New pyrethroid-resistance study of New York City bed bugs
• Latest research on bed bug kdr pyrethroid resistance in U.S.
• Mark Sheperdigian on the limits of bed bug inspections
• Mark Sheperdigian: inspection is “single most crucial operation in bed bug treatments”
• Ohio’s EPA emergency exemption request for Propoxur

PCTOnline has an interesting article on the bed bug seminar it held in NYC last week. We previously posted about Sarah Ferguson’s take. But this article gives you the PCO’s angle, and more detail. For example, the warning from Dr. Michael Potter resounds even louder (and scarier) with more detail:

“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.”

Also of note, Potter’s discussion of pesticides used for bed bugs, historically, and now. A lot of this we know, but probably not in this detailed way:

Potter kicked off his 90-minute presentation with a brief history of bed bug control, pointing out that 30 to 50 percent of structures in much of pre-World War II Europe were infested with bed bugs, so it’s not a new problem. In those days, public health officials in both the United States and Europe used a range of chemicals to control the ubiquitous pest, including cyanide, mercury, benzene and kerosene, even going as far as to soak beds with “high test gasoline” as recommended in a 1926 U.S. Department of Agriculture Bulletin.

Fortunately, today’s treatment techniques are much more targeted, not to mention environmentally sensitive, involving a range of options including heat treatments, vacuuming, steam treatments, fumigation, and cold, as well as the use of insect growth regulators, dusts and pesticide sprays. In addition, inspection dogs are being used to identify bed bug infestations in structures and mattress covers are growing in popularity among PCOs and the hospitality industry. In fact, a number of the aforementioned technologies were on display at the seminar, including representatives of McGlaughlin Gormley King, Residex, Steri-Fab, Hi-Tech Cleaning Systems, Zoecon Professional Products/Wellmark International, Whitmire Micro-Gen Research Laboratories, Mattres Safe, ThermaPure Heat, Protect-A-Bed, Temp-Air and Florida Canine Academy (BedBugDog).

It wouldn’t be a bed bug seminar without some marketing, eh?
Check it out!Similar Posts:

• The first “bed bug seminar” hit New York City last night
• On getting better pesticides for killing bed bugs (no, DDT is not one of them)
• NYC Bed Bug Seminar: did anyone get a letter inviting them?
• Potter’s Studies on Suspend, Kicker, Phantom, Bedlam, Sterifab; new information about bed bug behavior
• Thermal treatment for bed bugs: bake the little B@#$%^&s!