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.

• PCTOnline on its bed bug seminar last week
• Potter’s Studies on Suspend, Kicker, Phantom, Bedlam, Sterifab; new information about bed bug behavior
• new mattress protectors available
• Maclean’s on bed bugs

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Ability of Bed Bug-Detecting Canines to Locate Live Bed Bugs and Viable Bed Bug Eggs

MARGIE PFIESTER, PHILIP G. KOEHLER, AND ROBERTO M. PEREIRA
Department of Entomology, Building 970 Natural Area Drive,
University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611-0620
J. Econ. Entomol. 101(4): 1389-1396 (2008)

Here’s the abstract in full:

ABSTRACT The bed bug, Cimex lectularius L., like other bed bug species, is difficult to visually locate because it is cryptic. Detector dogs are useful for locating bed bugs because they use olfaction rather than vision. Dogs were trained to detect the bed bug (as few as one adult male or female) and viable bed bug eggs (five, collected 5-6 d after feeding) by using a modified food and verbal reward system. Their efficacy was tested with bed bugs and viable bed bug eggs placed in vented polyvinyl chloride containers. Dogs were able to discriminate bed bugs from Camponotus floridanus Buckley, Blattella germanica (L.), and Reticulitermes flavipes (Kollar), with a 97.5% positive indication rate (correct indication of bed bugs when present) and 0% false positives (incorrect indication of bed bugs when not present). Dogs also were able to discriminate live bed bugs and viable bed bug eggs from dead bed bugs, cast skins, and feces, with a 95% positive indication rate and a 3% false positive rate on bed bug feces. In a controlled experiment in hotel rooms, dogs were 98% accurate in locating live bed bugs. A pseudoscent prepared from pentane extraction of bed bugs was recognized by trained dogs as bed bug scent (100% indication). The pseudoscent could be used to facilitate detector dog training and quality assurance programs. If trained properly, dogs can be used effectively to locate live bed bugs and viable bed bug eggs.

You can easily access it on the Armed Forces Literature Retrieval System, using the title above.

The study used dogs trained by Pepe Peruyero.

The results are impressive: “Dogs trained to locate live bed bugs and viable
bed bug eggs had an overall accuracy of 97%, which is similar to previous studies on insect detector dogs” (1394).

But there was also a 10% no-indication rate on viable bed bug eggs (10% of the time, dogs did not alert to viable eggs being present). The study suggests this can be attributed to a low concentration of the target odor. These false negatives (as well as false positives) can also be attributed to the handler’s “misreading dog behavior” (1394).

Ultimately, the study concludes that

Dogs can be trained to locate cryptic insects that are difficult to uncover visually as long as dogs are trained in a similar manner to the method we used, training is maintained regularly, an experienced handler is used, and nontarget odors are separated from target odors (1395).

This comes as no surprise, but cannot be emphasized enough. We know that bed bug dogs can detect bed bugs. We also know that it doesn’t always work.

Bed bug dogs have to be properly trained, the training needs to be ongoing once they’re with the handler, and the handler has to know what they’re doing and do it well.

Everyone is not cut out to be a dog handler. This is a booming industry and a lot of people are trying to get in on it. People with no experience handling dogs are among them and some of these may not be cut out for it.

The potential is there for people to obtain bed bug dogs from the trainers but to handle them improperly, or not maintain training. So even if your bed bug dog handler got his or her dog from the same source, depending on how the handler is working with the dog now, your results may not be as impressive.

Consumers considering a bed bug dog need to remember that anyone can hang out a shingle and advertise their “bed bug dog;” there’s no government agency certifying their effectiveness. So get references and recommendations and choose wisely.

• Abbey the Bed Bug Dog: news report
• Consumers, before you hire one, find out what that bed bug dog can do!
• Bed bug highlights from the 2008 Purdue Pest Management Conference
• University of Florida tests bed bug dogs

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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.

• Texas A and M researchers: chickens and bed bugs?
• Houston Chronicle update on the U of Arkansas / Texas A&M research on bed bugs in chicken breeding facilities
• More bed bug research: Stephen Kells at the University of Minnesota
• Dispatches from the battlefield, to those in the trenches

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Collaboration between Texas A&M Center for Urban & Structural Entomology and the University of Arkansas Insect Genetics laboratory is revealing important clues concerning the reasons for the current resurgence of bed bugs around the world and here in the United States. We are also cooperating with Virginia Tech University on molecular forensic studies which can assist in the identification of hosts for criminal investigations (see molecular diagnostic gel below). Because most registered pesticides currently labeled for bed bug control continue to have control issues, we are also investigating relationships between resistance and specific populations that appear to have elevated levels of insecticide resistance. Molecular investigations of these types will provide valuable information about the scope and nature of bed bug resurgence and offer possible reasons for this emerging pest problem.

Tha TAMU information then gets even more interesting:

One scenario that appears to have merit concerns geographic epicenters where bed bugs radiate from. In our preliminary investigations we have found significant populations occurring in poultry facilities in Arkansas and Texas, and we suspect that resistant populations of bed bugs have slowly increased in numbers in facilities such as these, and have subsequently been transported from poultry workers to other areas where they have subsequently spread. Population genetic studies of both mitochondrial and nuclear DNA reveal no genetic bottlenecks, yet significant variation with no apparent geographic structure with 19 distinct mtDNA haplotypes from only 50 populations from throughout the United States (see below). For this reason, we believe that populations never truly died out in the United States, but were forced to alternate their hosts. Ongoing research on host identification from blood meals of bed bugs is currently being investigated to support this hypothesis.

All preliminary and theoretical, but nonetheless very interesting. You can read the rest here. And via hopelessnomo, again:

More on the genetics research here and on forensics here.

We are glad that bed bug research in many areas is flourishing. Now if only bed bug research were to become as popular a career for young people as criminal forensics is becoming, we might see more solutions of our “little problem,” much, much faster.

• Bed bugs, chickens and DNA: a Q&A with Dr. James Austin
• Houston Chronicle update on the U of Arkansas / Texas A&M research on bed bugs in chicken breeding facilities
• Are the bed bugs bigger in Texas? University of Texas at Dallas students infested with bed bugs
• Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana hold tri-state “Emergency Meeting” about bed bugs

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FAIRFAX, VA.  The National Pest Management Association’s Pest Management Foundation recently awarded grants to the University of Florida’s Dr. Faith Oi to determine the effectiveness of canines as bed bug detectors and Clemson University’s Dr. Patricia Zungoli to study the giant needle ant, an invasive species that is emerging as a major pest problem in the Southeastern United States.

“The Foundation is very pleased to fund these very worthwhile research projects and proud that the results will benefit pest management professionals,” said Foundation Executive Director Gene Harrington.

Dr. Oi and Dr. Zungoli will highlight the preliminary results of their research at an educational session at the PestWorld 2007 Conference in Kissimmee, Fla., in October. Both projects should be completed next year, the Pest Management Foundation reports.

This is great news, and especially good news for consumers. I hope that Dr. Oi will be able to study dogs trained by more than one trainer, since it’s my hunch that effectiveness will depend largely on the skills of the dog and the techniques and skills of the trainer.

I am really looking forward to the results of this one!

Oh, and the giant needle ant does sound like a pest I don’t want to meet. I hope it’s “giant” and right in the open, and not good at hiding like a pest we’re more familiar with here at Bedbugger. Apparently the giant needle ant (aka the Chinese needle ant) is considered a public health threat.

Perhaps it’s time for a new motto:
“Bedbugger: giving you new things to worry about since 2006.”

• Gentrol may make bed bugs worse
• How accurate are human bed bug inspectors, k9s?
• Results of University of Florida tests on bed bug dog effectiveness are out
• More bed bug research: Stephen Kells at the University of Minnesota

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The article states, oddly, that

The complaint is part of a mounting bedbug trend in the city. Complaints were up 22 percent, to 5,679 through April 30, from last year, a spokesman for the Department of Housing Preservation and Development said. There were 4,638 complaints in fiscal year 2006.

Don’t be fooled by the wording here. The 5,679 complaints do not include people like Austin Power and Hannah Clements, bitten in the Roger Smith Hotel. They also do not include the vast majority of bed bug cases in NYC, where people self treat, hire PCOs to treat their owned units, or call their landlords to get PCOs to treat rental units. Actual complaints (in hotels plus rental housing plus co-ops and condos plus private houses) must be much, much more frequent. And we have no idea how many people encounter bed bugs in hotels.

So in that sense, this hotel lawsuit represents one of the very many bed bug experiences in NYC which is not recorded by HPD, which only keeps records on people who call the city’s information hotline (311) to complain about bed bugs in their building. Which, in my estimate, a very tiny percentage of afflicted people do. Most of us call our landlords, and most landlords at least attempt to treat the problem. So most people don’t bother with 311 (and filing a housing violation for bed bugs) unless their landlords are seriously negligent or refusing to pay for treatment.

I have yet to see the city admit what we here at Bedbugger know all too well–the vast majority of bed bug cases in NYC homes and hotels are not registering in the city’s statistics.

And until the City of New York starts to really track the spread of bed bugs, tries to actually find out how many people are really suffering from them, we will have no real idea how many people are affected. I’d hazard a guess that bed bugs had increased much more than 22% in this city since last year, and that the total number affected in NYC was many, many times that 5,679.

But in order to know for sure, the city should require PCOs to send data to the city reporting the locations of all infestations they treat. This was done in 2003 in Toronto (for a study now available via the CDC’s website), and it would allow the city to track all cases that were not self-treated. If they wanted to track purchases of products for self-treatment, I suppose that’s possible too. But if the city could simply track locations of professionally treated homes, we’d not only know the true scope of the problem, but the city might be able to help residents and landlords get information to help slow the spread, and recognize the need for treatment more quickly.

If there is one thing that would make a difference here in NYC, it would be the city government acknowledging that bed bugs are a very serious problem, and admitting to something nearer the actual numbers. Because then people suffering from bed bugs could demand monetary assistance, public education campaigns, and legislative changes which will help fight this problem. (But I can kind of see why the city would not want to encourage that…)

• How bad are bed bugs in Toronto? Nobody knows for sure.
• Columbia Spectator on bed bugs, again with the HPD statistic soup
• Lexington, KY vs. New York, NY: a tale of two bedbugged cities
• Washington Post prints correction thanks to bed bug activist

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On sale here!
Dr. Winston O. Buggy’s bed bug elixir.
This material will kill em, kill the eggs, shine your multi-colored hobnail boots, and it smells good too.
Sounds too good to be true?
Well, it is.

At the outset, we professionals felt that the materials that were available for general pest control to treat roaches, ants, etc., would work just fine for bed bugs. They hadn’t been around for a while so they should be easy to knock off. Well, as most of you can attest to, not so. Gentrol insect growth regulator was at first thought to be a long-term addition to the arsenal, but here too the buggers came out ahead in the long run. In fact, treatments for bed bugs are among the more complex ones, it is like treating for termites or the elimination of established urban rodent colonies. But it’s made even more problematic because of the bed bugs’ close proximity to people and their personal belongings. Since W. O. Buggy’s elixir is not available (and mind you it did not contain DDT), the question is what is available and where are we today in terms of bed bug control. There are several ways to attack this problem as well as several different types of materials. And it is important to understand that no one material, treatment or approach will do the whole job.

First question: why do you think you have bedbugs? Remember several things can appear like or cause “bites”: soaps, allergies, meds, mites, mosquitoes, fleas, heat, etc. At this point, you should conduct an inspection. You will need a flashlight, toothpick and magnifying glass. I recommend the Rim-Free Lighted 2x Magnifier from Radio Shack, primarily because the angle and LED hit the spot, great for furniture and other seams ($10). Open the door, turn on the light, then proceed to stick that toothpick everywhere it can go and examine these spots. High, low, behind and under moving back carpets checking between clothes turning over couches and beds all this has to be done. One spot of note in older apartment buildings are steam risers which are found in the bathroom usually next to the hamper.

Did you find anything? What is it? keep a sample in a pill case or some other escape-proof container in which it won’t get squished. If it is positively identified as a bed bug, try like the dickens to figure out how you got it. Because this will be an important barometer which can establish a time frame, important so as to avoid re-introduction, let you know if perhaps it’s a good time to get a new boy or girlfriend, and if its possibly time to rush to that suitcase stored in the closet which has bed bugs trapped inside since your last excursion and treat or discard it.

If it is identified as a bed bug you need to follow the mechanical steps of control; perhaps these were highlighted best by Dr. Potter in a recent Bedbugger post.

With that out of the way, you may and probably should go chemical. First off if a product is non-toxic, it means it doesn’t kill– so lets get rid of that word because we obviously want it to kill the little suckers. Soaps are for dirty bugs (and perhaps Jess) and you really have to coat them: fine for your garden aphids but for a cluttered home, I think not. Enzymes are good, they kill on contact as well as most products and they have a low toxicity to non-target organisms. It also allows for repeat applications, but remember they only kill what they contact. Same with some of the alcohol products such as SteriFab. Of course, here you can get an unwanted synergistic effect if you do the treatment by candle light (Don’t! It’s Flammable!) and alcohol stains, well actually removes the finish and bleaches.

Next we have the traditional chemical approach. With the exemption of a few specifically exempt status products, pesticides must be registered for use with the EPA and must have an EPA registration number on the label. The label itself is a legal document which will list the pests that the product can be used for and the manner in which it must be used. While no pesticide is completely safe (remember we are using it to kill things), the real danger is in the misuse. If a product such as Tempo WP is labeled to be mixed with a gallon of water and sprayed into cracks and crevices, the risks it presents are limited.. But if you take that same pack and pour it around or use it as a dust the inhalation hazard is significant. Unfortunately, it may even appear to be working at first because it may actually be repellent for a while but in the meantime you and possibly others are inhaling it. I have seen this practice repeated with flea powders and a whole range of products which when used improperly increase the chance of exposure, and hence the hazard.

So what is available? Well, 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. For best results try applying it with a blush or other brush.

Now that summer is upon us, heat and humidity in some parts will cause an increase in bed bug activity. But in the world of control it is our friend, and the bed bugs’ enemy. While steaming is here and will continue to improve as more work is done, heat treatments of items and apartments will also increase as technology improves. The technology is here, it is just not cost-effective yet. Mattress covers specifically for bed bugs are also coming of age. They now come in different qualities. There are some decent heavy vinyl ones for under $30 and some more comfortable ones at $70 and up. I suggest you reinforce contact points such as bed frames with duct tape. With these covers you must remember to leave them on for a full year. While there are many improvised bed bug traps like the use of carpet tape and current glue traps, they are passive and you hope that the bed bug finds it and crawls into it as opposed to going under it, as they so love to do. Within the year, new traps will be coming out utilizing a synthesized aggregate pheromone. FYI, these are already used for a number of pests including roaches. And as time goes by newer and improved versions will come out but these will remain a monitoring tool and not a cure.

So perhaps the take-home message here is that to be successful you will have to use several materials and methods and use them in a systematic approach to get and stay bed bug-free. At this point, I would like to include a link and while you may not chose to, or be able to use the mentioned products and I’m not recommending you do, it does provide a good blue print for a control program.

Perhaps one of the most encouraging directions bed bug control has taken is in the area of education. I believe, along with others, that the increased informational flow in regard to bed bugs through both print and web media has played a significant role in reducing the time it takes many people to properly diagnose the cause of their problem. By reducing this time frame they end up treating the infestation early and are more likely to achieve lasting control quicker. It is also my opinion that this site is the best broad-based site that I know of, in part due to administration as well as a cadre of dedicated, intelligent folks.

• Bed bug trap on its way, finally
• Another bed bug trap in the works
• Dissolvable laundry bags!
• How can I catch a bed bug? How do I know I have bed bugs?

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Laundry

This FAQ started out with the title: “Heat and bed bugs: 5 minutes in a dryer– really? Say it’s so!” The first part outlines my reaction to a brief article, and the second answers many of my questions with a more detailed article. I realize this is kind of roundabout, but I did not want to delete the original post entirely.

I started out by considering a fascinating brief article in PCT Online (Dec 2006) that rounds up information provided by bed bug researchers in a panel at the 2006 National Pest Management Association Conference. What’s interesting is that the researchers cover a wide variety of topics (from the efficacy of various pesticides to the usefulness (or not) of vacuuming, steaming, and hot dryers.

Personally, I was intrigued by University of Kentucky entomologist Michael Potter’s assertion that a normal machine wash would kill bed bugs (”normal” as in, not hot ?), and five minutes in a hot dryer would kill bed bugs and eggs. I said I’d like to see more data on this–I did not doubt it at all, but is it really so? Since a wash won’t kill eggs, this must be why the hot wash / hot dry combo are always recommended in university fact sheets. We’re told the dryer is what kills the eggs. But I think I’ve only seen Dr. Potter being quoted as saying five minutes drying was enough.

A hot dryer apparently runs at about 180 F. I doubt this temperature is achieved after five minutes, though. Can five minutes on a temperature somewhere below 194 F be enough, when companies providing thermal treatments do so at a core temperature of 140 F for four hours? (Winston clarifies this in the comments.)

But this is the only source I’ve seen on “five minutes being enough” (though it has been quoted in newspaper articles). Personally, habit and skepticism have had me recommending drying for over an hour. I always say, “dry on hot till it’s bone dry, then add 20 minutes.”

But then, dear Reader, I confess, I dotted my bed with lavender oil for months, hoping its reputed repellent properties would keep bed bugs away. I figured it probably wouldn’t, and it didn’t. But it was hard to give up this habit, since I believed it might be helping. That is kind of irrational, but I guess that’s what sleeping 4 hours a night does for you.

Since washing and drying and storing clothing properly can make such a difference to bed bug treatment, I emphasized that we want to be sure we’re doing it right. It would be such a blessing for people to only have to dry things on hot for five minutes. It would save not only time, but lots of clothing items that simply can’t handle washing on hot and drying for an hour on hot. For those reasons, I hoped we could get more information on the research that was done.

So then, I remembered one motto here at Bedbugger Ask, and ye shall receive. (Information, people, only ask for information. If you need $500, it ain’t gonna happen.)

And lo and behold, Hopelessnomo pointed me to more information that is available from Michael Potter (and colleagues) in another PCT article, this one from January 2007. SO I have re-titled and re-written this post, since it now is a whole lot more useful and contains a whole lot more tidbits.

I’ll quote the section on laundry in full:

Bed bugs often infest bedding, clothing and other personal belongings which cannot be treated with insecticides. An oft-mentioned way to de-bug such items is laundering — yet to our knowledge, no testing has been done to verify effectiveness. A simple experiment was conducted to study this question. Three groups of live bed bug adults, nymphs and eggs were placed in small nylon mesh pouches which were then placed inside cotton socks. The bed bug-provisioned socks (along with a full load of clothing) were then run through a standard wash cycle using hot water. A second trial was run with similarly infested socks placed only in a clothes dryer. The bed bug-laden socks were accompanied by a load of unwashed clothing and subjected to high heat (greater than 175° F) for five minutes. No bed bugs or eggs survived the washing or drying cycles, suggesting that either regimen, alone or in combination, is effective.

Clothing, footwear, area rugs, toys, stuffed animals, backpacks and other non-launderable items can conveniently be de-infested by heating them for a period of time in a dryer at most settings. For reference, a typical clothes dryer run for five minutes at low, medium or high heat produced temperatures of about 140, 150 and 180°F, respectively, amongst a bundle of dry clothing– plenty hot to kill bed bugs. While certain items may require professional dry-cleaning, utilizing conventional washers and dryers may help limit the spread of bed bugs to these establishments.

This information suggests that either a hot machine wash, or a hot dryer running for five minutes with already dry clothing, will kill bed bugs and eggs. As Nomo suggests in the comments below (written before I added this update) “five minutes with dry items” is not so different from what we’ve been recommending at Bedbugger all along: “bone dry plus 20 minutes.” Well, make that “bone dry plus five.” I don’t blame if you if, like me, you’re a bit skeptical and want to stick to “twenty minutes past dry”– we won’t call you neurotic.

As John sang, “Whatever gets you through the night, it’s alright, it’s alright.” For Bedbuggers, that’s another motto around here. The promise of a good night’s sleep is the grail.

The rest of the information from the January article is also more detailed and informative than the summary from December. Let me give you the highlights from what Dr. Potter et. al. recommend:

Discarding infested stuff: yes, but only if necessary. Seek a qualified PCO’s advice (qualified = knows the enemy well). If you are tossing it, wrap it well (and mark it!) and realize that if your neighbors or surrounding community pick up the item, they may come back via a crack in your shared wall, a visit to a dry cleaner’s, or the local diner. That should make anyone think twice and thrice.

Encasement: use high quality encasings that won’t tear.

Vacuums: harder to pick up bed bugs and eggs than you think; doesn’t really help unless you hit their harborage areas in a targeted way. Discard bags carefully (bed bugs can survive the trip down the hose), and do not use vacuum brushes, since they can lodge in the bristles. The dirty little so-and-so’s.

Steam

The steam portion of this FAQ has now been incorporated into the new FAQ on steam:
How to kill bed bugs with steam. It’s relevant both to treating your home and furniture and steamable “stuff” too.

Seasonal temperatures (”putting stuff outside”)

Regarding seasonal temperatures, backpackers take note: We get a lot of questions at Bedbugger about whether “leaving stuff outside” works–and occasionally hear from people who tried it and failed. I think it comes down to the temperature, the length of time, and what you provided the bed bugs to nestle in. (The last complaint I heard was someone whose down comforter had bed bugs surviving the cold — well, perhaps it was a very warm down comforter, and maybe it just was not cold enough outside to freeze them within it.) The article says:

Lethal outdoor temperatures have long been employed in the battle against bed bugs. In the tropics, infested bedding is often left out in the sun and such methods can also be used during warm seasons in this country. It’s risky, however, to rely on ambient heating to achieve lethal temperatures in all harborage locations. Wrapping items in plastic before placing them outdoors in a sunny location (preferably on pavement), produces higher internal temperatures. It also pays not to over pack — more trash bags with fewer items make it harder for bed bugs to find cooler places to hide. Monitoring with a thermometer is also prudent, with a target internal temperature of at least 120° F.

In colder climates, freezing might be a way to de-infest furniture and other belongings. Bed bugs and their eggs can be killed by very low temperatures, but it is difficult to achieve them without using a deep freezer. Temperatures below 0°F for one to two weeks are generally believed to be needed to reliably kill all life stages. Fluctuating winter temperatures which often extend above this level are probably less effective and are currently being studied by Dr. Steven Kells at the University of Minnesota. Overall and throughout much of the country, heating tends to be a faster, more reliable option than chilling.

Well, that’s all for now. I greatly appreciated reading this research. Thanks to Dr. Potter and his team.

And special thanks to Hopelessnomo, who mentioned the article in the forums, and directed me to further sources.

Update (7/19/2007):

Additional information on thermal, cold, steam, etc. is included in Stephen L. Doggett’s Bed Bug Code of practice. See the table of contents.

Frank, at the War on Bed Bugs, also did an interesting post on hot and cold treatments. Check it out.

Update (10/4/2007):

Some people have recommended something like this for drying shoes in the dryer:

Update 12/07:

If you are thinking of using a dry cleaner for some or all of your clothing, read this FAQ first!

Update 1/08:

NotSoSnug points us to a library protocol for getting bugs out of books:

I should add that there is a librarian protocol to heat paperwork at 130degF for 3hrs to kill insects (remember to include a pan of water to keep some humidity). Any longer will melt binding glue (I know I forgot one night and it did). Also, till tape receipts are heat sensitive so they will turn dark. Annoying if you need the receipts for business!

See the ‘Bookworm’ section, Paragraph #7:

http://www.unesco.org/webworld/ramp/html/r8820e/r8820e07.htm

Thanks, NotSoSnug!

• FAQ: dry cleaners and bed bugs
• FAQ: Leaving stuff out to freeze, walk-in freezers, etc: how cold and how long?
• FAQ: I stayed somewhere that had bed bugs. What do I do to keep from taking them home?
• more on bed bugs in New Haven: they’re only using steam cleaning?!?

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Nine-pound Nudie’s feet skitter across the concrete floor as she speeds by, keeping her tiny nose to the ground. She scurries around the perimeter of a bed, then hops on top.

“Find your B’s, find your B’s,” handler Jose “Pepe” Peruyero commands. Within seconds, she’s pawing furiously at a spot on the bed as if trying to dig through it.

She’s found her “B’s” — meaning bedbugs. She gets a handful of kibble, a hearty “Good girl!” from Peruyero and a kiss on her scruffy head.

Nudie is a bedbug-detecting Chinese crested terrier mix trained by Peruyero’s J&K Canine Academy in High Springs, part of a 3½-year collaboration with University of Florida entomologists.

They’ve worked together to gauge the accuracy of more than 17 termite-detecting dogs since 1998, but early next month will be the first time they’ve added bedbug-sniffing dogs like Nudie to the mix.

About 20 dogs will be tested for their termite- and bedbug-detecting accuracy during the Southeast Pest Management Conference May 6-9 on the UF campus. UF entomology graduate students run the tests.

Though the bed bug dogs are not a “silver bullet” for finding bed bugs, they can often find them where humans can’t easily do so:

“We’ve been working to try to make sure that there are quality dogs out there to detect termites, and now bedbugs,” said Phil Koehler, an entomology professor with UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. “Both those pests are very difficult to detect in structures.”For instance, he said, researchers have found as many as 15 bedbug nymphs in the slot of a drywall screw.

That’s the sort of stealth that makes bed bugs so hard to find. Humans need all the help we can get, so bring on the trained bed bug dogs, and bring on the tests of their efficacy.

Thanks to lmk for the tip!

• Abbey the Bed Bug Dog: news report
• Results of University of Florida tests on bed bug dog effectiveness are out
• How accurate are human bed bug inspectors, k9s?
• Consumers, before you hire one, find out what that bed bug dog can do!

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By 3 pm on the second day, the two bites were fully swelled and majorly itchy.

Waaaaaay itchier than the “bites” I’ve been feeling for the past two months. This is definitely making me doubt myself, in the weirdest way - was it all a joke? It’s hard to pin down exactly when my “really itchy” bites stopped and my “less itchy” bites began, but it was probably at least two months ago. Were the past two months all “phantom bites?”

I don’t know the answer to this. For example, there was one time back in January when I saw a nymph run across my hand. I looked down because I felt a hot itch on my knuckle, and then I saw the bug. So I’d say that was a “confirmed bite.” That bite itched, for sure, but not like these. It swelled up for about two days, and then it faded to a small pink non-itchy bump on my knuckle.

Perhaps that bug was interrupted halfway through its bite, and that’s why the bite never got huge. Or perhaps different locations on the body elicit different bite responses. Last year, when we first had bedbugs (for about two weeks in April 06) I had bites all up the inside of my arm, in similar locations to these new test bites. And those were just as big and itchy as these. So maybe the inside of your forearm is just a particularly sensitive, reactive location, and your knuckle, not so much.

Either way, these bites are raging. They itch all day and night. There is definitely a difference. I know you guys know. It’s the kind of itch where you want to chew your own arm off.

By 11 am on the third day, I’d say the adult bite is slightly larger.

But the nymph bite is still far larger than any of my recent “bites.” All the skin around the adult bite is pink, in like a 2-inch circle. They are both swelled like crazy, and they both itch like mad. It makes me wonder, does the bites’ proximity to each other make a difference? I am not about to go back for another Bite Fest, but the new questions I’d love to answer are:

1. Does the length of time the bug takes, make a difference? What if it only feeds for say, 5 or 10 seconds?

2. Does the location on the body make a difference?

3. Does bites’ proximity to each other make a difference?

I know this sounds like a long shot, but the only way I could see that I’m still getting actual, new bites, is if bedbugs (adult or nymph) are biting me for like five seconds, on “tough” parts of my body, and not near each other. I guess they could be biting me for five seconds while I sit on the couch, but I don’t feel like my face and neck are “tougher” than my inner arm.

And still, zero reaction to the cast skin. I’m continuing to monitor that arm as well as the rest of my body. So far, incidentally, nothing on the rest of my body either.

So my initial conclusion is that while I’m NOT hypersensitive to chitin, I’m also NOT currently being bit by bedbugs. What is my skin doing? I have no freaking idea. But hey. As long as it’s not new bedbugs, I’m fine.

Last night, for the first time in four months, I experienced a brief moment - maybe ten seconds - where I actually accepted that this might be over. I was putting my bag into a ziploc as I came in the door, and I pictured not doing that. The feeling went away, sadly, almost right away! But this feeling rushed over me that for the first time, I actually believed that this might indeed be over.

Baby steps.

These are the marks S has gotten on her skin for the last 2-3 months before Bitefest began. She now thinks they were “bites” (in our parlance here at bedbugger.com, “bites” are marks someone is not sure are actual bites from a bed bug).

Editor’s note from Nobugsonme:

I actually started composing S a long email on Wednesday, posing just some of those questions she notes above. And I did not send it–deciding to wait and comment after the last installment. While I hope very much that S is bed bug-free, I do want us to be skeptical about the conclusions that can be drawn from this limited experiment.

What I think S and G proved was this:

(a) G can be bitten and not react (at least for three days), and

(b) S reacts the same to nymph and adult bites (at least on her arm), and

(c) Nymph bites and adult bites, at least sometimes, look the same.

I know my conclusions will seem stingy to many, but if we want solid information, we need more research to be done.

Remember, S said a few weeks ago she wants to keep people from getting caught up in “groupthink,” the sharing of incorrect information among members of a group until everyone believes it? One fact that was becoming gospel among many bed bug sufferers around the internet was that nymph bites are small and adult bites are large. I was always skeptical of this idea, since we just did not have any proof. I am immensely grateful that S tested and shattered that belief. Doesn’t mean they can’t be different sizes in different circumstances, mind you, but on S’s arm, this week, they were not. That’s quite a nugget of information.

As S says above, “…perhaps different locations on the body elicit different bite responses.” In my own experience, I know this to be true. I have not undergone testing, but I am fairly certain. Bites on my face always looked the same: less swollen, looking like pimples but with a distinct bedbuggy itchiness that set them apart. Nevertheless, they never itched like bites on my back, shoulders, or elsewhere. They often faded quickly. Those on my toes were always tiny, but again, charactertistically itchy.

It’s possible that length of time you were bitten may matter, that distance between bites may matter (both possibilities S also posits), that even variables such as your own immune system, the degree of histamine reaction at that time or to that bug’s saliva, even how dry your skin is, or how much water you drank in the day, all of this may be a variable. I am sure there are other factors that are possible. My point is, we don’t know: this is the tip of the iceberg.

I think S is probably bed bug free as she suggests. I just don’t think she can rule out that the other marks in the composite photo were from bed bugs. Both possibilities can co-exist at the same time, in the form of bugs who just hadn’t crossed the poison yet when they bit her–they could now be dead, though they bit her. That’s my hypothesis, but we won’t get to test it. Let’s hope all S’s and G’s only future bed bug bites, if any, are by choice– “from a can,” if you will.

Thanks again to S. and G for sharing this amazing experience, and for the nugget of wisdom we’ve gotten from it.
Thanks also to our readers, for coming back to parts two and three!

• World exclusive: Bedbuggers experiment with being bitten, on purpose! (Part 4)
• World exclusive: Bedbuggers experiment with being bitten, on purpose! (Part 2)
• World exclusive: Bedbuggers experiment with being bitten, on purpose!
• FAQ: Bed bugs are crawling on me all the time. I am being bitten all day long, no matter where I go!

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