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

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

As the U.S. News Health blogger reported,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The new research study referred to in these articles is:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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I was poking around some historical items, for reasons which will soon become revealed to you, dear readers, when I found an interesting document from the Commission for Environmental Cooperation which outlines the history of DDT in Canada, the US (the three countries represented on the CEC) until 1997.  Click here to load a PDF of History of DDT in North America to 1997, from the CEC.

Please understand: we don’t think DDT is a solution for bed bugs now. Sure — despite being ecologically-minded and kind of nervous around pesticides in general — like many of you, my first reaction to bed bugs was “Bring back DDT!”  However, learning more made me realize this was not practical, and not even an effective solution anymore. I don’t want to entertain a discussion of this.

The fact is, bed bugs started showing resistance to DDT as early as 1948 in Hawaii, and reports from the 1950s and 1960s, as well more recently, tell us that bed bugs were not killed when spraying with DDT was done for malarial mosquitos. (This BBC article from 2001 claims that DDT spraying for malarial mosquitos in South Africa made bed bugs more active. Shudder.)

If you don’t believe bed bugs are resistant to DDT, Renee has previously laid out all the evidence for you at New York vs. Bed Bugs, in this post, and I encourage you to check it out.

However, I do think this CEC history of DDT is relevant to us today, in terms of thinking about the laws around pesticides.

In 1969, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) cancelled the registration of certain uses of DDT (on shade trees, on tobacco, in the home, and in aquatic environments) after studying the persistence of DDT residues in the environment. Applications on crops, commercial plants, wood products, and for building purposes were cancelled by the USDA in 1970. Under the authority of the EPA, the registrations of the remaining DDT products and DDT-metabolites were cancelled on 4 January 1973, with the following exemptions: public health use for control of vector-borne diseases, USDA or military use for health quarantine, and use in prescription drugs for controlling body lice. All of these remaining uses were voluntarily cancelled (due to failure to pay maintenance fees) by October 1989.

Emphasis mine.

I had not realized that even after being outlawed in the US for home and agricultural use in 1970, and after being prohibited for most other uses in 1973, you could still legally get DDT until 1989 for some purposes including treating pests which caused vector-borne diseases (a category which does not include bed bugs) and for body lice.

This is relevant because, while DDT does not appear to be one of them, there are classes of chemicals which are currently outlawed in certain areas which are effective against bed bugs.  It is worth remembering that agencies can make exceptions to allow some of those substances to be labeled for bed bug use and allowed in controlled situations.  Winston gives us a glimpse of one product not available for this use in the US, Ficam, here:

… as mentioned in my first piece, misguided legislation have forced many products out of the market. Some due to legitimate concerns, some due to a lack of true scientific evaluation and feel-good politics, and some because they simply could not afford to maintain registration due to increased requirements. A prime example of this is Ficam, a material which is used elsewhere with a degree of success, but here in the US is no more. The same in fact would have been true of Drione, one of the remaining effective dusts. Prior to the bed bug outbreak this product was due to go by the wayside simply because of economics, and now it is probably one of the good long-term materials when used properly in wall voids, outlet covers and cracks and crevices.

As Winston has reminded us elsewhere, even pyrethrins are outlawed for use in city-owned buildings by Local Law 37.  Despite pyrethroid-resistance, pyrethrins can be an important part of a bed bug treatment plan.  This law is misguided and means residents of public housing, homes, kids in public school classrooms and people in city-run institutions may have less effective bed bug treatment.

And while some might think LL 37 is protecting New York citizens’ health, you have to ask yourself: if the pesticides prohibited in publicly-owned buildings, then they’d be outlawed in private schools and apartment  buildings too, not just in the city-owned buildings.

In New York, it’s one reason we need to encourage the city to take action.  Some legislative changes can help in the fight against bed bugs.

As Michael Potter said last summer at the PCT Bed Bug Seminar,

“If there is a classic example of why you don’t eliminate entire classes of pesticides,” Potter said, “bed bugs are it. We’re in a heap of trouble in terms of the products we have available to fight this pest,” citing several classes of chemistry that are no longer available (e.g., organophosphates, carbamates, etc.) and the growing threat of pyrethroid resistance. As a result, he said, “I don’t see how this problem is going to get better. I think it’s going to get chaotic. This is the most challenging pest I’ve encountered in my career. We’re in big trouble.”

We are in big trouble.

I don’t even know how to begin to help lobby for better pesticides.  I assume pest control operators, entomologists, and their professional organizations are doing so.  Maybe they can tell us if there’s something we bed bug activists can do to help.   It seems so essential that we get all the help we can get in fighting bed bugs.

Finally, because someone always asks: I am not pesticide-happy. I am, in fact, more enthusiastic about non-chemical solutions to bed bugs. Not only because they do develop resistance to pesticides, but also because I seek safe, ecologically-friendly, easy solutions to bed bug problems.

Steaming, thermal treatments, and other solutions are labor-intensive. Steam requires dedicated, persistent, repetead work (and in most cases, probably requires the backup use of targeted use of dusts or sprays).

Thermal treatments require an experienced operator and expensive equipment. For those who can afford it, and who have access to knowledgeable providers, this can be a good option. We can only hope that effective non-chemical options will become more widely available and less costly.

When we’re talking about the extensive spread of bed bugs, though, we have to be realistic about the types of treatment likely to be implemented. Making sure the most effective pesticides (or at least, a variety of pesticides, to help offset resistance to individual chemicals) is probably better for both people living with bed bugs, as well as the environment.  Because getting rid of the problem more quickly means less pesticides will be needed.

Once the bed bug epidemic is under control, and we’re back where we were in the 1970s, with isolated outbreaks, then we might be able to deal with the problem in other ways. We’re a long way from that situation.  And we will probably never get there again if pest control operators are not able to use whatever tools they can safely use in order to eliminate them.Similar Posts:

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Check it out here!

Steam information was removed from this FAQ, and it has been greatly enhanced.

Many thanks to Mangycur who wrote most of the new FAQ, and to all whose ideas are included (as many as possible are named in the FAQ itself).

If you have additional suggestions, leave a comment on the FAQ itself. Thanks!Similar Posts:

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This item from WPRI 12 Eyewitness News takes a spin down the “pesticide resistance” road, with sound bites from a woman with bed bugs, Dr. Michael Potter (whose unofficial fan club is housed right here), an unnamed ThermaPure Heat representative talking about that technology, and Douglas Stern talking about Cryonite.

Stern stresses the need for a residual placed down after Cryonite in order to deal with bed bugs not knocked down by the process; one person in the forums has claimed to have had multiple Cryonite treatments and a persistent infestation.

Some additional non-pesticide options not mentioned are Vikane gas and the careful and diligent use of a steamer (preferably a dry steamer, to avoid mold and fungus growth). Steam is a lot of work, and most effective in experienced hands, but can seriously reduce your bed bug population. Coupled with dusts and pesticides, it is a viable option.

Thanks to the anonymous Bedbugger who pointed us to this video.

Click here to watch the film.
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Note: since this post was written, Bedbugger has a new FAQ on Killing Bed Bugs With Steam. There are steamer recommendations and further tips on technique and safety in the Steaming FAQ, compiled by bedbugger Mangycur and nobugs.

We have long had a success stories page. And though readers often forget to write and tell us of their success, when they do, I’ve been pasting the stories in there.

Some, however, are longer and more detailed than can fit into the page. So I have decided, from here on in, to give each its own post, and to link to that from the success stories page.

Now, I give you Collette’s bed bug success story (10/2007):

First phase, the discovery:

I had been scratching my arms like crazy at night for several weeks. This started to really impair my sleep. But I never suspected anything gross, and the reason was that my husband slept through the whole thing without even as much as a scratch. So first lesson: Not everybody scratches. One very early morning, after a sleepless itchy night, which I like to call my last night of innocence, I stumbled my way to my iMac and googled: arms itching night.

I was instantly flooded with allergies-related results, I was to take an allergy test, and find out what it is my body cannot take. Had I recently changed soap? Was Zytec right for me? I knew I was not allergic, never had been allergic to anything, and thought never will be. (Second lesson: Now, I am allergic, but the details will come later).

Buried, almost hidden, within the sea of allergy sites, one result line grabbed my attention. More exactly, one word in the line : bedbugs. At least it sounded different than the rest, I clicked. I was faced with the picture of a round-shaped brown bug, not exactly ugly. There was even a Latin name for it, and a very long story about what a terrible thing they are, and how impossible it is to get rid of them, and how they can make you scratch all night long.

I shrugged. Yes, I shrugged, so comforted by my own naiveté, that I could not possibly harbor such a repulsive thing in my very cozy pricey king-size bed. I headed back to the bed, making a mental note to self: Get an appointment for an allergy test. As I was walking around the bed to occupy my rightful side, passing by my snoring open-mouthed husband, I noticed a dark spot seemingly moving on top of my white-as-snow comforter. I got closer, and there it was, doing his morning jog, the exact reproduction of the image I had just shrugged at on my iMac screen. A bedbug, and a big one. A rounded one, which means his belly was full. Full of blood. Full of yours truly’s blood. I had bedbugs. I would never be the same person again.

Second phase, a naïve and hysterical attempt to get rid of the bedbugs:

Luckily, it was a day off. I immediately woke my husband up, and announced to him that we were infested. He had no idea what we were dealing with. Neither did I, but I knew more than him. We had to clean up. We did. We lifted the king-size mattress against the wall, and started inspecting it. We immediately found them. They were hidden under the mattress seams. We cleaned that. Should we throw the mattress away? We decided we should. So we started to shop on line for new mattresses. Nothing happens in a day, so we kept sleeping on infested mattress for a few more nights. We had an exterminator come in. A nice fellow, who quoted us $2,500 to take care of the problem, with no warranty, and a lot of prep work to be done by us. We decided we would do the work alone. I read everything there is to read about the issue on the blessed internet, ordered a whole case of deadly poisons online and we started spraying around. I literally threw half of my bedroom contents in the garbage. Everything that was worth saving, but that I could live without, I sealed in to plastic bags and stored in a container located in my back yard for a period that was set to 18 months. (Based on the assumption that the bedbugs can live a little over a year without food). Overreacting? Nope. Under-reacting. They kept biting me. I searched all the rooms in the house to finally come to the conclusion that they were only in my bedroom, but some forensic evidence suggested they might have once resided in the guest room, and then migrated to greener and bloodier pastures, my warm sleeping body.

Began the era of suspicion, which guest brought that questionable gift? We started gossiping about the hygiene of everyone we knew and had been kind enough to pay us a visit in the middle of our woods. We were mean. We were desperate. And then the worse came, the karmic punishment, my daughter told on us to the neighbor. Innocently, as a perfectly legitimate response to the question: Did you have a good week end? She decided to describe my epic battle against the bugs to my closest neighbor. We were exposed. I got sympathetic displays of support, was told that New York is infested, that it is not my fault, that I am not dirty, etc.. I spent a few more evenings spraying and cleaning. I bought a mattress cover. I bought white sheets, washing them daily, to be able to spot the tiniest intruder. My husband decided to keep our prisoners alive in a Tupperware box and experiment on them various pesticides. I was not sleeping much.

Third phase: Getting smart and desperate

By then, I was almost philosophical. I was thinking I am being tested by some higher powers. Had I been a believer, I would have certainly gone far into that path. My husband, on the other hand, was simply happy the house was getting cleaned much more frequently. Have I mentioned he slept though the whole thing? Well, he did. I, was not sleeping at all. First I had adopted an anti-bug attire to go to bed: Socks, PJ pants stuck into the socks, long sleeves shirt stuck into the pants, rubber bands on the wrists, and insect-repellent spray all over the whole package. Probably the part that my husband did not really appreciate, this attire was not working for him, go figure. And then I read that bedbugs will find their way to your blood no matter what, and will not hesitate to bite your eyelids. I got the hint, and took the socks off. Bite my feet, if you want. They did. I was sleeping by periods of 10 minutes, waking up at every real or imaginary itch on my body, and immediately grabbing the flash light to catch the perp in action. My husband had KGB inspired dreams, I had no dreams at all. Why didn’t I move to a hotel or another room? Simple, they would have migrated out of my room, and I wanted them in there. Also, it had evolved into a principle. They will not drive me out of my room and my bed. I started following them at night, and establishing theories about their habits. I was now able to recognize them at their different stages of life, the egg, the nymph, the adult. I knew their hours. I knew their paths. I learnt more and more about them. They are not social, they are resilient, they scatter when threatened, and they can go dormant for months if needed. And the more I knew, the more I realized it would be very hard to exterminate them. By the way, before the bedbugs, I honestly believed every life form should be respected. Like I said, I will never be the same person again.

Then one night, I got bitten by a tiny one, a baby if you will, very energetic. That was one bite too much. I stood up in the middle of my room and started crying uncontrollably. My husband opened an eye and looked at me, he then asked me to turn off the light because it was disturbing his sleep. He was smart enough the next morning to deny any remembrance of that request, and claimed he was probably sleep-talking. Nevertheless, I moved to the living room, and ordered him to keep sleeping in the bedroom as a bait. Which he did, gladly.

Fourth phase: War and victory

And one day, I knew. I had to kill them all, in all their stages, wherever they were, whatever it took. Obviously the pesticides were not working. They were only killing me. By then I was highly allergic to the Drione powder I had purchased to allegedly melt their disgusting little bodies. I was sneezing twenty times in a row every time I moved an item in my bedroom. I had read that the diatomaceous earth I was practically sleeping in could cause cancer. (Editor’s note: see response below.) I was slowly dying, and they were in great shape. It would have to be mano a mano. The conventional way. I had to go to battle against them directly, not hidden behind a sprayer.

I made the smartest purchase of my life, I bought a dry steam cleaner. $1,500 of killing steam. This would be my weapon of choice. And I went to war. The war lasted 8 straight hours, during which I went through every inch of wood and mattress in my bedroom, with a flashlight in one hand and a steam nozzle in the other. I crawled into unbelievable spots, I moved unbelievable weights, I was super-human for a day. I made no compromise, did not skip one crevice, I followed them home. I found them, everywhere. I found their eggs, found their hiding places, sometimes in the tiniest little nail holes. And I steamed them. 310 F of burning steam. They did not have a chance. I knew that even one survivor could mean re-infestation. Then I left the room and took a shower. I had a cold beer. And I came back into my bedroom, sparkling clean, smelling like a dry-cleaner shop. And I knew they were gone. I just knew. Since then I have been sleeping like a baby. So does my husband, but he always did. They are gone.

Some will say maybe they scattered, maybe they are hiding, maybe there are eggs. I know there aren’t. They are ALL dead, I killed them one by one with my bare hands.

This is my recommendation: No pesticides. Just steam and good hard work.

Colette

—————

Editor’s note:

Thanks Collette!

I have a few comments.

First, we generally recommend professional pest control operators (PCOs) because they can often get rid of bed bugs faster and more fully than self-treatment. Pesticides are imperfect, but in many cases, necessary.

That said, steam absolutely does work. Some PCOs use it and later apply dusts or sprays. PCOs may also use steam in lieu of other treatments in sensitive cases where pesticides might pose a problem to residents. It certainly can work well for individuals who do their research and (as you note) do a lot of hard work.

We do have to keep in mind that it will not work if the steam cannot penetrate every place where bed bugs are living and laying eggs. (For example, this can be deep within a sofa, or inside the wall.) If steam alone, as per your tactics, did not work, or if readers wanted to be sure they got rid of bed bugs quickly, they might combine steam and then pesticides and/or freshwater DE (all properly applied, of course). We haven’t heard again from you, and we hope they were all killed, but in most cases, it would probably be best to have some residual pesticide or food grade DE waiting in case they pop out.

I note that you used a $1500 professional steamer. Less expensive dry steamers in the $400 range can be found in the Useful Stuff page and have been recommended by readers and PCOs. (Dry steam, we’re told, is better than the wet steam cheaper steamers put out, because that can lead to mold and mildew growth, along with its own health issues.)

Regarding diatomaceous earth: first, you should not be sleeping in it, and it should only be used in small amounts and in crevices that won’t be disturbed. Used correctly, I have read that food grade freshwater DE should be safe. If you have articles suggesting otherwise, please share them.

On the other hand, inhaling any dust, or drione, is not a good thing, and so your sneezing was a sign something was wrong.

Thanks again for sharing your story! Steam has many fans in our readers, and your story will no doubt inspire many who are willing and able to do the work.

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In an article today entitled “Hard-worker sniffs out bedbugs,” from the Taranaki Daily News (New Zealand), Sharon Marris writes about bed bug dog Joni who works with Pro-Tek Systems owner John Morley in New Zealand.

We’re familiar with bed bug dogs, here at Bedbugger, but it is interesting to read of the situation in NZ.

“She’s not big, she’s clean and she’s a clever dog,” Mr Morley said of the three-year-old. “She can get into little places and sniff inside mattresses.”

Well, I bet she’s less clean when she comes out of some of those mattresses.

Yesterday Joni worked through 20 rooms and even detected bedbugs that were behind a headboard fixed to the wall.

When she finds something, she will tap at it with her paw before Mr Morley asks her to check again with her nose. After bedbugs are found, each surface of the room can be treated with steam within a day whereas chemical treatments could see a room shut off for many days. Mr Morley says the combination of Joni and steam produces a 98 per cent success rate. Manual treatments have a 20 per cent success rate.

I found this interesting, and I’d like to hear more about companies working with a combination of dogs and steam. What it sounds like Morley is describing is a situation in which the dog pinpoints the exact location of bed bugs (or eggs, which the article tells us she can also detect), and then that area is carefully steamed (I assume with a dry steam machine). Steaming that pinpoints a specific area does seem both more reliable and easier than steaming the whole area, hoping to strike bed bug gold.

I’d also like to know what that 98% success rate represents: I assume it means 98% of cases need not be serviced twice. (Or does it mean most cases eliminate 98% of their bed bugs? Big difference, no?)

This does sound promising, though as a customer, I would not mind if they then employed a bit of residual or mechanical (dust) killer to seal the deal. When it comes to killing bed bugs, I don’t think there’s such a thing as overkill.

It sounds like Joni does a lot of sleuthing looking for bed bugs in hotels, and a regular run through with the bedbug dog and an industrial steamer would be greatly reassuring to me as a prospective hotel guest.

In Australia, similar dogs are used to sniff out termites, which mainly affect the coastal urban areas of the country. Joni was trained in Queensland, one of five dogs around the world trained to sniff out bedbugs.

I think this may be based on outdated statistics, since I know of at least five bed bug-sniffing dogs currently working in the United States! Nevertheless, it does sound like bedbuggers in New Zealand and at least some parts of Australia have or will soon have access to this service, which is spreading quickly, as is (unfortunately) the need for it.

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The once-monthly pest spraying at this halfway house wasn’t keeping bed bugs away (of course it wasn’t!) so the staffers have got some steamers.

It’s a state residential substance abuse program for women nearing the end of a prison sentence. (Withdrawl: bad. Withdrawl plus formication brought on by a bed bug infestation? Nightmare.)

NJ.com says,

… after four state inmates at the halfway house were forced to sleep in the basement lounge to escape the critters, staffers were forced to purchase a number of steam cleaners to eradicate the problem.

“They have become resilient,” said Department of Corrections spokeswoman Deirdre Fedkenheuer. “The heat is the one sure way to ensure they’re going to go bye-bye.”

Heat is good, but they might want to work with a professional PCO who knows bed bugs, to supplement their steaming regimen. (They are hopefully using dry steamers to prevent mold growth?)

I truly believe you need some expert help when fighting bed bugs. (And no, I do not make my living from offering such help.) Maybe after working with them a while and soaking in all the bed bug knowledge you can, then that’s another story. Good luck to these folks.

And please, journalists: cut the “critters” talk. There’s no Disney movie in which a beautiful princess lives with her cuddly woodland friends, the bed bugs.Similar Posts:

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Such an interesting assortment of bed bug news came through my inbox this evening.

First, WLNS of Lansing, Michigan warns that bed bugs are the pest of the 21st century, that they “wreak havoc on your skin and your life,” their incidence has increased 75% n five years (oh, I’d say much more than that), and fighting an infestation is costly, upwards of $300 per room. After scaring the living bejaysus out of the good (Lansonians? Lansineers?), what one, tiny pithy nugget of practical advice do they give?

When returning from a trip, experts say it’s a good idea to vacuum out your suitcase.

Well, it’s not bad advice, but is that the only thing you’ve got for us WLNS? Looks like your readers might need them a few Bedbugger FAQs.

WVLT in Tennessee also seems to have latched on to the phrase “bug of the 21st century.” (All right, which entomologist let that one out of the bag? Well, if it replaces that nursery-rhyme mumbo-jumbo, then we’re on to a good thing, I guess.)

More suggestions here, including suitcase-vacuuming (again, I’m sensing a pattern here), and the warning to those who are thinking it’s a bedsheet issue,

If you’re leaving for a trip, don’t think taking your own bedding will help. They live in the mattress.

Just make sure and check the bed before bringing your stuff to the room.

Well, sorta, but not quite: they also live in the baseboards, bed frame, electrical sockets, light fixtures, ceiling, floor, and sofa, among other places. The information is more plentiful for Tennessee than for Lansing, Michigan, but the quality is a bit hit-or-miss. They’re obsessed with bed bugs being “in the mattress,” but they also warn people not to toss vacuum bags in the trash, and so on. (Tennesee is also playing a bit fast and loose with the rules of punctuation, spelling, and grammar, so compulsive proofreaders and your high school English teacher should steer clear!)

OSU’s student paper The Lantern reports that an infested grad student dorm at Ohio State University is getting some serious “fumigation” in response to bed bugs. The collection of all students’ non-washable belongings—isolated, bagged, placed in red carts—sounds promising. It’s a bit mysterious what will happen to that stuff (in the red carts, they have to be red carts!), but hopefully it will be picked through with a fine-toothed comb by PCOs with bed bug knowledge, and returned.

If this is so, and if OSU also follows up at 10-14 day intervals (follow-up was not mentioned at all in the article), this would not be unlike the Stanford bed bug protocol, which we believe to be the best reported in any response to college dorm bed bugs. (You can scroll down this list to see past coverage on Bedbugger of Stanford bed bug cases, and gawk at the love fest I’ve put on for Stanford upon hearing the descriptions of how San Francisco’s Crane PCO and the Stanford admin dealt with those cases. It’s beautiful, really.) I only note this because reports have also come from many other colleges of poor bed bug procedures.

Update 5/25: 100 rooms on 3 floors are being treated. Bed bugs were found on the 9th and 11th floors, and they’re treating the 10th as well. (What about the 8th?)

Finally, Australians appear to have been battling bed bugs a wee bit longer than those of us in the US. (Canada, too, a bit ahead in the Bed Bug Olympics.) So no surprise that they’re at the forefront of innovation: this dry steamer does the bed bug killing job, without getting your stuff all wet (that’s dry steam, i.e. no mold!) Their website says,

Duplex Cleaning Machines has a variety of industrial and commercial strength steam products to tackle bed bug epidemic including the Jet Steam, Tosca and JetVac range.

The JetVac Professional Plus is an ideal solution to the bed bug problem as it delivers 160°+ Dry Steam with a tool which applies the steam evenly without blowing the bugs away and then also vacuums away the dead bugs and their eggs.

Wait, they have a steamer named Tosca? Puccini must be tossing in his grave.

But the question on everyone’s mind: when will my PCO have one? I can just see it now, integrated pest management: first, they bring in the bed bug dog. Then the dry steaming and caulking. And finally, the chemical and mechanical onslaught begins. Well, the bug of the 21st century needs the PCO of the 21st century, no?Similar Posts:

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Update 1/2009: the post below was written in 11/2006.  We know a lot more now than we did then about non-pesticide treatments for bed bugs. Non-pesticide treatment options are increasing in many locations, and may include thermal treatment and fumigation with a gas such as sulfuryl fluoride (Vikane TM); though costly, if done properly, they can be successful in one treatment.

A good dry vapor steamer teamed with diatomaceous earth (both used properly and cautiously), and maybe a bit of pesticide (used properly), can also be a good combination, though it can be labor-intensive and slow.  However, pesticides can also be a slow option. 

The bottom line is you do not necessarily have to use pesticides, but you do have to be thorough and aggressive.  Bed bugs are very difficult to get rid of no matter what methods you use.  If you insist on doing it without a professional, please do extensive research first.

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Can you fight bed bugs without pesticides?

I am as wary of pesticides as the next person. I am sensitive to them, and a recent neck-to-toe 12-hour application of Elimite (permethrin) for the treatment of what my doctor thought was scabies (it was bed bugs), made me ill.

But I am even more worried that some people think they can avoid “chemicals” in fighting bed bugs. Brent Herbert, who posted an article on the Indymedia website, recommends “isolating the bed” (with instructions similar to those many of you use, and which you can find in our FAQs), and he includes some insecticide in the bowls the legs of the bed stand in.

Yet whether or not anyone was actually going to use any pesticide to treat his bed bugs (they haven’t yet) seems to be irrelevant to Herbert. He talked to the landlord about the exterminator coming as a hypothetical (if, not when).   Herbert seems to be entirely missing the point. He recognizes that bedbugs cause psychological torment, but not that that will be multiplied exponentially as their numbers do the same.

The first commenter on this post praised the suggestion of isolating the bed as a bed bug cure as an “eco-conscious, resourceful, and affordable” response.

I really think people miss the point that the massive amount of pesticides that will eventually be used when this untreated infestation is eventually out of control and requires constant re-spraying (and, in addition, spreads to many neighbors) will be much worse for the environment than some careful, concentrated treatment by a licensed pest control operator. They’ll also, incidentally, cost more and take much longer. You can’t cut corners here. These bugs are like no other household pest.

I am as eco-conscious as anyone. But spreading bed bugs causes more damage to the environment– both in pesticides being used, and also consumption of plastic bags and tossing out of furniture–both practices which are wasteful of resources and which multiply as the bugs spread to new homes.

If you care for the earth and its inhabitants, nip your problem in the bud as efficiently as you can. Get professional help. Back it up by doing your own research, isolating your bed, “Whatever gets you through the night–” absolutely.

But don’t think you can isolate your bed, or spray a little sweet rice or lavender or murphy’s oil soap around (as others recommend) and skip the extermination entirely. You’re likely to need professionals to spray 3 or more times, by most accounts. But that is vastly preferable to everyone in your vicinity treating them month after month (which can happen when things get bad).

Get cracking, Brent Herbert, or you’ll spread them to everyone else, which makes their elimination from your home and theirs nearly impossible, not to mention costly, harmful to the environment, and soul-destroying.   I am not trying to give you a hard time. But I’ve heard a lot of stories in the last few months, which have convinced me this is a pest problem nothing like cockroaches, mice, rats, or any other household vermin.   It’s not even akin to scabies or lice, or an STD.   Bed bugs are much harder to eradicate than any of these.

I know a lot of “bed bug information” sites on the net are run by pest control companies. This one isn’t. We at Bedbugger know what we know from learning the hard way: one bite at a time.Similar Posts:

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