According to Fox 31 News in Colorado, JoDean Persichetti says she did not have bed bugs in her apartment until after her shipment of rented furniture arrived:

“Those bugs were not in the apartment before the furniture arrived, it’s a brand new unit,” she said.

JoDean asked Rent-A-Center to pick up the furniture but the company refused, saying an insurance adjuster would have to inspect the furniture first, and if JoDean moved it herself she would be held liable for any damages.

“You just want to scratch your skin until you bleed,” JoDean said. She moved her mattress outside, but she says the bugs in her bedroom are still there.

Though Rent-a-Center claimed they inspected the furniture and found it bed bug-free before delivery, the Aurora store is paying to have Orkin treat Persichetti’s home for bed bugs.

Rental furniture is at risk of picking up bed bugs in one home, and having them carried to another. In addition, items not infested with bed bugs might become infested while being carried together with infested items in a truck.

I believe all furniture rental companies should be taking steps to ensure without a doubt that their stock is bed bug-free. Possible methods for doing so include professional thermal treatment and/or vikane (sulfuryl fluoride) gas fumigation of trucks full of stock.Similar Posts:

• Nashville woman files suit with Rent-a-Center over bedbugs
• Bed bugs “a disaster no different from a fire” Brattleboro, VT Selectboard is told
• 160-unit Richmond, California complex evacuated for tent fumigation of bed bugs
• Depot Square in St. Johnsbury, VT: 39 of 47 units infested
• Bed bugs on Today with Meredith Viera and Janice Lieberman, today

Well, okay, not Zen exactly.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What an amazing attitude!

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

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

Can’t hurt, right?

Creative Visualization: Use the Power of Your Imagination to Create What You Want in Your Life (Gawain, Shakti)
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An upscale hotel in Kona, Hawai’i is now the largest structure ever to be fumigated for bed bugs, according to this PCTOnline article.

KONA, HAWAII — Nov. 24, 2008 — Kama’aina Termite & Pest Control recently completed work at the largest structure ever to be fumigated for bed bugs: an upscale hotel in Kona, Hawaii. The 4.5 million-cubic-foot hotel had been plagued by bed bugs for several months with no acceptable control from topical applications.

Kama’aina used Vikane (TM), a.k.a. sulfuryl fluoride, and it took 16 workers and $100,000 in tarps, water snakes and clamps. It was not easy:

This was an extremely challenging fumigation,” Miske says. “The structure was massive, there was a strong wind coming off the coastline and we had to meet an extremely tight deadline. We had to take special safety precautions to keep our employees and the public safe.”

During the fumigation, safety officers were positioned around the structure to ensure worker safety. In addition, any fumigator going more than 10 feet off the ground to lay a tarp was required to wear a safety harness and retractable lanyard.

You can read more in PCT Online and do look at Kama’aina’s photos of enormous tented structures including King Kamehameha’s Kona Beach Hotel.

Thanks to Renee for the tip.
Similar Posts:

• Entire Kansas City high-rise gets thermal treatment for bed bugs
• Bed bugs “a disaster no different from a fire” Brattleboro, VT Selectboard is told
• Bed bug “luau” on the Camino to Santiago
• Bed-bugs.co.uk study of how bed bugs spread in London
• Bed bugs in Washington, D.C.? Yes! And growing in number daily.

Here’s The Stamford Advocate with another story that makes me mad. Residents of a building for senior citizens like Adelaida Ramos have been dealing with bed bugs for three years:

Ramos is one of more than 50 people at Stamford Manor, a public housing residence for seniors, who have reported bedbugs to the housing authority over the past three years. The authority has fumigated apartments, especially since the problem became rampant last year, but residents said the bloodsuckers persist, moving from one apartment to the next.

Some residents, including Ramos, think the only way to annihilate the pests is to fumigate all of Stamford Manor.

“If they continue doing it like this, it’s never going to end,” said Ramos, who speaks Spanish.

On Wednesday, Richard Fox, executive director of the housing authority recently renamed Charter Oak Communities, said he plans to do that. Monday the authority will begin fumigating two floors a day for five days, said Bob Violet, the building inspector. Another 20 apartments will be fumigated each week for three weeks, Fox said.

That doesn’t sound like fumigation.

True fumigation, commonly done with gases such as sulfuryl fluoride, Vikane (TM), requires evacuation, and is helpful in clearing an entire building of bed bugs at once. Thermal treatment can also lead to a quick resolution (as I hope it will for these seniors in Philadelphia).

What Stamford Manor is getting sounds like traditional bed bug treatments (spraying, dusting). The bed bugs have been traveling aroud the building for three years already, and this treatment plan may not be the end of it, unfortunately.

Update (11/25): at least for now, the Stamford Advocate reports there are no complaints of bed bugs in Stamford Manor, according to management. The whole building was treated — I am not sure how many times, though at least some units (perhaps all?) got three spray treatments in two weeks. Six residents were still claiming to have bed bugs as of mid-November, so I think it’s too soon to call it a success. Similar Posts:

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According to the Baltimore Sun (10/8/2008), most of the 64 students evacuated from the Dulaney Valley Apartments because some students had apartments infested with bed bugs were moved to a local Sheraton.

Now WBAL TV in Baltimore reports that some of those students have encountered bed bugs in the Sheraton:

A room at the Sheraton Hotel North in Towson has been affected by bedbugs, displacing two of the students, school officials said. Some students staying at the Dulaney Valley Apartments were moved to the hotel after bedbugs were found at that location in both July and September.

Goucher College officials said the Sheraton will have the rooms examined and the hotel will take the necessary measures to rid the room of bedbugs.

While it is certainly possible that one can encounter bed bugs anywhere (including any hotel room), it is also true that bed bugs are easily carried from place to place. This chain of events raises the question of whether Goucher students were instructed to and assisted in making sure they did not move bed bugs with them to the Sheraton. This article describes ways in which Stanford University attempts to halt the spread of bed bugs when students are evacuated from dorm rooms due to these pests.

I want to stress that it is impossible to know from the article whether students brought bed bugs to the Sheraton, or whether they encountered bed bugs already at the hotel. But the potential of moving bed bugs is something colleges should consider when evacuating students under such circumstances. The students’ experience also highlights the need for people to learn to search a hotel room for bed bugs before settling in.

Although people often come on the Bedbugger forums asking how they can move without transporting bed bugs, it is not an easy process. Some people will have their possessions treated with sulfuryl fluoride (such as Vikane[TM]) or thermal processes, at great cost, in order to avoid moving bed bugs.

Bed bugs can crawl into a person’s luggage or other items, or even crawl into clothing and be moved from place to place. Bed bug evacuees must take precautions when fleeing to hotels or other locations, in order to avoid infesting them.

Our FAQs on travel offer suggestions on not moving bed bugs from place to place.Similar Posts:

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Given that bed bugs are so hard to eradicate, and how long it can take to treat using traditional methods, we’re always on the lookout for better options.

Those of us in multi-unit dwellings often daydream about having our whole buildings tented and fumigated with Vikane (TM) a.k.a. sulfuryl fluoride. It’s one way to get rid of bed bugs in a building (large or small) that’s out of control. You can do it to your house, or your whole building, but you can’t do it in a single apartment (hence the daydreams). It’s not legal everywhere, from what I gather, but is worth looking into. Everyone (humans and pets) must be evacuated before treatment, and the unit is covered in a tent so that the gas does not escape.

Only a trained and licensed professional can or should use Vikane gas. You should never try to replicate this kind of treatment using any kind of substance. It is extremely deadly.

Here’s Dow’s brief article on vikane gas fumigation for bed bugs, and Bowman Termite and Pest of Hawai’i on Vikane fumigation for bed bugs (this one tells us that the procedure takes one day and kills all bed bug adults, nymphs and eggs, if done properly).

Pest Control magazine clarifies that three times as much Vikane is used for bed bugs as for termites. And they outline Vikane’s benefits:

“We have recommended fumigation with Vikane on several extensive bed bug infestations where we felt that conventional treatment strategies could not bring a resolution to the problem quickly enough,” said Scott Crowley, technical director at Lloyd Termite Control in California. “When we use other treatment methods, re-treatments are frequently necessary. However, when we use Vikane and take some extra precautions, we can be sure that all of the bed bugs in the structure have been eliminated.”

The extra precautions that Crowley recommends include inspecting all personal belongings which may have been involved in the transference of bed bugs, as well as proper laundering of bedding and clothing which may have been exposed.

Frank of The War on Bed Bugs on Vikane:

(A) Vikane chamber can also be used to treat furniture and possibly vehicles. The technique sounds promising and does not cause significant damage to human health or environment. However, the cost of Vikane gas fumigation is significantly higher, and it is impossible to treat a multi-family dwelling without the co-operation of every unit. The long-term effects of using Vikane gas are also not clear.

Like Frank, I’d like to know more about the possible long-term effects. I have a hunch that gas is nor harmful to us or pets, because we don’t re-enter the home until it has been aired out for a time and the gas has fully dissipated (which is an advantage of a gas over other substances which might be applied). But I’d like more information on that.

I’d also love to have a ballpark figure on the costs of Vikane gassing a 3-bedroom house, say, or a 3-family house, or a 35-unit apartment building. If anyone has done it or knows how much it would cost, please tell us (and include the region or rough geographical location, if you will).

We also seriously need details on anyone who is licensed and able to provide Vikane gassing of a moving truck full of bed bug infested items. If you know of anyone who does this, anywhere, please let me know. Entrepreneurs, do you realize how many people from this site alone would frequent such a service? It would open up “moving” as a viable option for getting away from bed bugs, which it really isn’t now.

(Update: a number of companies are now doing this, some even specializing, such as Bed Bugs and Beyond.)

Dow’s FAQs on Vikane for termites note that many real estate transactions now require homes to be treated for termites before the sale goes through. For bed bugs, no other treatments but thermal and Vikane can potentially offer 100% success (and I stress that thermal and Vikane have to be done by people who know what they’re doing). Vikane seems like a good option if you’re selling a home or building and have bed bugs. What’s more, if the provider guarantees their work, buyer and seller can have peace of mind on this issue.

Further reading:

This is the Environmental Protection Agency (USA EPA) page on Vikane gas fumigation.

This is one example of a success using Vikane.

This is a site for people concerned about pesticides, which suggests Vikane may be dangerous even when used correctly. The issue is likely to be controversial, but I wanted to share this link so readers are aware of it and can do further research if they’re concerned.

Update: a note about Phosphine

badbugs of Minnesota reports that in that state, phosphine fumigation is available, but not vikane. badbugs had commodity fumigation done with phosphine. Note from badbugs: “phosphine … tarnishes gold, silver, and reacts really badly with copper (which means you can’t gas electronics)”.

Update (2008): Commodity Fumigation, Guarantees, and User Reports

When this article was originally written, the primary use of vikane gas that we were aware of was the fumigation of homes and cars. The procedure is also being used for commodity fumigation: you fill a truck with your stuff, it gets driven to a service provider, and they tent and gas it with sulfuryl fluoride (the generic gas which is sometimes sold as “vikane”).

This method is often used by people moving from an infested home to an uninfested home. If you intend to use commodity fumigation but will return the items to the same home, you need to be absolutely sure the home is bed bug-free before bringing things back in. You also need to make sure you are not suffering continued exposure to bed bugs (e.g. through a neighbor or workplace).

Finally, with any treatment, get a guarantee in writing. And follow your service provider’s instructions to the letter (as far as how to prep, and what to leave out). One Bedbugger has had to have her home re-treated after it was fumigated with vikane gas and all bed bugs were apparently not killed. On the other hand, many others appear to have had treatments that were successful in one go.

Further discussions of vikane / sulfuryl fluoride fumigation in our forums.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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