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Western Australia Dept. of Health warns populace about bed bugs

nobugsonme — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 08:40:38 +0000

It’s summer down under, and the Western Australia Health Department is officially warning residents about the spread of bed bugs.

(Here’s the media release.)

Department of Health Acting Medical Entomologist Ms Sue Harrington said the Department had received complaints about bed bug infestation and bites from the wider metropolitan area and the South West.

“Increased travel within Western Australia and between other states and countries, accompanied by warmer weather over the summer months, has seen an increase in bed bug activity,” she said.

“Anyone staying in holiday or rental accommodation should be wary of an infestation in their room and take the time on arrival to check the bed for signs of bed bugs.”

The advice includes suggestions to check the room for bed bugs and to keep luggage on the luggage rack, advice on washing and drying clothing on return home, and on what to do if bed bugs are found once travelers return home.

While we do see similar press releases in the States, you’ll note they generally come to us via pest management industry organizations like the National Pest Management Association, from pest control firms or entomologists able to bend the ear of a reporter — not from the good old government.

Pretty impressive, Western Australian Department of Health!

You can see the report picked up by ABC here (that’s Australian ABC, to my fellow residents “up above”*).

You can learn to search a hotel room for bed bugs (and pick up other suggestions for avoiding bed bugs) in our Travel FAQs.

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*While it hasn’t officially caught on, “up above” is the natural opposite of “down under.” I encourage you to employ it where possible.Similar Posts:

Bed bug cruise surprise!

nobugsonme — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 04:34:58 +0000

A reader (we’ll call him “Tim Cruise”) writes,

We were on a [name of well-known cruise line deleted] ship only a year or so old.

I looked under the mattress as soon as we arrived and was very surprised to see bed bugs and a bloody-looking smear on the bed frame. Instead of denying that they were bed bugs, which is what I expected, they tried to comfort me by telling me that our room had been infested recently, but their onboard “horticulturist” had fumigated and cleared the room a week prior so no further treatment was necessary.

So, if the room was cleared, how did I find them so easily? Just an error in cleaning up after the fumigation I was told. I told them that from what I’ve read fumigation doesn’t kill them all, especially if done only in one room and wouldn’t kill any of the eggs which would now be hatching. I was further upset that they left our luggage in and around the infested room for hours as we argued over where we would sleep. They insisted there were no more bugs since the room was “Cleared” and that our luggage would not be bringing bed bugs to another room with us. I don’t know how they can be so sure.

And by the way, they typically book every room so there are no extra rooms to move guests to when bed bugs are found. I guess since most guests do not check themselves, this rarely is a problem for them yet. However, had I not checked under the mattress or had I agreed to sleep there anyway as they suggested, there would have been a much higher chance we would have brought bed bugs home with us.

Luckily, this reader is someone who not only knew bed bugs existed but also knew (and knew how) to search a room for bed bugs. Thanks to “Tim” for sharing his story.

Note: “fumigation” is a term often misapplied to spray and dust treatments. True fumigation, with a gas like Vikane (sulfuryl fluoride), cannot be done in single rooms. Done properly to an entire structure, it leaves no live bed bugs or eggs behind.

Meanwhile, spray and dust regimens generally require multiple treatments (though practitioners who really take their time and know their stuff do claim to get rid of bed bugs in fewer treatments).

The Travel FAQs give tips for bed bug free travel. If you do nothing else to spread the word about bed bugs, please do teach your family and friends how to search a hotel room or ship cabin for bed bugs. It’s a gift that keeps on giving.Similar Posts:

Bed bug “luau” on the Camino to Santiago

nobugsonme — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 06:02:40 +0000

The bed bugs are still biting Pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain. We last posted about bed bugs on the popular Spanish pilgrimage route exactly a year ago. There was so much bed bug trouble in various lodgings on the road to Santiago that the government was planning to close its own hostels for pilgrims for 15 days last winter to try and get rid of bed bugs on the route.

Of course, when pilgrims come from around the world, it is inevitable that bed bugs will be continually reintroduced. And since summer is the most popular time for people to travel the Camino, it’s no surprise there is a lot of chatter about bed bugs among Camino bloggers and discussion board participants.

Yesterday, pilgrim and blogger Lisa Fullam offered a humorous perspective on being bitten in a hotel she and a companion stayed at in Burgos:

I lay in bed not sleeping. Was it the very tasty chocolate we’d had after dinner? Or was it the itching? I itched idly, thinking I’d perhaps encountered a hungry mosquito on the road. Then I noticed that I was itching in new places, which seemed unlikely if mosquitoes were the culprit. Then I heard…was it the sound of tiny drums? Then…a kind of festive chant, very soft and high-pitched, almost nasal. The drums increased in rhythm and urgency. It was eerie in the dark. I scratched again, and finally decided to turn on a light.

They were everywhere. Hundreds of them. Bedbugs, celebrating something very much like a luau, and the occasion of the feast was me. Some were dancing in little circles wearing ceremonial masks, doubtless thanking whoever their gods are for this more than generous feast. Others carried little torches as they scurried around accompanying the elderly or the lame to the party. (At least some looked elderly, being gray-haired and slightly hunched, if bedbugs can be described as hunched. The crutches identified the lame–even with 6 legs, sometimes life leaves one down a few legs, needing some help.) Others carried tiny bowls of…coleslaw? Potato salad? Jello? What are the side dishes of a bedbug luau?

[Emphasis mine.]

Sometimes humor is the only way to get through such an experience. Fullam notes that they will be washing all their belongings, and we hope they manage to enjoy the rest of the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela without bed bug bites, and — most importantly — that they do not take them to subsequent destinations.

I know you’ll want to read the rest of this amusing entry on the Process of Pilgrimage blog.

Another recent report from the Camino: Tony, a hospitalero — or volunteer warden of one of the Camino’s refugios or albergues (simple hostels for pilgrims walking or cycling the pilgrimage routes) — blogs in a post entitled “Bed Bugs and Broomsticks” about the arrival of a pilgrim who had been exposed to bed bugs on the previous night in another refugio:

A lad from the Czech Republic arrived yesterday afternoon. He was covered in bedbug bites: all down his legs and over his back. He thought he got them in León. What a mess!

Well, being the sort of hospitaleros we are, we agreed to let him stay. Since Anne is a trained nurse, she took charge, with Peter’s help. All of his clothes went in the washer at a high temperature and everything else was sprayed within an inch of its life.

Initially, we said he could sleep in the garden, but relented and let him sleep on the floor of the library. I gave his some antihistamine because it looked as if he was having an allergic reaction. That ensured he had a good night’s sleep!

He was a really nice lad and extremely grateful; many places would have told him to go away, or, what’s worse, let him stay and propagate the pest even further. Hopefully, he’s all clear now.

It is wonderful that the volunteers who staff these accommodations are becoming educated about bed bugs and how to prevent their spread.

Education is, of course, our most important weapon against bed bugs.Similar Posts:

Thriftlodge guest finds hypodermic needles while searching for bed bugs in hotel

nobugsonme — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 00:33:48 +0000

Wise travelers search their hotel rooms for bed bugs before settling in. (Our Travel FAQs are a good place to start learning how.)

However, it’s worth noting you may find things besides bed bugs lurking in the room.

Friday night Michigan resident Frank Escamilla rolled in to town to look into buying a house in cheerful Stumptown. He stayed at the most budget-conscious place he could find: the Thriftlodge on East Burnside and SE 9th.

“The whole building smelled like urine, especially in the rooms. It was pretty gross,” says Escamilla. Things quickly got worse. Just to play it safe, Escamilla decided to check under his mattress for signs of bedbugs. No bugs droppings in sight, but wedged between the two boxsprings supporting the mattresses he spotted a black plastic bag. Gingerly, Escamilla picked up the bag and dumped it out on the bedside table—out rolled a cotton swab and three hypodermic needles.

(Emphasis mine.)

Yikes! A helpful reminder to be cautious while doing your inspections!

The Thriftlodge claims to lift up the bed mattresses for inspections once every three months; they might want to re-think that one!

What’s the strangest thing you’ve found in a hotel room?

See Thriftlodge Guest Finds Three Needles Under Bed | Blogtown, PDX | Portland Mercury.Similar Posts:

Bed Bug Barrier passive bed bug monitor wins ABC’s “The New Inventors” episode

nobugsonme — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 05:31:57 +0000

The Australian show “The New Inventors”(ABC) features several new inventions in an episode, with a panel of judges choosing the best of the lot.

Inventor Tony Abrahams won episode 16 (20 May 2009) with his passive bed bug monitor, the “Bed Bug Barrier,” which either attaches above the feet of the bed, or sits under the feet of the bed, trapping bed bugs attempting to crawl up onto the bed in a glue. (Based on the placement of the glue under the rim of the device, it is not clear to me whether bed bugs would also be intercepted if they tried to crawl off a bed, rather than onto it, as would be true with the Climbup TM Interceptor.)

There’s some iffy science here (for example, I don’t think anyone can prove the inventor’s claim that bed bugs cannot harbor on a mattress encasement). One judge is concerned that bed bugs brought onto a bed via a suitcase (rather than climbling up the bed leg) will not be hindered by this tool, and this judge is apparently correct. Bed bugs can live on beds. This device will not get rid of bed bugs living in the bed frame, on the mattress, or for that matter, on chairs or in other parts of the room.

This does not mean the trap is useless, but it does mean it is not a total solution. I would like to see independent test data demonstrating the effectiveness of any bed bug monitors. And I would like to know whether bed bugs are 100% trapped while entering or leaving a bed, since from what I can see, there’s some possibility bed bugs exiting a bed could drop down without crawling on the underside (glued) region of the trap.

Clearly, the passive bed bug monitor is an idea that is blooming in lots of different forms, and time (and independent peer reviewed research, we hope!) will tell which is best.

You can read about other currently available bed bug monitors such as the Climbup TM Interceptors — which provide a barrier for bed bugs climbing onto or off of beds — here, or read about David Cain’s soon-to-be-widely-available bbalert monitors — which provide a harborage for bed bugs somewhere on the bed frame itself — here and here.

I love that a bed bug-related product won this contest. Interestingly, Tony Abrahams got the idea for this product because he was in the business of renting out accommodations to travelers. His invention beat out a device which weighs beehives and some kind of portable refrigeration/food heating device.

Let’s face it: bed bugs in the popular media are always a good thing: one of the judges notes she will change her hotel room behaviors based on this presentation (presumably, she won’t be leaving luggage on the bed anymore!) If news about the problem of bed bugs reached many other Australians via this show, that in itself is a very good thing.

Click below to watch!

Thanks to Paula for the tip!Similar Posts:

Middle school class trip encounters bed bugs at YMCA of the Rockies

nobugsonme — Mon, 04 May 2009 00:30:48 +0000

Bed bugs can infest any location. Recently, Centennial, Colorado middle school students and adult chaperones encountered bed bugs in a YMCA.

YMCA spokesperson Laurie Van Horn says the 150 students and 23 adults stayed at the Silver Stage Lodge at the Snow Mountain Ranch. This was the first of three trips scheduled by Thunder Ridge.

Van Horn says four rooms total at the Silver Stage Lodge have been confirmed with bed bug infestation. She says the rest of the lodge is currently closed as dogs trained in sniffing bed bugs are going through looking for any further infestation.

Van Horn says prior to the students’ arrival, two adult guests complained of bed bugs in their room. She says students then arrived with some occupying the adjacent rooms. Van Horn says those students also filed complaints of bed bugs in their rooms.

It’s great that the bed bugs were detected, so the party can take steps to avoid bringing bed bugs home. I hope they also showered and put on fresh clothing to avoid infesting the vehicles they were traveling in.

However, I was concerned by this report:

All the of the students belongings have been bagged and parents were given specific instructions to check for any signs of bedbugs before opening the bags. Amole says that was just precautionary.

(Emphasis mine.)

Huh?

In my opinion, it isn’t precautionary. And it isn’t enough.

It really is not clear to me how parents could determine whether bed bugs are present in the bags before opening them and potentially exposing the home to this scourge.

I would hope parents would be educated as to what bed bugs and their signs look like, and then instructed to run everything through a dryer on hot (if dry, this does not take long). If items cannot be dried, they should, at minimum, be carefully visually-inspected.

There’s some risk, however, in unpacking anything that has not been carefully treated. These FAQs may help anyone wishing to get bed bugs out of their belongings.

After all, we don’t want to hear 6 or 12 or 18 months down the line that there are bed bugs at Thunder Ridge Middle School in Centennial, Colorado.

If students or staff do not take every precaution to avoid bringing bed bugs home, this could happen.

See: 9NEWS.com | Colorado’s Online News Leader | Bedbug infestation cancels school trip.Similar Posts:

Bed bugs do bite!

nobugsonme — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 04:49:36 +0000

Bed Bugs Do Bite! 11/52

Originally uploaded by clairebelles

This photo from flickr user clairebelles shows bed bug bites she says were from a Washington DC hostel.

Ugh!

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Bed bugs in Davenport, Iowa? Abilene, Texas? Be sure and call the Health Department…

nobugsonme — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 00:43:18 +0000

In the television news spot below from WQAD.com in the Quad Cities of Iowa and Illinois, it is noted that

Environmental Health Specialist Jackie Hall of the Scott County Health Department [where Davenport, Iowa is located] says cases of bed bugs have been very rare in the county. Their most recent report of these was in October of last year.

Because the Scott County Health Department has not had a call about bed bugs since October, 2008, and they are assuming that this means that there have been no bed bug cases in the county since then.

We suspect they are probably wrong. After all, people of Davenport, did anyone tell you, that you should notify the Scott County Health Department, should you find bed bugs in your home? I suspect they did not.

Davenport, Iowa is part of the Quad Cities of Iowa/Illinois (which actually now includes five cities: Davenport and Bettendorf, Iowa; and Moline, East Moline, and Rock Island, Illinois).

Reporters in the story below from Davenport imply that locals only need to worry about encountering bed bugs when they travel. Not so — two large local complexes — Joseph Fulton Homes East Moline, and Warren Tower in Rock Island County — suffered from publicized bed bug infestations in 2007.

So if you suffer from bed bugs in Davenport, at home or in a public place, please, call your local Health Department and let them know!

Update 4/20: According to the Reporter News Online, public health officials in Abilene, Texas also claim to not have a local bed bug problem.

Bedbugs may be biting in some parts of the country, but so far, Abilene does not seem to be plagued by the pesky little insects.

“I am not aware of any problems we are having with bedbugs in our area,” said Kay Durilla, nursing program manager for the Abilene-Taylor County Public Health District. “However, it seems it is a recurring problem along the East Coast.”

Not just the East Coast. Bed bugs are in all 50 states, according to national pest control companies.

Again, people of Abilene, TX: if you have bed bugs, be sure and let the Abilene-Taylor County Public Health District know that bed bugs are a problem in your area.

The truth is that unless Abilene is inside a sealed airtight bubble, and no people or goods are allowed in and out, there are or will soon be bed bugs in Abilene.

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Kill bed bugs and eggs in your stuff using a Packtite

nobugsonme — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 22:57:47 +0000

The Packtite is a little machine into which you can place packed or unpacked luggage, stuffed animals, shoes, “unwashable” clothing, and other items. You leave your stuff in it for several hours while it heats up to kill bed bugs and eggs inside. You need to carefully follow the instructions and monitor the temperature at the core of your items, in order to make sure 120 F is attained throughout, and then leave the Packtite running for an hour after the temperature is reached.

Although the unit was originally designed so that frequent travelers could bake their luggage when they got home from a trip — for the purpose of preventing a bed bug infestation at home, people with bed bugs quickly saw the possibilities in terms of de-bugging items in the home.

Packtite measures measures 36l x 19w x 24h inches and looks like this:

The Packtite was independently evaluated by entomologist Sean Rollo of The Bed Bug Resource, who found the Packtite did reach the required temperature of 120 F, and said “In summary, I am happy with the unit.” On our Bedbugger forums, bedbugs78 asked if the item would melt plastic bags. David James, the Packtite’s creator, responded:

I can answer the plastic question, with our newly designed unit we tested cheap thin walled plastic bags to see if we would have any melting issues, these bags were tested by tying them directly to the metal frame inside and were positioned closest to the heat source- after 4 hours of heating we did not have any plastic melting issues. The inside of this unit reaches sauna like temperatures and is a good guide to use when considering what to put inside. We are currently including a digital thermometer with each Packtite so that the user can monitor temperatures of personal items placed in the unit to insure they reach killing temperatures.

As Sean notes in the same thread, “It can be used to treat anything that can be heated to 120-140F. ” And Packtite creator David notes,

… we have a long list of specific safety instructions plus we are including a digitial thermometer with every unit so that our customers can track the heating process if they like. Each unit also has a timer so that it will shut off after 4 hours.

The timer is an important safety feature. People began to use the machine to kill bed bugs and eggs in all kinds of stuff which was previously difficult for individuals to treat. Bedbugger forum user Overwhelmed said,

I’ve treated a pretty wide variety of stuff: purses, books, shoes, mail I need to send to my roommate who is away at grad school, the footstool and removable seat of an armchair that lives in my bedroom, the carpet attachment to my vacuum, the wood-framed mirror that hung on a wall near my bed . . .

Adele tells us she baked a loosely packed box of papers.

Mangycur had some creative ideas also, including heating empty clean-but-used Ziploc XL bags, yoga props, and a cat scratching post. She asked here if we might compile a master list of items which could be treated in the Packtite, and David reminded us that the best practice is to learn to use the probe to monitor the temperatures, so we can judge whether any particular item has reached the correct temperature to kill bed bugs. David said,

The master list idea would be nice, but I think there will be just too many variables and might discourage use of the included thermometer to monitor ones progress. We could say x number of hours for sweaters, but the type of sweater, the size of the sweater and how tightly folded etc the sweater was put in would effect treatment time. I would recommend running the thermometer into the center mass of what you are heating and once it hits 120 give it another hour just to be sure. I love the different things you mentioned putting in the unit, who knew bed bugs could be into yoga?

Packtite owners must use their own judgment. Remember you are baking an item at 120-140 F. Even items which can usually be safely treated (such as leather shoes) may suffer effects in time. One has to use own’s own goog judgment.

Of course, if you have an infestation of bed bugs, you have to worry that even the cloth-covered Packtite might become infested while sitting around on the floor. Not to worry, David notes here,

… if you are worried about the outside of the unit being infested, you can remove the internal frame and put the canvas bag part in a dryer.

Thinking back on a short time ago when people used to put sealed things in storage for 18 months rather than keep potentially-infested items in the home after treatment, this is really quite a revolutionary option.

For people who are infested at work, or whose children are attending a school known to be infested, this may be a way of keeping bed bugs in clothing, backpacks and purses, from coming into the home.

You can see a video of Jeff White of Bed Bug Central talking about and demonstrating the use of the Packtite below.

Note: Bedbugger has an affiliate relationship with Packtite and US Bed Bugs. If you purchase through the links here or via one of our other Packtite ads, part of the proceeds of your purchase go to help support the operating costs of Bedbugger.com, at no additional cost to you. Please see our Disclosure Policy.

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Note to Tripadvisor.com: bed bugs can be found in clean hotels too!

nobugsonme — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 08:06:39 +0000

I love Tripadvisor.com. I always use it to choose hotels when I travel (and I am not just avoiding those with bed bug reports, either, but also looking for a room that’s convenient, reasonably-priced, and hopefully with a little something extra).

Tripadvisor also knows a thing or two about bed bugs in hotels; last year, they asked their members how many had encountered bed bugs in hotels, and 8% reported that they had. The same survey found 80% of Tripadvisor members surveyed were worried about encountering bed bugs in their travels. This is good news to us, since it means word is getting out about bed bugs. People need to be worried before they will take smart steps, like learning to search a hotel room for bed bugs (more on that below).

Today, Tripadvisor posted a list of the “Ten Dirtiest Hotels” in the United States.

I was surprised by the banner, which is a graphic of insects with red stripes scurrying across a bed, under a magnifying glass. The caption quotes “a Tripadvisor member” as saying, “I have 30 bites from bugs in room 319.”

I suspect we know what kinds of bug bites they’re talking about.

However, I am not sure what the pictured insects are (and I am sure some of my readers will tell me!) but they are not bed bugs.

Although it’s primarily a place to post reviews, and the “dirtiest hotels” list is presumably an outcome of user ratings, Tripadvisor could do better in terms of educating its readers about bed bugs and how to search for them.

It may be true that hotels with really obvious, visible bed bug infestations may also be neglecting other aspects of care (such as cleanliness). If you can see bed bugs everywhere, and the problem is not being addressed, it suggests something is going wrong in terms of cleaning, maintenance and general upkeep.

On the other hand, subtle, non-obvious, recently introduced bed bug infestations would not necessarily be seen during a visual inspection. The room could be carefully cleaned, and still have bed bugs present.

It’s really important to stress that all hotel rooms, not just dirty ones, are susceptible to bed bugs. This is because bed bugs travel on people’s clothing and in their bags and stuff. And so everyone who stays in hotels (or motels, dorms, hostels, borrowed rooms, and other temporary lodging) should inspect for bed bugs before settling in, no matter how nice or clean the room looks.

This FAQ tells you what you need to know about how to avoid bed bugs when you visit hotels. It includes links to resources which show you how to search for bed bugs. The New York State Integrated Pest Manegement (at Cornell) provides an excellent printable Travel Card on this topic (click for a PDF) which you can carry with you to hotels to help you remember how to search the room, and what bed bugs look like (note: the same PDF includes cards with general bed bug information, and one for college students).

It’s important that people understand that bed bugs do not have anything to do with a lack of hygiene. Dirty environments and clutter certainly mask the problem, but do not cause or attract bed bugs to a space.

(Oh, and don’t worry — I promise to post more about the Hearing yesterday, soon.)

Update: thanks to bug_girl and , we can confirm the pictured insect appears to be Graphosoma lineatum, or Striped Stink Bug.

Bug_girl writes in the comments below,

It is indeed the Striped Stink bug.

In fact, as someone pointed out:
“Note that bed bugs are not only in a separate Family, but in a separate infraorder (family Cimicidae [bed bugs] is in the infraorder Cimicomorpha, family Pentatomidae [stink bugs], including the pictured species, is in the infraorder Pentatomomorpha).”

Double wrong

As bug_girl notes on flickr, these are plant-feeding bugs.

Stinky bug identification, TripAdvisor!

And besides a re-tweet from @TripAdvisor about this post, this was the only response I got from writing a message to TripAdvisor via their website, about this misleading error:

Hi Bedbugger,

Thanks for taking the time to write to us. Since our motto is, “Get the truth, then go,” we certainly don’t want to mislead our members about bed bugs! I can see that we responded to your comment on Twitter (twitter.com/tripadvisor), and I’ll also forward this email to our PR team in case they want to contact you themselves.

Thanks, and best of luck with all your Bedbugger endeavors!

Regards,
[name withheld]
TripAdvisor Support Team

A striped stink bug:

Photo credit: Luis Miguel Bugallo Sánchez, under Creative Commons license.

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