This New York Times article references a case of bed bugs at the Ritz-Carlton in New York City — but that’s not the story. Bed bugs can be present in any hotel, any time.  They arrive and depart with all kinds of people, after all.

The issue here is that while the hotel apparently responded promptly to a guest’s complaint about bed bugs, a member of the housekeeping staff claims that in this instance, she was not notified of the problem promptly.

As the NY Times reports,

The worker, Rosanna Polanco, a room attendant, said she was asked on Monday to service the room next to 1005 but was not told about the bedbugs. She found out only when she encountered a worker from Ecolab Inc., a company that supplies cleaning products and pest elimination services.

“He was the one who told me: ‘Be careful. There’s a lot of bedbugs in there,’ ” Ms. Polanco said, referring to Room 1005. “Management didn’t tell me. I found out myself.”

“A lot of bedbugs” does not sound good.

I can almost hear the sound of hundreds of pest control firm reps running for their phones to call the hotel and pitch their monitoring and prevention programs, and  I predict that within two weeks, we see an article about how a canine team has inspected the building and given the all clear.

The good news is that a few days later, the hotel workers were given training on how to recognize signs of bed bugs, as all hospitality staff everywhere should be, in my opinion.

The article also notes the hotel also apologized for the delay in notifying workers, and offered to have Ms. Polanco’s home inspected for bed bugs.  If it were me, I would take them up on the offer.

Bravo to Christopher Evans, for his editorial responding to this piece of [bed bug fecal matter] entitled “EPA Hands Out $1M in ‘Environmental Justice’ Grants,” (broadcast on Fox News on 1/6/12) where Neil Cavuto and Chris Horner rant about the use of tax dollars for “environmental justice” projects.

Among Cavuto’s concerns is the EPA’s $25,000 grant awarded to “Cleveland Tenants Org. Cleveland OH. Educating Landlords, Tenants About Safer Bed Bug Control Options.”

Interestingly, and surely for effect, I note that Cavuto omitted the word “Small” from “Environmental Justice Grants” — the CTO actually received one of the EPA’s “Environmental Justice Small Grants” [emphasis added].

But including the full title of the grant program would perhaps have included too much factual information and detracted from Cavuto’s and Horner’s opportunity to rail against out-of-control “social justice” spending.

The facts?

The EPA’s list of recipients of the FY2011 Environmental Justice Small Grants (PDF) lists this award as follows:

Cleveland Tenants Organization seeks to address the prevention and treatment of area bed bug infestations. Cleveland Tenants Organization’s goal is to reduce the misuse of pesticides by tenants and landlords when treating bed bug infestations. The project will educate landlord and tenant populations in Cleveland, Ohio about safer and more effective bed bug control options This project will train outreach staff to work with landlord-tenant populations in addressing prevention and treatment issues surrounding bed bug infestations and educate landlords, property managers and tenants in subsidized multi unit family housing about the prevention of bed bug infestations and pest management methods to more safely control and treat bed bug populations in rental housing units.

We can only assume the Cleveland Tenants Organization was responding to citizens’ (presumbly including taxpaying tenants’ and landlords’) needs when requesting this grant.

And Evans writes in the Cleveland Plain Dealer,

I called Mike Piepsny, executive director of the tenants organization, to find out more about the bedbug conspiracy."Look," Piepsny said. "There’s a huge bedbug problem. All these low-income people are afraid to tell their landlord, because landlords are evicting tenants when they have bedbugs. We get 100, 200 calls a month."The $25,000 was spent on information to educate tenants and property owners about how to prevent bedbug infestations. Piepsny denied preaching the gospel of oppression and victimization.

Yes, indeed, Cleveland has a significant bed bug problem.

According to this Plain Dealer article from Jan. 2011, some Cleveland landlords report as many as 50% of their units have bed bugs.

Landlords in Cleveland may pass the cost of bed bug treatment on to tenants, which always means many tenants won’t report them. Some landlords and tenants may self-treat in ways which are dangerous to humans and property or which may spread bed bugs further. (There have been a number of high profile cases from Ohio of people burning their homes down or harming themselves while trying to treat for bed bugs.)

Preventing the misuse of pesticides and helping people save money for themselves (and others who might have otherwise become infested if the problem spreads) seems like a good use of money to me.

As I’ve always said, when it comes to bed bugs, no man is an island. If people in your community (broadly defined) have bed bugs, you can catch them too. It’s to the benefit of everyone, including Neil Cavuto and Chris Horner, if low-income tenants and their landlords (often also not rich folks) are able to get rid of bed bugs.

You’d think Fox would be a bit more sympathetic, since Fox News New York reportedly battled bed bugs extensively from 2007-2008, and the building Fox inhabits was dealing with them again in 2010.

Ahhhh, the laundry problem.

Image credit: Carlos Porto / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

People with bed bugs are often told that laundry can be washed/dried on hot, simply dried on hot, or dry cleaned.  The latter, however, is a can of worms carpet beetle larvae.

The CBC reports that “many dry cleaners” in Edmonton won’t treat bed bug-infested clothing, or will do so only if precautions are taken by the consumer when bringing them in:

First-Class Cleaners, Todd Cleaners and Page Cleaning will not accept infested clothing at most locations.

“Most of our stores, we don’t accept the bed bug orders over the counter.” said Hannes Rudolph, general manager of Page.

Accepting bedbug-infested clothing is too risky, he said.

“Often, a bag can be ruptured and we wouldn’t want cross-contamination, because that could be rather troublesome,” said Rudolph.

His company will clean infested clothing only if customers seal them in plastic bags and bring them to his company’s main plant in the west end, he said.

That is a reassuring policy, if people follow it.

We’ve long been concerned about two issues with using dry cleaners:

1) We’ve been told that traditional dry cleaning methods (using PERC) kill bed bugs.  We’re not sure if newer (“green”) non-PERC methods are also effective in killing bed bugs.  Customers may not even be aware of which methods their cleaners use.

2) Many people are told to have items dry cleaned to kill bed bugs, but they may not all take precautions in sealing them before bringing them in.  They also might not tell dry cleaning staff about the bed bugs, due to lack of awareness or for fear their items will be refused.

Point #2 makes dry cleaners risky for everyone.

Keep in mind that choosing a dry cleaner who does not accept bed bug-infested items is not a 100% guarantee your stuff won’t be exposed to bed bugs on the premises.

My biggest concern is about customers who don’t declare bed bug problems — or who don’t even know they have them. Some may not be aware they have bed bugs. Others may know but may be ignorant of or not willing to comply with the sometimes cumbersome steps needed to prevent their spread.

There are no guarantees, but readers have found that many items which can’t be machine washed can still survive twenty minutes or so in a hot dryer if they go in already dry.

Keep in mind that if you must dry clean and are worried about picking up bed bugs in the dry cleaner’s, one option is to run items in a Packtite after having them cleaned (alternatively, Packtite Closet, which has a hanging rod, would even alleviate the need for folding items). The Packtites can, of course, kill bed bugs and eggs in all kinds of items besides clothing (video demonstrations here).  They are not cheap, but would represent a worthwhile investment for someone already paying a lot to have clothing and other items professionally cleaned.

Read the rest of the CBC story here:  Dry cleaners refuse bedbug-infested clothing – Edmonton – CBC News.

Again and again, journalists point out that bed bugs are “about the size of” apple seeds, or that they even “look like” apple pips.

You don’t have to look to the media reports for this cliché — it’s found in everything from the National Pesticide Information Center and Indiana University fact sheets, to give just two examples (NPIC notes “adults are about the size of an apple seed”).

It’s such a commonplace in writing about these bugs and I don’t doubt that I said it many times myself.

However, entomologist Lou Sorkin has a response to this idea: not so.

Of course, a visual is most helpful in convincing us Lou is right.  And now we have one.  Here’s an excellent comparison of bedbugs and apple pips, from Lou:

Hmmm.

Of the image, Lou writes on his flickr page,

Apples and Oranges? Bed Bugs and Apple Seeds.

Male and female adult bed bugs in both unfed and fed conditions playing around their plant part look-a-likes, apple seeds. They can’t tell the difference either and readily crawl over the apple seeds in a manner similar to what they do in their harborages. Both male and female bed bugs can have elongated abdomens after feeding. Males did not try to mate with the apple seeds. Any pale or dark waste droppings are from the bugs. Apple seeds don’t move much at all, they have no legs. They are plump, but haven’t fed. Blue line squares are 1/4 inch size.

You must realize by now that I don’t like to describe bed bugs as looking like apple seeds. Bed bugs look like bed bugs. It’s important to familiarize yourself with good images of nymph and adult bed bugs, their waste material, and their shed skins to be able to properly identify unknown insects you may come across in your home or while on the road.

Once again, we applaud Lou for his tireless efforts to educate the world about these bugs.

I am going to try not to compare bedbugs to apple seeds.

How about you?

Photo credit: Apples and Oranges? Bed Bugs and Apple Seeds by Louis Sorkin (louento.pix)  and used via a Creative Commons Attribution/No Derivative Works license.

The product manufacturer produced the following videos to demonstrate use of the original Packtite™ to kill bed bugs and eggs in various items including linens, shoes, stuffed animals, and books.

There are also videos below demonstrating Packtite set-up and effectiveness.  Thanks to David James and the Packtite crew for providing these helpful videos.

The PackTite™ How To Series:

How To PackTite™: Shoes

(Note: if I am not mistaken, the word PackTite was first used as a verb by a consumer in our Forums…)

How To PackTite™: Books

How To PackTite™: Stuffed Animals

How To PackTite™: Linens

See this FAQ for more about the original Packtite (as of 1/2012, available in the US only).

See this FAQ for more about the new Packtite Closet (as of 1/2012, available in US and Canada). Note that the Packtite Closet FAQ also contains videos demonstrating set-up and methods for use; note that in some ways, the Packtite Closet is used differently than the original Packtite.

You may also be interested in:

How to set up and use your Packtite

Actual Footage of Packtite Killing Bed Bugs

Disclosure: if you purchase a Packtite via our links to US Bed Bugs or Packtite Closet via our links to US Bed Bugs or The Allergy Guy (Canada), the site receives a small commission at no additional cost to you. This helps support the running of the site. However, be assured that we recommend Packtites because we love them, our readers love them, and many bed bug experts recommend them. You can also click to read our full disclosure statement.

Followers of references to bed bugs in the non-pest-related media will enjoy this: Tom Tomorrow introduces “Bedbug Man” in his “The Modern World” comic, “a superhero with the proportionate powers of a bed bug.”

These powers, as you might guess, include being able to “hide almost anywhere” and being “really annoying.”

Check out:

Daily Kos: Bedbug Man.

Bedbugger.com is pleased to announce another giveaway! This isn’t our usual contest, however.  Please read the information below carefully and follow the instructions to enter.

Bed Bugs Limited in London (UK) have developed a new version of the Passive monitor which is called a Passive+ and they are asking for your help to collect some field data on the effectiveness of the product in both detecting and eradicating bedbugs.  The drawing is open to anyone who either currently suspects a bedbug infestation or is currently suffering with bed bugs.

Simply post a single comment on this blog entry (below) and we will randomly choose 12 commenters who will each receive the following free of charge:

• 1 x New Passive+ monitor to install for 14 days,
• 1 x replacement Passive monitor to leave in its place after the Passive+ has been removed,
• 1 x instructional information booklet about bedbugs including an activity log and feedback form which Bed Bugs Limited would like you to complete and post back to them.

In return for the prize, Bed Bugs Limited are asking that you return the Passive+ along with the diary and feedback after 14 days; they assure us that all information submitted and needed in order to send you this will be kept in the strictest of confidence.

The information pack outlines how the products can be used to help people in confirming bedbugs as well as details on how they can help helpful in reducing infestation numbers in confirmed bedbug cases through the process of monitor replacement.

I hope you will agree that this is a great opportunity to help in the development of an advanced version of this proven technology.  The summarized results of the test will even be made available to all those who have participated although as previously stated all personal information will be removed and kept confidential.

At this stage entry to the contest is restricted to non-pest controllers as the firm is interested in the data that can be collected directly with occupiers.  Bed Bugs Limited have however said that should any professional pest controllers be interested in trialling the technology, they should please get in touch via the Bed Bugs Limited website.

Rules:

• You need to register for this site to enter the contest. If you have previously registered for the Bedbugger.com Forums or Bedbugger.com, please login before posting your comment.  (Although we normally allow comments on blog posts without registering, this has been temporarily suspended due to the contest.)  You must use a working email address to register or you will be disqualified (see the third point below). Bed Bugs Limited will use this email to get in touch with you.  Click to login or register.  And once logged in, please make sure the email address in your profile is one you use and check regularly.
• Please post one comment only below and don’t use this space to ask questions. Each comment is numbered.  We’ll use these numbers to do a random drawing.  For this reason it is essential that you post only once to this discussion.  If you want to discuss the contest or ask questions of the site admin or David Cain from Bed Bugs Ltd., please do so in this forum thread.  (Again, you can login on the forum with the same account you’re using here.)  If you have technical problems or other questions about the website, you can use the contact form to get in touch with the site owner (nobugsonme).
• The drawing closes at 11 pm EST on January 27th, 2012 and is open to residents of the USA and Canada only.  (Void where prohibited by law.)
• By commenting below and therefore entering this contest, you agree that if your entry is drawn, I (nobugsonme, site owner) have your permission to give the email address listed in your user account to David Cain of Bed Bugs Limited and his agents, so they can arrange for shipment of the monitors and information.  We will not announce the list of 12 winners.  However, winners will receive an email letting them know they have won.  You will need to respond promptly to the email and follow instructions listed there in order to participate.
• Bedbugger.com has agreed to host this giveaway which will hopefully help some of you find out if you (still) have bed bugs, and which will hopefully help Bed Bugs Limited develop this new version of their Passive technology.  That’s pretty much where the involvement of the website ends.  We hope this giveaway goes as planned but reserve the right to cancel it or change the details if necessary.

A new article by Katherine Harmon in Scientific American explores genetic research into bed bugs, which may be used to explain how they spread and thrive.

North Carolina State Entomologist Dr. Coby Schal and other researchers (including Drs. Warren Booth and Ed Vargo of NCSU and Changlu Wang of Rutgers) have been collecting samples from around the US and from within individual buildings, to learn more about how they were introduced and about their genetic diversity.

Harmon writes,

A genetic survey across the U.S. found that among towns, bedbugs have great genetic variation. That diversity suggests that, rather than having been brought into the country only a few times, the parasites crossed the borders many times—and are likely continuing to do so. These founder bugs go on to create larger populations. Even in well-connected and highly populated cities on the Interstate 95 corridor along the east coast, bedbug populations remained relatively distinct from one another.

Within each domestic population, however, the genetic distribution is a much different story. In a single home or apartment building, for example, the bugs show “an extremely high rate of inbreeding,” Schal said. His team found that an entire population within an apartment building—such as were the cases in infested Jersey City, N.J., and Raleigh, N.C. buildings—was so genetically similar that it might have been founded by a single fertilized female. Bugs in the next generation then would have mated with one another, and so on, in a seemingly indefinite incestuous line.

Not only does bed bug inbreeding not appear to have the same negative effects that it can have in human and many other animal populations, but evidence found by the team in one building even suggested that, given other options, bed bugs may “prefer” it.

(Nasty little buggers!)

We first heard about this study when the researchers received a grant for it back in 2008 (this information forms a footnote to this interview with Dr. James Austin about bed bugs, chickens and DNA).   It is good to hear some of the results.

Another interesting soundbite from the article?  Dr. Kenneth Haynes of the University of Kentucky is cited as saying that bed bugs can move 2.5 meters in five minutes.

Nasty and fast.

A winning combination, unfortunately.

Haynes and Schal were among the speakers at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene meeting on December 6th, and additional articles shed more light on their research projects and findings.

Science News, Nature, and offer additional details on the work of Schal’s team, as well as on Ken Haynes’ work on genetics and pyrethroid resistance.

Science provides the abstracts for Schal’s teams’ two unpublished studies (which are under review) here (PDF) and here (PDF).

Interestingly, the BBC explores Schal’s hypothesis that bed bugs were reintroduced recently into the US from tropical countries where bed bugs persisted (and had developed resistance to heavily-used pesticides) after they had been virtually eradicated in the US.

When I say virtually, however, I note that there is evidence which suggests that bed bugs were never entirely eliminated in the US.  See the references former Bedbugger hopelessnomo provides in her comment on her Bedbugger article from 2008, in particular her comment dated 1/13/2008 at 10:35 pm — which affirm the presence of bed bugs in the US in the period from 1986-1999.

And that’s not counting the ones who lived with chickens.

The BBC cites Dr. Clive Boase,who reminds us once again that bed bugs were present in smaller numbers in the UK throughout the 1970s and 1980s, after DDT stopped being used, and notes that

“We don’t have to invoke stories of disease control programmes in Africa; all the evidence here in the UK is that our problem is home-grown.”

Dr Boase wondered that if the US had similar long-term records whether the researchers would have reached a different conclusion.

The BBC story also cites the University of Sheffield’s Dr. Richard Naylor (well known to Bedbugger forum users), who also questioned the team’s hypothesis:

“It doesn’t seem that difficult to develop resistance or lose it; in lab cultures, if you stop exposing [bed-bugs] to pyrethroids it drops out of lab populations very quickly,” he said.

Mr Naylor asked that if the US bed bugs had been exposed to the chemicals elsewhere in the past, “why would they still be resistant?”

The Science article suggests Schal is working on testing this hypothesis by collecting samples from abroad.

—-

Thanks to Bait for drawing our attention to the Scientific American article.  See more Bedbugger articles about Dr. Coby Schal.

Entomologist Michael Merchant of the Texas AgriLife Extension has recently compiled a really interesting two-part series of blog posts on his Insects in the City blog, covering some of the interesting bed bug-related presentations at the 2011 Entomological Society of America conference in Reno.

The Bed Bug Chronicles Part I describes the following:

• Changlu Wang’s research on the use of dry ice to kill bed bugs in large garbage bags.  (It worked, but my hunch is it may not be safe/practical for all users.)
• Dini Miller’s research on the use of Nuvan ProStrips to kill bed bugs in 42 gal. garbage bags. Warning: use according to the label was not terribly effective and even off-label use at higher than label rates was not enough to kill all life stages.  This was especially disturbing to me, considering how many PMPs seem to be setting up clients with DDVP strips in garbage bags.
• Susan Jones’s research showing that over-the-counter bug bombs (total release aerosols) are not effective in killing bed bugs.  Yes, we know this, and have heard this repeatedly from experts, but perhaps the documentation provided by this research will help encourage the industry to stop marketing these products?
• Additional research on freezing, pyrethroid resistant bed bugs, and Wolbachia, the bacterial parasite that lives on bed bugs.

The Bed Bug Chronicles Part II highlights two developments in bed bug monitoring:

• Work by Narinderpal Singh and Changlu Wang at Rutgers on how to make pitfall traps (specifically the ClimbUp  Insect Interceptor (R) trap more attractive to bed bugs, using various lures.  The big winner was nonanal (aka nonanaldehyde or pelargonaldehyde), which is given off by humans.
• FMC’s Verifi (TM) trap, which is set to be launched in January and of which not much is known.  Merchant notes the product has a “secret attractant” which isn’t currently being disclosed.

Why are people so ignorant about bed bugs?  Perhaps because the media keeps publishing misinformation about them!

The latest example: the Daily Mail picks up a Sheilas’ Wheels Insurance press release about their annual “Bed Bug Audit,” which polls Brits about their domestic habits.

The latest poll found that one in six British men wash their sheets only once a month, and 46% of Brits have eaten a meal in bed. (More on that in a moment.) The article notes:

Sheilas’ Wheels home insurance spokeswoman Jacky Brown said: “We spend so much time in our beds that it is astounding so many Brits and particularly bug busting men – do not keep them clean.

“Simple measures like avoiding eating in bed, leaving the sheets exposed during the day and washing them regularly can help avoid an infestation.

“Bed bugs in the home can be an extremely unpleasant experience so it is important that homeowners have a way to deal quickly with an infestation such as our pest cover otherwise the upcoming cold spell could provide a nasty wake-up call.”

The Sheilas’ Wheels press release this article is drawn from notes that new home insurance customers as of 11/27 will receive a limited amount of coverage for a bed bug infestation:

As from 27th November all Sheilas’ Wheels new business customers purchasing pest cover will now be covered for the treatment/extermination of bed bugs in one infested area in the event of an emergency.

Interesting!

The phrase “one infested area” suggests the coverage will be limited in value and perhaps just enough to help with a problem which is detected very early and hasn’t spread.   All the more reason the firm’s clients need to be more educated about the pest and how to detect it.

It sounds like Sheilas’ Wheels is confusing bed bugs with dust mites.  Note to insurers: if you’re going to cover bed bug outbreaks in the home, you ought to learn a bit about this pest.

Although regular vacuuming and sheet-washing might, with a lot of luck, deal with a newly-introduced bed bug, bed bugs are not caused by poor housekeeping habits or eating in bed.  Moreover, “leaving sheets exposed during the day” will do absolutely nothing to combat this blood-sucking pest.