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Passive Monitor
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JRA79
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Posted 11 months ago
Tue May 29 2012 18:26:48
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How does the passive monitor work? Specifically, if you live in an apartment building, does it attract the bedbugs, say from a neighboring apartment if a neighbor is infested and you're not? I want to use the monitor for peace of mind after my infestation is clear, but not if they will attract new bedbugs.
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your host
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Posted 11 months ago
Tue May 29 2012 19:06:59
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The BBAlert Passive? It is not going to attract bed bugs from other apartments. It's just basically an attractive harborage. So the idea is you have it in a certain spot (depending on the type of bed or sofa) and they see it and move in.
My understanding of the reason that is a good outcome is because they will leave their fecal stains on the cover (to alert you), and if there are fecal traces, they should also be holed up in there when you take the monitor off and pop it in a zipper bag. If they move in, they will be harboring somewhere you can easily inspect.
Passive monitors are passive in the sense that they're not emitting heat, CO2, or lures to draw bed bugs in. (Though David Cain is developing a passive plus monitor with an attractant.)
Active monitors, on the other hand, emit something to draw bed bugs to the monitor. This is not done at levels which should bring them from outside the apartment, though. I don't think anything is that powerful, though one forum user insisted her aquarium pump was bringing them in from other units, I am not sure if that could be confirmed.
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oldtimer
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Posted 11 months ago
Tue May 29 2012 19:24:23
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Hi,
Thanks NoBugs for a clear summary.
I can only really add a confirmation that no they will not attract in from adjoining units, the Passive+ is still in development although it seems to work best in chemical free environments (can't work out exactly why though).
We have a lot of extra hints and tips about them on our website in the monitors and advanced educational sections.
Hope that helps.
David Cain
Bed Bugs LimitedIn accordance with the AUP and FTC I openly declare my vested interest in this technology as the patent holder
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JRA79
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Posted 11 months ago
Tue May 29 2012 20:46:18
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Thanks. So this is a good option for me if I just want peace of mind that the bedbugs are gone?
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old timer
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Posted 11 months ago
Thu May 31 2012 18:42:08
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As many are aware I am a long time advocate for passive monitors, but let me be clear that failure to catch a BB in a passive monitor does not insure that no BBs are present. They simply offer an easy to use early warning system in a number of instances. We deploy them routinely as insect monitors for a variety of pests. To date a number of early bed bug incursions into offices, call centers, waiting rooms, hotel rooms, residences and locker areas have been made, thus allowing for early treatment and resolution. An effective pheromone enhanced monitor would not really be passive but would be a welcome addition, so good luck Dave! (Sorry old chap, just a joke from another post you opened the door too)
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oldtimer
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Posted 11 months ago
Thu May 31 2012 18:54:08
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Hi Winnie,
It's not pheromone based as they are too expensive to synthesise and have such poor shelf lives. No point in having a step forward it it costs 4 times as much. We have gone back to basics again and used thier own biology and behaviour as weapons against them.
When next I am in your part of the world I will show you them.
Usual disclaimers as you get with all products will always apply however as in a biological world nothing will be 100% but as you say give people the tools to detect and the education to use them and it reduces the impact.
David
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ohiodave
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Posted 11 months ago
Fri Jun 1 2012 12:59:31
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I feel like this is a topic that keeps coming up here and there. Obviously nothing is 100%, but I really depend on the Passive monitor for peace of mind in my apartment...opening the door to 'no signs on the Passive doesn't mean you're all clear' is really problematic in that instance. What sort of odds are we talking here? David I know you are the product's inventor but from what you've gathered in the past I thought the Passive was pretty solid in terms of 'no marks/signs = no bed bugs'??
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oldtimer
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Posted 11 months ago
Fri Jun 1 2012 13:21:57
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Hi ohiodave,
A good question, the disclaimer needs to be there for legal reasons, all products have them.
I can share with you that based on about 20,000 units I have personally placed I have only seen failure when they were installed int he wrong places (2 occassions both commercial settings) and 1 domestic setting where the bedbugs were for some reason located closer to the human host than we would usually find them and thus they did not pass the monitor to relocate into it.
Based on those stats I would say 99% accurate. If you have had bites for more than 2 weeks with no signs in the area and nothing on the detection skirt I would say it is extremely unlikely to be bedbugs. Ultimately it would help to get a large scale academic study running but so far the only academics who have been willing to test did not follow the testing protocol but we are not the only product tested that made that comment and oddly enough the academic who tested it has his name on the patent of the product which he found to be the best. I am therefore concluding that the product is certainly more reliable than the academics opinion.
i think you can also take a lot of peace of mind in the fact that I have commercial sites who have been running this for over 4 years now and they renew because it works.
However you also need to consider the fact that Passive Monitoring is a patent granted method so those out there that think they have a passive monitor do not unless they have the method licensed from us. Sadly the ethics in product development in the pest industry and significantly lower than the ethics we sometimes see at the treatment interface.
David
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ohiodave
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Posted 11 months ago
Fri Jun 1 2012 14:30:24
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Thanks David!
As far as 'bites for more than two weeks'--what if I got bites once, but not repeatedly? Would the two week window still apply? My main concern is that I often commute to my parents' house, every 2 weeks or so...I got these odd bites on a Monday of this week and am due to go to their house in a few days. The monitor is 'clear' right now, but I'm deathly afraid that enough time hasn't passed to really trust that and I'm of course afraid of bringing hitchhiking bugs to my folks!! -
oldtimer
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Posted 11 months ago
Fri Jun 1 2012 14:52:38
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Hi,
No I think this is my I hate the legal disclaimers because in some cases they do more harm than good.
In your case I would certainly not be worrying about bedbugs after an odd bites. My reason for two weeks is that bedbugs feed between 3 - 5 days so by two weeks you have had ample feeding cycles to get harbourage exploration.
Pack with precautions by all means but if you have 1 or 2 bedbugs only the risk of transmission to anywhere is minimal unless they are on your luggage and in which case normal precautions and checks would find it anyway.
More logic less worry.
David
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mindoverbbs
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Posted 11 months ago
Fri Jun 1 2012 17:57:34
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Since we're on the subject of passives, I've been meaning to ask if they would work on a very small camper/trailer?
I can't figure out where one would go, given the configuration we have, but I do want to have some sort of monitoring system in place for my trips this summer, especially since one of them involves a multi-day outdoor music festival where we'll be camping in a field with thousands of other people.
There will be way too many variables on this trip that I won't be able to control so I'm hoping there's something I can do for peace of mind.
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oldtimer
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Posted 11 months ago
Fri Jun 1 2012 18:44:59
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Hi,
Can't say where to install in such an odd area without more visual clues or pictures.
Post some or email them and I will mark install locations.
David
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