vacation and pets « Got Bed Bugs? Bedbugger Forums

Got Bed Bugs? Bedbugger Forums » Reader questions (do not fit into other categories)

vacation and pets

(2 posts)

Tags:

thecrazywife

newbite
Joined: May '09
Posts: 18

Posted 10 months ago
Sun May 17 2009 7:29:13
#

Login to Send PM

When you go on vacation if you have pets at home will the bugs spread to feed on them instead of you?

We have 2 dogs and a cat. I'm looking for a kennel, but if we can't find one and we have someone coming in and out to feed them and walk them are we asking for trouble? ( Our dogsitter is in the know about our situation.) The cat will probably stay regardless. We'll be gone for a week.

If we were to do a treatment would it be a good idea to do it before we leave or while we're gone?

Thoughts on this. We're still debating our options since bites and dog alerts are all we've got so far.
buggyinsocal

oldtimer
Joined: Jun '08
Posts: 1,256

Posted 10 months ago
Sun May 17 2009 11:21:18
#

Login to Send PM

First up, apologies if I just don't remember your story. It's a very busy time of the semester, and I'm more prone than usual to forget which names match up with which stories.

First up, are you sure you have bed bugs. You mention that you've had a dog alert, but did the handler then carefully inspect the alert sites to confirm that there are bed bugs present? It's not a good idea to treat any pest without confirmation that that specific pest is present, since effective treatment for any pest requires being sure you know what you're treating? In that sense, I would lead to not treating until you come back. If you are indeed gone for more than three days or so and you have bed bugs, they'll be hungry when you get back, and you might have an easier time confirming that that's what's going on.

Secondly, as to the rest, well, it's kind of a long series of answers.

In retrospect, it became clear to me that I had bed bugs for several months before I knew it (since I didn't know they'd come back, and they haven't yet reached epidemic proportions in my metro area).

I traveled extensively during that time, sometimes being away from home for up to a week.

I also have a cat who does not get boarded while I'm gone, but does get looked after by a cat sitter who comes by twice a day.

My cat sitter did not develop a bed bug infestation. I don't know how typical that is, esp. given that my bed bug infestation seems to have been somewhat atypical. Despite having had bed bugs for several months, they appear to have been living exclusively (or nearly so) on the bed and bedding itself (not, say, inside the box spring) and/or on fabric items in close proximity to the bed.

(Ironically, I suspect all the travel contributed to that. It meant that by the time I had nymphs being hatched, my sheets didn't get changed all that often since I wasn't at home sleeping on them. My "clean" sheets were stacked up on the side of the bed I don't sleep on, and the bed bugs had made themselves quite at home there, along with having laid eggs on the curtains. In fact, the other batch of eggs I found had been laid on the fitted sheet under the pillow on the side of the bed I didn't sleep on.)

At any rate, that's a lot of background to say this:

My understanding is that if pets and people are present in the same house, bed bugs will nearly always or always choose humans as a food source first. They prefer us to other mammals.

However, if we're not around, they can feed on other animals, like pets.

If you treat with chemicals, any treatment will be more effective if you're home to act as bait than treating the house while you're gone. (Bed bugs are not like other insect pests like roaches, that groom themselves, or ants, who can be baited with chemical pesticides with food. So we can't put down a poison that they will ingest as easily as those pests. They only consume blood, and they don't use their mouth parts for consumption of anything but blood from their food sources, so they don't ingest pesticides as easily as other pests. Unfortunately, in addition, the residual pesticides we have do not easily penetrate their outsides, and as a result, I've seen PCOs say that the residuals are most effective when the bugs have just had a fresh blood meal, because when their bellies are engorged from one, more of them comes into contact with a residual pesticide. That's why having humans act as bait during chemical treatment is so important to its success. Gross, but true.)

As a result, I would talk to your particular PCO to see if they would suggest treating before you go. Not all pest control pros treat alike. If yours is going to use, say, steam and vacuuming to remove most, if not all, live bugs and is only putting down residuals to get to any nymphs that hatch from eggs, treating before you go would make sense. If the PCO is using a strategy that relies mostly on you being bait to lure them to cross a residual, then it might not.

As for pet sitters entering your house, so long as the pet sitter comes in, takes care of the pets without sitting down on any furniture, and then promptly leaves, the chance of picking up a hitch hiker is pretty low. To be extra cautious, your pet sitter might choose to follow the protocols outlined in the FAQ on what to do to avoid spreading bugs if you've been exposed:

http://bedbugger.com/faqs/travel/

Again, part of the answer to that would depend on how extensive the infestation is. If you're sure it's bed bugs, and you trust the dog alerts/inspections of the dog handler team, it sounds like you're pretty early in if you're not seeing signs at all. That suggests to me that is your dog sitter follows the basic protocols outlined in the FAQs (not sitting on furniture, not leaving bags lying around in the house), you would probably be okay. However, as you've discovered, one of the aspects of bed bugs that makes them so difficult to deal with is that they can be difficult to detect, so after the pet sitter has been in your house you and/or he/she may be worried about it for a while before you have confirmation.

However, with a little caution, education, and preplanning, you can dramatically reduce the chances that the pet sitter would pick up a hitch hiker while taking care of your pets.