New England Bed Bug Forum

Bed bugs are a very emotional issue that can easily cause psychological problems for people. Even people that have no bed bug infestation but, have had one in the past can suffer from a kind of paranoia about bed bugs.

A bed bug infestation can cause anxiety, among other emotional and psychological issues for weeks, months, and even years, depending on the person and the severity of the insect infestation.

Shame and embarrassment are also common among bed bug sufferers, mostly because of social stigma against bed bugs and other insects. It is a misconception that bed bugs are the result of poor housekeeping, and although it is rare for someone to transport bed bugs on their clothing that they’re wearing, it does happen. Education about bed bugs among sufferers, friends, family, employers and property owners can help alleviate this stress.

Nervousness, jumpiness and experiencing phantom itching and sensations are also common when a person thinks about bed bugs.

There are several ways to cope with the stresses and emotional problems of a bed bug infestation.

If you are being bitten by bed bugs, there are several things you can do to relieve the extreme itchiness.

You may want to try a cortisone cream or poison ivy cream to alleviate the itchiness caused by bed bug bites

Another way to battle getting new bed bug bites and sleeplessness due to middle-of-the-night feedings is to sleep with as much of your body covered as possible, which can mean wearing pants tucked into socks and long-sleeved shirts tucked into pants in bed.

Some people choose to find other places to sleep, such as with friends or family or even a hotel, while combating bed bugs, in order to get more restful sleep. But remember, leaving a home vacant without treating the problem will not make it go away. You should call in a fully licensed and insured bed bug inspection team that can come up with a program, whether it be chemical treatments or thermal remediation, to get rid of the bed bugs. When searching for the right “bed bug guy” look for someone who is compassionate to what you are experiencing. In my experience in dealing with people that have bed bug problems half of the battle is calming them down and letting them know that I truly care about what the are going through.

Reaching out for emotional support is an important part of the healing process when it comes to having a bed bug problem. Shame and embarrassment can often keep people from seeking that kind of care from loved ones. Do your best to find trusted friends and family to get love and support during this difficult time. Once educated about bed bugs, you may find that the people who care about you are more than happy to help you through it, by listening to you and even helping with the cleaning and laundering you have to do. Do not be afraid to ask someone for help in dealing with your bed bug problems.

Other sources of emotional support can come from a psychologist or other counselor, clergy and spiritual teachers.

It can also be helpful to take sick days or personal days from work in order to give your bed bug treatment efforts adequate attention to get the job done well.

Another way to cope with the stress and anxiety of bed bugs is to express yourself through art, writing, music, or even physical activity. So long as you are not harming yourself or others, there is no right or wrong way to express the feelings and emotions you have about your experience. You may also want to play a bed bug game as a way to relieve your frustrations.

If you can’t get the thought of bed bugs out of your mind and it is impacting your life drastically seeing a doctor is a sensible step in the process.

Bed bugs are becoming a national problem that needs community attention to help stopping the spread of these parasitic creatures especially when it comes to our children.

Schools are great breeding grounds and transition areas for children to bring home bed bugs.  This is just another example of a school being infested with bed bugs and how hard it is to track down where these pesky critters are coming from.

In the article, it points out that a bed bug dog was brought in but, no bed bugs were found in the school.  The bed bugs could be getting on the kids clothing from the buses or after-school activities.

As parents, you can take precautions for keeping your children safe from bed bugs.  When they come home  have them change out of their school clothes, empty their book bags, and put them in your dryer on high heat for a cycle.  The heat will kill any bed bugs that have hitchhiked their way into your home.

A bed bug found at a Wilkes-Barre elementary school late last week is getting under the skin of parents and students alike. It’s the second time it’s happened in a span of two weeks.

This time, the bug was found on a child’s jacket inside a classroom at Kistler Elementary School. It was found as classes prepared to dismiss Friday afternoon.

And while school administrators say they’re confident the problem has been eliminated, parents and students remain less than convinced.

Exterminators searched every nook and cranny of Kistler Elementary School over the weekend. They even brought in a trained dog to sniff out and eliminate any possibility of bed bugs here.

None were found.

Parent Bruce Morris noted, “It’s something we have to watch out for. I think most of us, as parents, grew up thinking it was just a nursery rhyme. But here we have a nationwide problem.”

Plenty of people were talking about the critter issue Monday morning– including students who say the thought of the tiny creatures makes their skin crawl.

Najae Briggs, a Kistler student, said, “I’ve heard people have gotten bit before, a lot of people. And people were staying home, yeah.”

Parents say they’re even more concerned by this second finding of a bed bug at Kistler elementary. And they’re upset that school officials didn’t tell them anything about it.

But the superintendent says a letter is going home with kids after school Monday to explain the problem to parents– and the steps the school district has taken to solve it.

Those included the weekend extermination, and having students quarantine their jackets and backpacks in plastic bags Monday, among others solutions.

But since the bed bugs could be coming into the school from just about anywhere, parents say it will take a community-wide effort to end the issue.

Morris continued, “This being the second scare in the school, I think we need to take extra precautions when our children leave our houses in the morning, when we pick them up from school, and a lot of these kids get bussed to other places like the YMCA.”

And while we’re told the exterminator’s sweep of the school came up clean– officials are urging parents to keep an eye out for the little critters– and wash all their kids’ clothes in hot water as an extra precaution.

A new bed bug law is in the works in Iowa that would hold tenants responsible for reporting a bed bug problem in condo’s and apartments to their landlords and property managers in a timely manner or face fines .

LINN COUNTY, Iowa – Bed bugs are tiny critters that make your skin crawl.

Bed bugs are creeping their way into the Iowa legislature as landlords try to make tenants more accountable for an infestation.

House study bill 520 would require tenants to report bed bugs within a week of moving into a new apartment or within two days of discovering the bugs. If the renter fails to notify the property manager, they could be stuck with the cost of getting rid of the bugs. The bill is still being debated in a house subcommittee.

According to a study done by Linn County Public Health, it costs about $800 for one professional treatment of bed bugs.   A great way to help alleviate the cost of bed bug extermination is to use trained and certified bed bug dogs to pinpoint where the problem lies. Public Health also estimates the community spends tens of thousands of dollars a month killing these pests.

“A lot of times tenants will try to deal with the problem themselves, and then the problem gets out of control,” explained Marion Landlord and former President of Landlords of Iowa, Keith Smith.

Smith says that’s the reasoning behind a new bed bug bill backed by the Iowa Landlord Association. The bill tells renters they have two days to alert a property manager about a bed bug problem or risk paying thousands of dollars in pest control fees.

Linn County Public Health says it’s tough to put a time frame on bedbugs.

“I really think there needs to be a robust education training program with this,” said bedbug expert, Ruby Perin.

Perin says it can take two days or two weeks for a bite to show up on skin. The bugs can also hide in other areas of a home. A person could check their bed and see nothing, but still have an infestation.

“It’s very landlord based,” Perin said, “If I was a tenant moving in, I’d want some kind of certification this is bed bug free.”

A member of the Iowa Attorney General’s office, William Brauch, agrees saying he’s “never seen a bill this unbalanced.” But Smith says this is a study bill meant to start conversation about this problem.

He agrees education is a big part of the issue statewide.

“Yes, it’s expensive,” Smith said, “we understand it’s expensive, but the sooner you tell us the cheaper it is to be addressed.”

Bed bug issues in condo’s and apartments are not only the landlords problem, they are the tenants problem also. The quicker both parties can notify each other and work together to solve a bed bug problem, the quicker, less cost, and more thorough the bed bug extermination can be.  This new bed bug law may be considered in other state in battling bed bug problems between tenants, property managers, and landlords.

LINCOLN (KPTM)- University of Nebraska officials have found bed bugs in about 35 campus dorm rooms at UNL.

The university is relying on bug sniffing dog to help find and get rid of a growing problem. Spots the dog is helping sniff out the problem. Monday the university shared some video of Spots at work.

“Spots can basically walk by a piece of furniture and with in two to three feet. If the scent of a bed bug is there he can detect it,” James Pelowski said. Pelowski helps spot in the bed bug detection process.

Spots is a rat terrier that has a 95% accuracy rate detecting bed bugs. “That is the best that any drug dog, bomb dog or bed bug dog comes out of the academy at.”

Pelowski said what makes spots so valuable is that a human is only 50% accurate. “Through a dorm room or any place you have to go item through item through item, it’s almost virtually impossible without a dog.”

Once bed bugs are found cleaning crews install heating units in the room to bring the temperature up to between 130 and 140 degrees. At 140 degrees a room is locked down for about four hours.

After the cleaning crew tears down its equipment, Spots does one final sweep. University officials said they plan on bringing in two more bug sniffing dogs next week. They hope to have every dorm checked by the end of the month.

Bed bugs are a growing problem. People can unwittingly get them at work, on vacation, at the movies, in their place of business, or in retail stores.

Added to the aggravation, irritation of the bites and social stigma of having a bed bug infestation in one’s home is the cost of treatment and the use of chemicals.

Traditional methods of bed bug treatments cost thousands of dollars and there’s no guarantee the maddening pests won’t return.

But one chemical-free method of treatment is giving people new hope.

The process is called thermal remediation, which uses intense heat to kills the blood-sucking bugs with chemical free treatments.

This heat treating of your home or business, if done correctly using oil heat instead of propane, can also be a green alternative.

Temperature up to 134 degrees is needed for an extended period of time in order to effectively kill bed bugs.

The insecticides currently being used to kill the bugs can take up to three treatments to be effective, and the process involves packing, bagging and sterilizing everything in the home, as well as tossing out infested clothing and mattresses.

Complicating matters even more, bedbugs are developing a resistance to some of the chemicals being used to treat infestations, research has shown.

This heat treatment is among several avenues being explored by the pest control industry to battle the resurgence of hardy critters, which many theorize is due in part to the ease and frequency of international travel.

Heat treating a home or business is an affective way to kill all manner of bugs and insects, not only bed bugs.

One of New York’s swankiest hotels, The Ritz-Carlton, has had some very unwelcome guests – bed bugs.

Hotel management confirmed it found the bed bugs in one of their rooms on Sunday following a complaint from a guest.

A worker at the hotel, where a midweek room can start at $695 and soar to $4500 for a suite, said that a guest in Room 1005 produced a specimen of the pesky bug, a wingless six-legged bloodsucker before checking out on Sunday.

Hotel management said it subsequently called an exterminator to rid the room of the creepy crawlers.

Guests in rooms next to the infested area, as well as those above and below it, were transferred to other accommodations and hotel workers received bedbug training, reports the Times.

‘Bedbugs are inevitable,’ said Scott Geraghty, the hotel’s general manager.

‘They’re brought in by guests and come in on luggage or things of that nature.’

He said the problem had been remedied.

A worker at the Ritz, Rosanna Polanco, a room attendant, told The New York Times she was asked on Monday to service the room next to 1005 but was not told about the bed bugs. 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,’ Polanco said, referring to Room 1005.

‘Management didn’t tell me. I found out myself.’

The Ritz isn’t the first New York luxury hotel to be paid a visit from the wingless, six-legged creatures.

Three people have separately accused the Waldorf-Astoria of harboring the critters– one woman even claimed the bites caused her some severe trauma.

Bedbugs have been found at a slew of Gotham landmarks recently. The Empire State building, Abercrombie & Fitch and the AMC Empire 25 Theatres all have had their problems.

One Brooklyn school was attacked by the bugs 31 times in 2011. And even the headquarters of the city’s Department of Housing isn’t safe!

Chances are, you or someone you know has had a run-in with bed bugs. It might have happened in a scrupulously clean bedroom. Or maybe it was a hotel room, office or college dorm. In the February issue of Scientific American entomologist Kenneth Haynes of the University of Kentucky explains how, after a lengthy absence, bed bugs are staging a comeback. The good news is scientists are intensively studying these insects, and their insights suggest novel ways of detecting the bugs and eradicating infestations. Some of those potential solutions are a long way off, however. In the meantime the best bet is to avoid bringing bed bugs home in the first place.

Do bed bugs only feed on humans?

No. Bed bugs are also pests in poultry operations, and they’re known to drink the blood of bats. Some labs that study bed bugs rear them on guinea pigs and mice. The bugs might feed on cats and dogs. Fur is probably a barrier to them, but they could feed at any place on the body without fur. Bed bugs are not specific to humans, but they are adapted to parasitizing us.

Could you have a bed bug infestation in your home and not know it?

That’s very possible. I have heard of couples reporting that only one partner is getting bitten. The truth is that both are getting bitten, but only one has a reaction to the bites. Thirty percent of people or more don’t react to bed bug bites at all, and the elderly are less reactive than the rest of the population. Among those people who do react to the bites, most of them don’t respond to early bites, but develop a sensitivity to subsequent ones. Those individuals who are not sensitive to bed bug bites may not know they have an infestation. Because bed bugs are nocturnally active, it’s hard to see other signs of their presence—unless you’re accustomed to waking up at 3 A.M. and taking a census. With a huge infestation, bed bugs start to move away from the bed, so you’re more likely to see one in an exposed place during the day. In very severe infestations people can become anemic. That takes a lot of bugs though—maybe 100,000 feeding once a week or more.

Another clue to infestation is odor. Like many species of bugs, bed bugs release odors called alarm pheromones. When a group of bed bugs gets disturbed, you may get a whiff of that odor, which is similar to the odor stink bugs give off. At higher concentrations the odor is unpleasant. Some people say at low concentrations it’s a pleasant smell—like coriander. In fact, older literature refers to the bed bug as the coriander bug. I’ve tried to smell the coriander scent in bed bug alarm pheromones and have not been able to make the connection, however.

What can one do to avoid getting bed bugs?
The first thing is you have to be able to recognize and distinguish a bed bug from any other insect. Everything starts to look like a bed bug if you start to worry about them. An adult bed bug is about the size and shape of an apple seed. If it has not fed recently it will be flattened and brown. If it has fed it will be round in circumference and reddish. Immature bed bugs have a similar appearance to adults, with the smallest being the size of the head of a pin. You can then learn to look for their fecal spots, which can be easier to detect than the bugs themselves. Check your hotel rooms when you travel. And think twice before bringing home used furniture. If you are purchasing used furniture, ask the furniture store how they deal with bed bugs. If they have no plan whatsoever, that’s probably not a good sign. If you purchase used clothing, put it through a clothes dryer on a medium to high setting for a cycle as soon as you bring it home. And before you move into an apartment, ask the landlord whether there has been a bed bug infestation, or whether the building has ever been treated for bed bugs.

Bed bugs impact mattress donations In Connecticut

According to WTNH bed bugs are causing donation centers in Connecticut to rethink how they handle used mattress donations.

Gales Ferry, Conn. (WTNH) – The Wuestoff’s have been running the Furniture Bank of Southeastern Connecticut for 20 years. It’s a labor of love, which is facing more challenges thanks to a recent rise in some blood sucking little creatures called bed bugs.

“We’ve been the volunteers in charge of this since ‘82 and this is the first time we’ve had a problem with bed bugs,” said Karen Wuesthoff, “starting about last year.”

Karen says about one in every dozen or so bed requests are because of bed bugs.

“Not only have we had more requests from people who have lost things to bed bugs,” Karen said, “but we’re having trouble accepting used bedding now because of the bed bugs, so we have to buy most of them now.”

And that’s costing them a lot more, which is why they are counting on grants and donations from banks and other businesses even more.

“Thirty to 50 donated beds,” Mike Wuesthoff said, “and now we have to buy those so we’re paying about $200 a piece for them so figure that out.

The Uncas Health hopes to prevent the problem by encouraging people not to buy a used mattress or pick up one along a street without inspecting it first.

“Very often furniture ends up on a street corner for a reason,” said Patrick McCormack, Uncas Health District.

If you do have bed bugs, you need more than a new mattress. You may need to call a professional bed bug control agent.

“It can take several treatments and different types depending what the level of the problem is,” McCormack said, “and very often it’s very difficult to identify the source.”

The one thing the Wuestoff’s don’t have to buy anymore are mattress protectors and that’s because they used to give them out with their used mattresses, which will no longer be available.

A way to alleviate costs and save some donated mattresses would be to use a mobile insect heating unit, where you put the bed bug infested mattresses in and cook the nasty critters.

Unlike harmful chemicals, or even cold water, heat can penetrate the surfaces of objects with ease, thus killing bed bugs that are hidden deep within mattresses and other furniture.

With cold weather temperatures dropping and expected to hit the North-East, including New York and Connecticut harder in the coming weeks, people will likely have to continue to battle bed bugs through the winter, experts say, when most other insects are halted by the cold, bed bugs still thrive.

Bed Bugs are a domesticated insect, whereas they live inside and spend very little time outside.  The cold temperatures of winter have little affect on bed bugs when they are residing in a heated home or business.

Although both extreme heat and cold can be used to rid homes and businesses of bedbugs, heated dwellings will offer plenty of shelter to bedbugs as the seasons shift.

How Infestations Originate

It often seems that bed bugs arise from nowhere. The bugs are efficient hitchhikers and are usually transported in on luggage, clothing, beds, furniture, and other items. This is a particular problem for hotels, motels and apartments, where turnover of occupants is constant. Bed bugs are small, cryptic and agile, escaping detection after crawling into suitcases, boxes and belongings. The eggs are especially tiny and are usually overlooked. Acquiring secondhand beds, couches and furniture is another way that the bugs are transported into previously non-infested dwellings. Bed bugs also can be carried in on a person’s clothing or shoes, resulting in an infestation.

Once bed bugs are introduced, they often spread throughout a building. The bugs can travel from room to room or floor to floor either by crawling or via a person. Unlike cockroaches that feed on filth, the level of cleanliness has little to do with most bed bug infestations. Pristine homes, hotels and apartments have plenty of hiding places and an abundance of warm-blooded hosts. Thus, they are almost as vulnerable to infestation as are places of squalor, and it doesn’t matter what the temperature is outside.

Think about it, when it is cold outside the bed bugs have a nice, comfortable place to stay in your heated home or business.  They also have a good food supply – meaning your blood.

If you think you have a bed bug problem this winter in your home or business the best thing to do is contact a licensed and insured bed bug professional.

Trying to get rid of your bed bug infestation yourself can be dangerous, especially if you are chasing these nasty little parasites around with a cigarette lighter.

We understand how having a bed bug problem can cause severe emotional and physiological issues and that seems what happened to a man in Kalamazoo, Michigan last Thursday when he tried to fend off bed bugs but ended up setting his apartment on fire.

Based on the report, the bed bug fire happened in the second-floor of the Fox Ridge Apartments in 1400 Alamo Hills Dr. in Kalamazoo. It started when a tenant found bed bugs and tried to chase them away with a cigarette lighter. It’s said that he admitted to starting the fire and tried to use the extinguisher but was overwhelmed by the smoke and evacuated.

Members of the Kalamazoo Department for Public Safety were dispatched to the area at 6:35 pm. It took them about 15 minutes to extinguish the flames which were fortunately was contained to a bedroom

“Bed bugs are some of the worse pests that anyone can ever get. With all the negative things that they can bring, you can’t really blame others for trying so hard and even spending too much just to get rid of them.”

“Unfortunately, there are some who get into more trouble while eliminating bed bugs than what these parasites can actually give. Take, for example, the recently reported man from Fox Ridge Apartments in Kalamazoo Michigan who had set his apartment ablaze while trying to kill bed bugs.”

“According to the report, the fire started when the man used a cigarette lighter in his attempt to fend off bed bugs. Good thing that the fire was contained in the bedroom and that it only sustained burn, smoke and water damage.”

“The Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety said to have extinguished the flames in 15 minutes.”