New England Bed Bug Forum

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 one of the only animals on our planet known to get stronger by inbreeding.  A recent study has come to terms that bed bugs are fighting back against us humans by inbreeding.

New research on the bed bug’s ability to withstand the genetic bottleneck of inbreeding, recently announced at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) annual meeting, provides new clues to explain the rapidly growing problem of bed bugs across the United States and globally. After mostly disappearing in the US in the 1950s, the common bed bug (Cimex lectularius) has reappeared with a vengeance over the past decade. These stubborn pests have developed a resistance to the insecticides, known as pyrethroids, commonly used against them.

One of the newly discovered factors that appears to be contributing to the bed bugs’ effective infestation is their ability to establish new infestations through inbreeding. Coby Schal, PhD, and Ed Vargo, PhD, both entomologists at North Carolina State University (NCSU), and colleagues carried out two studies now under peer-review examining the genetics of bed bugs from three multi-story apartment buildings in North Carolina and New Jersey, and determined that there were high levels of relatedness within each apartment and very low genetic diversity within each building, indicating that infestations start from just one or two introductions of the insect. Being able to withstand a very high level of inbreeding — i.e., still produce healthy offspring — allows the bed bug infestation to expand to other apartments within the building.

Another study by this team confirmed this same conclusion based on a study of 21 bed bug infestations from Maine to Florida in the US, nearly all of which came from single rooms within homes. “Inbreeding gives bed bugs an advantage in being able to colonize,” said Schal. “A single female that has been mated is able to colonize and start a new infestation. Her progeny and brothers and sisters can then mate with each other, exponentially expanding the population. With many organisms, extensive inbreeding would cause serious mutations that would eventually bring about an end to the population.” He also noted that cockroach populations are also able to survive inbreeding.

A major strategic advantage that we might want to explore in this bed bug fight, and it may seem unproductive at this time, but may pay a huge benifit in the future is to introduce female bed bugs into the mix that do not have a resistance to any chemicals.  This would, in theory, create colonies of bed bugs that do not have any resistance to our extermination procedures or chemicals.

Until then, there is really only one proven and effective way to kill bed bugs and that is heat.

SEATTLE — The mere mention of the Internal Revenue Service is enough to make most people squirm, but now some of the agency’s own employees are feeling queasy after discovering bedbugs in their office.

An IRS worker first spotted a single bedbug at the Seattle office in October. An exterminator trapped a second bug, and that was enough for IRS officials to send in the hounds.

Exterminators use dogs trained to sniff out the insects, and the dog who canvassed the IRS offices didn’t find any more bugs.

Exterminator Grant Gummow didn’t help with the IRS case, but he suspects the bedbugs discovered in the Federal Building hitched a ride to work from an employee’s home.

“You have your purse next to your bed, or a bag. The bedbugs crawl into the bag, you carry it and have bedbugs at work,” Gummow said.

It’s never easy finding bedbugs, and Gummow said that because office chairs are perfect hiding spaces for the insects, finding them in a large office building can be even more difficult.

An IRS employee anonymously complained about seeing another bedbug several weeks ago, but agency officials say no more bugs have been found at the office.

They say they’ll continue to monitor the situation.

Bed bugs are a complex pest to rid from a home, business, hotel, or motel room.

Good pest control operatives, bed bug management companies, bed bud inspection teams, and bed bug exterminator’s, for the most part, have a view in common.  They all want to be able to not only control your bed bug problem but, to exterminate it in it’s entirety.

Let’s face it. If you like your job, have integrity in what you do, and most of all care about your clients you have a point of view on the way things should be run, how you should perform, and the results you should be able to accomplish. This is true in any business, including bed bug extermination. Bed bugs are a very complex and emotional issue, whoever you deal with to help you rid yourself of these nasty creatures should realize this whole-hardheartedly.

A bed bug exterminator’s first step is to listen to what is happening in your home or business so that they can asses the situation.  They need to ascertain what the situation is before making a decision on how to proceed.  In some instances they may know right off the bat what is needed to be done to exterminate your bed bug infestation.  In most instances, good bed bug exterminator’s will advise an inspection to figure out where the bed bug problem lies and to what extent the infestation is.  A human inspection for bed bugs is not good enough.  Humans can only detect and pinpoint bed bugs with about 26% accuracy.  If you call a bed bug exterminator and they say they will send over a person to inspect, especially for free, hang up.  This is a sales tactic, not so honest exterminator’s use.  In most cases the human inspector will find bed bug issues everywhere in order to pad the extermination bill.  A bed bug dog is the way to go if your exterminator’s point of view is to kill off your problem in it’s entirety.  A bed bug dog is about 96% accurate in ascertaining if you have issues relating to these parasites in you dwelling or business.  A couple of the best things when taking  your pest control operative’s advice is that having this dog inspection will not only help in verifying this bed bug problem, the dog will most likely be able to pinpoint where the issues are.

As a businessman and a person I like to be able to sleep at night with a clear conscience.  With that being said how could I or any reputable bed bug exterminator,  in their view, advise to either come in with a bunch of chemicals or have a human inspect for bed bugs.  The accuracy is almost half as less as flipping a coin if you have a bed bug problem or not.

Any conscience-wise bed bug exterminator’s point of view is to know, first off, if there is a bed bug infestation in the first place and where it is.

When someone gives you their point of view, it usually comes from experience,  Your bed bug exterminator’s point of view is very important, because you will be able to tell, by this, how your bed bug problem will be solved.

If you are a building manager, property manager, or landlord this is a good reason to stay on top of any bed bug infestations reported to you by your tenants. If you do not take care of the bed bug problem promptly and in an efficient manner it could hit you where it counts, your wallet.

The Baltimore Daily Record reported on October 17th that the Baltimore City Circuit Court ruled in favor of the plaintiff when former tenant Kristen Saunders sued her former building’s owners and operators for negligence, claiming they did not treat for bed bugs promptly.

Kristen Y. Saunders said it took managers of her apartment building 48 days to fumigate her apartment infested with bedbugs, leading to a plaintiff’s verdict in the first case of its type in Baltimore.

A Baltimore City Circuit Court jury awarded Saunders $40,000 in her negligence suit against the building’s owners and operators. The verdict came last week after a three-day trial.

Saunders, who has since moved to Edgewater, lived in the Hunting Hills apartments in the 4700 block of Sayer Avenue from February 2009 through February 2010.

The Daily Record reports that lawyers for the management refuted Saunders’ claim, and said the management responded promptly after being informed of the bed bug problem.

The paper also notes that the plaintiff’s lawyer, Daniel Whitney of Whitney and Bogris LLP (Towson, MD) claimed that this was the first bed bug trial in the city, and that he currently has eighteen bed bug-related cases waiting to go to trial.

Protect yourself from bed bug litigation and possible monetary losses by promptly trying to solve any bed bug infestations reported to you by your tenants. There are plenty of bed bug management companies and pest control agents that specialize in getting rid of bed bugs. Pick up the phone if you have bed bug issues and make the call. It is not only the right thing to do, it may save you money and time loss in a court room.

Administrators performed thermal extermination in Johnson-McFarlane Residence Hall dorm rooms after students discovered a bed bug infestation in early-Sept.

“It works by using heat at a level of over 120 degrees for several hours to destroy bed bugs and their eggs,” said Justin Price, executive director of Housing and Residential Education

Heat is one of the most effective and eco-friendly ways in killing bed bugs, other insects, and eliminating an infestation

The bed bug infestation was isolated to Johnson-McFarlane Hall.

“DU has a relatively limited situation with only four rooms in one residence hall affected with a bed bug problem,” said Justin Price, executive director of Housing and Residential Education. “We are aggressively working to ensure that it remains that way.”

To make sure that the bed bugs don’t return, DU has chemically treated four rooms and will perform thermal extermination in 12 rooms in the residence hall. They are also going to inspect residence halls regularly using a bed bug detection dog.

This isn’t the first instance in which DU has fought a battle against bed bugs.

In Nov. 2010, six cases of bed bugs were reported — two in Nelson Hall and four in Centennial Halls. DU threw out infested mattresses, laundered students’ clothing and sprayed all six units to get rid of the bugs.

The parasitic insects can survive up to one year without feeding. They find dorm beds an ideal place to live.

While the situation has been stabilized, the bed bug infestation has made it uncomfortable for students

“I woke up the first morning with about 60 bites,” said freshman Andrew Neely.

When Neely woke up on the second night with more bites, he had a hunch something was wrong.

“I spent about a minute on the internet, and it became obvious it was bed bugs,” he said.

Administrators performed thermal extermination on Neely’s room after he brought the problem to their attention.

Neely, who got at least 100 bites total, felt everyone was surprised when it wasn’t resolved after the first spraying.

“This isn’t something people are used to dealing with,” he said. “I hope it’s finally done.”

No one is exactly sure where the bed bugs came from.

Price theorizes that the problem can be tracked to old furniture.

“As students move about from place to place, buy second-hand furniture or any number of factors, there is the potential that they also can acquire bed bugs,” said Price.

This proved to be the case when the bugs appeared on the other side of Neely’s room after surviving two chemical treatments.

Neely and his roommate decided to take precautionary measures.

“We did a lot of laundry,” he said. “Basically the whole time this was going on, we were washing our clothes and drying them.”

September will mark the first National Bed Bug Awareness Month in which U.S. Rep. Robert Dold, (R-Ill.) and 10 of the foremost bed bug experts from across the country team up to create videos, articles and interviews geared toward helping the public fight back against bed bugs.

This educational campaign serves as a comprehensive response to the continued spread bed bugs throughout the country. National Bed Bug Awareness Month will kick off Sept. 1 with the launch of an interactive, online tutorial series and culminate with the North American Bed Bug Summit being held in Chicago from the Sept. 25-27 at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare.

National Bed Bug Awareness Month is an important step in educating the public about bed bugs as the pest takes root in untouched regions of the country.

“Last year bed bugs received a tremendous push in awareness due to constant media exposure. However, this year awareness is stagnating, not because bed bugs have gone away, but because they are not receiving enough coverage,” said Cooper. “In the war against bed bugs education is still critical. This campaign is aimed at creating awareness in a more engaging and interactive way.”

Research entomologist and doctoral candidate Richard Cooper of Rutgers University has been championing public education as crucial element in the war against bed bugs since 2003. Cooper acknowledges that while there is increased awareness, actual education is lacking.

“The initial lack of public education and awareness enabled bed bugs to spread and become a major problem in the United States,” said Cooper. “Although awareness that bed bugs exist has vastly improved, education has not. There are still myths and misconceptions that allow bed bugs to continue to spread. Without the proper education, prevention is not accomplished and the spread is not stemmed.”

“During the past three years bed bugs have proven to be an extraordinarily complex pest to deal with on a large scale,” said Dold. “In order to develop both practical and effective bed bug treatment methods, leaders in government, the private sector and even local communities will need to collaborate closely to find long-term solutions. The work being done at this summit is a step in that direction.”

The North American Bed Bug Summit represents the culmination of National Bed Bug Awareness Month. The summit, officially titled Bed Bug University: North American Summit, will bring together 26 of the leading entomologists and bed bug experts from around the world together with a cross-section of affected industries.

By gathering stakeholders such as government agencies, colleges and universities, health care, hospitality and multifamily housing under one roof, entomologists and experts will able to provide an educational blue-print for dealing with bed bugs across a variety of sectors.

The Summit will also demonstrate over 70 of the latest bed bug technologies including all-natural bed bugs sprays such as Stop Bugging Me!, entomologist approved mattress encasement’s such as Protect-a-Bed™ and BugZip Luggage Protectors.

If you are a property manager, landlord, housekeeper, or maintenance staff you may have run into a tenant that has a hoarding problem. This problem can lead into a major pest problem such as a significant bed bug infestation. It is important to recognize this problem and address it immediately. You may also want to find a pest control company that knows how to deal with mental health issues such as, hoarding, in a compassionate way.

Although most people don’t immediately associate hoarding with pest control or bed bug problems, there are a lot of connections. Pests need food, water and shelter. Bed bugs hitch rides into homes and apartments on used clothing and furniture that the hoarders bring home with them. If a resident’s housekeeping is poor and pests and or bed bugs get in, the pests will likely set up shop—an infestation in a hoarded home can easily get out of hand. A cluttered home makes inspection and bed bug remediation hard. A hoarded home, almost impossible.

Property managers usually inspect each unit at least annually for compliance with housekeeping standards, but regardless of the language in a property’s housekeeping standards and lease, there will be residents who don’t comply. These tenants are grouped into two categories: those who can’t and those who won’t. IN this article we will discuss people who can’t comply with inspections and have issues with pests such as, bed bugs because they have the disease of hoarding.

Hoarding is a complex disorder that is made up of three connected problems: 1) collecting too many items, 2) difficulty getting rid of items, and 3) problems with organization. These problems can lead to significant amounts of clutter which can severely limit the use of living spaces, pose safety and/or health risks, become a breeding ground for pests such as bed bugs, and result in significant distress and/or impairment in day-to-day living.

Collecting Too Many Items:

Too much shopping is the most common way that people who hoard collect items—3 out of 4 shop too much.

Roughly 1 in 2 people who hoard report excessively collecting free things. This collecting of free things such as: used clothing and furniture on the side of the road is where many hoarders run into the problem of bed bugs. The bed bugs hitch a ride into the home or apartment on these items.

The collection can also occur without any effort—for instance, food wrappers or the packing material that comes with new purchases.

Difficulty Getting Rid of Items:

The hallmark of hoarding behavior is not being able to let go of things. Throwing away, selling, giving away, or even recycling are very difficult for people who hoard.
While, to most people, the objects saved may seem worthless or worn-out, in truth, people who hoard usually can’t let go of anything and often have homes filled with otherwise useful items that are buried under the piles.

The reasons for saving are largely the same as the reasons people who don’t hoard have for saving things. The most frequent reason for saving things is to prevent waste, followed by informational content, emotional attachment, and finally, liking the way something looks or feels.

Some people who hoard believe they can get rid of items, but the process is so time-consuming they often give up, leaving the clutter to grow.

Clothes, newspapers and books are the most commonly hoarded items, but the list can include almost anything.

Disorganization:

In addition to collecting too many items and the difficulty getting rid of items, most people with hoarding problems can’t organize their possessions. These problems may be associated with information processing, problems with attention, categorization, and decision-making.

Attempts at organizing usually result in hours of moving possessions from one place to another without any effective result.

The disorganization results in piles of possessions throughout the home that consist of mixtures of worthless and valuable items, complicating attempts to de-clutter.

Recognition of the problem:

Not realizing the seriousness of hoarding is common among people who hoard.

Property managers, maintenance staff, and anyone else working in units should know to report poor housekeeping as soon as it is recognized. Property managers should take action ASAP. Early intervention sends a message property-wide that the development has high standards for cleanliness. It also helps ensure a couple of other things, including the helping to stop the start of a pest or bed bug problem, that the bed bug or pest problem does not escalate or spread to other units or apartments, and to identify if any tenants have a mental health issue, such as hoarding, that may need to be addressed.

Hoarding, as most property managers at HUD-funded properties know, doesn’t just happen on reality TV. In fact, one researcher said that hoarding is 4 times more prevalent in low-income persons than those making over $20,000 a year. Regardless of why a resident with compulsive hoarding and acquiring behavior comes to reside at a property, they deserve to be treated with respect. Don’t think of a hoarder as nasty, think of him or her as someone needing reasonable accommodation. This may take some acting on your part, but it is critical for building managers and staff to build a trust from which therapy can proceed. It is a lot easier to get a hoarder to comply with inspections for pests like bed bugs, any remediation will be easier to do, and they will be more compliant in cleaning up their mess if they feel that you are helping them with their problem and not telling them what to do.

Early prevention using bed bug dogs could have prevented this bed bug infestation from spreading.  The property managers may be in some litigation issues because of this.

Darlene Taylor is diabetic and 80 percent blind. So she couldn’t see them. But for weeks she felt their biting and the itching.

When her regular nurse’s aide visited her 12th floor apartment last Thursday and lifted up papers on the dining room table, the aide saw them: Bed bugs. Swarms of them.

Now the mattress and box spring are gone. All Taylor’s clothes are wrapped in plastic. Taylor sleeps on the couch and worried what’s going to happen next.

Many of Taylor’s neighbors in apartments at Edith Johnson Towers on Bristol Street between Dixwell and Ashmun are worried, too.

More than 20 of the apartments have been or are slated to be treated for bed bug infestation.

“The unit was infested in a way we’d never seen before: 100 bed bugs per square foot,” said Rafael Ramos of City Hall’s Livable City Initiative (LCI).

Last week Ramos called BCJ Management, the private company that owns and manages the senior tower.

BCJ treated Taylor’s apartment, removed her bed (except the fame), and readied her clothes.

By end of day Friday LCI issued an order to BCJ, delivered by marshal: Bring in a licensed contractor to treat Taylor’s apartment and another found infested on the second floor. The order also called for inspection of the entire building and treatment where necessary.

BCJ property manager Dana Proctor did not return several calls to the Independent to discuss the extent of the bed bug problem at 114 Bristol. She did speak to Ramos (pictured) by phone Friday afternoon.

According to what Proctor conveyed to Ramos, since December ten to 15 apartments have been treated. Currently six more are slated to. That’s close to one quarter of the tower’s 96 apartments.

Since treatment of one apartment usually involves spraying and treatment of the four apartments surrounding it, in effect the entire building is being treated.

“That’s an infestation,” said Ramos.

BCJ, a private company headquartered in Boston, also manages the nearby Monterey Place development for the housing authority.

And that may explain how the situation has gotten so out of hand.

A perusal of the file of complaints to LCI reveals that before Taylor and her daughter called LCI, only one other bedbug complaint from 114 Bristol was on file in the past six months. That proved to be a false alarm.

All the complaints appropriately had gone to BCJ instead of to LCI—and the problem continued.

Asked for comment about the problem, HANH Executive Director Karen DuBois-Walton referred questions to BCJ.

Last week reddish stains were still visible around the legs of the metal frame in Darlene Taylor’s now abandoned bedroom.

“They said put them [all her clothing] in the dryer. It’ll kill ‘em [the bugs],” Taylor said.

On Friday the clothes remained in several large plastic bags by the apartment door pending a visit by the aide or Taylor’s daughters, all of whom work.

“It was only one year old,” Taylor said of the mattress. She said she troubled that no one offered to replace it. She didn’t cause the bed bug problem, she said as she led a tour of her apartment for a reporter and for Ward 22 Democratic Ward Committee Co-Chair Cordelia Thorpe, whom she had earlier contacted for help with the problem.

“It’s been going on since December” at the tower, she said.

While individual apartments have been treated, Thorpe said, “It’s escalating. They don’t have a clear plan in place to solve it” building- wide, she added.

“If they made a plan … I have to depend on other people to see,” added Taylor.

Last year HANH investigated purchase of a mobile “thermal radiation” unit, the technology du jour to deal with the bug du jour. Click here to read that story.

Five people sitting for sun-relief beneath the awnings in front of the building one afternoon last week offered varying opinions—and rumors—- on the problem and on how the management has handled it.

“I know it’s been happening since December,” Sonia Torres said. “As soon as I heard about it, I bought a plastic cover for the bed.”

She doesn’t think she’s been affected yet, but she was concerned enough to move from the seventh floor, where “I was feeling itchy,” to the 11th, she said .

“But do you know what to do [about the bed bugs], Sonia?” asked Thorpe.

“No,” came the answer.

Thorpe said she had been trying repeatedly to reach BCJ to discuss a building-wide approach to the infestation, with no success.

Susan Lemoine has lived at the towers for five years. A former Peace Corps volunteer in the 1960s who has lived in tough conditions, she praised the way the exterminating company had been treating affected apartments.

“The person below me had them, and it was treated. They sprayed and then came back several times, after two weeks, and sprayed again,” she said

She described herself a mad sprayer. To several of the other tenants under the awnings who seemed confused about what to do, she said, “They’re attracted to carbon dioxide [emitted by our breathing] near beds.”

“The residents wonder if [ultimately] they’ll have to move out. They’re doing it [the treatment] on a case-by-case basis. [As a result] the bugs are migrating. The instruction needs to come from management, not Ms. Limoine,” said Thorpe.

Before the weekend began Ramos contacted BCJ again and told Proctor that the order requires a licensed contractor to inspect all units of the building.

Procor told him that one had already been ordered, a canine unit arriving to do the work on Aug.1 and 2. Depending on what the sniffers find, treatment will be provided where needed, she said.

Ramos said that when the work concludes, he wants a copy of the report.

Citywide, he said, LCI receives about eight bed bug complaints per month. Sometimes the bugs turn out to be something else.

Ramos said he wishes he had learned earlier about Taylor’s problem. Noting her blindness, he asked aloud, “Where were the CNAs [the certified nurse’s aides]?”

Using a bed bug dog for an inspection of bed bugs produces quicker and more accurate results which leads to lower remediation costs and the ability to more fully remedy the bed bug infestation.

Bed Bug dog inspection is up to 96% accurate and once a dog “hits” on a bed bug infestation problem, in many instances they can pinpoint where the bed bugs are within three feet.  This means that if you have a bed bug infestation in your bedroom, the dog should be able to tell you if it is in the mattress, closet, clothes, and or dressers.

A bed bug dog inspection can lead to less expensive extermination costs, in that only one or two rooms may need to be exterminated for bed bugs instead of a whole apartment, house, or office building.

It’s Efficient – Targeting the exact location of a bed bug problem eliminates the need to treat an entire home or business.  A property manager that owns or for-seas multiple units can save hugely  by only having to have the units that are infested by bed bugs treated instead of the whole building or facility.

Bed bug detection dogs generate quicker, more accurate results and this leads to lower remediation costs that can be quite substantial.

By using a dog for a bed bug inspection it will help in the reduction of pesticides needed for treating an infestation.  The pinpointing of a possible bed bug infestation by the dog allows your exterminator to target the area with the correct procedure in killing the bugs without having to go overboard with chemicals.  This reduction of pesticides is not only a cost savings to you, it is good for our environment.

Another advantage of having a bed bug dog inspection is that the dogs can find small infestations before they are out of control.  This allows you to end the cycle of bed bug reproduction that can snowball into a major infestation quite quickly.  One pregnant female can become 30,000 within six months

Bed Bug dog inspections cover areas not visible to humans.  A bed bug dogs sense of smell can find unseen bed bugs with up to 96% accuracy, whereas a human is only about 20 – 25% accurate in finding bed bugs in a building.

Bed Bug dog inspections can give you peace of mind that your remediation treatments were successful and that the bed bug infestation was treated in it’s entirety.

Many bed bug dog inspection companies offer proactive maintenance programs that can assure your customers that your facility is diligent in the fight against bed bugs.  This may help if any litigation pops up.

Lastly bed bug dogs are honest.  they do not work for money. All these dogs get as a reward for their diligent work is food and love by their owners and handlers.