AUSTIN (KXAN) – In one of the bedrooms of a University of Texas area housing co-op, a technician stares at a computer screen. It’s covered with readouts from sensors placed in other rooms up and down the hall. The sensors monitor the heat in each room, as the thermometer slowly rises on its way to 135 or 140 degrees. Human beings are uncomfortable in that environment.

Bed bugs — and even their eggs — are dead in it.

“There needs to be experts involved with this,” said Brian DiCicco, director of Pest Management, Inc. “This is the one insect that you just can’t do by yourself. I mean, you could find home remedies for roaches and ants and you might be able to get it under control. Bed bugs are a unique species and they are very difficult to get rid of.”

DiCicco’s company is a division of Hill Country Pest Control, Inc. , a Kerrville, Texas, based company that has been killing bugs since 1971. It took 35 years for the company to begin finding severe infestations of bed bugs.

“Our call volume since 2006 is up 1000 percent,” Dicicco said. “Bed bugs are a terrible situation; there’s no question about it. They affect your mental state; they affect every part of your existence because they’re affecting where you sleep.”

No one knows that better than Lindsey Kimmons, a resident of the Riverlodge Apartment complex in the northwest part of the Austin area. She shows a visitor to her bedroom and starts her tale of woe.

“This is where I first started getting bit, every single night in my bed,” she said. “It’s awful; they bite you and if feels like an awful mosquito bite that does not stop itching. And they last for days, so I would accumulate bites over a week and have them all over me. Miserable, all over my face, my neck, my whole body. They were crawling on top of my sheets, under my sheets, on my mattress; I was changing my sheets every day. I could see them and when the exterminator came, finally, I could see the eggs. So they were laying eggs in my bed.”

Kimmons complained to managers at her complex, but she says they were slow to respond.

“I ended up getting a hotel for two weeks because I couldn’t take it anymore,” she said. “They said it’s not a health risk; it’s not a health hazard, so live with it, pretty much. They said I was having an allergic reaction that most people don’t have.”

Adam Temple, a spokesperson for the Charlotte, SC, company that owns Riverlodge, would not comment on the record, but the company did say in a written statement: “We were made aware of this isolated incident and took decisive action within 24 hours to address the concerns. We are currently following the recommendations of independent pest control experts in the Austin area in order to completely resolve the issue.”

Kimmons, though, said she knows of several other infested apartments in the complex and argues all the units should be treated since bed bugs migrate from apartment to apartment via wiring and pipes. The debate is not unusual.

“Disputes between tenants and landlords is a big problem,” said DiCicco. “Who’s at fault? You really can’t say. Other states have taken steps to make it clear: It is what it is; you’ve got to take care of it and move on down the road. Under their legislation, the landlord is responsible to take action within a certain amount of days or they are fined every day they do not take care of it. The longer that infestation sits there and no one is dealing with it, the more chances that it’s going to spread out into other neighboring units,” Dicicco said.

Back at the co-op, DiCicco shows off the work of a specially trained dog that can sniff out a bed bug problem and confirm an infestation in its early stages.

“In the beginning, four months of a bed bug infestation , it’s almost impossible with a visual inspection to confirm because the numbers aren’t up yet,” he said.

If the numbers grow out of control, the company brings on the heat.

“Right now, we’re at 125 degrees,” said Pest Management’s Sarah McElwee as two massive heaters with loud fans almost drown out her voice. “Our goal is to get it up to 130 to135 degrees.”

Room by room, the heaters eliminate the critters as Alan Robinson, general administrator of College House Co-ops, which runs the bug-infested Pearl Street Co-op looks on happily.

“We’ve learned, number one, it can happen to anyone, that it’s not about cleanliness,” he said. “It doesn’t say anything about the person and it happens a lot if there are a lot of people coming in and out.”

Robinson acknowledges, though, that the co-op failed to appreciate the seriousness of the problem in the beginning. If it had, it might have avoided the $110,000 expense the bed bug fight is expected to cost.

“Looking back, I wish I could have done a lot more earlier,” he said. “I thought of it as just another pest control issue; you call your regular pest control company; they put down some chemicals and it’s gone. That’s not true and I wish I knew then what I know now. Assume it’s going to happen to you. Assume

you’re going to get it, monitor and then immediately respond once you identify a problem.”

Meanwhile, area hotels, nursing homes and even hospitals are on the alert. Pest Management has treated 10 hotels in the Austin area alone over the past two years and one still uses the company’s dogs for regular inspections.

So why, you may ask, is all this happening now? It’s true that bed bugs have always been with us, but treatments with the now-banned DDT significantly reduced their numbers. With that weapon now gone, the bugs are on a comeback.

“Due to international travel,” said DiCicco, “they’ve really hit the eastern seaboard and they’ve slowly been moving inland from New York and San Francisco into the middle of the country and the Austin area. Now there’s a certain amount of resistance to certain products. There’s not a lot of chemicals out there that take care of this particular problem.”

Hence the heat. Bring it on.
Via:http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/local/New-weapon-aimed-at-bed-bugs

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Via http://www.pestworldforkids.org/ants.html

Bed bug exterminators

Wet weather ushers in mosquitoes

Go ahead and blame Hurricane Alex for possibly bringing in the mosquitoes.

Gregg County Extension Agent Dennis Smith said an increase in mosquito breeding can be seen anytime there’s wet weather.

Bloodsucking insects are not welcome at family barbecues and outdoor gatherings for a reason. Aside from being pesky, annoying or at least mildly bothersome, mosquitoes can carry harmful diseases such as West Nile virus, which causes encephalitis (swelling of the brain.) It’s rare, but being bitten by an infected mosquito can lead to death.

This past year, nine Texans died from the virus, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report. However, the CDC reports 80 percent of people infected with West Nile Virus will not show any symptoms.

Mosquitoes are the hosts for several other disease causing agents, including the protozoa that causes malaria, the virus that causes yellow fever and the filarial that causes heart worms in dogs.

Experts agree on four strategies for avoiding mosquito interaction:

■ Avoid going out early in the morning and later in the evening.

■ Dress in long-sleeve and light-colored clothing.

■ Use mosquito repellent.

■ Drain standing water.

Once reported to be the only officially recommended repellent, the CDC now says Picaridin, lemon eucalyptus oil and IR3535 are just as effective as DEET.

Smith recommends eliminating standing water around the house such as a pet’s water bowl or flower pots because they pose as breeding grounds for the insects.

Geoff Heinicke, city environmental health manager, explained different types of mosquitoes breed in different environments, and the problem-causing mosquitos typically breed in man-made materials such as old tires and roof gutters.

According to the CDC, the female mosquito bites people and animals because it needs the protein found in blood to help develop eggs. They then lay their eggs in even a small amount of standing water.

The city applies pesticides to standing water that have mosquito larvae. Heinicke said the city goes after stagnant water early in the morning and applies larvicide because it is the most effective way of minimizing the mosquito population.

“We’re constantly doing it anytime we get rain,” he said.

As a last resort, Heinicke said the city will go out and spray the areas with a high concentration of mosquitoes when a resident makes a complaint.

He said this is not as effective as the larvicide method because it only kills adult mosquitoes that are out in that area.

Smith said the main thing is to protect yourself by wearing mosquito repellent and wear long sleeves. He added mosquitoes tend to bother some people more than others but to be careful with young children and the elderly.

For more information, go to health.longviewtexas.gov/moto-
information.

(Fairfax, VA) – The National Pest Management Association (NPMA) has announced the availability of a free, downloadable cell phone application that provides users with convenient, on-the-go access to the most popular sections of the NPMA’s educational website, PestWorld.org.

The application features a mobile version of the PestWorld.org pest guide, which is designed to help users easily identify pests that they find in their home or property, as well as learn about pests’ habits and any health or property threats they may pose. Other features include an informative frequently asked questions section and tips for finding a qualified pest professional. Users can also contact a pest professional using the “Find a Pro” zip code search function on the application.

“In today’s fast-paced, knowledge-driven society and with the accessibility we receive from smart phones, we know that when consumers are looking for information, they want it instantaneously,” says Missy Henriksen, vice president of public affairs for the NPMA. “Our new cell phone application allows users to find any information they need about pests like termites, bed bugs, cockroaches, rodents and stinging insects at the touch of a button, from wherever they happen to be. The application is designed to give users information on how to educate themselves about the risks posed by household pests as well as how they can best protect themselves and their families.”

The PestWorld application is currently available exclusively to iPhone users, but will soon be available on Blackberry and Droid phones as well. To download the application, visit http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pest-world/id376666327?mt=8.

For more information about the NPMA’s new cell phone application, to learn more about pests or to locate a pest professional, visit www.Pestworld.org.

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(Fairfax, VA) – The National Pest Management Association (NPMA) announced the creation of a new children’s show that teaches kids about the fascinating world of insects, rodents and small wildlife. The entertaining and educational show, aptly named “Pest Quest,” will deliver buggy factoids to junior scientists and is available on NPMA’s websites, PestWorld.org and PestWorldForKids.org.

“Pest Quest” is hosted by a group of energetic pre-teens in a fun, colorful science lab full of gadgets and bubbling beakers. Each episode explores a variety of different topics, from wolf spiders, velvet ants and click beetles to opossums, pigeons and bats (and everything in between). Other fun features include “Pest Commander Pete’s Head Scratchers” and “Itsy-Bitsy Mystery” quizzes, which engage viewers and test their pest knowledge. In addition to sharing fun facts, the show aims to educate viewers about the risks posed by certain creatures when they enter homes and properties and become pests.

Twenty-four episodes have been produced for the first season of “Pest Quest,” focusing on species found within the United States. New episodes will be posted to the Pest Quest Channel twice a month.

“Children are fascinated by bugs and anything ‘creepy crawly’,” says Missy Henriksen, vice president of public affairs for the NPMA. “We wanted to foster and encourage that interest by creating a web-based program that allowed us to share our wealth of pest knowledge with such a captive audience, evoking their inner-entomologist and scientist.”

NPMA has a variety of programs designed for use in the classroom and on the family computer for children in grades K-8. Lesson plans, science projects, report writing programs, interactive games and other fun facts are on PestWorldForKids.org. The Pest Quest Channel is the next installment in NPMA’s commitment to science education.

http://pestworld.org/press-releases/pest-quest-childrens-show-brings-fascinating-world-of-bugs-rodents-and-wildlife-to-kids-of-all-ages

The hated mosquito comes under scientific scrutiny

By TARA DOOLEY

Just as you thought, mosquitoes have few redeeming qualities.

Sure, they are part of the food chain. They may pollinate something, but what and how much is a subject of study. But mostly they breed, pester, attack and, sometimes, transmit disease.

“They do keep entomologists employed,” joked Dan Kline, a research entomologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Gainesville, Fla. “That’s a good thing. But other than that, I’m really hard-pressed to say something really nice about them.”

They are interesting in their many varieties.

Kline is particularly interested in what attracts and repels them.

Mike Merchant, an urban entomologist in Dallas, studies Texas’ rogues gallery of pests including cockroaches, termites and fire ants.

“I guess I’m interested in mosquitoes because they bite me,” said Merchant, who works with the Texas AgriLife Extension Service, an agency of the Texas A&M University System.

And they do bite, morning, noon and night, said Molly Keck, an entomologist with the San Antonio office of the extension service.

Though they often bloom, so to speak, after a rain, mosquitoes can always be a problem, Keck said.

“I would say they are bad every single year,” she said, “whether we have a lot of rain or we don’t.”

tara.dooley@chron.com

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