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Bedbugs are back and biting into budgets

Talk about sleeping with the enemy.

That’s how termite technician Rodney Lewis felt when nasty bedbugs crawled their way inside his own North Dallas apartment earlier this year.

“It was a nightmare,” said Lewis, who lives with his girlfriend. “We had to move out. We ended up having to get rid of our bed and couch. It was $1,500 worth of furniture.”

Mike Merchant, a Dallas entomologist who studies bugs in urban areas, said Lewis’ misery is understandable.

“Most people are horrified by them,” Merchant said. “The most private place in the world is your bed, so to think there are bugs in your bed, feeding on your blood at night, is creepy.”

Almost eradicated before the 1950s with the now-banned pesticide DDT, the once-forgotten nocturnal bloodsuckers have been making a massive comeback nationwide the past few years, pest control experts say.

The National Pest Management Association released a study in late July that reported an 81 percent increase in bedbug calls since 2000 for pest management companies. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency earlier this month issued a joint statement noting the bugs’ rapid resurgence. They warned consumers to use caution in choosing bedbug treatments.

Recently, an Abercrombie & Fitch store as well as a Victoria’s Secret location, both in New York, were temporarily closed because of bedbugs.

The appearance of the bugs in North Texas hasn’t been as prominent, and local and state health officials say they don’t track infestations because the bugs don’t carry disease. But pest control experts say the creepy crawlers’ numbers here are definitely marching upward.

Adam Romig, spokesman for ABC Pest Control in Dallas, said the company responded to no more than five bedbug calls annually before this year.

“Now we’re seeing that many a week.”

In April, the Fort Worth Housing Authority struggled mightily in its attempts to eradicate bedbugs from one of its residential buildings, said spokeswoman Alice Sykes.

“We tried everything, and we spent a lot of money trying to treat for bedbugs,” Sykes said. “Finally we just said, let’s relocate.”

Adult bedbugs are round and flat, about the size of an apple seed, and can squeeze through a hole as small as a pencil point. They are found mainly in mattresses and couches, but they also show up in wall crevices, floors and the cracks in wood on headboards.

They don’t fly – thank goodness – but are fast crawlers that can make their way onto a bed from the floor relatively easily. Mainly, however, bedbugs are hitchhikers that like to catch rides on humans and animals through clothing, luggage and bedding. They move around primarily at night but are also active during the day.

And while bedbugs don’t carry diseases or live on humans and animals as do fleas or lice, they’re still unsettling, and unwanted, guests.

Entomologist Merchant and pest control workers said that it’s a common misconception that bedbugs only affect those in low-income housing or dirty hotels. Romig said he’s heard of them in college dorms and other places where people live close together.

“It can happen in five-star hotels,” Merchant said. “People can pick it up at resorts or from secondhand furniture. It can really happen to anyone.”

The primary reason bedbugs are making a comeback is the frequency of international travel these days, he said. Federal officials also say bedbugs’ increased resistance to pesticides, as well as a lack of knowledge about how to control them because of their extended absence, have contributed to the pest’s comeback.

Brooke Dieterlen, executive director of the Hotel Association of North Texas, said she has yet to receive any reports of bedbug outbreaks from any of the association’s 150 members.

“It’s just not on our radar,” she said. “But all the hotels are concerned. They contract pest control services and are finding information on this as a precaution so they don’t have to deal with the problem.”

That’s of little comfort to Lewis. He said his girlfriend had an allergic reaction to the bugs, whose bites are not painful but cause welts that are “incredibly itchy.”

The couple, who had been in their apartment for less than two months, were forced to relocate when their landlord refused to treat for the pests because it’s so expensive.

Merchant said the problem in getting apartments to pay for bedbug treatments is fairly common because landlords often think it’s the tenants’ fault for bringing in the pests.

“It puts landlords in a bind,” Merchant said. “It’s an expensive problem. It’s $300 a visit, and it requires maybe three visits. On top of that, they have to treat their entire building, since bedbugs travel between floors and walls.”

Mary Montgomery, 59, was one of the Fort Worth Housing Authority residents who had to move because of the bedbug outbreak earlier this year. Although she was never bitten at her old digs, Montgomery said she couldn’t sleep because she was so worried.

“They’re so hard to get rid of,” she said in a recent interview. “Since we relocated, I can breathe now. I’m not worried anymore.”

Experts say bedbugs can be found almost anywhere. Even the nicest hotels can become infested with the critters, which can go undetected for months because guests only stay for short periods. They advise the following precautions for hotel guests:

•Take sheets and blankets off the bed and inspect the mattress. If there are any brown or red spots, they might be blood or excrement from bedbugs.

•Look behind picture frames and around furniture. Bedbugs like small, dark crevices often found in wood.

•Don’t place luggage on the floor or near a bed. Hotels often provide luggage racks and hangers.

•Wash all clothing after a trip. Hot water will usually kill any bedbugs.

SOURCE: Dallas Morning News research

Bed bug exterminators

(Fairfax, VA) – A new survey conducted by the National Pest Management Association (NPMA) and the University of Kentucky, confirms what pest management professionals across the U.S. and around the world have been seeing in the field – bed bugs are back in a very big way, with 95 percent of U.S. survey respondents indicating that their company has encountered a bed bug infestation in the past year. Prior to 2000, only 25 percent of U.S. survey respondents encountered a bed bug infestation.

“The results of the 2010 Comprehensive Global Bed Bug Study suggest that we are on the threshold of a bed bug pandemic, not just in the United States, but around the world,” said Missy Henriksen, vice president of public affairs for NPMA. “Because bed bugs don’t discriminate between rich and poor, don’t have a preference for climate or environment, public awareness, education and vigilance are key in detecting and preventing bed bug infestations.”

In the U.S., bed bugs are infesting homes, apartments, hotels, retail stores, offices, places of worship, college dorms, hospitals, daycares, libraries, modes of transportation, movie theaters, laundry facilities and other places where humans live and gather.

If the public knows what to look for, bed bugs can be easy to spot. In fact, visual inspections are the preferred method of determining if a bed bug infestation exists according to survey respondents. Bed bugs are the size and color of an apple seed, like to travel and will hide in suitcases, boxes and shoes to be near a food supply. They are elusive, nocturnal creatures, and beside the mattress and headboard, they can be found behind baseboards, electrical switch plates, picture frames, wallpaper, upholstery and in furniture crevices. They come out at night for a blood meal.

The findings of the 2010 Comprehensive Global Bed Bug Study, are based on responses from nearly 1,000 U.S. and international pest management companies. Here are several key survey highlights:

1. Professional pest management companies have reported a dramatic increase in bed bug calls in recent years. While, there is not one clear answer for the resurgence of bed bugs, the majority of respondents cited increased travel and movement of people from across town and around the globe, lack of societal awareness and precautions, and changing pest control products and methods.

2. Bed bugs are a much greater problem in urban and suburban areas with larger populations of people who live close together and interact in enclosed spaces on a regular basis. Because of the bed bugs’ ability to “hitchhike” on people and their belongings, these living environments will continue to see higher infestation occurrences than those living in rural areas. According to the survey, 52 percent of pest management companies report treating bed bug infestations in rural areas compared to 71 percent in urban and 80 percent in suburban areas.

3. Bed bugs are THE most difficult pest to treat, according to 76 percent of survey respondents, more so than cockroaches, ants and termites. As for where infestations occur, residences top the list with 89 percent of pest professionals treating bed bug infestations in apartments/condos and 88 percent treating bed bug infestations in single-family homes. Respondents also report other common areas, with 67 percent treating bed bug infestations in hotels/motels, 35 percent in college dormitories, 9 percent on various modes of transportation, 5 percent in laundry facilities, and 4 percent in movie theatres.

4. Although bed bugs are not known to transmit disease to humans, their bites do leave itchy welts on human skin and can cause an allergic reaction in some people. Additionally, the emotional and mental toll of experiencing a bed bug infestation can be severe and should not be taken lightly. Survey respondents report that 99% of clients who have had bed bugs were “upset and concerned” and 77% said such customers were “very upset and concerned.”

For more information about bed bugs visit the Bed Bug Hub, NPMA’s resource on everything bed bug related, from prevention tips to current news.

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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Bed bug exterminators

Bed bugs moving in->Residents move out

Count on Myers Pest for all of your Houston, Dallas Fort Worth, Arlington, and Euless Bed  bug control services

The following Dallas bedbug prevention tips will help you reduce your risk of bedbugs:

* Thoroughly check your belongings after a hotel stay.

* Wash all bedding regularly in hot water. The water should be at least 120 degrees.

* Vacuum floors regularly. Use the brush tool of your vacuum to vacuum your mattress. Use the crevice tool to vacuum crevices in the mattress and your baseboards.

* Use a plastic cover over your mattress. Bedbugs can’t hide on the plastic cover.

* If you purchase used furniture, examine it for bed bugs. Pay special attention to used mattresses and bed frames.

* Check your own bed for bedbugs from time to time. Catching them early will make bedbug treatment easier if bedbugs do occur.

You can also consult Myers Pest as we will be able to provide treatment for the problem and help assist you in finding where these creatures may be hiding.