Sunday, November 18, 2007

Bed Bugs Fact Sheet

According to statistics from the National Pest Management Association, bed bugs are on
the rise in America, having increased 500 percent over the last three years. Consequently,
hotels have become as proactive as possible in identifying infestations.

Bed Bug Growth in America
• 19 percent more pest elimination companies responded to bed bug calls in February 2004 than July 2003;
• Bed bug cases were reported in 40 states through February 2004;
• Ecolab Pest Elimination reports a 300 percent increase in bed bug service calls in the past five years.
• Ecolab has received more service calls in the first eight months of 2004 than in all of 2003.
• Pest control companies have been reporting the infestations not only in hotels, but in multi-family housing, apartments, and hospitals.

Bed Bugs: What Are They?
• Blood-feeding insects;
• Light-tan in color, turning dark-red or brown after feeding;
• About 1/4 inch long, flattened before feeding and swollen afterward;
• Easy to see with the naked eye, but difficult to find while hiding;
• Feed once a week on a sleeper’s exposed skin for several minutes at a time;
• Bites are painless and not felt by most people, but could leave a hard bump with a whitish center that can itch for many days;
• Parasites, but there is NO evidence they spread disease like other parasites;
• Able to survive up to 10 months between blood meals if necessary;
• Nocturnal;
• Attracted to carbon dioxide and body heat;
• Able to lay up to 500 eggs in one lifetime;
• Able to repopulate themselves and re-infest a room in just three to four months;
• Extremely mobile, can hide just about anywhere and be carried in anything;
• Create a sickly, sweet smell in an infested room;
• Can hide almost anywhere, including in upholstered furniture nightstands, headboards, bedding, lamps, picture frames and luggage.
• May also be found in unexpected places, like the telephone, behind electrical switch plates, under carpet edges or carpeting, light fixtures, housekeeping carts and folds of draperies or curtains.

A History of Bed bugs
• Pestered humans since pre-historic times;
• Many species found in the United States – human bed bugs (Cimex lectularius) is the most common;
• Mostly eradicated in the U.S. around World War II;
• Boomed in numbers within the last five years due to increased international travel, and less use of strong pest-killing products that controlled bed bugs for years.

Prevention
As a guest:
• When returning from a trip, check your luggage and clothing.
• Vacuum suitcases after returning from a vacation.
• Check your bedsheets for tell-tale blood spots.
• If bed bug activity is discovered or suspected in your guestroom, contact the front desk immediately. The room will be put out of service until a pest elimination expert certifies it to be pest free.

The best prevention is daily inspection. Hotel staff should inspect rooms for bed bug activity every day by inspecting:
- guest room linens.
-mattress and box spring seams.
- headboards
- bedding.

• Staff should be looking not only for live insects, but also for cast skins or speckles of dried blood or excrement on furniture or in places where bed bugs hide.
• Hotel staff should do the following:
- vacuum rooms and accessories daily;
- inspect incoming furniture and wall hangings that may have been stored or warehoused; and
- inspect and repair loose wallpaper and cracks in baseboards to reduce areas where bed bugs can settle.

*Information provided by Ecolab Pest Elimination and the National Pest Management Association, Inc.

New Bed Bug Policy for New York Schools

News From MyFoxNY.com

Bed bugs have gotten to be such a problem that New York City's schools now have a policy to deal with them. It's the first time any procedures have been officially established.

Principals must now notify parents in writing if the parasites are found in any schools.

Bedbugs are brought into schools on children's clothing. They tend to show up in cooler weather.

Last January and February, there were 72 reports of bugs at 43 schools, according to the Department of Education.

Bed bug Link

Readers share the bed bug nightmares
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11962413/

Bed bug increase bites in city
http://news.scotsman.com/health.cfm?id=1813442007

Report of bed bug infestations in the United States and Canada
http://bedbugregistry.com/

SLIDESHOW: California Hotel Infested With Bed Bugs
http://www.nbc11.com/slideshow/news/9643906/detail.html?qs=1;s=1;dm=ss;p=news;w=400

Bed bugs invade Toronto

Story by Kelly Grant and Adam Huras

The city is declaring war on bed bugs.
Infestations of the tiny wingless insects have spread so swiftly across Toronto in the last few years -- one exterminator even described clients picking up bed bugs at hospitals -- that an East Toronto councillor yesterday asked the public health unit to study what it could do to eradicate the problem.

"[Bed bugs] are starting to migrate. They migrate not only in apartment buildings. I think that they're becoming a real big problem in the city of Toronto," Councillor Paula Fletcher said.

Ms. Fletcher asked the health unit to look at launching a bed-bug furniture pickup program, to investigate how other cities are tackling infestations, and to recommend how the city can prevent and control the insects.

Dr. David McKeown, the city's medical officer of health, will be among those attending a town hall meeting tomorrow night on the bed bug plague.

Sponsored by WoodGreen Community Services, an east-end not-for-profit group, the meeting will focus on what can be done to fight the insects? spread in the city's shelters, drop-in centres and social housing.

The problem, however, has spread well beyond publicly owned buildings, Toronto exterminators say.

"Business has easily increased 50% per year over the last five years. It has been tremendous," said Paul Bossio, general manager of Advantage Pest Control. "Five years ago bed bugs may be represented a maximum of 5% of our business. Now it's over 30% of it."

Carlo Panacci, the owner of Cain Pest Control, said that in 1999 he had only two calls the entire year to eliminate the quarter-inch bugs. Now he averages eight to 10 calls a day.

"I do more work with bed bugs than anything else, hands down. More bed bugs than roaches, more bed bugs than mice, easily," he said.

When his bed bug business first started to pick up, Mr. Panacci said most calls came from boarding houses.

Today the bugs do not discriminate. The problem has spread to apartments, hotels, hospitals and doctors' offices.

"I've had a woman coming back from the hospital with a brand new baby and said she picked them up at the hospital," Mr. Panacci said. "I've had doctor offices call me up saying they had a patient get out of the chair, and they're all over the chair."

Part of the city's challenge is that the pests fall into an enforcement grey area. Unlike mice, cockroaches and termites, which fall under the umbrella of the municipal licensing department, dealing with bed bugs is the responsibility of Toronto Public Health.

Reg Ayre, a manager in the healthy environments program at TPH, said the public health unit does not specifically track the scope of the bed bug problem. Instead, it offers advice on wiping out the bugs via the phone or visits, then keeps track of calls for advice from Torontonians.

Source : http://communities.canada.com/nationalpost/blogs/toronto/archive/2007/11/13/bed-bugs-invade-toronto.aspx

Sunday, November 4, 2007

Hotel and Bed bugs

Before you are selecting a hotel, you may want to find information and reviews of the hotel that you want to go. Some guests who’ve had bed bugs problems report it on the internet, you can find a good hotel with search engine . But in the hotel have many room, a information that you're read may not true 100%. You may be unlucky selecting the bed bugs infest room and that room still not exterminate a bed bugs. I will suggest you how to check the bed bugs in your room before them feed your blood.

- Check the mattress peel back the bedsheets and check the mattress.

Bed bugs on mattress tag

Bed bugs on mattress seam

- Check the headboard removing and examining hotel bed headboard if possible.

Bed bugs on bed headboard

- Don't treat a bed bugs by yourself if you detect a bed bugs, you should inform hotel management and request new room.
- Check bed bugs of new room if you change to new room you should repeat the thorough inspection of any new or different room.
- Check you pack when you leave don't forget to check any item in you pack, because bed bugs can transport from the hotel to your home with cloth or baggage.



Bed bugs control with Chemical

Chemical control strategies often start by flushing bed bugs out from their hiding places by use of a natural or synthetic pyrethroid based aerosol spray. This is then followed by use of other insecticides inside the premises, including the treatment of beds and other furniture. Active ingredients approved for use against bed bugs in the UK under the Control of Pesticides Regulations 1986 (COPR) are the following organophosphates: chlorpyrifos methyl, diazinon, fenitrothion, iodofenphos, pirimiphos-methyl and trichlorfon; and carbamates, bendiocarb and propoxur. These groups of chemicals act as nerve poisons which kill by inhibiting the nerve enzymne cholinesterase which disrupts the nervous system. More than half of these actives will have their licences revoked as part of the UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) review of all anticholinesterase compounds. This process began in September 1998 when data call-in letters were sent to approval holders. Because of lack of support the following substances chlorpyrifos-methyl, diazinon (which shows evidence of mutagenicity and evidence of embryotoxicity), iodofenphos, trichlofon and propoxur (a suspected human carcinogen) have had their licences revoked(1,2).
The synthetic pyrethroids alpha cypermethrin, bioallethrin, bioresmethrin, cypermethrin, deltamethrin, d-phenothrin, permethrin, resmethrin, s-bioallethrin, tetramethrin and the OPs trichlorphon and fenitrothion are suspected of being endocrine disruptors. Endocrine disrupting chemicals may affect the balance of normal hormonal function of animals and are suspected of contributing to the decrease in male fertility, female reproductive problems, increases in prostate and breast cancer, and behavioural and developmental problems in children(3). The German Federal Environment Agency suspects deltamethrin of affecting sperm and the placenta and dimethoate of affecting sperm and prolonging pregnancy(4).
The botanicals registered for use in the UK (pyrethrins and pyrethrum extract) are the only pesticides that are not suspected endocrine disruptors or anticholinestease compounds.

1. PAN UK Active Ingredient Database, 1999.
2. List of active ingredients that have been approved for use against bed bugs, provided by the Health and Safety Executive 13/05/99 and personal communications 10/02/2000.
3. Environmental endocrine disruptors, A handbook of property data, Keith, L. H., John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1997, 1232pp.
4. ENDS Report 290, March 1999, p28.

Source : About.com

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Bed bugs treatment with non toxic

- You must be wash to eliminate any bed bug eggs and caulk any crack or hole. (Common bed bug live in cracks in the bed frame, window and door frames, under loose wallpaper, upholstered chairs and sofas, behind pictures)
- Bed bugs can easily climb wood surfaces to access a host, you can use the oil to block the bed bugs (Modify bed for anti bed bugs).
- Moving the bed away from any surfaces such as walls.
- Replaced or steam clean the Mattresses and wash the bedding with high temperatures raising temperatures to between 36ºC and 37ºC for an hour or so will probably eliminate an infestation, and prolonged exposure to temperatures of 0ºC to 9ºC will also kill off adults in a matter of hours.