Bedbugs Back On The Rise In the U.S.

Although bedbugs were virtually eradicated in the United States by the 1960s, increased international travel and restrictions on pesticides have caused a resurgence in places ranging from nursing homes to dormitories to movie theaters. In fact, travelers who carry the insects in their luggage and clothing are the most common recipients of bites.

The National Pest Management Association has reported a 71-percent increase in bedbug infestation in the U.S. since 2001.

Bedbugs leave a bite similar in appearance to that from a mosquito, which takes 10 to 14 days to surface. Once the itching starts, the bite normally lasts for about a month.

While bothersome, a recent U.S. study found bedbugs rarely, if ever, transmit disease. Systemic reactions have been reported but are rare.

According to researchers, the name "bedbug" can actually be misleading.

"They don't stay in the bed," entomologist and bedbug expert at the University of Florida Phil Koehler, Ph.D., said. "They can be found just about everywhere in the room, and they can be found in sofas. They can be found even in wall sockets, and even inside wall void. Probably, about 30 percent are going to be found in other areas of the room you wouldn't even think of."

Standard treatment for the removal of bedbugs involves replacing furniture or using insecticides.

Researchers at the University of Florida have pioneered a removal system that costs about $300 to put together and keeps furniture intact.

"The idea is that it only takes about 113 degrees Fahrenheit to kill bedbugs," Dr. Koehler said.

The treatment involves building a Styrofoam box around a cluster of the infected furniture and heating up the area using an oil-based space heater. The air is heated to about 140 to 150 degrees Fahrenheit so the furniture reaches at least 113 degrees.

Dr. Koehler said it usually takes about two and half hours to reach the necessary temperature. The walls of the room are treated with insecticides to ensure all bugs are eliminated.

Source: http://news8austin.com/content/headlines/?ArID=265850&SecID=2

Get Rid of Bed Bugs For Less Than $20

Think you've got bed bugs? For $15, you can build your own bed bug detector with simple materials. You won't even need tools or special skills to assemble it, and it will work as well as professional exterminating equipment.

A "less than $20" solution developed by a Rutgers entomology professor Changlu Wang
which attracts the insects, who climb the fabrics to get at what they think is a live human, and become trapped in the grooves surrounding the inverted bowls.

Rutgers University Researcher Studies Bed Bugs

You couldn't blame Rutgers University researcher Changlu Wang for not wanting to bring his work home with him. Wang, an entomologist, studies the feeding habits of the dreaded blood-sucking bedbug, which has made a comeback of late in the urban Northeast.

Wang is working with researchers from other universities to develop methods to detect, capture and eradicate the pests.

Q. Why has the bedbug made a resurgence?

There are several reasons. None is the deciding factor: increased international travel, a lack of effective pesticides, immigrant workers, insecticide resistance and a lack of detection tools. People don't find them early enough to stem an outbreak. … My interest is in developing some monitoring methods and tools. Visual inspection is often difficult and there are many by the time you see them.

Q. Is New Jersey vulnerable?

It's very common in New Jersey. There are lots of people in multifamily units and we are one of the most densely populated states. We've seen in apartment buildings that they can spread down the hall.

Q. What can people do to prevent an infestation?

Don't accept any used furniture until you're absolutely sure it doesn't have any bedbugs. Also be careful if you are visiting someone's home. Home health-care workers are very concerned; sometimes they can literally see the bedbugs crawl out of someone's sofa. If someone is visiting you, make sure there are no bedbugs in their luggage.

Some of the pesticides that were most effective, such as DDT, were banned for fear of their effect on human health.

Q. What chemical-free solutions are there to repel and get rid of the pests?

You can buy special bedding encasement; they will die because they cannot get out. You can put some barriers under furniture. Some companies also use hot steam machines to apply to furniture to kill the bed bugs. There are heat chambers. Some companies freeze them, but that is relatively expensive. It's difficult. No matter how careful you are, you probably can't get them all.

Q. Do you worry that your work will come home with you?

I've gotten bedbugs several times. I went to apartments with several thousands of them. But they can be easily killed if you quickly wash them and your clothes when you go home.

Maybe in the future we can develop a repellent.

Source: http://www.northjersey.com/news/education/81947572_Rutgers_itching_to_eradicate_pesky_bedbugs.html

Bed Bug Video

The Entomological Society of America (ESA) is featuring a bed bug video on its YouTube channel:

Opinion: Why it's Time For The Honest Use of Pesticides

We need to learn from our mistakes, take a hard look at the science and use DDT where and when it is needed: to save lives.

The bedbugs moved into my house. I was itching all night long and after about five futile attempts to blast them with pyrethroids, one of the few allowable pesticides, I was ready for something stronger. Anything really.

Compared to other pesticides, pyrethroids are less toxic to humans and apparently less toxic to bedbugs too. (Thanks to our zeal for abusing anything new, bedbugs in New York City, where I live, are more than 200 times resistant to pyrethroids compared with Florida bedbugs, according to a recent study.) All I wanted was my exterminator to sneak me some DDT or another banned chemical. I considered organophosphates — the ones that have been linked to cognitive impairments among children.

My bedbug fiasco — costly and time-consuming — got me thinking about the global balancing act of pesticides versus disease. The real issue is not about those of us in the developed world annoyed with bedbugs and lice (we dealt with those too), but the rest of the world who have to weigh the pros and cons of pesticides versus killer infections.

Pesticides work because they are poisons. The goal is to concoct a chemical that hits bugs but nothing else. A microbiologist told me that his oncologist friends are in the same bind. They say they can kill every cancer cell but they’d kill the patient too. The trick — for the bugs and cancer — is all about targeting. We’re not there yet.

For most of us, raised in the post-"Silent Spring" era (Rachel Carson’s 1962 blockbuster book that outlined the abuse of pesticides and launched the environmental movement), DDT has become the Voldemort of chemicals — he whose name should not be ... spoken.

Yet this same drug was once considered a miracle weapon. After World War II, death camp survivors were drenched with the stuff to prevent typhus and our farmlands were showered with it to protect crops. It did the trick but we quickly learned it also killed birds and wildlife. To top it off, our abuse of it spurred resistance — something the experts warned about all along. DDT was banned in the U.S. in 1971. The chemical was labeled one of the so-called “dirty dozen” at the 1995 Stockholm Convention of Persistent Organic Pollutants slated for restriction, but not elimination. It was never banned globally.

The World Health Organization changed its tune a few years ago and started encouraging malaria-ravaged countries to use DDT indoors. The United States Agency for International Development, which for years did not fund DDT projects, started to sponsor a few of them here and there.

It’s important to remember that no one is talking about airplanes spraying pesticides the way we did half a century ago. They are talking about limited uses of chemicals inside certain homes with vulnerable mosquitoes — combined with a lot of other malaria-prevention techniques.

Continue reading at: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/worldview/091130/opinion-return-ddt

WARNING: You Could Be Paying To Have Your Home Infested With Bed Bugs

In a special assignment report, Jennifer Baileys was contacted by a Rent-A-Center employee who says some people are paying to infest their own homes with bed bugs.

"The bug problem in Louisville is pretty bad," said "Jeff" who claims to be a Rent-A-Center employee.

"It was maybe one place a year, but now we're getting this one a week.  There's no bleach spray, there's absolutely nothing done for bed bugs I took over a location and my first two days on the job was fighting bed bugs," said Jeff.

His job is not in pest control, "Jeff" says he is a manager of Rent-A-Centers in Louisville.

"Personally I wouldn't rent furniture," said "Jeff".

Fox 41 agreed to hide "Jeff's" identity and he provided proof of his employment with Rent-A-Center. "Jeff" said he contacted Fox 41 because he wants everyone to know the truth about the risk of renting furniture.

"They don't want you to junk the stuff, they want to make their money and that's what they're going to do whatever it takes to make their money," said "Jeff" who has worked at stores in Louisville that have been infested with bed bugs.

"Jeff" also claims few employees ever follow Rent-A-Center's bed bug policy.

"100 percent of the time it's not followed," said "Jeff".

As part of the Fox 41 investigation, Jennifer Baileys contacted Rent-A-Center's corporate office in Texas.  Company Spokesperson Xavier Dominicis said no one at any of the stores in Louisville would be available to talk on camera and that Fox 41 would not be permitted inside any of the stores.

Dominicis did offer information about Rent-A-Centers bed bug policy.  He said all stores use a product called Steri-Fab to fight bed bugs.

"This Steri-Fab do you feel that this really does work and knock out any potential problems," asked Baileys.  "It's the best product on the market right now," said Dominicis.

OPC Pest Control in Louisville backs up that claim.  Manager Kevin Mills said Steri-Fab will kill bed bugs when sprayed directly on the bug, but like all products on the market it will not fix the problem.

"It's just very difficult there's not really a product that's 100% guaranteed for bed bugs no matter what you do," said Mills.

Rent-A-Center employee "Jeff" said whether Steri-Fab works or not is irrelevant because he said employees like himself are not trained on how to use it and most stores do not even carry the product.

"So the Steri-Fab never gets used," Baileys asked "Jeff" "100% of the time never gets used," said "Jeff" "There's never time to stop and do it."

"Jeff" also claimed precautions are rarely taken in his stores to prevent the spread of bed bugs even when new products like mattresses come in.

"We put the old ones right up next to the new ones," said "Jeff" talking about loading and moving mattresses.

"Roaches, that's probably a bigger epidemic than bed bugs. As a matter of fact, there's no policy in place for roaches," claimed "Jeff".

Of course these are claims Rent-A-Center officials dispute. Dominicis says all merchandise is inspected when it comes into and leaves a store.

"When a piece of merchandise comes back it gets brushed and vacuumed that has an upholstery attachment and then after that it gets treated with a product called Steri-Fab," said Dominicis.

"The companies that rent or buy mattresses when they come in and pick up the old mattresses and put it in the same truck as used and new that it's possible that bed bugs could carry from one on to the new," said Mills with OPC.

Pest control officials said buying used furniture is not a good idea. Mills said if someone decided to rent furniture, check out the creases, edges and underneath. Turn it over and check it out with a flash light, but remember these little bugs are good at hiding and very difficult to get rid of.

"Over-the-counter type products are effective on bed bugs, the problem with anything over the counter including chemicals is it will kill a bed bug on direct contact, but getting to where the bed bugs hide and wait is the key," said Mills.

By:  Jennifer Baileys - Fox41.com

A Family Vacation, Ruined by Bug Bites

Someone had better turn Cinderella back into a maid, because one family claims Disney World needs some serious cleaning. They say they got bitten by bugs in a room at one of the theme park's resorts.

Offending Party: Disney's All-Star Music Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

What's at Stake: $200 for a two-night stay

The Complaint: Denine Erlemeier and her family woke up after their first night in the budget-priced hotel to find themselves covered with red bites. A little research online suggested the marks may have come from bedbugs, the reddish-brown, blood-sucking insects that often live in mattresses and bedding.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/travel/article/0,31542,1955180,00.html#ixzz0py2AHQA7