I was reading Peter Grasso’s blog today about the EPA Bedbug Summit. Not quite like being there, but probably close enough. Given the format where people only get 10 minutes to comment, it sounds like there was a lot of redundancy. “We need more research. The public needs more education.” I, along with others, have spoken to hundreds in the multi-housing industry all over the state, so we are making the effort, yet then tonight, I read this article in the Star Tribune:

“They’re Back! At bedbug conference, EPA seeks ways to stop biggest outbreak since WWII”

The article was fine, but reading the comments by the public really shows how education is needed. For example, someone suggest we bring back DDT. Not so fast… Bedbugs kept in private for the past 40+ years are easily killed by our modern insecticides, but many of the ones we encounter in the field are not so easily killed. These same field bedbugs aren’t so easily killed by DDT either - not that I’ve tested, but scientists report. So DDT is not the answer.

Someone else suggests opening the windows in our MN winter and freezing them out, after taking precautions like putting RV antifreeze in the toilets and traps and then check into a hotel for a couple of nights. I’d like to see them try it watch their pipes freeze because they wouldn’t be protected by this plan. Even if you didn’t damage your house, bedbugs are more likely to survive than I think most people think. It’d be an interesting test, but MN and WI have tons of pests that survive our cold winters outdoors for the whole winter. I doubt 2 or 3 days in a house with the windows open would kill them all, eggs through adults.

They do not tolerate heat very well though. If you can heat them to 120 degrees for a set period of time, they’ll die. The trick is to get the house to 120, and in Minnesota, you can’t just open the windows! Fortunately for Adam’s and our customers, we offer heat treatments.

Another person commented on how the market will address this and the government is not needed. I can agree with this in principal, but remember, the government controls how pesticides are labeled, how fast new products come to market, etc. They also provide budgets for a lot of public housing, and government assisted housing, right or wrong, and they need education too.

Given this, and the fact we’ve seen apartment buildings with 26 of 28 units infested, and 36 of 39 units infested, it is clear more and more people need to come up to speed. Oh, and for those that think this is a manfactured concern… I understand that sentiment. I’m skeptical too, but the problem is not small and growing. The bed bug problem in the Twin Cities is significant and growing exponentially, and only with more knowledge in the community, early detection, early reporting to property managers, use of professionals (self serving I know, but these aren’t simple pests), and better techniques, products, etc., will we stop the growth trend, and hopefully be able to reverse it.

Many people may not think of the pest control industry as green, but it has been getting greener and greener for many years, and the best way to make an industry green is to educate that industry and for customers to request green. So are heat treatments green?

Yes and No - let’s examine it.

In a home, it used to be Flea Treatments were one of the most intrusive treatments, often using three different materials (2 insecticids and one insect growth regulator) to solve the problem. Often times (depending on products chosen), the homeowner would need to leave for a few hours. People, rightly so, asked lots of questions. They wanted the fleas gone, but we needed to treat many more surfaces than for example, spiders or ants. Yet interstingly enough they didn’t have a problem feeding their pet an oral flea treatment that has one of the same active ingredients we use at 100 times the dosage without questioning it.

I say this because treatments for bed bugs are similar, to an extent, as that for fleas, yet now we often have to treat the mattress and/or boxspring, which historically was not a site we could treat (for most products).

So given the intensive nature of bed bug treatments, and how one treatment usually doesn’t do it, if one could use heat and lessen or eliminate the need for pesticides, wouldn’t that be considered green? This is the yes part.

The no part could be that to generate the heat we need, we are using a lot of energy, in the form of electricity, perhaps from diesel fuel or perhaps propane.

Since ADAM’S offers heat treatments for bed bugs, are we being green?

I’m not 100% positive, and would like feedback, but I do know this - we offer heat treatments in part to lessen the pesticides needed, but more so to solve the problem quickly - within hours - which pesticides don’t do, offering our customers the fastest relief available.