Bed bugs are everywhere in the news and consumers are looking for solutions. They’re searching the internet for that magic bullet. Of course the internet is full of answers, but doesn’t distinguish between good and bad choices. The bed bug pandemic is a perfect opportunity for scam artists to take advantage of people who are desperate for help. So keep these tips in mind for when you can’t sleep tight.

• Ordering pesticides off the internet is a bad idea. DON’T DO IT!
• You have no way of knowing what you are really buying.
• Pesticides banned in the US are often still available in other countries.
• Sellers may intentionally misrepresent their products as bed bug solutions, when in fact; they are worthless in controlling bed bugs.
• Some products should not be used indoors or around people or pets.
• At one time, DDT was effective at killing bed bugs, but now DDT is ineffective against many of the current bed bug strains.
• Most insecticides are not effective at killing bed bugs, or they kill bed bugs very slowly.

If you do choose to try an over-the-counter pesticide for bed bugs, or any other insect, please remember…the label is the law and the label matters. The label is there to ensure your health and safety.

• If the product is not labeled for bed bugs or not labeled for the treatment area, do not use it. Doing so puts people and pests at risk.
• Over-application or misapplications are real problems. Follow the label exactly. More is not always better.

There are safe and effective ways to eliminate bed bugs. We encourage you to contact a pest management professional in your area who will outline all the options available to you: heat, steam, freezing, dusts, aerosols, and monitors.

When choosing a pest management professional you should ask the following….

• Are they licensed and insured?
• Have they been in business at least 5 years?
• Are they members of an accredited association such as the National Pest Management Association?
• Do they do background checks on their employees?
• Do they have any guarantees?

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us at ADAM’S Pest Control, Inc. by calling 800-227-2214, emailing us at sales@adamspestcontrol.com, or visit our website at www.adamspestcontrol.com.

Schools are considered sensitive locations where employees and students have no tolerance to pesticides or their residues. Therefore, the trend of adopting the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategy for dealing with unwanted pests at schools is widely experienced throughout North America.
First, let’s make sure to recognize that pesticides are powerful tools for managing pests. But, the careless use of pesticides could create health and environmental concerns. In order to reduce the risk of pesticide drift and exposure, pesticides need to be applied carefully according to label directions and in a way to minimize the risk to non-target organisms and the environment. The integrated pest management (IPM) program is the best long-term solution to reduce the hazards associated with pesticide use. Simply, an IPM strategy is an ecological-based strategy that maximizes the use of non-chemical pest management tactics and reduces the use of chemical options. IPM mainly uses multiple practical methods to remove or reduce all of food, water and shelter sources available to pests. These methods may integrate preventive measures such as sanitation, exclusion and habitat modification followed by (if needed) physical remediation methods such as mechanical removal or destruction of the pest. If above methods alone prove insufficient to solve a pest problem, the IPM program will eventually evolve to meet those challenges by using other pest remediation tactics, including the judicious use of pesticides.
The goal of the IPM in schools is to reduce the students and staff exposures to pesticides, as well as to provide pest free environments. However, in order to achieve this goal, the following IPM school principles need to be carried out:
1. Apply inspection and monitoring practices in a regular bases.
2. Implement non-chemical methods as front-line solutions. These include, but are not limited to, prevention methods (i.e., sanitation, exclusion, pest habitat’s removal/modification) and physical pest management approaches (i.e., vacuuming, heat treatment, moisture removal).
3. Only as a last resort, use selective least toxic pesticides that cause low risks to human health and have no or minimal impact on the indoor and outdoor environments.
4. Provide ongoing education and training programs for staff and students. These seminars should comprise various aspects of IPM, especially on pest sighting procedures, good sanitation hygiene, and exclusion tactics.
5. Establish a well-developed communication system between the school pest management personnel and the pest management professional (PMP).
6. Always provide posting notice before treatment.
7. Establish a well-maintained Record-keeping system that includes inspection reports, pest-sighting logs, pesticide usage reports, etc). This information is important not only to justify budget requests for pest management services, tools and materials, but also to enable the school’s pest management in charge and the PMP to expect conditions that prompt pest problems and thus prevent them from occurring or manage them before they become problems.
More information can be found at the following links
Suggested links
http://www.epa.gov/opp00001/ipm/
http://schoolipm.ifas.ufl.edu/Florida/Links.htm
http://www.ipminstitute.org/school_directory.htm

In order to understand what an allergy is, first, let’s define it. An allergen is anything that can trigger the immune system of people or animals and cause allergic reactions - “the hypersensitive response of the immune system of an allergic individual to a substance.”

Where do allergies come from? Allergens are found everywhere, in sanitation, food, or medical products we use; however, allergens can be found in different sources including:

· Microorganisms (bacteria, viruses, and fungi [mold])

· Animal (cats - fur and dander; cockroach - feces, saliva, egg cases and cast skins; dust mite - feces and chitin; bed bugs; anticoagulant substances; and, wasp, fire ant and bee venoms)

· Chemicals (chlorine)

· Drugs (penicillin, sulfonamides, salicylates and local anesthetics)

· Foods (milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, wheat, soy, fish, and shellfish)

· Plants (poison ivy, poison sumac or poison oak)

· Pollens and smokes

Allergic Reactions

The severity of allergic reactions ranges from mild to life threatening, depending on the type of allergens, individual’s sensitivity, level of exposure, and the route of entry. Type one allergic reactions (immediate-type allergic reactions) are easy to be detected since allergic reactions are occurring within a few minutes to four hours. Whereas, in type two allergic reactions (delayed-type allergic reactions) reaction symptoms are occurring within more than four hours and up to few weeks after contacting the allergens, making them hard to be detected and immediately treated. People react differently to an allergen i.e., bed bugs feed on warm-blooded animals, they secret anticoagulant substances (allergens) while feeding to prevent blood from clotting. These substances provoke allergic reactions such as reddish, irritated, itchy skin marks for moderate sensitive individuals and occasionally blisters and necrotic spots of the skin for severe sensitive people; some people do not react to bed bug bites at all. However, an extreme allergic reaction, called “anaphylaxis”, can kill sensitive people within a few minutes. Annually in the United States, “40-100 people die because of insect stings and over 400 people die from allergic reactions to penicillin.” The frequency and duration of exposure to some allergens trigger the development of allergy-related illnesses; i.e., frequent contact with cockroach allergens (feces, saliva, egg cases and cast skins) trigger asthma symptoms especially among children - “one in five children in the United States is allergic to cockroach allergens.” Route of allergic reactions can be through ingestion (milk, peanuts, soy, etc), inhalation (pollen, perfume or cat dander), direct contact with an allergy-causing plant (poison ivy) or insect stings and bites.

A routine part of PMP jobs involve removing some allergens that can provoke allergic reactions to some people, such as eliminating stinging, and biting insects. However, PMPs may bring some allergens from previous service locations, or use products containing allergens during services (i.e. using peanut butter as rodent bait in a school where allergic kids are present). To avoid cross contamination from one account to another, PMPs should communicate with the pest management person in charge before the service is performed to understand the plant/location allergen policy, use allergy-free approved products, and ensure that there are no sensitive people in the service locations during or post treatment. Cleaning equipment, washing and changing clothing between services, as well as scheduling allergen-containing areas after allergen-free areas, help in managing allergen problems in sensitive accounts.

We’ve looked at others on the trade show floor of Pest World and visited another company, RxHeat in December. We have a Chromalux and a portable natural gas heater too.

To Pest Management Professionals: What heaters do you use to kill bed bugs and how do you like them? They are a significant investment and there are a variety of situations where different heaters may be better than others.

   I like your blog. Check out ours at….

or

   Pest Control is important, as we state at www…

It won’t discourage me from blogging, but I screen the responses and don’t release them unless:

1. They add to the discussion, and
2. They don’t reference their own site (with some exceptions).

I figure it is better for our readers to so the signal to noise ratio remains high.

This has happened, undoubtedly many times across the country. By using heat, we’ve been able to take a Labor & Delivery Room, Emergency Room, Ambulance, and more sensitive medical areas and put them back in service the next day, without using any chemicals.

Of course Medical environments are sensitive environments, and heat must be used not only effectively but cautiously to not damage equipment, the structure, and to be minimally invasive to the others working around you. You must follow hospital protocols for sub-contractors and good safety practices.

If you have an infested ambulance, hospital or medical facility, contact Adam’s today. We are willing to go beyond our normal service area or perhaps can recommend someone in your area we know and trust.

I wonder if they would have recommended these high end electronics be thrown out too? Perhaps that’s why Adam’s were called to use heat.

Many people worry about heat damaging electronics, but at the temperatures we are using, we’ve yet to see it and don’t view it as likely.

In this case, the heat probably saved the expensive electronics!

So in this economy, I’m sure every pest control company has taken on more cancels than they normally would, but how is business overall? We’ve grown every year since 1971, in part, becauses pests don’t watch or read the news. Maybe people shouldn’t pay as close attention to it either - I bet our economy wouldn’t be so bad right now if we didn’t hear every day how bad it was.