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.

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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.

Fortunately for this chicken, we practiced “Catch and Release”, although with this particular catch, we could have also had an Adam’s Pest Control first - ”Catch and Eat”!

Relating this to pests, coverage was widespread about Lyme’s Disease (ticks), and then West Nile Virus (mosquitoes), and now Bed Bugs. Have those other diseases or pests gone away? No. From a business standpoint, we are seeing far more impact by bed bugs, yet they pose far less health threats than do the others. Bed bugs do pose a threat to one’s psyche - who wants something feeding on them when they sleep?

One expert stated a year ago that bed bugs will only get worse before they get better. That was a year ago and I’ve seen this to be true. I won’t scare people where we’ve found bed bugs and bat bugs in Minnesota and Wisconsin, but we keep finding them in new places. As for hotels, which everyone talks about as being a source, at least here we aren’t seeing many - at least in our accounts.

What do you think will be the next media darling - pest related?