Bed Bugs
Overview:
This bug gets its common name from its close association with human sleeping beds where they often seek refuge during daylight, only to come out to feed on the bed’s occupant(s) at night. The bed bug is an ectoparasite of primarily humans but will also attack poultry and other mammals and birds. Bed bugs have been a pest of man since ancient times and were introduced into the United States with the early colonials. It is found throughout the United States and the world.
Facts:
Characterized by piercing-sucking mouthparts.
Man is the preferred host, but will feed on a variety of mammals.
Their only food is the blood of warm-blooded animals.
Have a very distinctive odor.
Identification:
Adults are oval shaped, mahogany colored (reddish-brown after feeding).
Have a flattened body, measuring about 3/16-inch long.
Similar to Bat Bug or Swallow Bug.
Biology:
Simple metamorphosis: egg to nymph to adult.
Nymphs go through 5 molts during a 35 - 48 day nymphal stage.
Females lay 200 - 500 eggs in her lifetime, approximately 2 per day.
Eggs are white in color and slightly curved.
Eggs hatch in 6 to 17 days.
Adults can live for up to 6 - 7 months, providing they have a food source.
Habits:
Normally feed at night.
Once in the home, bed bugs become established in any convenient crack or crevice, particularly along the seams or in the buttons of mattresses, in the coils and frame of the boxspring, wooden bedsteads, bed framing, upholstered furniture, The backing of pictures, behind window and door molding/framing, behind wallpaper, between wooden floorboards, behind switch plates, conduit etc. In heavy infestations they may be found in wall voids, attics or other enclosed places.
They can be introduced into a structure via used furniture, mattresses, bedding etc., or from the belongings of someone who has been living in a bed bug infested situation.
They have also been found in transportation vehicles such as boats, trains, airplanes and busses as well as in movie theaters where they typically harbor in seats and their framing.
They have an obnoxious sweet odor and you may find the presence of small reddish-brown to black fecal deposits on the walls or other areas where they might congregate.
If you have bat bugs, you need to deal with the bats or risk never solving the problem.
Treatment:
A thorough inspection is imperative. The key is finding and treating all hiding places. Because applications are made on beds and furniture, only insecticides labeled for bed bug control should be used. Great care should be taken when treating mattresses, box springs and upholstery to keep pesticide exposure to a minimum. Allow for thorough drying before re-use. Infant’s and infirm person’s bedding and bed frames should not be treated. They should be replaced with uninfested items.
In homes, most bed bug infestations can be controlled with a single application to mattresses, bed frames, baseboards, window/door framing, cracks/crevices, picture frames, edges of rugs, dressers, and any other suspected areas. In apartment buildings and hotels it’s advisable to also inspect units to either side and above and below the infested unit and treat as needed.
In heavy infestations, bed bugs have been found on the ceiling. Pest management professionals have had to fumigate beds, furniture, furnishings, and in some severe cases, the entire structure, to eliminate heavy infestations of bed bugs. Bed bugs were quite common in the 50's and 60's but seemed to disappear until the late 1990's. They were commonly treated with DDT which is no longer available and perhaps one factor why bed bugs have been growing in number in the late 90's. The number of calls to professionals is more than doubling every year and while products, techniques, and chemical alternatives such as heat are improving our results, we predict they will continue to be a growing problem.
Vacuuming and cleaning bedding and draperies, steam cleaning rugs and furnishings, and caulking cracks and crevices can help control bed bugs.
WHEN TREATING THE BED:
Do not treat the bed linens. They should be washed or dry-cleaned. Mattresses and box springs should be treated selectively, not covered with insecticide. You want the insecticide to contact the bed bugs, not the people. Concentrate your efforts on tufts, folds, buttons, and edges where bed bugs could hide.
When possible, treat inside box springs, around the springs and coils. You will be more effective if you can take apart the bed frame and treat inside any hollow framework, cracks, and crevices. Again, the mattress should be thoroughly dried and if possible covered with a mattress cover before use.
Treatment Alternatives:
Steam can be used to kill bed bugs, although you need to be extremely thorough, yet be careful not to get burned, electricuted, and be careful not to damage things with the very high temperatures. While steam can penetrate cracks and crevices up to a few inches, it is inconsistent and will simply not be used everywhere for fear of damaging various surfaces. The problem, like with pesticide treatments, it is hard to get the pesticides to the bed bugs. If 93% of them are on or near the bed or sleeping area, where are the remaining 7%? Behind the picture on the other wall? In the medicine cabinet? In the book binding? Inside the speaker? If you spent hours and were extremely thorough, could you even deliver steam to all those locations? Steam is very hot at one point, and cool to the touch just a couple of inches away. We don't find it practical as a complete solution.
Similarly with heat guns and applications involving freezing temperatures (decompression of CO2).
The most effective treatment for bed bugs is a heat treatment, or thermal remediation. Temperatures are raised to a lethal level and then maintained at that lethal level or higher for a period of time so that the heat can penetrate objects, accomplishing what applications like steam, heat guns, and freezing cannot do as well.
Because these alternative treatments may not always be 100% effective, and because they offer no residual effect if you reintroduce bed bugs, pesticides are often used, to a lesser extent, to supplement these treatments.
Adam's is fortunate enough to have dealt the resurgence of bed bugs starting in 1999. It was a hotel room and was difficult to solve. Not very many products had bed bugs on their label. Not very many products were labeled to be applied where the bed bugs were at. And those that we could apply, weren't effective or were very slow at killing the bed bugs, or did nothing to kill the eggs. It was then we decided to always have a lead bed bug expert which has really helped us over the years learn from others, from our experiences, and quickly improve our techniques and communications regarding these challenging pests.
Bed bugs are not the sort of pest you treat an apartment (or house, or theatre, or hospital, ...) for once and walk away. There is a process, and Adam's has the process down, yet it will continue to evolve as we learn more, experiment more, and as new products and techniques come to the market.
One new technique is Heat Treatments. Adam's lead the multi-housing industry with the first heat treatment for bed bugs in Minnesota (as far as we know) when we treated an apartment in November 2006. This really is the best treatment for bed bugs, in that the results are better, faster, with less preparation for the tenant, and they can keep their furniture. For more information, check out ourHeat Treatments page.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Q: Do bed bugs spread disease?
ADAM'S: Bed bugs are not known to spread disease. They inject a small amount of saliva into the skin while feeding. An allergic reaction to the saliva may cause the area around the bite to become red, swollen and itchy. Do not scratch bites, as this may worsen the irritation and itching and may lead to a secondary infection.
Q: Why are bed bugs resurging?
ADAM'S: Bed bugs are common in many parts of the world. International travel and changes in modern pest control are believed to be responsible for the resurgence. These pests were common in the 1940's and 1950's. Harold Leyse, co-founder of Adam's, remembers a house his parents rented while he was in elementary school in the 1940's had bed bugs and needed to be treated before they moved in. While in the Navy, Harold's brother-in-law had his barracks treated for bed bugs. DDT was commonly used in the 1940's and 1950's for many insects and was quite effective against bed bugs, almost eliminating them within the U.S. Since then, not a lot of research has been done. In the 1970's DDT was banned, and pest control has evolved into less frequent applications of more targeted products, often pest specific, such as cockroach baits. Many products since the 1950's have not been tested on bed bugs and do not list them on the label, and worse yet, they don't allow the treatment sites where bed bugs harbor, like the mattress and box spring. Only since 2000 have researchers and manufacturers been researching, testing, and training on these difficult pests.
Q: I'm a frequent traveler. How can I protect myself from bed bugs when I travel?
ADAM'S: Be aware when you first get to your hotel/motel room. Bed bugs can be in low end places and high end places. They don't know how much you paid for your room. Check the mattress seams. Check around the headboard. Check the luggage rack. Yes, you can see them, or sometimes their blood stains or fecal matter. If you don't see them, chances are you are good. If you wake up with bites, particularly in a line (where they probe multiple times to find a good spot to feed on your body part that is touching the bed), you might be in a room with them. Some frequent travelers pack their return clothes in a large plastic bag they can seal. On the last day, after packing up, they shower and change into their fresh clothes. Upon returning home, they bag their clothes in the garage and bring it straight to the wash. Their suitcase goes in a freezer in the garage for several days to a week and the dirty clothes are immediately washed, where the dryer will typically kill any bed bugs.
Q: I manage a hotel. How do I eliminate bedbugs from a hotel room?
ADAM'S: Hire ADAM'S! The first step is to train your housekeeping staff so they know what to look for. They are in these units every day, changing linens, etc. If they spot the signs, it is a lot easier to address when the problem is small. If a guest complains, take it seriously and get it addressed. There are many ways to eliminate them. We can use pesticide treatment or our preference is to use heat so you can get the unit back in operation more quickly.
Q: I manage an apartment building. How do I eliminate bedbugs from a unit?
ADAM'S: Similar to hotels, you want your property managers, staff, and maintenance staff knowledgeable. Unfortunately you don't get in to your units very often, if at all. Try to perform a cursory inspection when you are in, and consider an annual inspection. Unfortunately many tenants don't report they have pest problems for fear they might get kicked out, or for some, it just isn't a big deal. Try to create a culture where tenants can approach the property management staff without fear. They'll report problems quicker and you can solve them quicker. We can use pesticide treatments or heat treatments which provides better results much more quickly.
Q: How do I eliminate bedbugs from my home?
ADAM'S: Similar to hotels and apartments, we can provide a pesticide treatment or heat treatment for faster results.
Q: Do mattress encasements work?
ADAM'S: Encasements seal the mattress and box springs. It is important to get one that fits the exact size you have, otherwise you'll have lots of creases bed bugs will find useful for harborage. Don't get a regular encasement - they aren't good enough to seal in our seal out bed bugs. Dr. Rick Cooper worked with two manufacturers and ultimately developed the encasement we sell today. Essentially it is an allergy/dust mite encasement that has been improved for bed bugs. For example, the zipper teeth are very small so the first stage nymph cannot get through the zipper teeth. There are fewer folds and seems. And lastly, the zipper has a zipper stop so the end of the zipper doesn't leave an opening. They've also been tested to ensure the bed bugs cannot bite through the encasement. This is far less expensive than replacing an infested mattress or box spring.
Q: Where can I buy a mattress encasements?
ADAM'S: Contact us for an order form, complete with the various sizes all on one page.
Q: What are pesticide treatments like?
ADAM'S: First off, you must prepare your room. Each company may have different preparation instructions, but they are usually non-trivial. Clutter is the enemy, so the more you can prepare and reduce clutter, the better. Treatments vary by company too. We could write a book here, but simply put pesticide selection is important, communication is important, and follow up treatments and/or inspections are important. Because ADAM'S has 30+ technicians and services many apartments and hotels, we've dealt with bed bugs going back to 1999 when they were emerging. We treated literally hundreds of locations last year. Additionally ADAM'S learns and shares best practices with 63 otherAssociated Pest Services member companies, who largely do not compete with each other. This has allowed us to learn and hone our product selection, application techniques, communication, and most importantly our processes.
Q: Does freezing kill bed bugs?
ADAM'S: Yes. A sudden freeze can kill eggs, nymphs, and adult bed bugs, however a slow change in temperature, such as putting a pillow in the freezer, may take days to weeks to kill them. They, like many insects, can acclimate to slow changes. The problem with applying freezing techniques, often with Carbon Dioxide, in a living space is similar to that of steam. Can you get it everywhere it is needed? Does the technician have the skill to perform it properly?
Q: What is Thermal Remediation (sometimes call heat treatment)?
ADAM'S: Thermal Remediation is a service ADAM'S provides where we raise the temperature in a structure to temperatures lethal to the target pest. In this case, bed bugs, but in other cases, it could be flour beetles at a food processing plant. The temperature, and the duration, may vary by pest. While these treatments have been used in food processing for a century, it is still an emerging procedure for bed bugs. The equipment needed is substantial, and being a new application of an old technology, many companies have yet to invest and know very little about this. Since the process is part art, part science, and the fact that the applicator really needs to know the bed bug's biology, habits, and harborage, you really should consider hiring ADAM'S. Without going in to too many details, we not only raise the temperature to a lethal (to insects) level, but we hold it there to penetrate inside furniture, mattresses, etc.
Q: Does heat/thermal remediation kill bed bugs?
ADAM'S: Yes. Some companies use heat guns, like blow dryers, but it has the same problems steam or spot freezing does. It requires the technicians to find all bed bugs, hit them, and perform the service flawlessly. No doubt these companies are killing bed bugs and offering relief, but are they killing 90 bedbugs, leaving 10 bedbugs to reproduce back into 100 bedbugs in a month? Are they building in an ongoing revenue stream for themselves? Ideally, you want elimination, and that's why ADAM'S has invested in Thermal Remediation.
Q: What are the benefits to Thermal Remediation?
ADAM'S: Less prep work. Less pesticides are used, if any are used at all. You don't need to throw out your furniture. Some heavily infested items may need to be thrown out with conventional treatments. The results are fast. The proper temperatures kills bed bugs in minutes. A typical heat treatment is completed within 6-12 hours, and when we leave, you and your tenant will "sleep tight", as the bed bugs won't bite. Compare this to a conventional treatment which requires subsequent treatments and regular follow ups, and in few cases, could require months of follow up.
Q: Will heat damage things?
ADAM'S: Never say never, but so far, we've not seen it damage anything. Of course part of our prep instruction sheet tells you and your tenants what must be removed, such as wax candles, but otherwise we keep temperatures within a lethal, yet not damaging range.
Q: Will heat set off my sprinkler heads?
ADAM'S: This is a question based answered on a case by case basis as their trigger points vary. In most cases, we protect the sprinkler head from the heat.
Q: How do I get a proposal?
ADAM'S: Email sales@adamspestcontrol.com or call us at 800-227-2214. We service Minnesota and Western Wisconsin. We may be willing to travel further if you are willing to pay for our travel and travel time.
Other Bed Bug Resources
Bed Bug Handbook by Rick Cooper
www.BedBugCentral.com
University of Kentucky
