Georgia Bed Bug Blog

2011-12-21T07:22:00.001-08:00

Headline news

Bed Bug General Presents First Honorable Service Awards

12/14/2011

The brainchild of Mattress Safe's and Bed Bug General' s Andrea Hancock, the awards recognize individuals who donated bed bug products and services to an Atlanta area shelter.

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PERRY, Ga. – During ceremonies between presentations conducted at the Annual Conference held at the Georgia National Fair Grounds the first Bed Bug General Honorable Service Awards were presented to volunteers. The Honorable Service Awards were the brainchild of Andrea Hancock, vice president of Mattress Safe and founder of Bed Bug General. “At Bed Bug General we’re looking to give back to the community and were pleased to present these awards to those who generously volunteered their time to work at the shelter,” Hancock said. The Honorable Service Awards were presented by Paul Bello, who also serves as technical advisor for Bed Bug General.

In July 2011 Garey Clark, president of Clark’s Pest Remedy in McDonough, Ga., received a call about a bed bug infestation at a not-for-profit shelter located in Atlanta. He scheduled his inspection for the next day but was unsure what he might find there. “I knew it might be a tough situation but it was worse than I thought it would be,” said Clark. “I’m doing a lot of bed bug work these days but this location needed more help and required more work than we originally thought.”

For additional assistance Clark contacted Bello, a pest management consultant who resides in the Metro Atlanta area. A meeting was scheduled and the two soon met with shelter administration and a situation assessment and action plan was developed. “The shelter needed a lot of help and being a not for profit entity with limited resources, financial constraints were a significant hurdle that needed to be overcome,” said Bello.

During the on-site visit the two inspected the resident rooms along with the building maintenance manager. Various treatment options were considered but all were subject to financial constraints. While there were a number of viable treatment options available, it was apparent that none of these could be done economically enough to meet the needs and budget of the facility. This is when the two agreed that it was necessary to donate the needed work to help the shelter become bed bug free.

“It is fortunate that we operate in such a generous industry where many are willing to step up and provide much needed assistance”, Bello said. An e-mail was sent to various industry suppliers for help with bed bug products and equipment as well as to the local Georgia professional associations. Lara Fink of the Certified Pest Control Operators of Georgia and Valera Jesse of the Georgia Pest Management Association forwarded the call for help via e-mail to their respective members and local PMPs of Georgia answered the call. “In less than 24r hours we had at least nine volunteers contact us to donate their time to help with the necessary bed bug control work. None of this would have been possible without Paul’s help. And, the Georgia Department of Agriculture sent a representative to assist as wel,l” said Clark.

In addition to the volunteers industry suppliers Actisol, AMVAC, Atrix, Bayer, Catchmaster, Mattress Safe, MGK and Oldham Chemical & Equipment provided products and equipment for use at the site. Products provided by suppliers included Atrix vacuums, BDS bed bug monitors, Temprid SC, Bedlam, Onslaught, Tempo Dust, Drione Dust, Prelude, Nuvan Prostrip, portable steamer, mattress encasements and application equipment. In addition to this Rollins Supply also sent a shipment of Mattress Safe bed bug proof box spring and mattress encasements.

After an organizational meeting to discuss the control plan the volunteer team worked for two days to eliminate bed bugs from the facility. While it was important to rid the facility of bed bugs, one of the goals was to help the facility to become self-sufficient such that they would be able to handle subsequent bed bug issues going forward. “With the state of the economy and the financial constraints that affect the location it was clear that they would not be able to hire professional pest management services to keep them bed bug free. Amongst our goals during this effort was to supply them and teach their staff how to successfully handle bed bugs on their own. In addition to this, my intention is to provide them continuing support so that this situation doesn’t happen to them in the future,” said Bello.

The program protocol implemented at the location included comprehensive education and various treatment methodologies. All the worst level infested rooms were heat treated by Clark Pest Remedy who donated the use of their Temp-Air heat system along with four employees. Clark committed the heat treatment resources of his entire company for this project. In addition to this, other treatment methods included vacuuming, steaming and application work. All rooms were also treated with liquid residual insecticides including Temprid SC, Onslaught and Prelude. Utility penetrations were treated with Tempo Dust and Drione Dust. Furnishings were inspected and treated using Bedlam and other suitable products.

“One of the challenges of this situation was training otherwise inexperienced people to become efficacious pest management technicians. Thankfully, the staff of the facility and the maintenance manager was eager to take on this work. He picked up the training well and did a great job for us,” said Bello. With a team of nine technicians a great deal of work was completed in just two days’ time. “It was a lot of work but we had a lot of great people to do it thanks to the folks at CPCO and GPMA. From prep work to application work to training the facility staff one on one, each person handled a specific task which helped to make us time efficient.”

After the work completed the and regularly scheduled follow up inspection and monitoring the facility remains bed bug free to date. “We went from a location where we observed sleeping residents being bitten by multiple bed bugs during our noontime inspection to a place where none are being seen at all”, said Clark.

Volunteers inclulded: John Bevich of Bugs Burger, Ron Green of Cleggs Termite & Pest Control, Garey Clark, Matt Clark & Mark Gibson of Clark Pest Remedy, Fred Ascarra of Fred’s Pest Control, Marquire Conner of Trinity Pest Management and Willie Anderson of NOW Pest Management.

Allied member contributors included AMVAC, which provided Prelude insecticide and Nuvan Prostrips; Atrix International which provided vacuums; Bayer, which provided Temprid SC, Drione Dust and Tempo Dust; Catchmaster, which provided BDS monitors; Mattress Safe, which provided encasements; MGK, which provided Onslaught and Bedlam; Oldham Cehmical & Equipment, which provided an S-4000 steamer and a compressed air sprayer; and Actisol, which provided a ULV unit.

2011-11-14T16:23:00.001-08:00

Why is Bed Bugs Heat Treatment So Much Better than Using Chemicals?

Historically, bed bug treatments have primarily used chemicals to reduce and control the pest. Recently, pesticides have shown to be ineffective in managing infestations with single bed bug treatments. An informal survey of pest control operators conducted by an entomologist at the University of Massachusetts found that 68% of all bedbug infestations require three or more treatments, 26% require two treatments, and 6% require just one.

Another concern with pesticide use is the development of resistance to the pesticides used in the treatment of bed bugs. The Integrated Pest Management Association found that by 1956, DDT resistance was so widespread that the control method had to be changed to Malathion. Results from current research conducted by the University of Kentucky show that bed bug resistance to insecticidal products that have pyrethroids as an active ingredient has become significant. The excessive use of pesticide solutions may result in the bed bug developing greater resistance to current methodologies. Oftentimes this leads to overcompensating by increasing amounts of chemicals. This can be a dangerous practice. Clark's Heat Treatment is a simpler control methodology which alters a bed bug’s natural environment, making it lethal to the bedbug.

Pesticides can also pose a threat to the environment. DDT was an effective chemical in significantly treating bed bug occurrences in the United States before it was banned in 1972 because of the reproductive effects to birds from chronic exposure to DDT. Bird exposure to this insecticide mainly occurs through the consumption of aquatic and/or terrestrial species that have been exposed to DDT (WHO 1989). Like other chemicals, DDT was able to work its way through the ecosystem and cause adverse health and reproductive effects to many animals in the food chain.

Finally, some people may be sensitive to chemicals as a result of neurological or other medical disorders. These people may not have the option to use chemical solutions as part of their control method. Clark's Heat Treatment is a non-chemical process and therefore is the practical solution for people with chemical sensitivities and is ideal for treating health care facilities, hospitals, and schools where chemicals are not an option.

New Handler!

2011-10-16T11:51:00.000-07:00

Ben the Bed Bug Dog has a permanent handler! Ben or Bennie as we call him around the office has a new love. Tamara Coulter was a detection dog handler in the military and she and her family just moved down here to Georgia from Kansas. She has had Ben for 1 week and he is doing great! He is working very steady and is doing a great job !

They are getting worse every day!

2011-10-16T11:47:00.000-07:00

Bed Bugs are spreading rapidly in Georgia! We are seeing an increase in calls. Most consumers do their homework and find out information about them. In doing so they see the need for Thermal Remediation Treatments. Much More thorough and final for the infestations. Have you ever seen a heat treatment?

2011-10-08T16:33:00.000-07:00

Dreamhost coupon

Go to www.www.bedbugsclark.com for information and pics about exterminating these pests.

2011-10-05T07:28:00.000-07:00

How To Keep From Bringing Bed Bugs Home!

I get asked all the time. Don't you worry about bringing bed bugs home with you? The answer is YES.
My wife is actually more concerned than I am. I try to make sure when I am doing a treatment that I don't sprawl out over the bed or rub up against the infested area until we have the heat up to temp. 122 degrees.
We take that bottom screen off of the box springs and instead of ripping it off we cut it with a razor knife to keep from flinging the bed bug eggs and nymphs on us. But it could still happen. (Don't tell my wife)

When I get home from doing a treatment I strip down in the garage and take my clothes straight to the dryer and dry them for about 20 minutes.. This will kill all stages of bed bugs. (As long as your dryer has a good heat element). Below is a picture of all stages of bed bugs. The eggs and nymphs are so very tiny. The adults are about the size of a tick.

Consumers and Bed Bugs

2011-10-03T07:09:00.000-07:00

As we go along the bed bug road I have seen that most consumers really don't know very much about bed bugs. There is a lot of information online about them but some consumers don't seem to do their homework. They should know one thing for sure. In most cases it is not their fault they are infested. They also seem to think that they are related to unsanitary or unclean situations. This is not true. They are little hitch-hikers that have an amazing ability to spread. When you travel there is a good chance of picking them up in hotel rooms or condos. There are hotel managers that do a pretty good job of being proactive about them however there are some that do very little to cure their problem. I went to one hotel that told me he had several infested rooms. He showed me 2 of them and at 2 oclock in the afternoon live adult bed bugs were crawling up and down the walls. He had about 15 rooms out of 70 that were infested. When given the price for treatment I thought he was going to have a stroke. He said he would just shut those rooms down because he didn't need them right now anyway. He doesn't understand that by blocking those rooms off he is just going to spread the infestation. If he understood how bed bugs work he wouldn't do that. Or maybe he just doesn't care. He will end up treating 50 rooms and of course that will be a lot more money to pay out. To be honest I feel sorry for the hotel industry in a way because they can do little to prevent someone bringing them in. With litigation going around they absolutely must be proactive to eliminate legal headaches. What have you found out there? Are you finding the hotels managers to be hiding their head in the sand?

Treat Before You Heat! New information about bed bug treatments.

2011-10-01T12:41:00.000-07:00

F or pest management professionals battling bed bug infestations, there’s a new protocol in
town. University of Florida researchers havefound applying insecticides before heat treating increases
bed bug mortality. While conventional wisdom says apply insecticidesafter heat treatment because high temperatures will degrade products, a three-month research project sponsored by Bayer found that heat treatments actually enhance insecticidal activity and make pesticides more
readily accessible to bed bugs.
Here’s what the researchers learned:
In most cases, insecticides “worked better after heattreatment than before,” said University of Florida Entomologist Dr. Phil Koehler, who led the study. This was “counterintuitive”
as he thought products would break down “rather than become more active” when exposed to extreme heat.
In the study, Koehler and University of Florida Associate Research Scientist Roberto Pereira treated wood panels with one of four liquid and four dust insecticides, and then heated he panels for eight hours
tat 140°F. The heated panels were then returned to room temperature and bed bugs were placed
on them for a two-hour period. The pests were transferred to a container and their mortality
was monitored at various intervals. The process was repeated four times for each panel.
Koehler said the heat likely drew the liquid insecticide out of the porous surface
of the unpainted wood, making it more accessible to the insects. Although the liquid dried
when exposed to heat, it left behind a chemical residue sufficient to kill the bed bugs.
Heating “activated the chemical and we got better mortality afterheating,
so there’s a benefit to putting it out before you heat treat as opposed to afterward,” Koehler said.
All liquid and dust productstested in the University of Florida study performed well in terms of
efficacy. Pesticides don’t degrade significantly until temperatures top
300°C/572°F, which is a far cry from the 140°F reached during a typical
bed bug heat treatment. Heat treatment doesn’t change the active
ingredients’ crystalline structure, nor does it affect product volatility,
said Bayer Field Development Representative John Paige. “It results in better bioavailability,” he said.
Treating first also helps prevent new infestations or re-infestation of the account.
As bed bugs move into cooler cracks and crevices to escape rising temperatures,
they come in contact with insecticide applied in those areas, thereby enhancing
control. This helps stop the bed bugs, which are nearly as mobile as cockroaches,
from moving through walls and infesting surrounding apartments or hotel rooms, a
common problem in the industry, according to Koehler.
“Bed bugs, from the standpoint of trying to survive, will move away from hot
spaces and try to get to cool spaces,” heaid. “What you can do is kill them on
their way out of a room and prevent them from spreading to the next unit” by ensuring
they encounter insecticide residues in wall voids, cracks and crevices, etc., when
attempting to find relief from the rising temperatures.
Bayer sponsored the study to address PMPs’ concerns about heat treatment driving
bed bugs into new spaces and to determine whether high temperatures would
destroy pre-heat insecticide applications. “We had to answer that (question) with research,”
Paige said. The University of Florida study showed that in most cases, insecticides “worked
better after heat treatment than before,”Koehler observed. “I think it’s going to
change the way the pest control industry does heat treatments. It’s quite definitive
what people should be doing

Welcome to the Georgia bed Bug Blog

2011-10-01T12:28:00.001-07:00

This is the first post. I will be adding posts as I can.