Bed Bug Central TV

Bed Bug Prevention

admin — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:27:53 +0000

In this episode, Jeff will discuss what bed bug prevention truly means and steps you can take to hopefully prevent bed bugs from infesting your home and items you can consider purchasing that will help in their early detection and quick elimination. Bed bug prevention is a very interesting topic because there really is no true form of bed bug prevention. There isn’t one thing you can do to prevent bed bugs from infesting your home. “Preventing” bed bugs starts with educating yourself about what bed bugs look like, how to avoid bringing them into your home and the signs and symptoms of bed bugs so you can detect their presence in your home as early as possible. Also, you can consider purchasing such items as Protect-A-Bed encasements Climbup Insect Interceptors and the Packtite portable heating unit which could help you detect bed bugs presence as early as possible as well as assist in preventing bed bugs from entering your home and infesting your bed.

Related Links:

Bed Bug Central’s Bed Bugs 101

University of Kentucky’s Bed Bug Page

Protect-A-Bed Encasements

Bed Bug Central’s Travel Products

Bed Bug Central’s Home Products

BBCTV #30 – Using Solar Heat to Kill Bed Bugs

admin — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:47:12 +0000

In this episode, Jeff will explain how some people have tried to use the sun’s energy to heat treat items by placing them in the hot sun in the yard or car and his position on this technique. Although, if done properly, this technique can be effective, Bed Bug Central does not recommend this technique since the chance for it to fail and possibly infest your car exists. The temperatures in a car or in the direct sunlight during the summer months can be in excess of 160 degrees which is well over the lethal temperature to kill bed bugs and their eggs. The issue with this technique is that there are sometimes ways for the bugs to escape the bags they are contained in and then your car can become infested. Also, if you place items in the yard in the direct sunlight, where the bags of items touch the ground can be a cold spot and provide an area for bed bugs to avoid the lethal temperatures. In conclusion, although this technique can work it is not recommended by Bed Bug Central due to the concerns with failure and possibly infesting your automobiles.

BBCTV #29 – Bed Bug Heat Treatment Demo

admin — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:53:56 +0000

In this episode, Jeff will perform an actual heat treatment for bed bugs and explain the basics of how the Temp-Air mobile heating system works. In recent months, using heat to control bed bugs has become an interest for both the pest control industry and bed bug sufferers. Heat presents the opportunity to eliminate a bed bug infestation in just one treatment and at a minimum, drastically reduce the number of bed bugs present in a home. With this increased interest, Bed Bug Central has been evaluating the effectiveness of using this heating system to control bed bugs. This episode demonstrates the use of the Temp-Air mobile heating system and some of the concepts and techniques of heat treating a home.

BBCTV #28 – Bed Bugs in Cars

admin — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:28:25 +0000

In this episode, Jeff will explain how, although uncommon, bed bugs can infest your automobile and what to do if you suspect your automobile may have an issue. If you think your car is infested, you can first complete and inspection of the car but due to the large number of cracks and voids in a car, it may not yield any reliable results. Due to the complex nature of automobiles, the only true solution to the problem is to get your automobile fumigated by a licensed fumigation company. If this is done properly, is will be 100% effective on all stages of bed bugs.

BBCTV #27 – Traveling Bed Bug Free

admin — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 18:19:39 +0000

In this episode, Jeff will explain the appropriate steps to take to try to travel bed bug free. Regardless of what is explained in this episode, if you visit www.bedbugcentral.com you can download the Travel Lite or Travel Guide which are documents that explain how to travel bed bug free in greater detail. Everybody’s level of concern in regards to bed bugs is different when they travel. Depending on that level of concern will depend on the extent with which you inspect the room you are staying in. Beyond that, the basic steps that you should complete are on the trip home and when you arrive home. You should bag your suitcases when you are driving back to your home to try to avoid infesting your automobile. When arriving home you should unpack your suitcases outside of the home and separate your belongings into piles to be laundered which should be emptied directly into the washing machine. After that, you should address the non-launderables and suitcases with either Hot Shot No-pest strips or a Packtite portable heating unit. If these basic steps are taken it should minimize the chance that after traveling you infest your home with bed bugs.

Related Links:

Bed Bug Central

Protect-A-Bed

Episode 21: Packtite Portable Heating Unit

Episode 20: Climbup Insect Interceptor

Episode 5: Product Review: Hot Shot No Pest Strips

Episode 3: Mattress and Box Spring Encasements

BBCTV #26 – Bed Bugs in the Workplace

admin — Mon, 18 May 2009 14:43:43 +0000

In this episode, Jeff will explain how bed bugs are typically introduced into the workplace, how to inspect the area around your desk and some things office managers can consider when thinking about ongoing bed bug monitoring programs. Unfortunately, bed bugs in the workplace are becoming more and more common. What typically happens is that someone has a problem at home and accidentally transports a bed bug into the office on a bag or article of clothing and the bug proceeds to walk off of the item. Typically, when the area is inspected, additional bed bugs cannot be found which leads most experts to believe that the bugs that were found were just rogue bugs that were introduced into the office and have not established as a reproducing population. Although, a reproducing infestation is not commonly found, it can happen and is something to be aware of. This episode will explain how you can inspect your work area and suggestions managers can consider in regards to ongoing bed bug monitoring. Please be aware that if you are an employee in an office setting, outside of inspecting your individual area, you should always contact management if you have any concerns of bed bugs in the office and you should not set any bed bug monitors without first consulting management.

BBCTV #25 – Flea and Tick Prevention

admin — Mon, 04 May 2009 21:18:15 +0000

In this episode, Jeff will explain how pet flea and tick prevention products work and their effect on bed bugs. There are many different products on the market that can be applied to your pet to help with flea and tick prevention. There have been many questions raised as to how effective these products are against bed bugs and unfortunately there is not any information available about the effectiveness of these products on bed bugs. As any information becomes available, he will provide that information as soon as he can.

BBCTV #24 – CDC3000 Bed Bug Monitor

admin — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:12:31 +0000

In this episode, Jeff will show you the CDC 3000 active bed bug monitor, explain how it works and where he thinks it fits into a bed bug management program. The CDC 3000 is an active bed bug monitor that uses heat, carbon dioxide and a chemical lure to attract bed bugs to it. You can take this unit and place it in a home that bed bugs are suspected to be in and theoretically bed bugs should be attracted to it. We have placed the monitor in units where a large population of bed bugs existed and did in fact collect bugs. At this point there is still a lot of information that needs to be researched in regards to what the capabilities of the monitor are. Some of those questions are: Does the monitor out compete a human host? How close to an area that you want to monitor do you need to place the trap? If the monitor doesn’t collect bugs what does that tell you about the presence of bugs? Either way, we do think that the monitor is a great design and does hold value in monitoring for bed bug populations but to what extent is yet unknown. If an when you purchase a CDC 3000, please remember to follow all manufacturer directions on how to properly set and use the monitor. Also, if you have any concern about the unit being infested with bed bugs, it is highly recommended that you treat the monitor in a Packtite portable heating unit for the maximum length of time that the portable heating unit runs.

BBCTV #23 – bed bug FREE

admin — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 14:21:30 +0000

In this episode, Jeff will discuss a new concept on Bed Bug Central called bedbugFREE. BedbugFREE is a network of pest control companies throughout the United States that share the same philosophies and approaches to bed bug management as Bed Bug Central. Some examples of approaches that Bed Bug Central uses that the companies that are approved also must use are: high quality encasements, a multi-disciplinary approach (using steamers, Cryonite, etc…), a well designed follow-up program, and many others. If a pest control company applies to become bedbugFREE, their application is reviewed by the team here at Bed Bug Central and if their approaches are similar to ours, they become bedbugFREE approved and if you proceed to www.bedbugcentral.com and under the bedbugFREE icon search the state you are inquiring about and you will see a list of bedbugFREE approved companies in your state. Please be aware that if a company is not bedbugFREE approved and does not appear on our website, it does not mean that they are a poor pest control company. BedbugFREE is a list of companies that decided that they wanted to become approved and approach bed bugs similar to the way that we do and went through our application process.
In this episode, Jeff will discuss a new concept on Bed Bug Central called bedbugFREE. BedbugFREE is a network of pest control companies throughout the United States that share the same philosophies and approaches to bed bug management as Bed Bug Central. Some examples of approaches that Bed Bug Central uses that the companies that are approved also must use are: high quality encasements, a multi-disciplinary approach (using steamers, Cryonite, etc…), a well designed follow-up program, and many others. If a pest control company applies to become bedbugFREE, their application is reviewed by the team here at Bed Bug Central and if their approaches are similar to ours, they become bedbugFREE approved and if you proceed to www.bedbugcentral.com

BBCTV #22 – Nuvan Prostrips

admin — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 00:18:46 +0000

In this episode, Jeff will discuss Nuvan Prostrips and Nuvan Prostrips+ which has recently released a new version of it’s directions for use (label) that now lists bed bugs as one of the target pests. These strips are very similar to that of Hot Shot No-Pest Strips in that they use the same active ingredient, dichlorvos or DDVP, in the same percentage and are to be used in similar settings. If you have a bag of belongings that you cannot treat with pesticides and cannot launder, if the items in that bag are listed on the label as able to be treated by this pesticide, you could place a strip in that bag treat the belongings for bed bugs. One positive aspect of Nuvan Prostrips is that the new label lists bed bugs as one of the target pests that the pesticide can be used to treat for. Therefore, in states and countries that require bed bugs to be on the label before you can use it to treat, Nuvan Prostrips can be used. One downside to Nuvan Prostrips is that they are label for use by pest control professionals only which means they are a restricted use pesticide and you can only use them if you have a pesticide applicators license. If you live in an area that require the pest to be listed on the label in order to treat for bed bugs, this product offers you another option that you can request a pest control company to come to you residence and use to treat for bed bugs.