Sunday 20 October 2013

Tips for protecting your home from bed bugs

From the seats in a taxi cab or movie theatre to hospital beds, blood-sucking bed bugs are showing up everywhere. And the worst part is they all want to go home with you!
Sue Fries experienced a bed bug nightmare of her own –and she's a professional exterminator!
"What I would like every America Now viewer to know is that the bed bug situation is a huge epidemic. If it could happen to me, I'm telling you, it could happen to anyone," says Fries.
Sue Fries says her problem began when a visitor unwittingly brought them into her home and infested the bed in her guest room.
She explains, "Bed bugs are horrible! They can travel in your suitcase. So it's very important when you stay at a hotel, keep your luggage up off the floor. Don't put your purse on the floor."
Because when those bugs get into personal belongings, they get taken everywhere you go! And once they infest a bed, sofa or chair, they can spread through the house like wildfire.
"Bed bugs are not too small that you cannot see them. So you can see them, you just need to know where to look," Fries exclaims.
They're very small, 3/16th of an inch, they're flattened and they're reddish brownish. They're usually around the encasing or in the seam of a mattress, in the box spring, in the headboard. If you do discover an infestation, Fries says to call in an exterminator and leave, but don't pack a suitcase.
"And the reason is because you can actually carry them out and then when you come back in after a company has done a treatment, you're bringing them back in," she explains.
So remember Sue's advice: when in a hotel, keep your belongings off the floor, at home be sure to inspect your mattresses and furniture regularly, and if you uncover a bed bug infestation, call an exterminator immediately.
By following these tips you truly can sleep tight knowing "the bed bugs won't bite."

Bed bugs nestling in unexpected places

Those blood-sucking insects that love to feast on you and your family when you're asleep are showing up in unexpected places, according to bed bug experts and "prey" alike.
John Montgomery fits both categories.
He had hip replacement surgery and rented a medical device. It was a fabric-covered chair that lifted him up on its own.
Montgomery wondered why his leg and ankle were covered with a trail of red bumps.
An allergic reaction to a painkiller? He wondered.
But no -- a nurse told him it was bed bugs.
The chair had been in his home for 11 days.
"We were like so many other people," Montgomery said. "We didn't know what bed bugs looked like. We didn't know any of their habits. We were under the mistaken notion that, ‘Gee, people like us never get bed bugs.'"
They do, and he did.
Around the same time, a light bulb went off in Montgomery's mind: This could be a business opportunity. He'd heard of bed bug-sniffing dogs and he decided to go down to Florida to adopt one that had been professionally trained. The process involved Montgomery and the dog training together, too.
A business partnership with Hershey the chocolate Labrador was born.
Now stories of the surprising places Montgomery and Hershey have found bed bugs would silence any dinner party:
•  In a diaper bag a hospital had given a new mom
•  At a nursing home, in the boot of an exercise device
•  Call centers, where many employees work close together
LeAnne Montgomery knows of three women who even got bed bugs from the love seat at a funeral home.
Getting rid of bed bugs can be expensive.
Kurt Scherzinger, the assistant general manager at Scherzinger Pest Control, says the most convenient way for homeowners – and the most effective way of killing bed bugs – is through a method that heats up a house to more than 120-degrees.
"Studies have shown if you can achieve temperatures of 122-plus degrees, you can actually kill the egg to adult within seconds," said Scherzinger.
But the price for the service starts at $1,300. And Scherzinger says homeowners' insurance doesn't pay for it.
A viewer named Kevin said that he got bed bugs during a do-it-yourself move when he used a rental truck.
"It's the only place that it could have been, as the place I moved from did not have them and my new home did not have them to start," he said.
He believes the rental truck company did not properly clean the vehicle between uses.
We went to Planes Moving & Storage to see how the professionals deal with bed bugs.
Stephen Sabatalo, the senior vice-president of operations, says it all begins with the first in-person interaction with the customer. Representatives of the company look for bug infestations as they walk through the customer's home. It's done again when the company's employees arrive to begin boxing up all the belongings.
"We've had some situations where there may be some infestations," Sabatalo said. "To quote whether they were bed bugs or not, we don't know."
Planes won't move a customer until the bugs are taken care of --- whatever they are.
So how do you spot them on your own?
Montgomery says bed bugs will often leave a trail of blood on your furniture, along with "black dots that are fecal matter," and possibly even their shell as they molt.
He recommends putting your luggage in the bathtub as soon as you get to your room in a hotel.
That way, you can search for signs of bed bugs before you take out your clothes and end up taking home a blood-thirsty pest.

Bed bugs carry bacteria

 
New information from a study shows some bed bugs can carry drug resistant bacteria - even MRSA.
Five bed bugs were tested and experts say while they carry the superbug bacteria, they are unclear of how bed bugs got the bacteria.
Dr. Scott Mahan, an infectious disease specialist, says there hasn't been any association between the bed bugs transmitting the disease to humans.
Mahan also says while the bacteria is drug resistant, "They are resistant to the drugs we used maybe 10 or 15 years ago. That doesn't mean there aren't drugs that can work against them."
So the bottom line - try and avoid bed bugs if you can.

How to beat bed bugs

It's being called the worst epidemic of parasitic insects since World War II. Millions of Americans are being bitten every night… and removing them from your home can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars! We're talking about bed bugs.
A new national survey shows the bed bug population exploding in all 50 states! Bed bugs are hitchhikers. They hop onto people and go different places. That's how they spread. Their favorite place to hitch a ride? Hotels.
Check into a bed bug-infested room and they're likely to follow you home… in your suitcase or clothes. Many hotels now conduct daily bed bug inspections. But you should do your own room check before unpacking. Pull back the bedspread and sheets… inspect the mattress seams, particularly at the corners. If you find bed bugs, or their telltale stains…change your room or hotel immediately!
Experts also advise:
  • Inspect the entire room, including sofas and chairs, and behind the headboard.
  • Leave your luggage in the bathroom while inspecting the room.
  • Hang your clothes in the closet instead of using the drawers.
  • Vacuum your suitcase before bringing it inside.
And when you get home, put the clothes in your suitcase into a plastic bag before bringing them in the house… and wash them in very hot water.
These tips may sound extreme, but let even a couple of bed bugs in and before you know it, you'll have a major home infestation. Once bed bugs infest your house, the price tag to remove them can run several hundred to a few thousand dollars!
Experts say bed bugs are much more difficult to eradicate than ants, cockroaches or termites. Pest control companies need to deploy every weapon in their arsenal, including chemicals, thermal treatment...even bed bug-sniffing dogs.
While the pest control industry continues to combat the bed bug epidemic, experts say public education is our best defense.
The battle lines are indeed drawn… a new study identifies nine other cities that have joined Cincinnati as the most infested urban areas: New York, Philadelphia, Washington, DC; Columbus, Dayton, Detroit, Chicago, Denver and Los Angeles.
Several other cities have formed bed bug task forces in an effort to stay off the list.

Source : http://www.americanownews.com/story/23660681/bed-bugs

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