Are You Losing Your Building to Bed Bugs?

Postings all over the internet may have you believe that bed bugs are impossible to get rid of. Getting rid of bed bugs is actually simple. It may take some diligence and dedication, but they can be completely eradicated from your home or your entire building.

I touched on this already in another post, found here, so in this post I wanted to address the standpoint from a landlord’s perspective.

I had a landlord of a small multifamily building in Boston contact me recently. He had been ordering bed bug products from our website for about a month, but he wanted to speak to someone about his experience thus far. This poor guy was about to give up his building because of bed bugs. He saw no other alternative. He was spending so much money on PCOs to exterminate his building, that he had been consistently losing money for over a year and didn’t’ know what else to do. He said the PCOs more or less controlled the population from growing, but didn’t do much to eradicate the problem. His last resort was to save money by treating his building himself. Not only did he find he saved thousands of dollars (a month!), he but he received feedback from his tenants the treatments were working to knock down the bed bugs population. He was so elated from the success of his treatments, that he was compelled to share his success story with us.

I want to point out, that I am not bashing PCOs above. Many PCOs can be very effective in eliminating infestations, but unfortunately some are not. They are usually in areas where bed bugs aren’t quite as common and have little to no experience dealing directly with bed bugs. Also, it is possible that they were treating with an insecticide that this strain of bed bugs had a resistance to. In that case it reflects poorly on the PCO, but its really not their fault except they maybe should have realized this and changed to a different insecticide.

What this landlord did to treat his bed bug infestation was not rocket science. He was diligent and determined to make it work. He also enrolled his tenants to cooperate with his efforts, which can be a big help.

Can Bed Bugs Survive at High Altitudes?

A customer called in recently and asked a question we never came across before. They owned a hotel on the top of a mountain that was at a very high altitude (I forget the actual height now as I am writing this). They had recently received a complaint from a patron saying they had gotten bitten by bed bugs, but were skeptical as to its validity. They wanted to know if bed bugs could live at such high altitudes. Never having thought about this before, I didn't know the answer but was very curious to find out.

I quickly came across the answer. While many insects cannot survive at high altitudes, bed bugs can! I discovered this from two different angles. 1) I found several claims of beds bugs at very high altitudes from people posting in various forums 2) I discovered info on the US Navy treating aircraft cargo holds for bed bugs as well as commercial airliners. The cargo hold on a commercial airliner is not pressurized and is exposed to the drop in air pressure caused from being at high altitudes. Seeing how the cruising altitude of commercial airliners is 30,000 feet, cargo holds are currently being treated for bed bugs, and it is well known that the current bed bug insurgence is due impart to increased travel, one can certainly infer that bed bugs can survive at altitudes of up to 30,000 feet!

A quick related note on bed bugs in cargo holds… There is a way to prevent bed bugs from migrating from someone else’s luggage onto yours and bringing them home with you. It is well known that certain pesticides have a deterrent effect against bed bugs. When applied to your luggage they can be effective in migrating bed bugs choosing someone else’s luggage over yours. We actually sell the only product that I know of on the market that is approved and designed for treating luggage to prevent the pick up of bed bugs while traveling.

Bug Bombs for Bed Bugs Don’t Work!

Sometimes I feel like a broken record on the phone with bed bug infested customers at Tallman Scientific. This comes up so frequently, I decided I would dedicate an entire post to it. In theory, the concept of using a bug bomb for bed bugs makes sense- We often don’t know where bed bugs are hiding, so why not treat everywhere with an insecticide fumigant so they have no place to hide. The problem with this is the fumigant often times will not penetrate into the cracks and crevices where bed bugs prefer to infest. Additionally, bed bugs increased resistance to certain chemicals will result in bed bugs getting a sub lethal dose of the insecticide or buy the bed bugs time to migrate deeper into cracks and crevices or to other rooms to avoid the insecticides.

Besides being infective against bed bugs, fumigants can expose residents to dangerous levels of chemicals and cause bed bugs to spread to additional rooms or units within a building. Whatever you call them- bug bombs, fumigants or aerosol foggers, they are simply in effective against bed bugs. We have countless case study data supporting this from hundreds of customers over the years. Some customers treated their bed bug infestation themselves with bug bombs and others had an exterminator treat with them. And we usually always receive the same feedback- It appeared the treatment worked for anywhere from a few days to a week, and then the bed bugs started biting again. What happens is the bed bugs either get stunned by the sub lethal dose of fumigant and it takes them some time to return to normal feeding habits, or the fumigant drove the bed bugs away from their feed source so it took some time for them to migrate back.

And if case study data isn’t enough for you to believe they are infective, there are plenty of other sources indicating this as well.

Here’s something from the Department of Defense for the armed forces Pest Management Board: “Insecticides currently labeled for ULV, aerosols and foggers have little or no residual effects on bed bugs. Most will seldom penetrate cryptic bed bug harborages.” It goes on to say “bed bugs are seldom killed, even by prolonged or repeated exposure to such products.”

And here is a resource for the use of foggers being ineffective for home insect treatment in general

Bed Bug Spray Treatment

We get many customers who order our Bed Bug Contact Killer through our do-it-yourself bed bug treatment website and purchase just 1 bottle of our Bed Bug Contact Killer. I have seen a pattern over the years of seeing the same customer coming back several times and repurchasing the same exact order they first placed, or gradually ordering more and more products each time.

From having the opportunity to eventually speak to many of these customers, I have discovered that they usually they aren’t treating effectively enough to completely eradicate all the bed bugs, but they notice their efforts at least “control” the bed bug infestation, so they keep treating as they have in the past. Essentially they have thrown in the towel and just decided to live with the bed bugs the best they can. I am so happy when I get to speak to these customers to be able to explain what I will explain below:

In order to completely eradicate bed bugs, you must take an integrative pest management (IPM) approach to treating them! 95% of the time treating with simply one treatment method will not completely eradicate your infestation. The error these customers were making is they were only treating the bed bugs infestation from one or two angles, and not taking an integrative approach. They were effectively knocking down a bed bug population as the population replaced itself with offspring. This effort keeps the population at a manageable equilibrium of sorts, but never completely eradicates it. The crucial step that I see missing in countless cases is stopping the bed bugs from replicating. If you can stop them from feeding, then they cannot molt to the next stage of their life cycle, and they cannot produce offspring. It’s much more effective to eradicate a static or dwindling bed bug population than it is to eradicate a growing one. I will touch more on this in a future post, but for now can see our integrative pest management approach bed bug treatment guide here.

Bed Bug Bites Reaction

I spoke to a grandmother a couple months back that had her toddler grandson sleep over at her home and wake up with close to 100 bed bug bites. You can imagine the shock she and her husband must have been in. Neither of them experienced any bites and were perplexed as to how so many bed bugs appeared to arrive in their home all at once and attack their grandson. After walking her through a basic bed bug inspection process, they were in disgust to uncover a massive infestation in their bedroom. They still didn’t understand why they were there and how come they weren’t getting bitten by the little buggers. The women fell silent on the other end of the phone when I explained that the bed bugs were feeding on her and her husband, and probably were for quite some time. This was backed up by the presence of fully engorged bugs as well as streaks on the headboard side of the mattress.

This leads me to the point of this entry- bed bugs do not always induce a reaction in the host. You can be getting eaten alive, and not even know it! From personally speaking with hundreds (if not thousands) of customers over the years here at Tallman Scientific Bed Bug Control, we have our own statistic we have developed about bed bug bite reactions:

Between 5% – 10% of people do not have noticeable reactions to bed bug bites

This is a very useful statistic if you yourself are suspecting an infestation, but don’t have any bites while someone else in your home does. In situations like this, people will often think the bites are some sort of rash or allergic reaction not related to bed bug bites because if it were bed bugs it would logically make sense that all exposed to the bed bugs will receive visible bites.

Bed Bug Insider Blog Explained…

It’s time I entered the blogoshere to share thought provoking, new and little known information about bed bugs and bed bug treatment that I learn on the job every day. Who am I? I am partner and senior customer support rep at the largest internet retailer of bed bug treatment products, Tallman Scientific Bed Bug Control. I speak with hundreds of customers a week from Pest Control Operators (PCOs) to grandmothers and learn something from every one of them. I’ve been putting off starting this blog for years now, so it’s time I finally share that knowledge with you.

My goal is not to make this blog about the age old question “How do I get rid of bed bugs”. That’s quite simple really and has been answered all over internet in detail, including on our webpage. My intention rather is to actually inform you on what you aren’t being informed on now - debunk bed bug myths, share new technologies, new treatment methodologies, interesting and unknown bed bug facts, and share as much observational data as I can. The blog will be helpful and informative for bed bug newbies and pros alike. Thanks for reading and please share your comments.