"Sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite."

S

Sophia

Guest
6

Doggett says that 74 percent of all bedbug interceptions ever reported
by the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service
have occurred since 1999.

The bugs were found mainly in personal baggage arriving from Asian or Pacific countries.


<a href='http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/05/0513_040513_bedbugs.html' target='_blank'>http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/20...13_bedbugs.html</a




Bloodthirsty Bedbugs Stage Comeback in U.S., Europe

James Owen
for National Geographic News
May 13, 2004


"Sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite."
r
Thi
old saying may be becoming newly relevant.

Bedbugs, which feast on human blood at night, are biting back in developed countries around the world.

The current invasion of North America, Australia, and Western Europe is highlighted in a new study published by the Institute of Biology, London.


But it's still unclear why the parasites are returning to cities where they were exterminated some 50 years ago.


Read the full story >>



"The trend is very worrying," said the report's author, Clive Boase. Boase runs the Pest Management Consultancy in Haverhill, England. "Since the mid-1990s, numbers of reported infestations have almost doubled annually."

In parts of London bedbug infestations have risen tenfold since 1
996, Boase says. In the U.S. the National Pest Management Association reports a 500 percent increase in bedbug numbers in the last few years.

Similarly, in Australia, there were as much as 70
0 p
ercent more
calls to pest-control companies in the four-year period ending in 2004, compared with the previous four-year period, according to the Institute of Clinical Pathology and Medical Research (ICPMR) in New South Wales.

The bug's dramatic comeback is perplexing, Boase says. The rebound comes even as other creepy crawlies, such as cockroaches and ants, ar
e in retreat from people's homes. Boase says possible factors fueling bedbugs' global spread include growth in international travel, increased resistance to certain insecticides, and the introduction of new pest-control methods that leave bedbugs unharmed. Yet, he says, the precise cause or causes of the problem are yet to be determined.

In the 1930s the U.K. Ministry of Health stated, "In many areas all the houses are
to a greater or lesser degree infested with bedbugs." But infestations quickly receded once synthetic pesticides such as DDT were introduced following World War II. By the 1980s bedbugs
were a
lmost nonexistent i
n Britain, the U.S., and many other developed countries.

No bigger than an apple seed, the bedbug is descended from plant-feeding insects that evolved skin-piercing mouthparts for sucking up blood. They are thought to have first gotten a taste for human blood when cave-dwelling humans lived beneath bug-infested bat roosts

Hiding Places

Bedbugs are notoriou
sly difficult to locate. They hide in mattresses and furniture, under floorboards, and even inside electrical equipment, emerging to feed only when it's dark. Adults can survive up to a year without blood, allowing infestations to persist through periods when properties are vacant.

Side effects of bedbug bites include itchy body swellings. Boase says that in rare casesusually involving people living in po
vertysevere infestations may lead to severe blood loss, due to the volume of feeding by hundreds or even thousands of bedbugs.

While studies have shown that HIV can survive o
n bedbugs&#
39; mouthparts for up to an
hour, the insects are not known to be vectors for disease.

In Australia the majority of reported infestations have been in budget accommodations and backpacker hostels. Bedbugs are also being found in homes, hotels, and even in cruise ships.

In the U.S. the parasites are now widespread along both the East and West Coasts and everywhere in between, says Cindy
Mannes. Mannes is the director of public affairs for the National Pest Management Association, based in Dunn Loring, Virginia.

"The last 12 months have been particularly active," she said. "They are showing up like never before in hotels, hospitals, college dormitories, and multifamily housing units as well as single-family homes."

New York City has been hit particularly hard, says
Andy Linares, president of Bug Off Pest Control Center, the city's biggest supplier of insect poison. He said the company now receives dozens of calls each week.

&q
uot;It's a
generalized problem found througho
ut the city, without regard to geography [or] economic or social status," Linares said. "What they have a taste for is a blood meal and harborage in dark cracks and crevices close to where humans rest and sleep."

Travelers and immigrants have been widely blamed for reintroducing the parasites. "With nowhere in the world now more than a few days away, it is easy to see how infestations of these in
sects may suddenly appear almost anywhere," said the Pest Management Consultancy's Boase.

Tropical Bedbugs

In many less developed countries infestation levels are similar to those seen in 19th-century Europe. In some Indian and African cities, at least 65 percent of homes are infested by tropical bedbugs (Cimex hemipterus), studies indicate.


But Boase isn't convinced that international travel is behind the bedbug pandemic. If it were, he says he would expect tropical bedbugs to be turning up alo
ngside the better
known temperate bedbugs (Cimex lectularius
).

Boase has carried out surveys of areas of southern England that have a high percentage of foreign nationals. Those surveys haven't detected a single tropical bed bug.

This isn't to say that temperate bedbugs aren't hitchhiking to Britain from elsewhere. But Boase believes the origins of the problem lie closer to home.

For instance, some scientists suspect bedbugs may have developed multiple resistances to pesticides
. A recent study in East Africa found a link between the use of mosquito nets treated with insecticides and the development of insecticide resistance in bedbugs.

Boase also points to the fact that pest treatments have become more species specific. Previously, broad-spectrum insecticides used on cockroaches and other pests a
lso wiped out bedbugs.

In Australia tropical bedbugs were reported for the first time last year. And air travel does appear to be a factor, according to S
tephen Doggett, from
the Department of Medical Entomology at the ICPMR.


Doggett says that 74 percent of all bedbug interceptions ever reported by the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service have occurred since 1999. The bugs were found mainly in personal baggage arriving from Asian or Pacific countries.

Doggett suggests that the stigma attached to the parasites is influencing hotels and other accommodations to ignore infestations or treat them without professional help. Lack of professional treatment comes
with great risks, he warns, notably the possibility of litigation.

"In a landmark case a motel chain in the United States was successfully sued for [U.S.] $382,000 after guests were bitten by bedbugs [Matthias v. Accor, 2003]," he said.

It's only a matter of time, Australia-based Doggett a
dds, before litigation over bedbugs occurs in his own countryjust one more reason these pesky parasites are causing so many sleepless nights.
########
########################
###################

Close the borders NOW !


Ron Paul and Tom Tancredo for Pres and Veep !

BEDBUGS are the prime source of smallpox infections.
 
6

Throw out the Mexivandal fecal colored critters and prevent more fecal and light fecal colored critters from coming into America...otherwise we will get Smallpox and a huge pandemic of AIDS! Yes, you can get AIDS via mosquito bite or bedbug bite!!!
 
Re: "Sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite."

Bed Bug Infestation Calls New York Home, Again

Bed Bug Infestation Calls New York Home, Again

LYNBROOK, N.Y., Oct. 25 -- They like to cuddle, especially at night, and prefer long-term relationships to one-night stands. Perfect partners? No - bed bugs! These nasty and determined pests are back with a vengeance and have staked out their territory in hotels, university dormitories and private homes across the New York metropolitan region, according to the professionals at Arrow Exterminating in Lynbrook, NY.

Arrow receives several calls daily concerning these aggressive insects, which made a comeback in the United States a few years ago after near eradication following World War II. Said Mike Deutsch, board-certified entomologist at Arrow, "Several facts contribute to the recent spike in bed bug infestation in our area. The first is frequent international travel to Asia, Central and South America and other countries where bed bugs are common. The bugs find their way into suitcases and end up being carried home here in the States. Second, DDT, a pesticide commonly used in the mid-twentieth century to treat bed bugs, has been banned and the pesticides used today are safer but less effective. There are also restrictions now on how the industry treats mattresses, so ... "

Unfortunately, the labor intensive nature of bed bug extermination makes the process expensive. To properly treat a home, nothing is left to chance. Furniture is taken apart to examine small spaces between the joints for these tiny bugs; the backs of picture frames are inspected; every crack and crevice in the walls and floors are probed; and box springs are opened up - nothing is overlooked. Treating a home for the first time can take an entire day.

"We absolutely understand that homeowners may view bed bug treatment as an enormous undertaking. But, as professionals who have been in business for sixty years, we can assure you it is 100 percent necessary," explained Deutsch. "Even leaving a residence unoccupied for several months won't do the trick as bed bugs can survive for months without a food source."

Here, a thumbnail sketch of the bed bug from Arrow: Top 10 Scary Bed Bug Facts: -- Bed bugs are parasites that feed on human and animal blood. -- Bed bugs don''t transmit disease, but they do bite. -- They are attracted to body warmth and carbon dioxide. -- Bed bugs are efficient hitchhikers, which allows them to easily spread. -- They can live three months or longer without a blood meal. -- They live in bedding and ANY crack or crevice. Their flat bodies allow them to easily squeeze into tiny spaces. -- Bed bugs are active at night. -- They smell! -- They go from egg to adult in approximately 30 days. -- Home hygiene is not the cause of most bed bug infestations.
 
Re: "Sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite."

Bed bugs back with a vengeance

Bed bugs back with a vengeance
The blood-sucking critters on rise in T.O.

Daniel Rozak's life has been torn apart by bed bugs.

"It's been a nightmare, an absolute nightmare," Rozak said.

torsunBedbugs200.jpg


The 37-year-old HBC employee came home last month to the creepy crawlers nesting around his bed and even in the corners of his ceiling and said he has since spent more than $7,000 trying to get rid of the pests.

'ON THE RISE'

He has lost furniture, had his apartment sprayed with pesticide and even been relocated in his building to another apartment.

Rozak isn't the only one that has been fighting bed bugs.

According to Reg Ayre, the city's Healthy Environments manager, Toronto Public Health received 194 calls for bed bug inquiries in 2004, 147 calls in 2005 and 160 in the first nine months of 2006.

"That is just the tip of the iceberg," Ayre said.

Bed bugs were on the decline in the western world by World War II, but they've come back with a vengeance because of increased global travel and the use of less lethal pesticides.

The little insects are spreading their non-existent wings and once again showing up in beds, and homes, across Canada, making them a significant issue of public concern.

"We started receiving anecdotal reports that bed bugs were on the rise," Ayre said. "Prior to 2003-04 it was a non-issue for us."

Four years later, Ayre says they are constantly sending investigators out to bed bug calls around the city.

From surveys of pest control companies, Ayre said it's clear all communities are seeing an increase in bed bugs this year.

One company said it performs 1,200 bed bug treatments per year while another said it's spraying 400-500 homes per month.

One of the reasons Toronto Health is concerned about bed bugs is the stigma attached to them.

Toronto's shelter system takes bed bugs so seriously, the city funded the replacement of 62% of all beds in the service shelter system in December 2005.

THEY DON'T DISCRIMINATE

They also replaced more than half of the beds and mattresses in the six city-managed facilities last year. All the replacement beds are bed bug resistant.

Ayre is adamant bed bugs don't just affect the poor. Although he has seen cases of bed bugs in shelters and low income areas, the health unit has received bed bug complaints from all socioeconomic areas of the city.

Last month, one city councillor even called for bed bugs to be considered a health hazard. Ayre said the unit considers them a "nuisance pest" not a health hazard.

Under legislation, a health hazard would give Public Health the power to take legal action, but Ayre said it's not needed.

"It's not about enforcement," he said. "It's a nuisance pest that has significant implications and there are some dramatic cases but it doesn't meet the legal definition of a health hazard."

One of the good things about bed bugs -- if there is anything good about them -- is that they don't spread infectious disease, he said.

Adult bed bugs have oval-shaped bodies with no wings. Before they feed, they are a quarter-inch long and as flat as paper. After they suck your blood, they turn dark red and become bloated.

A female can lay 200-400 eggs depending on food supply and temperature. The little critters hatch in 10 days and live for one year. And they can go without feeding on blood for six months.

Worse yet, they can hide anywhere, not just in the seams, creases and folds of your bed.

They can be found in your bed frame, chairs, couches and electronics.

Under your carpet or rug, there may be a bug.

In your curtains and drawers, behind your baseboards and even in the cracks of the wall.

Health officials said bed bugs can also travel from apartment to apartment along pipes, electrical wiring and other openings.
 
Bedbug epidemic

Stay away from the cities

Bedbug epidemic attacks New York City

BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Sunday, December 30th 2007, 6:45 PM
Unfed bugs are 1/4 to 3/8 inch long. They are brown or red-brown in color and the upper surface of the body appears crinkled. Recently fed, they are engorged with blood, dull red in color. AP

Unfed bugs are 1/4 to 3/8 inch long. They are brown or red-brown in color and the upper surface of the body appears crinkled. Recently fed, they are engorged with blood, dull red in color.
Daily News

A bedbug epidemic has exploded in every corner of New York City - striking even upper East Side luxury apartments owned by Gov. Spitzer's father, the Daily News has learned.

The blood-sucking nocturnal creatures have infested a Park Ave. penthouse, an artist's colony in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, a $25 million Central Park West duplex and a theater on Broadway, according to victims, exterminators and elected officials.

Once linked to flophouses and fleabags, bedbug outbreaks victimize the rich and poor alike and are spreading panic in some of the city's hottest neighborhoods.

"In the last six months, I've treated maternity wards, five-star hotels, movie theaters, taxi garages, investment banks, private schools, white-shoe law firms, Brooklyn apartments in Greenpoint, DUMBO and Cobble Hill, even the chambers of a federal judge," said Jeff Eisenberg, owner of Pest Away Exterminating on the upper West Side.

The numbers are off the charts: In 2004, New Yorkers placed 537 calls to 311 about bedbugs in their homes; the city slapped 82 landlords with bedbug violations, data show.

In the fiscal year that ended in June, 6,889 infestation complaints were logged and 2,008 building owners were hit with summonses.

They must get rid of the pests within 30 days or face possible action in Housing Court, the city Department of Housing, Preservation & Development says.

The scourge has left no section of the city untouched: Complaints and enforcement actions soared in 57 of the 59 community boards.

In the most bedbug-riddled district, Bushwick in Brooklyn, HPD issued 172 violations this year, up from four in 2004; it responded to 476 complaints, up from 47.

Central Harlem chalked up 269 complaints, up from nine. Williamsburg and Greenpoint, home to the city's hippest galleries (bullcrap, these two neighborhoods are home to negroes, dominicans and hasidic jews), racked up 148, up from 11 in 2004. Astoria and Long Island City saw the tally climb to 345 from 41.

Bedbugs come out of the woodwork at night to feed on human blood, biting people in their sleep and leaving large, itchy skin welts that can be painful. They are not believed to carry or transmit diseases.

A surge in global travel and mobility in all socioeconomic classes, (let's not forget about the3rd world savages streaming into our country carrying all kinds of bugs and diseases) combined with less toxic urban pesticides and the banning of DDT created a perfect storm for reviving the critters, which had been virtually dormant since World War II, experts say.

Prolific reproducers and hardy survivors, they can thrive in penthouses, flophouses or any environment where they can locate warm-blooded hosts, said Louis Sorkin, an entomologist at the Museum of Natural History who keeps a colony of 1,000 bedbugs in his office and lets them feed on his arm.

"The female hatches as many as 500 eggs a year, and they can survive for a year and a half without a blood meal," he said. "They're at home in every neighborhood in the city, including Park Ave. and Fifth Ave."

The small, wingless, rust-colored insects hitch rides on clothing, luggage, furniture, bedding, bookbags, even shoelaces. They've been spotted in cabs and limos, as well as on buses and subways.

Those travel patterns account for the 1,708 verified bedbug cases in 277 public housing projects this year, the city Housing Authority says. The Department of Education has documented another 74 cases, spread across 50 schools.

They even contaminated five or six apartments in the swanky rental tower at 220 E. 72nd St. owned by Bernard Spitzer, the governor's 83-year-old father.

Several tenants described a persistent, if intermittent, infestation on the 15th, 16th and 17th floors.

One resident had to throw away rugs, bedding, curtains, 20 cashmere sweaters, an Armani suit, a couch, a headboard, a night table, a bedframe and an exercise bike. During extermination, he stayed at the Carlyle Hotel.

Spitzer, a prominent developer, said he was unaware of contamination problems in any of his buildings. He referred calls to the managing agent, Rose Associates.

"The company has worked aggressively and proactively to address this issue through ongoing extermination and apartment inspections," a spokesman said.

Spitzer's 28-story building sits atop the six-story home of Marymount Manhattan College, which discovered seven infestations in two residence halls. The problem was under control by October, a spokeswoman said.

City officials say HPD inspectors are increasing enforcement as complaints mushroom and the Health Department is handling education and prevention efforts. It's not more actively involved because its focus is on disease-spreading pests, officials said.

"That's not good enough," said City Councilman Gale Brewer (D-upper West Side.) "It's great that we're not smoking as much, and great that we're not eating trans fats, but we need to focus on bedbugs in the same aggressive manner."

Brewer wants to create a Bedbug Task Force and bar the sale of reconditioned mattresses, which the Bloomberg administration opposes because it "would adversely impact lower-income New Yorkers," a mayoral spokesman said.

I was getting up to 20 bites a night

Tiny bedbugs can take a huge psychological toll on their victims, like Caitlin Heller, a Queens College student whose Jackson Heights apartment was twice infested.

"I was getting 15 to 20 bites a night, and it was driving me crazy," said Heller, who runs Yahoo's Bedbug Support Group where sufferers commiserate. "I suffered mentally. I couldn't sleep at night, and I couldn't focus during the day because I had itchy, painful welts all over my body."

For therapy, Heller (photo inset) started her online support group in January 2006. In eight months, she had 70 members; today there are 555, almost all New Yorkers.

Bedbugs also take a steep financial toll - and can even keep families apart for the holidays, like the Delgados of Woodside in Queens.

Joyce Delgado, an office manager at a midtown firm, and her husband Joseph, who works in the back office of a brokerage house, always went upstate for Thanksgiving to see family in Wappingers Falls. Not this year. They used up all their vacation time battling an infestation in their apartment of 35 years and didn't want to risk contaminating the homes of loved ones.

It all began in September when Joyce Delgado saw a single bedbug on her husband's pillow at 2 a.m. "We threw out everything - a rug, couch, two upholstered chairs, wall-to-wall carpeting, drapes, towels, curtains, bedding - because we thought everything we owned was contaminated," she said. "We checked into the Grand Motor Inn in Maspeth during extermination. All told, we must have spent $2,000, and we still won't go back into our bedroom. We're living on a makeshift bed in the living room."
 
The joys of diversity, there is even a page, "bedbugger".

http://bedbugger.com/2008/01/06/tor...er-has-some-progressive-ideas-about-bed-bugs/

Toronto Councillor Paula Fletcher (Ward 30, Toronto-Danforth) has received so many calls from constituents she’s asked the health department to declare them a health hazard. Last month, Fletcher met with Toronto’s Medical Officer of Health. It was decided the Board of Health would issue a report in February on what should be done about bedbugs in the city and whether they should be declared a health hazard.
 
Bedbugs = Very small illegal immigrants

Consider this article as you stare at that filthy illegal mud creature sitting next to you. Yet one more reason to COMPLETELY avoid public transport.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bedbugs make a return via low-cost flights

Monday September 22 2008

Increased foreign travel and a lack of awareness have been blamed for the rise in bedbug infestations being reported by airlines, train and bus companies.

Pest control company Rentokil says there has been a 40% rise in the number of call outs over the past 12 months from the transport industry. Britain is now struggling to cope with infestations not seen in half a century.

The overall number of inquiries to the Rentokil UK website about the problem has doubled in the last three months. The company will this week fly in entomologists from all over the world to discuss the issue at its technical centre in Horsham, West Sussex.

Experts such as Professor Mike Potteran, an urban entomologist at the University of Kentucky, will be among the figures speaking in Britain but also at a series of events run by the company in France, Italy and Spain in a bid to help staff and clients cope with the bedbug infestation.

The enormous increase in international travel as a result of rising western living standards and low-cost flying is seen as a major factor behind the revival.

"We think that some of the problems result from changing lifestyles: the increasing amount of foreign travellers returning home with second-hand clothes and furniture is a major source of the problem. But the banning of certain chemicals in the 1960s and 1970s around the European Union plus a general lack of awareness is also to blame," said Rentokil spokesman, Malcolm Padley.

The bedbug, Cimex lectularius, hides under carpets or in headboards or skirting boards. The red or brown nocturnal creatures, which are about 5mm long and can lay up to 500 eggs in the space of two months, feed on human blood.

Rentokil has been working on new insecticides, including the Cymexide Nano Fogger, which is being field-tested in France.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/20...alth.transport
 
Re: Bedbugs = Very small illegal immigrants

WOW! I mean, could this really be from illegals? No....
 
Re: "Sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite."

Bedbugs infest nigger slum

Residents of Apartment Complex Battle Bed Bugs

People living at a Las Vegas apartment complex say they are being invaded by bed bugs.

City of Las Vegas Code Enforcement tells Eyewitness News that four units at the Desert Rose complex have bed bugs and a notice has been issued to the property manager.

People who live in the complex say the bed bug problem should have been taken care weeks ago when it was first reported to the manager's office. An exterminator will be on site Wednesday.

http://www.newnation.co/

forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=480&stc=1&d=1240434337​

"I'm like this, this is all day, everyday and it's miserable, and uncomfortable," said Lori Downing, who says her apartme
nt has bed bugs.

Her constant scratching has left marks all over her arms. While she appreciates the help now, she says it should have come sooner.

"I'm going through a lot of pain and suffering because I am being bitten by bed bugs. I didn't know they were in here until I caught one," she said. After complaining for several months, she says it took her catching a bug to get the property manager's attention.

"I have to take my clothes out of the closet, fold em up put them in a bag for three hours in the sun in order to kill the eggs."

Downing's personal care advisor Marie Williams also got involved.

"When I come here to this lady and she's got bite marks all over, I want to know what's the problem," she said.

Teresa Dase is the property manager at Desert Rose and admits the health department and code enforcement is now involved in helping rid the units of the bugs.

"I was not reprimanded or cited or set for a second inspection date because they saw we
were taking care of it in a reasonable amount of time," said Dase, property manager.

When asked about her tenants complaints going unanswered, Dase says her office is doing all they can.

"I would not say there is a problem with bed bugs at this property, isolated yes. I have more than one unit that has had it."

The four units will be fumigated and the manager says tenants will be taken care if they follow the proper procedures when something needs attention in their unit.
 

Attachments

  • nigbugs.JPG
    nigbugs.JPG
    11.9 KB · Views: 374
Re: "Sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite."

Mixed-race degenerates attacked by bedbugs [Video at link]

Motel guests covered with bed bug bites

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - A 5-year-old little niglet with long curly brown hair and pink flip-flops stood in the parking lot of the Midtown Motel pointing out the dozens of tiny bites all over her body.

Her family's motel room was infested with bed bugs, according to her father.

"I've been bit up," the child whispered.

The red bite marks covered her little arms, legs and face.

The problems at the Midtown Motel in Newport News were apparently so bad, so unsanitary, Newport News police officers, firefighters and city health inspectors responded to the motel.

They talked to tenants like Kelly
Jordan who has been living at the motel for the last two weeks.

"It's real bad. I mean, I am just itching every night. We have no where else to go. This is our only option," said Jordan.

Even the motel's own maintenance man, Kevin Starllings, said the place is not fit for humans.

"We peeled back the corners of the mattresses and bugs ran out like roaches," said Starllings.

The maintenance man and many of the tenants say the infestation of bed bugs is not the only problem. They say the air conditioning does not work, there is black mold growing in the motel and most of the rooms do not have smoke detectors which are required by law.

Starllings says the owners of the motel refuse to spend any of the money they make off the tenants to clean the place up and make it safe.

"He won't buy freon so the people can be cool," said Starllings. "He don't spend money on nothing, but every time you turn around he is taking a vacation with his family."


The motel owner, Sanjay Burt, at first insisted there are no problems, even as police officers and health inspectors stood in the parking lot speaking with motel tenants covered in bed bug bites. Then, he blamed the tenants for creating the bug problem and stealing the smoke detectors.

"Look at how they live," said Burt.

The owner also claimed that he kept a smoke detector log book, but when WAVY.com's Mary Kay Mallonee pressed him saying, "If you are doing that than how are you missing the fact that so many smoke detectors are missing?" Burt responded, "Sometimes it happens. I get busy."

As for the bed bug problem, Burt had not even talked with an exterminator until late in the afternoon and only after WAVY.com pushed him to make the call.

WAVY.com also pressed the owner to put tenants in rooms with bug-free beds until an exterminator can address the problem. Burt promised to do that.

WAVY.com will be keeping an eye on the Midtown Motel and checking
in with city health inspectors to see what they can do to improve things at the motel.
 
Re: "Sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite."

Don't let the bedbugs bite? Good luck

At first, there were just a couple of the little, oval-shaped, dark-colored bugs.

The homeowner picked them up and flushed them away.

No big deal.

Less than a week later, ominous dark spots started appearing on bedsheets.

What was causing them?

More black bugs. More dark spots. (The homeowner learned later that the spots were a combination of his own blood and the bugs' excrement. Lovely.)

Then, one day, the homeowner lifted up the mattress.

Many more black bugs, some of them just tiny specks, mixed in with full-grown, 1/8- to 3/16-inch bugs. Some were hiding in the small folds around the edge of the box spring; others were more brazen, wandering around in the open like they were tough or something.

Cimex lectularius, a.
k.a. bedbugs.

Not good.

It's not much consolation, but our unnamed homeowner is far from alone.

"We've been getting one, maybe two calls a week on them," said David Eggert, the Lebanon's deputy fire commissioner and chief health and sanitation inspector. "They are in so many places."

The bugs aren't particularly mobile - they can scoot along at the pace of a sprinting ant at top speed - but they rely on their human friends/hosts/victims for transportation.

That can take the form of a suitcase, a discarded mattress or an item of clothing.

Travelers who spend time in hotels or motels are often most susceptible to bringing home an unwanted guest, although in the city, Eggert said, it's not unusual for the mattress to be the likely source of a bedbug visit.

"We'll see people put their mattresses outside when they move, and then someone else comes along and sees it and, if it isn't stained, they think it's good," Eggert said. "The other thing we see, especia
lly in row houses, is (the owner) will treat for bedbugs, and what isn't killed will move into the next unit. We see it with roaches, too."

Although bedbugs are relatively harmless - they are generally not thought to be disease carriers - they are tenacious adversaries.

"They are a very, very persistent insect," said Bill Lingle, district manager of Ehrlich's Lebanon office. "It takes multiple treatments to get rid of them."

Many people are slow to react when bugs are first spotted, then find themselves in a much more difficult situation.

"It's an increasing problem for that reason," Lingle said, adding that travel "is the number-one reason people get them in the first place."

Travel can either be moving from one apartment to another, in which case people often take their bedding with them, or it could mean making a trip involving time in a hotel or motel.

As a result, city dwellers aren't the only potential victims.

"It's not just a city problem," Lingle
said. "It's all over the county and the state. They're everywhere. It's getting worse as time goes on."

Even a pristine hotel or a home where the owner performs regular housecleaning can be victimized.

Midway through the 20th century, bedbugs were almost eradicated in the United States thanks to widespread use of DDT, a potent synthetic pesticide, according to a report by University of Kentucky entomologist Michael Potter. Unfortunately - or fortunately, depending upon your point of view - the use of DDT was banned on Dec. 31, 1972, after three decades of use, due to fears about its effects on the environment and human health.

Last winter's relatively mild temperatures might have something to do with an increase in roaches and bedbugs, Eggert said.

To fight that increase, home-improvement stores carry bug sprays that purport to be effective against bedbugs.

"There are some alternatives (to professional treatment) out there," Eggert said, "but they're not a sure thing."
r

Because they are so small, bedbugs can hide in tiny crevices of walls and carpets, usually close to where people sleep, places where sprays and vacuums can't reach. They'll also hide in cracks around walls and ceilings. Among the bedbug's talent is an ability to climb onto a ceiling and then drop down on a victim when they sense heat and/or carbon dioxide.

Mattresses and box springs can be protected from bedbugs by use of encasements, or covers, which when zipped securely will prevent bugs from leaving or entering. Some encasements are designed specifically to protect against bedbugs.

"As long as it doesn't rip, you will kill them all within 10 to 13 months," Lingle said.

That's right, months.

Believe it or not, while bedbugs prefer to feed every four or five days, they can survive for more than a year without food by going into a dormant state.

Lures don't exist for bedbugs as they do for ants and roaches. Insect repellents don't work either. The bugs can be k
illed by heat (more than 120 degrees) or freezing, but subfreezing temperatures must be maintained for several days.

A bedbug first gives its victim a dose of anticoagulant mixed with a little anesthetic and then withdraws blood, a process that can take three to 10 minutes, usually at night with the victim not noticing. Some people develop itchy red welts; others have little or no reaction or a delayed reaction.

The most effective and available method of attack is a combination of fumigation and spraying, which can be time-consuming and costly.

Spraying alone, even by a professional service, has varied effectiveness, Lingle explained.

"What's really a shame is people get these and try to eradicate them themselves," he said, "because they don't know how to do it. Even with what we do, we have to go back three times. ... I hate to say it's an epidemic, but it's getting worse."

In his report summary, Kentucky's Potter wrote: "The incidence of bedbugs in the United State
s is increasing to the point where vigilance by all is a prudent practice
."
 
Re: "Sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite."

Perhaps one of the MAIN reasons for the upsurge in Ex$pensive Moter Homes especially all across the West is that folk Do Not Dare sleep in Motels. These motor homes are owned mostly by the last generation to have a retirement. Of course some wealthy own these moter homes, but I am guessing the majority owner of these things are governent retired types.

As for the bed bugs what do you expect when over the last 35 Hindies had taken over 70% of the hotels moldtels in the USSA ?


I truly would dread having tho stay in motels traveling for business, like I once did.

If you stay in a Motel make sure its white owned or rent a car and sleep in it IMO.

Marriotts is fine motel, but even they are spotty IMO/Experience
 
Re: "Sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite."

Major bed bug spike hits Toronto

bed-bug-cp-6558017.jpg


An adult bed bug and her offspring

Toronto is experiencing a dramatic spike in the number of bed bug infestations, according to a new report.

The report, funded in part by the city and the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term care, found that over an eight-month period in 2008, Toronto Public Health received 1,500 reports of bed bug infestations.

For all of 2003, in comparison, the city's public health department received 46 such complaints.

The report says a rise in infestations isn't unique to Toronto — Ontario towns like Ottawa, Owen Sound and London have also been hit. Meanwhile, New York City and even some cities in Australia have reported similar spikes in the past five years.

More than 100 people —including social workers, MPs and landlords — crammed into a conference room at City Hall on Monday to discuss the report's findings with its authors.

Wide variety affected

Sean Meagher, one of the authors, blamed the increase of infestations on a lack of awareness of how to deal with bed bugs. He said the problem affects a wide variety of dwellings, from university student dormitories to swanky hotels and low-cost rental housing.

Those who have had to deal with infestations have been hit hard, he said.

"People suffering from bed bugs frequently experience shame, fear, isolation and insomnia," he said.

"Many face serious economic consequences, including loss of income and loss of work. The cost of eradications can run into the thousands of dollars and the replacement of infested household items are also expensive."

Meagher said the bugs are notoriously durable.

"Bedbugs can live, breed, hatch and carry out their entire lives while still being exposed to ... pesticide used for bed bugs. Bed bugs have even shown resistance to DDT."

'Psychologically terrorized'

Toronto resident Fionna Blair is one of the unlucky ones to be hit by an infestation.

Two years ago she started getting mysterious bites. She soon found the culprits — bed bugs in her sofa.

"They hide very well and only come out at night," she said.

It took lots of money, time and energy spent cleaning, fumigating and even caulking the space between walls and baseboards before Blair got rid of the bed bugs. But even now, she can't be sure they're all gone.

"They can stay dormant for a year and a half, so they leave you psychologically terrorized ... Perhaps you don't have them, but perhaps they're just hibernating until they come out again," she said.

The problem could get out of hand unless the government steps in to co-ordinate the response to the infestation, said Meagher.

"It will impact all parts of our city. And the failure to act will result in wider infestations and more costly responses. Consistent use of best protocols can and will work, but co-ordination and education are needed to make that possible," he said.

The problem can only be meaningfully solved, he said, through "extensive public education to ensure early identification and the participation of governments, landlords, medical professionals, institutions, as well as residents."
 
Re: "Sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite."

http://content.usatoday.net/dist/cu...gazette&sParam=32346805.story&POE=click-refer

Dog helps officials sniff out bedbugs in Ohio
Posted 12/20/2009 1:50 PM ET
By Jc Reindl

TOLEDO, Ohio — He's friendly and obedient, his fur is the color of chocolate, and he earns his keep sniffing out those dreaded and elusive bloodsuckers known to lurk in mattresses.

Toledo, meet Hershey: He's a nationally certified bedbug detection dog who's visiting from Cincinnati to help rid Vistula Manor and other residential properties of infestations.

Hershey's job precedes remediation. Exterminators, after all, must know where to spray.

"He's a bedbug-sniffing dog," said the Labrador retriever's owner and handler, John Montgomery, who with his wife, LeAnne, operates Canine Bedbug Finder from their home outside Cincinnati. "We're going apartment by apartment ... he'll sniff beds, he'll sniff sofas and chairs and piles of clothes."

The small, reddish-brown insects known as bedbugs are about the size of an apple seed. The bugs lie in wait during the day and emerge at night to feast on the blood of a host.

Their hapless victims never see what bit them, and wake up the next morning to red itchy marks on their arms and legs. Tiny blood smears on bed sheets are another sign of their visit.

After decades of absence, bedbugs started to reappear in Ohio and throughout of the country earlier this decade.

New York City is considered the nation's leading bedbug battleground.

They can take up residence anywhere, but tend to thrive in well-trafficked places like hotels, housing complexes, and dormitories.

Montgomery and Hershey, who was rescued from a pound in Florida, came to Toledo at the request of the Lucas Metropolitan Housing Authority. Linnie Willis, LMHA executive director, said the agency recently received reports of bedbugs in several properties, including Vistula Manor on Cherry Street downtown.

The duo recently visited LMHA's Parqwood Apartments on Nebraska Avenue. They are scheduled to check out the agency's Durrell Manor, Flory Gardens, and John Holland Estates in coming weeks. Bedbugs have been said to dwell in all those properties except Durrell.

"We wanted to try this to see if we could sniff them out and find out where they are," said Willis, whose agency pays Montgomery $12 per apartment unit inspected. "We have got to do what we've got to do to get rid of this problem."

Hershey and his owner began room-to-room rounds in the 164-unit Vistula Manor recently and planned a four-day inspection.

The bug hunters were accompanied by building janitor Richard Cole, who took note of each infested unit and room furnishing.

Cole admitted that he was initially skeptical of the dog's abilities until he saw him nearly make a beeline to a vial of live bedbugs that Montgomery hid in a room as a test.

"Now I'm a believer," he said.

The inspection began on the third floor of the residential complex, which houses handicapped, elderly, and disabled residents who meet lower-income requirements.

Montgomery, 61, held Hershey's leash as he guided him through each apartment, pointing fingers to potential trouble areas such as beds and sofas. The dog is trained to sit down if he detects live bedbugs. Each time he does so, Montgomery gives him a treat.

"He only alerts to the scent of live bedbugs. So he passes by the scent of any other bugs or even dead bedbugs -- he's just interested in the live ones," said Montgomery, who also carries a small magnifying glass to verify "the live ones from the lint."

Margaret Higgs wasn't expecting a dog at her door when she opened her apartment for Montgomery and Hershey. And a dog that smells bedbugs? You've got to be kidding.

"He can really tell?" asked Higgs, 74, who watched in disbelief as Hershey sniffed around her boudoir. "Are you serious? This is fascinating!"

While her apartment received a clean bill of health, a neighbor across the hall wasn't so lucky.

Hershey could smell trouble festering in a bed of double-stacked mattresses covered in piles of clothes. The room's occupant, Joetta McElya, 60, stretched out an arm showing old bedbug bites.

"It was all up on my arms, all over my legs," she said.

Montgomery estimated that about 40 percent of the units he inspected in Vistula Manor are infested with bedbugs. He said the building presents several common factors in the insects' spread: close living quarters and widespread use of secondhand furniture.

College dorms make good breeding grounds for similar reasons. Montgomery said he sees a spike in business in January from parents whose children unknowingly brought bedbugs home from college for the holidays.

A former hearing aid salesman, Montgomery said he thought little about bedbugs until last year after he rented a lift chair from a medical supply company while recovering from hip surgery. The chair had bedbugs, which soon spread throughout the house.

The Montgomerys spent months and hundreds of dollars trying to eradicate the problem. But the bugs, which lay eggs and can hibernate for months, kept coming back. Montgomery said that they found Hershey with a bedbug dog trainer at the Florida Canine Academy. The Montgomerys brought the dog back to Ohio to help with their own recurring bedbug problems and those of others as a part-time hobby.

But Montgomery said he found bedbugs so widespread around Cincinnati that he and Hershey went into business full time.

He said that by necessity, bedbug sniffing is very much a lifestyle for a dog. Montgomery said he keeps Hershey's nose sharp by hiding vials of bedbugs around the house. To eat, the dog must first locate the bugs. "He's first a working dog and second a family pet," Montgomery said.

Montgomery said his clients generally choose between two forms of extermination. They can go the pesticide route, which can involve various chemicals.

And because bedbugs can't stand high heat, exterminators can try to cook them to death using special heaters.

Willis said LMHA will wait to review Hershey's findings before choosing an extermination method.

The Toledo-Lucas County Health Department this year has received two complaints about bed bugs at Vistula, as well as more than a dozen reports at apartment buildings, hotels, and other residences.

Ohio's problem with bed bugs began a few years ago in Cincinnati, followed by Columbus, said Alan Ruffell, director of environmental health for the Toledo-Lucas County Health Department.

"They're kind of making their way up to us, but at this point in time, I wouldn't say they're a huge problem," he said.
 
Re: "Sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite."

Etobicoke General Hospital Dealing With Bed Bugs

8aa0b98e44aba6905eb97c2a6a08.jpeg

A west end hospital is trying to get rid of some unwanted visitors – bed bugs.

The problem is only confined to a part of the emergency department, a staff lounge and some furniture in the critical care unit at the Etobicoke General site of the William Osler Health Centre.

The only live bugs spotted in the hospital were in the staff lounge and that area has been sealed off. Dead bugs and droppings were found in the ER and CCU.

Hospital vice president Dawne Barbieri admits the problem is cringe-worthy but noted it doesn’t pose a health hazard.

"We have not found any live bed bugs in beds. There were some mattresses in a particular area that tested positive."

The public shouldn’t avoid the facility, she added. But many visitors are still feeling uneasy.

“I think it’s disgusting,”�� said visitor Ida Madronich.

“It’s pretty scary because you come here to get better…it makes you wonder how safe it is,”�� said Suren Singh.

Bed bugs are notoriously difficult to get rid of. They multiply quickly, spread and can hide easily.

Toronto has been getting increasing reports of bed bugs over the last couple of years. To see if there have been reports of bed bugs in your neighbourhood, click here.
 
Re: "Sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite."

Retailer Asks Mayor for Help in Bedbug Battle

NY-AI182_NYBUGS_NS_20100702183747.gif

Abercrombie & Fitch has found bedbugs in a second Manhattan store, leading the company's head to implore Mayor Michael Bloomberg for help.

The retailer closed its South Street Seaport location Friday, two days after shuttering its Hollister Epic store in SoHo.

In a letter to Mr. Bloomberg, Abercrombie Chairman and CEO Michael S. Jeffries asked for "leadership and guidance" on how best to address the problem of "the growing infestation of bedbugs in New York City."

"We made the decision to act with caution by closing both stores to assure we have rid them of the problem. There is a real revenue loss involved in our decision but we felt closing was in the best interest of our customers and associates," the letter said.

City officials said there was little they could do. "It is the responsibility of companies to handle bedbugs on their own," said a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

The company, known for clothing popular among teenagers, said the Hollister store would reopen Saturday and that its bedbug problem has been "eliminated."

"The Company's first priority continues to be its customers and associates," Eric Cerny, manager for investor relations, said in a statement. "The Company's Abercrombie & Fitch Fifth Avenue store has been tested and is not affected."

The company said it believes that the issue is isolated to its Lower Manhattan stores, said Mr. Cerny.

He said customers would be allowed to return purchases to the stores, where products will be properly quarantined before being sent back to Abercrombie & Fitch headquarters in New Albany, Ohio.

Meanwhile, the 24 Hour Fitness gym that shares a building with the Hollister store remained open.

A 24 Hour Fitness spokesman said the gym is aware of the neighboring business's bedbugs, but "to date, we have not experienced any problem as a result of the issue."

The club has ordered an "additional inspection by our vendor, and preventative measures will be provided if necessary," the spokesman said.

Exterminators say bedbug infestations in commercial locations are on the rise, and that some buildings are making regular, preventative appointments with bug-sniffing dogs. Beagles, Labrador Retrievers and Jack Russell terriers are among the most popular bug-busting breeds.

"Some offices are being more proactive and calling us in to do routine checks," said Charles Turk of K9 Bed Bug Detective in West Orange, N.J.

To sniff out an office, Mr. Turk and his Beagle, Russell, go after-hours and when there are no distractions. Russell works only five or six hours a day, with breaks, before his sniffer becomes fatigued.

Most commercial spaces don't have a formal policy on how to handle a bedbug outbreak or complaints by an employee or by the public. Bedbug lawsuits are a growing area of practice for Marc Miner, a lawyer for Zalman & Schnurman in Manhattan. Mr. Miner says that when an issue isn't resolved, employees will sometimes turn to the state's Occupational Safety and Health Administration and file a complaint.

"In my experience there are very, very few places that have a protocol for bedbugs," he said. "Often people come to us because they have a post traumatic reaction to it. For some people, the post traumatic stress is the worst part."
 
Re: "Sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite."

On a side bar, when the filthy spic's started flying in to NYC from the roach island on Eastern Airline specials to help in the busting up of Labor IMO in the latter half of the 1950's and making NYC a much more filthy place the pilots and the airlines had to deal with airplane's infested with Cock Roaches.

Pilots noticed Roaches crawling over the instrutments panel at night.
 
Michigan Begins New Bed Bug Battle

LANSING, Mich. -- State health officials have launched a website on bed bugs, in response to what they say is widespread public concern about the bloodsucking insects.

The Michigan Department of Community Health says the site is for renters, homeowners, facility managers and other government agencies.

The site offers guidance on best practices for bed bug control.

It's the result of collaboration among the state departments of Public Health, Agriculture, and Labor and Economic Growth, as well as the Property Managers Association of Michigan, Michigan Pest Management Association, and the state's Lodging and Tourism Association.

Bed bugs hide in tight cracks on or near people's beds, and come out at night to bite.
http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/24283119/detail.html

July 8, 2010: Tenants Say Bed Bugs Ruining Homes

April 29, 2010: Ruth To The Rescue: Bedbugs Infest Apartment
 
HOUSTON—Residents in the southwest Houston area getting fed up from fending themselves from bedbugs.

Julia Hernandez cannot stop scratching as she sits outside her southwest Houston apartment.

"They bite my mom like every single night," said Hernandez. "They come out like 2 a.m. or 3 a.m."

For the past six months, Hernandez and her mother have shared their home with the hearty little creatures.

Hernandez points to spots on her bed.

"It’s blood from where we killed it," she said.

The blood sucking critters like to gather in mattress seams and on walls.

Raleigh Jenkins, an exterminator with ABC Pest Control, is not surprised. He said bedbugs have hitchhiked their way to Houston.

"There’s a resurgence of bedbugs over the last five years that we’ve never seen before," he said.

Jenkins said the critters travel on clothing and bags and are commonly found in fancy hotels and apartment complexes.

"These insects will go through the light switch covers and electrical covers and go into the apartments next door," Jenkins warned.

That’s exactly what neighbors in the southwest Houston apartment complex said.

According to some of the tenants, the management office had the complex sprayed, but not enough to take care of the infestation. Since many can’t afford the $600 or so it takes to hire a skilled exterminator, many just throw out their mattresses and furniture.

The Hernandez family can’t afford that expense either, but say they still plan to move into the apartment complex in September. They just hope the bed bugs don’t move with them.
http://www.khou.com/news/Bed-bugs-are-biting-in-Southwest-Houston-100730944.html
 
Re: "Sleep tight, don&#39;t let the bedbugs bite."

http://www.myfoxphilly.com/dpp/news/local_news/Bedbugs_Leased_Furniture_Lawsuit_082010

Woman Sues Store Over Bedbug Complaint
Lawsuit Claims Leased Furniture Was Infested

NORRISTOWN, Pa. - A Philadelphia-area woman is suing a furniture store claiming it leased her furniture infested with bedbugs and refused to take it back when she complained.

The suit filed Thursday by Robin Boyd claims Aaron's Sales and Lease in Norristown rented her the contaminated furniture a year ago. Boyd says she immediately began suffering from bites that eventually led to hair loss, anxiety and depression.

Attorney Barry Gultanoff says Boyd, now of Pottstown, asked the store to pick up the furniture and void her lease, but the store refused.

Bed bugs feed on human and animal blood and can be difficult to eradicate. They are active mostly at night and hide during the day near where people sleep. Adults can survive more than a year without eating.

Phone calls to the store early Friday morning when unanswered.
 
Back
Top