The Bed Bug Situation Room

Working at KillBedBugs.com, there are some things we take for granted – like never picking up mattresses or upholstered furniture from the curb. But we forget that other people aren’t often as aware of the risk of bringing bed bugs home – and that can cause serious problems.

Abandoned furniture and mattresses are risky options - many carry bed bugs.

“When my boyfriend and I moved to New York,” emailed Angela, a recent customer.

“We were flat broke and could barely afford a deposit on our studio in Queens. We couldn’t even afford a bed – and for the first three weeks, slept on blankets on the floor.”

“One day, we were walking home from the subway when we saw somebody had thrown out an entire bed – just left it there on the curb, including a mattress and box spring.”

“My boyfriend and I looked at each other as if to say: “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” And the next thing I knew, we were struggling to manhandle it home.”

And that was Angela’s first mistake.

“We thought we were being smart,” she writes. “We didn’t take the mattress with us – we used what little money we did have to buy a new one. We thought we’d scored a sweet new bed for the price of a new mattress – but actually, the cost was a lot higher.”

A week after setting up the reclaimed bed, Angela started getting bitten.

“I woke up in the morning and had little red spots all down my side,” she explains. “Then the next night, on my arms. Then my backside and thighs.” A few days after that, her boyfriend started getting bitten. “And then we freaked.”

Examining the mattress and bed-spring, Angela discovered just what she didn’t want to.

“I saw two or three of these little brown bugs crawling about. I caught one in a jar and looked up bed bugs on Wikipedia. I kept HOPING I’d made a mistake; that it was a pill bug or something harmless, but as soon as I saw the picture I knew there wasn’t any doubt.”

The first thing Angela and her boyfriend did was throw the bed – and their new, expensive mattress, right back where they’d found it.

“I couldn’t believe we’d spent so much on a new mattress and less than two weeks later, we were leaving it by the side of the curb,” she writes. “I know you can treat them for bed bugs, but I just couldn’t stomach the thought of sleeping on it again. It made my skin crawl.”

Angela and her boyfriend informed their new landlord, who promptly set up an extermination.

“If I’d thought about it then, we would have tried to deal with the problem ourselves,” she writes.

“We lived in a tiny studio and had literally no furniture. With some organic bed bug spray and thorough washing of our clothes, we would have been in a better spot than using a professional. Who knows what chemicals and crap we had to breath in after he’d done spraying.”

Even worse, Angela notes that when she and her boyfriend moved out, they lost part of their deposit for “extermination services.”

“I don’t think that’s legal,” she writes. “But we didn’t know that then, so we let him get away with it.”

Angela’s story is a sad one – but, unfortunately, far too common. People still don’t seem to realize that furniture left out on the curb – especially beds, mattresses and couches – often  got thrown out for a reason.

Don’t EVER pick up upholstered “curb candy” – and if you grab discarded tables, chairs and other furniture, be sure to douse it in our professional grade spray thoroughly before bringing it inside, and check closely for bed bugs, eggs or telltale specs of feces or blood.

“These days, I tell everybody I know to steer clear of curb furniture and dumpster diving,” she warns. “It’s simply not worth the risk – it’ll cost you a LOT more in the long term.”

When bed bugs hit, most people’s first instinct is to pick up the phone to call a professional exterminator – but is that always the safest – or smartest – thing to do?

Courtesy of www.clickondetroit.com

Hitting the headlines in Detroit this week was the story of an apartment building that had to be abandoned after a routine bed bug extermination went wrong. Full story here.

According to officials, things went wrong when the owner of the apartment being fumigated returned early – and opened up the door allowing a flood of fumigation gases into the corridor and neighboring apartments.

Because the chemicals exterminators use to kill bed bugs have been linked to cancer and sickness, the entire apartment block was evacuated – and one person was hospitalized with breathing problems. It took several additional hours before the residents were allowed back.

This incident highlights one of the major concerns people have about exterminators and bed bugs. Are the chemicals they spray really safe?

While federal and state governments might allow spraying, the answer is generally considered: No. Most professional exterminators use synthetic chemicals to kill bed bugs – and these have been linked to cancer risk, amongst other health dangers.

Compounding the issue is that synthetic chemicals allow bed bugs to build up immunity; with each surviving generation of bugs more are able to withstand spraying than the one before. This is why professional exterminators are forced to “cycle” bed bug pesticides; and bed bug infestations have become harder and harder to get rid of.

The solution is to use a superior product – like Nature’s Response professional grade bed bug killer and preventer sprays. Made using 100% organic, food grade ingredients, Nature’s Response is safe to use around humans and animals, but is absolutely deadly to bed bugs – immobilizing them on contact and killing them and destroying their eggs within a minute.

The best part is that our bed bug killer spray utilizes an entirely natural chemical reaction in bed bugs to kill them – the same reaction that occurs in nature. This means that it has a highly effective mortality rate, and bed bugs can’t build an immunity to it like they can with synthetic pesticides.

These are reasons why more and more homeowners are choosing to tackle their bed bug infestations without the aid of an exterminator – to save themselves money, be more effective at destroying the bed bugs and, ultimately, to protect their family and pets from dangerous chemicals.

After finding a bed bug in their home, most people’s first thought is to call an exterminator – but before you do, here are five things that bed bug extermination professionals don’t want you to know:

1. Homeowners can get rid of bed bugs themselves: The biggest secret in the professional pest control business is that homeowners can get rid of many types of infestation themselves, using products like Nature’s Response Bed Bug Killer spray.
2. They might not be able to get rid of the problem: Bed bugs are becoming increasingly resistant to the chemicals most exterminators use; which means that many bed bugs – and their eggs – survive even heavy chemical application. Although the exterminator might appear to get rid of a bed bugs in your home, the chances are they could reappear months or even just weeks later.
3. They charge you way too much: Bed bug extermination isn’t cheap – especially when it might not get rid of the problem. Professional exterminators don’t want you to know that tackling your bed bug problem yourself might save you a lot of money. Investing in a full suite of bed bug detection and pest prevention products is often the same cost as calling in an exterminator; and can solve your problem faster and permanently.
4. Their chemicals don’t work that well: Pesticide resistance in bed bugs has been on the rise. Many exterminators still rely on synthetic chemical pesticides to get rid of bed bugs. Over the past few decades, scientists have witnessed bed bugs evolve biological defenses to make them increasingly resistant to these products. Only natural products, like our 100% organic natural bed bug killer spray, have a formulation that bed bugs can’t build immunity to. Unfortunately, most professional exterminators don’t use them.
5. The chemicals they use are unsafe: Most chemical pesticides are synthetic reproductions of naturally occurring substances – produced so the pest control companies can formulate and patent them. The problem is that synthetic chemicals have been proven to be far more likely to prove carcinogenic, and have been linked to a variety of health issues. Only 100% natural pesticides, like Nature’s Response, are made from food-grade ingredients that are safe to use around children and pets. Which would you prefer to douse your house in?

All across America, more and more bed bug infestations are being reported. From the luxurious Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York City, to roadside motels all across the country, the tiny blood-feeding bugs are causing strife for all who encounter them.

Unfortunately, there’s no way to guarantee a hotel room that’s bed bug free – but there are some smart prevention tips you can make use of to reduce your risk of exposure:

Check Your Room: As soon as you’ve checked into your hotel room, do the following:

• Place your suitcases in the bathtub. This will prevent bed bugs being able to access them.
• Examine the bed. Check especially the pillows, sheets and headboard. Black, brown and red specs are signs of bed bugs (and of the sheets not being changed!)
• Check the mattress. Lift up one corner of the sheet and check the mattress folds for the same black, red and brown specs. They will be more noticeable there; especially if there has been a long-standing infestation.
• Look for residue. White residue around the headboard or mattress could have been left over from any recent bed bug extermination. It might not have got rid of them all.

If you spot any sign of a bed bug problem, you have two choices: Either move to a different hotel entirely, or request a different room on a different floor of the same hotel. That decision ultimately depends on your confidence in the hotel – and the terms of your reservation.

Protect your luggage: Preventing bed bugs from entering your bags is the best way to ensure you don’t bring any of them home with you when you go.

• Store your bags in the bathtub. Because of the sleek, high sides of a tub they are generally inaccessible for bed bugs, so a good place to store your bags. When taking a shower or bath, move them to the sink or on top of the toilet.
• Buy a suitcase encasement. One way to ensure nothing can get in (or out) of your bag when you travel is to invest in one of our suitcase encasements. Completely impregnable to bed bugs, these zip all the way around your bags and allow you to store them safely on the floor, bed or wardrobe without concern.

One great tip to remember is to wash everything you brought with you when you get home from your trip. Use hot water and tumble dry on high heat. That will kill any bed bugs outright, and destroy their eggs.

You might also want to consider investing in our 3 oz. travel sized Bed Bug Killer Spray bottle. Small enough to be taken on flights, you can use it to prevent bed bugs and eliminate them – and their eggs – on contact.

Nothing can fully protect you from the risk of bringing bed bugs home with you; but these precautions will certainly – and significantly – reduce that risk.

As more and more retailers, hotels and schools get hit with bed bug infestations, people are looking at other ways in which they risk bringing bed bugs home. One recent area of focus is bed bugs in gyms.

Gyms are increasingly being highlighted as a possible place to bring home bed bugs.

“I’m not an expert,” says Justin, a self-confessed ‘gym rat’ from Avon, New Jersey, “but I knew it was a bed bug when I saw it.”

He was talking about a recent experience at his local gym; in which he’d seen an insect crawl out of another customer’s gym bag and crawl across the bench.

“I’ve been coming to this place for over five years,” Justin explained, “and I’d never even heard of this thing being a problem before. Now I’m scared to put my bag on the ground.”

Justin is sadly not alone.

In addition to people picking up bed bugs at school, colleges, hotel stays or even through clothing they bought at the mall, gyms are now becoming a prime zone for transferring bed bugs from one prospective host family to another. They were even found in a celebrity gym in NYC last summer.

Bed bugs generally don't thrive at a gym, but the locker rooms are an easy place to transfer bed bugs from one person's bag or towel to another.

“It’s pretty much the same problem as you’ve got in schools,” explains a Jersey gym owner who asked to remain anonymous.

“You’ve got a lot of people coming and going with bags full of dirty clothing and towels. All it takes is one person to bring a bed bug in and then who knows how many other customers will bring them home?”

That being said, bed bugs aren’t statistically any more of a problem in gyms than other locations. Part of this, explains our gym owner, has to do with hygiene.

“It doesn’t matter whether you’re a clean or dirty person, you can still bring home bed bugs,” he admits, “But the way many gyms are set up helps keep the risk of transmission fairly low. A lot of gyms don’t have carpeting, and spray down shower and changing areas every night.”

The antibacterial soaps gym owners use are designed to inhibit the growth of mold and mildew – and while not specifically for bed bug prevention, they certainly don’t help them thrive.

“But the problem isn’t really the gym – it’s the customers. All it takes is somebody to throw their bag down next to yours and in a couple of seconds a bed bug can go from one bag to the other.”

It’s that realization which impacted how Justin used the gym:

“After I saw that bed bug, I reported it. The good news is that the guy who runs the gym didn’t find any more of them – not that he’d tell me, anyway.”

And the bad news?

“I’ve got to plan out by gym visits like a military operation these days.”

Justin used to wear his street clothes to the gym and shower and change after his workout. Now, if he has the opportunity, he’ll skip that step entirely.

“If I’m going to lift weights after work, I’ll go home first and change into my gym stuff. Then, once I’m finished, I’ll come straight home instead of changing there.”

When he does need to take his gym bag, he’s focused about how he handles bed bug prevention when he brings it home.

“I’ll come in through the back,” he explains, “and throw the whole thing into the washing machine – bag and all.” A cycle on high heat and a session in the tumble dryer should be enough to kill bed bugs and their eggs.

“It’s also a good habit to get into so your house doesn’t smell like sweat socks!”

And finally, just in case, Justin has invested in a small 3 oz. bottle of 100% natural organic bed bug killer spray.

“This is just in case I do see any bed bugs,” he explains. “I can nail ‘em with it and spray my bag down.”

Handy and discrete, the little spray bottle is also a great choice for travelers, commuters or anybody else who works in a field where they might need travel protection.

“From all I’ve read, keeping clear of bed bugs is a lot like weight training,” Justin explains. “As long as you’ve got the right tools and know what you’re doing, there’s no reason you can’t see great results.”

Speaking of which, Justin’s still at his old gym – and three months later, remains bed bug free.

Claire, from Dover, MA, emailed us with an unusual problem:

“Last month, I helped a neighbor move house. We loaded all their stuff into the back of my Caravan; including their clothing, bedding and sheets. A few days later, my son spotted a bed bug crawling around on the back seat. What do I do?”

Although they’re certainly not common, Claire’s problem is not the first time we’ve heard about bed bugs hitting the road. As we’ve mentioned before, bed bugs aren’t fussy about where they set up shop – and as they’re able to go without feeding for up to a year, if they’re living in your car then they’ll be around for a while.

Claire's 2003 Dodge Caravan was infested with bed bugs.

The good news is, though, that you don’t have to give bed bugs a free ride. There are several options for removing a bed bug infestation from your car. Some of them, in fact, are easier than getting rid of bed bugs at home.

The first and most important step is to clean your car from top to bottom. Get a vacuum cleaner and scour every seat edge, trim panels and molding curve from top to bottom.

This is a very effective way to clear your car of bed bugs and their eggs. Just remember to empty the bag or container straight into the outside trash – as bed bugs can survive getting vacuumed up and quite happily crawl out of your vacuum cleaner at a later time.

Vacuuming and then treating every fabric surface is the best way to get rid of bed bugs in cars.

Next, consider using a bed bug fogger to treat your car.

Because cars can be very effectively sealed (by closing all the doors) and very effectively aired (by opening all the windows) and are a small, confined space, fogging with one of our bed bug killing products is incredibly effective at eliminating them.

Next, use our bed bug killer / preventer spray to treat every seat in your car, plus the carpet and every trim panel edge. Our 100% organic bed bug killing product immobilizes bed bugs on contact; and destroys them and their eggs within minutes.

That should be enough to effectively treat your car for a bed bug infestation – but there’s one more important tip.

Make sure you reapply your bed bug killer / preventer formula a second time within two weeks, whether you see more bed bugs or not.

It takes just one unhatched egg to start an infestation anew; but a follow up spray treatment for bed bugs will greatly reduce your odds of that happening.

One last detail: If you spot bed bugs in your car, it’s very tempting to use a public vacuum cleaner from a car wash or gas station to clean your car and get rid of bed bugs. Just remember that bed bugs can survive being vacuumed up; and if you use a public vacuum cleaner, you actually risk infesting the next person who uses it!

For that reason, the right thing to do is use your own vacuum – no matter how tempting the one at the gas station is!

If anybody’s ever been upset that their lottery numbers haven’t come up, perhaps this will make them think twice. The latest victim of bed bugs is the Ohio Lottery office, in Cleveland.

The Cleveland State Office building is just the latest government office to be hit with bed bugs

“The Lottery is working in conjunction with the building owner the Department of Administrative Services to treat what has been identified as a localized incident of bed bugs,” announced Ohio Lottery Spokesperson Danielle Frizzi-Babb this week.

“We responded immediately and have made arrangements for spraying of the area over the weekend. We will move forward with any other measures appropriate to the circumstances.”

The infestation in the Cleveland State Office building, on W. Superior is just the latest in a string of bed bug infestations in government buildings and offices all across the country; and another illustration of how ubiquitous the presence of bed bugs is becoming.

What makes these infestations noteworthy is that they buck the trend of what most people imagine bed bug problems to look like. For a start, there are no beds in the state office building!

But the truth is that the name “bed bug” is increasingly becoming a misnomer. Cimex lectularius, the Latin name for bed bugs, will go anywhere there’s food available – or, as is most likely the case in the Ohio Lottery office, anywhere they’re taken.

Because even a single gravid bed bug, secreted in the fold of a jacket, or the bottom of a bag, is enough to trigger a bed bug infestion; so one Ohio Lottery employee could easily – and inadvertently – started the problem by bringing bed bugs into work with them from home.

The infestation also illustrates that bed bug problems aren’t a matter of hygiene, as people still commonly believe. Both clean and dirty houses can fall victims to bed bugs. They’re more interested in a hot blood meal than the surroundings they’ll be living in.

When it comes to bed bug issues, homeowners have one advantage the Ohio state officials don’t – they can tackle the problem themselves. Increasingly, homeowners are getting better results, more quickly, safely and affordably, by using home bed bug treatments.

In addition to avoiding the embarrassment of having an exterminator’s truck outside your home, DIY home bed bug removal let you control every aspect of the application, right down to the treatment you use.

Natural alternatives to synthetic pesticides – like Nature’s Response 100% organic natural pesticides – offer a more effective bed bug treatment that is entirely safe for use with your family or pets.

The sad fact is that you’ve got significantly better odds of scoring a bed bug infestation of your own than winning the lottery. The good news is that at least you have tools at your disposal to deal with the problem effectively.

Kistler Elementary School, in Wilkes Barre Pennsylvania, has hit for news twice in the past two weeks – each time because of bed bugs discovered on pupil’s clothing.

Your kids could be bringing bed bugs to and from school

The scare highlights not just how prolific bed bug infestations have become, but also how easy they are to spread through vectors like schools and colleges.

“This being the second scare in the school, I think we need to take extra precautions,” warns Kistler parent Bruce Morris. “When our children leave our houses in the morning, when we pick them up from school, and when these kids get bussed to other places like the YMCA.”

Kistler Elementary cracked down with a bed bug spray treatment over the weekend, and made all students bag up their jackets and backpacks in plastic bags as a precaution – but many parents feel that it isn’t enough.

But how do you prevent bed bugs coming home with your kids? Here are some tips you might want to consider:

• Have your kids change as soon as they come home; and wash their school-wear in hot water, and tumble dry on high.
• Have your kids shower after school every day, making sure they shampoo their hair.
• Keep their school bag and jacket separate, in the porch or garage, to reduce the risk of bringing bugs inside.

Bed bugs can hitch a ride to school in jackets, scarves, book bags and gym gear.

You should also check with your children every day to make sure they haven’t been bitten by anything during the night. Bed bug bites are red and blotchy; and often appear in threes – indicating the signature “breakfast, lunch and dinner” feeding cycle of bed bugs.

If you hear of a bed bug outbreak at your school, don’t panic. Washing clothes, jackets and bags when your kids come home is often enough to help prevent bed bugs “graduating” to your home.

You can also use our 100% organic, all natural bed bug killer spray to treat book bags and other items.

You should also by sympathetic and understanding to parents who get hit by the bloodsucking bed bugs. Because bed bugs are so prolific, any family can get impacted by an infestation – it has no reflection on their cleanliness.

Treat them with support and sympathy and hopefully they will return they favor if you ever find yourself playing host to bed bugs.

And whether or not they’re tackling a bed bug problem, we recommend directing friends and parents to the all-natural bed bug killing products that are available to help them prevent or treat an infestation.

Rather than the expense and embarrassment of calling an exterminator, these products allow them to deal safely, effectively and affordably with bed bug infestation themselves.

Vintage clothing is a booming market – with velour jackets, bell-bottomed pants and classic fedoras recovered from your grandparent’s attic suddenly selling for big bucks online, or in downtown vintage clothing stores.

The clothes your parents wore are suddenly hip again.

But considering that buying even new clothes poses a risk for bringing home bed bugs, how do you avoid bed bugs when you’re shopping “vintage”?

Our resident Bed Bug Expert has the answers.

“You shouldn’t be overly concerned about buying vintage clothing,” he says, “but there are a few smart things you should do to make sure they don’t come with any unwanted visitors included.”

“First off, separate your new purchases of old clothes as soon as you come home. Keep them in a plastic bag until you’re ready to go through them – so if they do have bed bugs in them, you can keep them contained. After you’ve finished treating your new purchases, throw the bag into your outside trash as a precaution.”

“If your vintage clothing is robust enough, wash it on high heat and dry it for at least 45 minutes. This will kill bed bugs dead; and destroy their eggs.”

“For more delicate fabrics or clothing, put them in a plastic bag and store them in your freezer for no less than four days.” That’s normally long enough to kill bugs and their eggs. “Make sure the temperature is below freezing.”

A few precautions can make sure your vintage clothes don't come with bed bugs

“For added security, you can apply our 100% organic bed bug spray. It’s made from food grade ingredients and is safe to use on clothing.” Just be sure to test it on an inconspicuous patch of fabric first, as there is the chance it could discolor vintage clothing.”

A final solution for those with a lot of vintage clothing is to use our Tri Jet Fogger to treat an entire wardrobe of outfits all at once. The low density fog will penetrate every stitch, generally without discoloring the clothing.

“It’s a bit of a last resort,” our Bed Bug expert agrees, “but if you have an entire room full of vintage clothing you want to treat, it might be the fastest, easiest and most effective way of doing it.”

Vintage clothing stores take note!

Bed Bugs might seem like more of a widespread problem today than they’ve ever been – but mankind has been plagued by bloodsucking bed bugs almost as long as civilization has existed. Here are some of the old school bed bug treatments (and some more modern alternatives!)

Tudor-period beds were built high above the floor to prevent bed bugs climbing inside them.

The first mention of bed bugs is dated to 400 B.C., in the writings of ancient Greece – although archeologists believe that c. lectularius might have been biting people for far longer than that – even infesting the caves our early ancestors slept in.

The Romans complained about bed bugs in Pliny the Eldar’s Naturalis Historia – but enterprising apothecaries also collected them, and prescribed them to patients to treat snakebites and ear infections much like medical “experts” from ancient time would apply leeches to the sick and injured.

Following the dark ages, bed bugs again hit the headlines; seem as a rampant pest in medieval France and Germany. They were rarer in England – probably because of the cooler temperature – but London had its own infestation in 1666 when European bed bugs stowed away on French oak shipped to Great Britain to help rebuild after the Great Fire of London.

Bed bugs might have existed in the New World before European settlers first set foot there, but it’s difficult to know for sure – because on voyages both back and forth, passengers ships tended to be infested with the little bugs. Similarly, early American settlements had major bed bug problems from the start.

Traditional means of killing bed bugs involved spreading about a variety of natural plants, fungi and even other insects. Rumors were that black pepper and camphire could repel bed bugs – while other compounds had more proven success.

In fact, some of the medieval remedies for bed bugs – like oil from cedar wood and wild mint – are still used with great effectiveness today. Nature’s Response 100% organic bed bug pesticide spray uses cedar oil as one of the ingredients, and can immobilize bed bugs instantly, and kill bed bugs within minutes of contact.

In 19^th century Europe, wicker basketwork panels were erected around the bed at night, which trapped bed bugs inside them. They were then shaken outside the following morning. In the Balkans, the broad leaves of certain plants were scattered around the bed each night. These leaves had tiny, microcopic hairs on them which would trap bed bugs as they scurried across them. The following morning, the leaves (and the bed bugs they contained) could be swept up and burned.

In many ways, these techniques mirror the use of bed bug detectors and ClimbUp Insect Interceptors.

In fact, if history has taught us anything it’s that natural remedies remain the most effective way to combat bed bugs – although it’s only in the 21^st century that we’ve been able to harness this knowledge to create truly effective, natural bed bug killing products like Nature’s Response.