11/28/2012
People creeped-out by rising rates of bed bug infestations may be taking eradication too far, according to federal health officials alarmed by growing reports of pesticide misuse — and poisonings.
Between 2006 and 2010, there were 129 reports of people who suffered mild to serious health harms when outdoor pesticides were used indoors, according to a health advisory issued this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. One woman died.
“Many people are somewhat desperate to find any solution,” said Bernadette Burden, a CDC spokeswoman. “This is something they’re not used to. Oftentimes, they’re tempted to use any insecticide that they can get their hands on.”
That was certainly true for Melissa Constantinou, 25, a personal chef in Lowell, Mass., who was plagued with bedbugs last year. Her apartment was treated four times and she says the potential for health problems never entered her mind.
“Oh my gosh, it’s so emotionally disturbing,” she said. “I was willing to
do whatever it took. I didn’t think about the long-term effects at all.”
The problem is “an emerging national concern,” the health agencies said, citing data from the National Pesticide Information Center, where inquiries about bedbugs nearly doubled between 2007 and 2011. Nationwide, reports of bedbug infestations have been rising for years, the CDC says. Between January 2008 and April 2012, first-time service calls for bed bug treatment tripled, from about 100 to 300 requests a month, according to a survey conducted by Jeff White, technical director of the website BedBug Central.
Most of the problems arise when people use too much pesticide or apply it improperly, said David Stone, director of the NPIC, who monitors the data.
“A lot of them don’t understand that the label is the law,” said Stone. “This product should not be applied directly to the skin. That product should not be used on mattresses.”
Victims suffered typical symptoms of pesticide poisoning, including headache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, dizziness and muscle tremors.
In Ohio, in 2010, a family that included two parents, four young children and a roommate all became ill after an uncertified pesticide company used malathion to spray an apartment five times over three days. The pesticide malathion was not registered for indoor use and the crew applied it so liberally that the beds and floor coverings were saturated, according to a recent CDC account.
The death occurred when a 65-year-old North Carolina woman with heart and kidney problems became ill after liberal pesticide use. She and her husband sprayed all the walls and baseboards in the house with one kind of insecticide, used a different insecticide on the mattress and box springs, and opened nine cans of insecticide fogger. Two days later, they reapplied insecticides to the mattresses and box springs and opened another nine cans of a different fogger. The woman applied a flea and bedbug pesticide to her arms, sores on her chest and her hair before covering it with a plastic cap.
Two days after the second application of the pesticides, the woman’s husband found her unresponsive. She was hospitalized for nine days before her death, the CDC report said.
“Outdoor pesticides should not be used indoors under any circumstances,” ATSDR officials warn. Consumers must make sure to read the product labels carefully to make sure they’re registered with the Environmental Protection Agency and that they’re certified for indoor use.
“More importantly, follow the guidance and make sure you’re using the right pesticide and that you’re treating the right pest,” said the CDC’s Burden, who noted that bedbugs often can resemble other critters at different stages in their life cycle.

BY Roxanne Palmer | December 10 2012 4:00 PM
Bedbugs strike when you’re most vulnerable and prove resistant to most sprays, bug bombs and traps. Now, according to scientists, you can add another ineffective remedy to the reject pile: sonic devices.In a new paper published in the Journal of Economic Entomology, two researchers from Northern Arizona University pitted lab-raised bedbugs against four commercially available sound-based devices: the Transonic Pro, made by Chicago-based BIRD-X; the SonicIQ Ultrasonic pest repeller from SmartWorks; Pest Free, made by Orlando, Fla.-based ViaTEK; and the Riddex bed bug killer, from Global TV Concepts in Deerfield Beach, Fla.

The researchers created testing arenas for each device, consisting of two buckets connected by a middle chamber. One bucket contained the sonic device, while the other was left empty. There was also one control arena where neither bucket contained a sonic device. At the start of each experiment, the bedbugs were placed in the middle chamber between the arenas, and the ultrasonic device was turned on for half an hour.

Then, the scientists looked to see if the bedbugs responded to the devices. But they found that the bugs were neither repelled by nor attracted to the sounds of the repellers.

“Our results confirm that commercial devices producing ultrasound are not a promising tool for repelling bedbugs,” the authors wrote.

The researchers admitted there may be some limitations to their study — there were no chemical cues in the experimental arenas, so there was no way to see if the sound devices would have repelled bedbugs from the scent of a meal.

But the work does jive with previous studies showing that ultrasonic devices have little effect on other kinds of annoying insects. Some studies have even shown that sound-based devices can increase the number of cockroaches in rooms or aggravate mosquitoes and increase their biting, according to the paper.

One of the problems with making sonic devices aimed at bedbugs is that there is little known about their sensitivity to sound. Much work has been done on bedbug communication through pheromones, which can be used to attract mates, sound an alarm or start fights. Bedbugs are also known to use vision and touch to orient themselves.

Plus, it’s unclear what sorts of sounds would attract or repel bedbugs. Since they tend to live among humans, they are constantly exposed to our attendant sounds — breathing, snoring, even the hums and whirs of machinery like air conditioners, kitchen appliances and home electronics.

So while current sonic products seem to have no effect on bedbugs, it is possible that future devices could exploit low-frequency sounds like snoring to lure the critters toward some death trap.

“Future studies of bedbug bioacoustics may be served well by using low-frequency sounds produced by host species,” the authors wrote.

SOURCE: Yturralde et al. “Efficacy of Commercially Available Ultrasonic Pest Repellent Devices to Affect Behavior of Bed Bugs (Hemiptera: Cimicidae).” Journal of Economic Entomology published online ahead of print.

New research suggests bed bugs don’t have much taste for boozy blood and lay fewer eggs when their feedings contain alcohol.

This penchant for a sober meal could mean fewer bites for hosts who imbibe, a New York entomologist now studying at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln found.

“(Bed bugs) need a blood meal to grow and to molt and to reproduce,” Ralph Narain, the University of Nebraska Ph.D. candidate from Suffolk County, told the website LifesLittleMysteries.com. “And one of their main hosts are humans, and we consume a lot of (alcohol).”

Narain fed blood mixed with different levels of alcohol to groups of the bugs in his lab and presented his findings to the National Conference on Urban Entomology in Atlanta last week.

The bed bugs that fed on clean blood reportedly doubled their body mass and laid an average of 44 eggs each.

The more alcohol the bugs received, the less they grew. Those that drank blood laced with the most alcohol grew only 12.5 percent and laid only a dozen eggs, Life’s Little Mysteries reported.

Experts said it’s still too early to toast the findings as a new method to fight infestations: “If the bed bugs are still producing, they can cause an infestation. Twelve hatchlings are an infestation right there, and they could increase to a major infestation in about two or four weeks time,” exterminator Barry Pollack with Metro Bed Bug Dogs in New York told the Daily News.

“My business increases by 30% when the thermometer hits 80 degrees,” he said. “My biggest tips to people are to treat their luggage with rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle when they travel and don’t bring in any used furniture.”

THURSDAY, April 19 (HealthDay News) — Add bedbugs to your list of potential occupational health hazards. A new report reveals nearly half of the employees of a U.S. government office in Tennessee were bitten by the blood-thirsty invaders while at work.

A bedbug-detecting German shepherd confirmed the infestation at an unidentified building in Clarksville, Tenn., last September, and investigators concluded that at least 35 workers had suffered bites. Although one woman had bite marks all over her body, the bugs didn’t cause serious health problems, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report.

Bedbugs can easily expand their territory beyond bedrooms, said Michael Potter, professor of entomology at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. “They start in homes and beds, and as people move about, they get transported into office buildings, schools, libraries, movie theaters, retail stores, you name it.”

Clarksville, home to about 125,000 people in north Tennessee, is one of many cities combating bedbugs in nonresidential settings in recent years. Bedbug infestations have soared since 2000 across the United States, sending even customers of luxury hotels and upmarket clothing stores into a panic.

A 2011 survey of U.S. pest control companies found that 38 percent had responded to infestations at office buildings, up from 17 percent the year before. Treatments at schools and day-care centers rose to 36 percent from 10 percent, and visits to hospitals jumped from 12 percent of their jobs to almost one-third.

Bedbugs bite people, often at night, and become engorged with their blood. The bites cause welts, itching and swelling. However, bedbugs do not carry disease like some other insects.

The building in question serves children and has 76 employees, said Dr. Jane Baumblatt, a CDC epidemic intelligence services officer based in Tennessee. Employees began reporting bites and itching last June, she said, and the state health department responded.

Theories about the source of the bites included scabies and fleas. But a German shepherd, one of many dogs around the country trained to detect bedbugs, found them in cubicles and offices within the building, Baumblatt said. Also, dermatologists confirmed that the bites were from bedbugs.

Baumblatt interviewed 61 employees and found that 35 had suffered from bites, often on their legs. “It wasn’t that severe. It was more of a nuisance than anything,” Baumblatt said.

“The anxiety was that people didn’t know what it was,” she said. “Once people figured out they were bedbugs, they were relieved.”

The office brought in a pest control company to rid the office of bedbugs and performed steam cleaning, Baumblatt said.

Potter, the entomologist, said bedbugs prefer beds and stationary furniture such as couches and recliners because they don’t like disruption when they feed on people. But they may be transported to offices, day-care centers or myriad other locations in personal belongings such as backpacks, briefcases and purses.

Once an office becomes infested, managers may not want to tell workers in order to avoid a panic, he said. “In the best of all worlds, the office would inform the employees that some bedbugs have been spotted and they have a pest control company that’s hopefully involved in dealing with things,” he said.

The report was scheduled for presentation Tuesday at the CDC’s annual Epidemic Intelligence Services conference in Atlanta.

If you think that moving is easier than getting rid of bed bugs, think again. Unless you are leaving everything you own behind in your old residence, all you’re really accomplishing by moving is taking the bed bugs to a new location with you. It is always better to eliminate a bed bug infestation before you move. If you absolutely have to move, you need to take precautions as to not bring the bed bugs with you. If your infestation is mild and isolated to your bed, chances are you will be able to leave the bed bugs behind when you move.

Diligence in packing is the number one way to avoid bringing bed bugs with you when you move. There are some very simple, but very important steps you need to take while packing to ensure that you leave the bed bugs behind.

Purchase mattress encasements for each mattress and each box spring you will be taking with you on your move. Install them only on the day of the move.

Wash and dry all the clothing you are taking with you on the hottest dryer setting possible. Pack them in clear plastic bags labeled “CLEAN”.

Repeat the step above for all your linens, pillows and other plush or fabric items you will be taking with you. If the items are already clean just run them through the dryer for 20 minutes. It is the hot setting in the dryer that will kill the beg bugs.

Everything that cannot be laundered should be examined very closely for bed bugs and then packed away in plastic bags. Books, picture frames, small appliances, trinkets or decorations – anything at all that a bed bug could live in or that was present at an infested location.

If the infestation is mild, you can get away by very carefully inspecting all the items. Pay special attention to items that are near the bed. You can use a product labeled for bed bugs from your local hardware store and spray all cracks and crevices and screw holes on the bed frame and head board.

Another option for those items that were near the bed is treating them with Nuvon strips or Hot-Shot-No-Pest Strips. You will have to pack the items in a bag loosely and seal it with the strip inside. The bag will have to stay sealed for a minimum of two weeks for it to work. Longer than two weeks is ideal. Make sure you follow the label of any product you use.

If the couch has been used for sleeping or has any signs of bed bug activity it will be very difficult to ensure that it is free of bed bugs. A licensed pest control expert should be contacted to treat it for you.

When Moving Day finally does come around, there are some additional precautions that you need to take to be sure that you leave all the bed bugs behind. They include your pets as well as your family.

Bathe all pets on the day of your move. Keep them outside after their bath so they don’t go back in the infested home and pick up more bugs before you leave.

Make sure all your family members shower and put on clean clothes on your way to your new home. Pack the dirty clothes in a plastic bag labeled “DIRTY” to be washed later.

Make sure to empty all your furniture. Tables, cabinets, dressers – anything that has space to store things inside of it. Also remove all the drawers from any furnishings that have them. Take all the cushions off your couches and chairs. Once the furniture is as bare and empty as you can get it, inspect it thoroughly for bed bugs.

Before taking away your mattress and box spring install the encasements you have already purchased.

Aside from the precautions mentioned above, there are a few other things that you should do to make sure that the bed bugs you’re leaving behind do not become a problem for someone else. If allowed to spread, bed bugs can easily take over entire apartment complexes or duplexes very quickly.

Make sure your landlord or property manager knows there are bed bugs in the house or apartment you are leaving. They should contact a licensed pest control professional to have the unit properly treated as soon as it becomes vacant so that the bed bugs do not spread beyond that unit.

If you are throwing away any of your furniture that may be infested, destroy it so that it is not salvageable from the dumpster or curbside. This will prevent anyone else from bringing home with them the bed bugs that may be lurking inside of it.

The best defense against bed bugs is a good offense. Educate yourself about bed bugs by reading any informational material that you can find. Know what they look like, how they are spread and the living conditions they need in order to live and thrive. The more you know, the more prepared you are to stop bed bugs in their tracks before they have time to get started.

In July 2010, Adarien Jackson’s 6-year-old son, Kaden, began complaining of itchy bumps on his ankles. They soon turned into a rash and spread to his back, behind his ear, and on his eyelid.

The child’s pediatrician and dermatologists tried allergy drugs, diet changes, oils and oatmeal baths. But it wasn’t until months later that Jackson discovered the cause of the problem. Kaden’s twin brother, Kyler, began waking in the middle of the night, crying out, “Bugs are crawling on me!”

Jackson realized her sons’ beds — which she had recently purchased from a furniture store in Elkridge — were teeming with bedbugs, according to a lawsuit she filed in Anne Arundel County in December 2010.

On Thursday, a jury ordered Calidad Furniture & Linen Inc., the store that sold Jackson a pair of wood-frame beds, to pay Jackson and her sons $225,000 for the ordeal. It is one of the largest bedbug liability judgments in the country.

Multimillion-dollar lawsuits over bedbugs have become increasingly common as infestations have spread across the country and victims seek to hold landlords, hotels and retailers responsible for their exterminator bills and mental anguish.

But a public judgment is rare in bedbug liability cases. Lawsuits seeking millions of dollars in damages have received publicity in recent years, such as several filed against the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York. But most fade away with confidential settlements.

Jackson had visited Calidad in June 2010, as she prepared to move into a home she had recently purchased from her mother in Severn, the lawsuit says. She picked out bunk beds, mattresses and bedding for her sons and had them delivered to the suburban two-story home.

Two men arrived at the house a week later, in a truck bearing the Calidad name. They assembled the beds side by side, according to the lawsuit. The mattresses were loosely wrapped in plastic, and Jackson asked the delivery men to leave the plastic on to protect the mattresses from the occasional bed-wetting incident, the lawsuit says.

Within weeks, Jackson took Kaden to a pediatrician, who didn’t think the bumps and rashes on the child looked like insect bites. Concerned that it could be an allergic reaction from the plastic wrapping, Jackson removed it from the mattresses, the lawsuit says. The bumps began to spread up Kaden’s legs and back, and he was given Benadryl and prednisone to treat what everyone thought was allergies.

Jackson once noticed a small brown insect on the floor of her sons’ rooms while vacuuming but thought nothing of it. Once Kyler began complaining of crawling bugs, though, she became suspicious, the lawsuit says. She discovered the bugs at 2 a.m. one night in early October.

When Jackson and her mother later flipped the mattresses to inspect them, clumps of bedbugs were present on the underside and fell off, said Daniel Whitney, Jackson’s lawyer.

Calidad fought Jackson’s claims, at first denying her a refund and then seeking to settle after the lawsuit had been filed, said Gary Huggins, a Frederick lawyer who previously represented Calidad.

After the store went out of business early this year, Huggins said, he and Calidad signed an agreement with Jackson, giving up any defense of the lawsuit and leaving the damages up to the jury. But last month, lawyers for Calidad’s insurer moved onto the case.

They argued that the court filings Huggins and Calidad made admitting responsibility for the bedbugs were invalid, but a judge rejected the argument. Michael DeSantis, lawyer for the store’s insurer, could not be reached for comment, nor could Salah Alaboura, president of Calidad.

A jury of six women deliberated for 30 minutes before finding in favor of Jackson.

Jackson had only sought $150,000 in damages. That an Anne Arundel County jury raised the stakes is rare, Whitney said. County juries are known for being conservative with damage awards, he said.

Jackson’s award is the second-largest known to Whitney or Tom Campbell, an Alabama attorney who takes a large number of bedbug cases. In what is thought to be one of the largest judgments of bedbug liability, two siblings who sued a Motel 6 in Chicago were awarded $382,000 in 2002.

Campbell said he thinks part of the reason the bedbug “epidemic” persists is that few property owners, hoteliers and other targets of bedbug lawsuits are willing to spend the thousands of dollars it takes to eradicate the pests.

“They’re more interested in getting rid of complainers than getting rid of bedbugs,” Campbell said. “Until that attitude changes, those groups are just going to be spreading the problem rather than helping achieve a cure.”

For their part, property owners and managers, schools, hospitals and retailers are being encouraged to be vigilant about bedbugs. The National Pest Management Association suggests retailers develop policies for regular inspections, and isolate and examine returned items, spokeswoman Missy Henriksen said.

In the meantime, the problem is creating plenty of business for lawyers like Whitney and Campbell.

“I’d rather see this problem cured than create an additional source of revenue for plaintiffs’ lawyers like me,” Campbell said.

In most parts of the country, including Illinois, used mattresses can be resold as long as they meet certain labeling and processing requirements.

Also, in the City of Chicago, the law requires that deteriorated, secondhand, reconditioned, or altered products cannot be advertised or sold as new.
How to Know If You Are Buying a Used Mattress:

• By law, there must be a conspicuously posted label describing the contents of the
mattress and any bedding.
• The label must state whether the bedding is made from all new materials, or is made in whole or in part from secondhand material, otherwise called “refurbished.”
Requirements for selling refurbished mattresses:

• All used bedding must be taken apart by a refurbisher, and inspected for stains, pests, odors.
• No material or component of used bedding that is soiled, has odor, or is infested may be reused.
Consumer Tips:

• Ask if the retailer sells used or refurbished bedding.
• Look at the label attached to the mattress to know if you’re buying a new or a used mattress.
• If you’re looking to buy a new mattress, make sure your mattress has a “new”
mattress tag.
• Ask the retailer to write “new” on your sales receipt if you’ve been told you’re buying a new mattress.
• If you don’t see any tag, consider doing business with another retailer. Otherwise, you simply don’t know what you’re buying.
• Ask about the retailer’s return and refund policies, and get copies in writing.
Beware of Bed Bugs:

• When buying a used or refurbished mattress, the possibility of bed bugs arises.
• Bed bugs are small wingless insects that bite people and pets and do not transmit diseases.
• Their name comes from their preferred living quarters: mattresses, sofas and other furniture.
• A bed bug problem may not be detected in the store and typically begins after
bringing it home.
• Signs to watch out for are clusters of black specks on your mattress.
• Bed bugs have an oval body and range in color from white, to a golden brown
or orange.
• If you suspect bed bugs, take immediate action by contacting the retailer.

If you feel you have been a victim of fraud click to file a consumer complaint with the City of Chicago or call 311.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Bedbugs aren’t just sleeping with you. They’re sleeping with each other.

Researchers now say that the creepy bugs have a special genetic gift: withstanding incest.

It turns out that unlike most creatures, bedbugs are able to inbreed with close relatives and still produce generally healthy offspring. That means that if just a few bedbugs survive in a building after treatment, they repopulate quickly.

Coby Schal and Ed Vargo are entomologists at North Carolina State University, and they presented preliminary research on genetic diversity in bedbug populations on Tuesday in Philadelphia, at the annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

“We kept discovering the same thing. Within a given apartment, or even a given building, there was extremely low genetic diversity,” said Schal. “In most cases there’s just a single female that founded the population.”

Schal said that was a surprise, since an animal or insect population with limited diversity will usually build up and then crash, because genetic defects tend to magnify with inbreeding.

“But somehow bedbugs are able to able to withstand the effects of inbreeding, and do quite well,” he said.

The new research is important, said Zachary Adelman, an entomologist at Virginia Tech University who wasn’t part of the North Carolina State team.

“No one had looked at these things,” he said of the genetic makeup of bedbugs. “It’s pretty exciting.”

The researchers also found that while the community within a building tends to be similar, there are many different strains of bedbugs throughout the East Coast, suggesting that new colonies also get introduced through foreign travel or commerce.

“That means they’re coming into the country from lots of different places,” which means that the bedbug problem isn’t going to stop anytime soon, said Adelman.

Bedbugs — and other insects — develop resistance to insecticides. Schal said that if a treatment kills anything less than 100 percent of the bugs, the survivors will not only repopulate, but pass on the resistance they’ve developed to future generations.

Bedbugs are wingless, reddish-brown insects that bite people and animals to draw blood for their meals. Though their bites can cause itching and welts, they are not known to spread disease.

Another researcher notes that you have to discover a problem before you can treat it.

Rajeev Vaidyanathan of SRI International, a nonprofit research firm with headquarters in Silicon Valley, said he’s working on a quick, easy test so people can discover bedbugs before they get bitten.

Vaidyanathan said current technology comes down to spotting live or dead bedbugs, or using dogs to sniff them out.

So Vaidyanathan is trying to developing a biochemical test to identify bedbug-specific proteins that they leave behind, even when only a few bugs are present. Homeowners would swab a section of their home, and dip it in a special compound.

“A home pregnancy kit type of read-out. If there’s a color change, you have a bug,” he said, but it’s too early to say when or if the idea will make it to market.

“The problems we are seeing with bedbugs in North America did not happen overnight,” said Vaidyanathan. “We have the highest concentration in the history of our species of humans living in cities. Bedbugs do not have wings; they are nest parasites, so our own population density has helped them to thrive.”

Until about a decade ago, most people in the United States only knew about bedbugs through the seemingly dated phrase “Sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite.” But the bloodsucking parasites, which were largely eradicated by the mid-20th century, have roared back in all 50 states, and the bugs’ evolving resistance to insecticides is part of the reason for their resurgence. A new study gives the most complete picture so far of the adaptations some bedbugs have developed to thwart exterminators’ poisons.The pesky bugs, it appears, can pump out a stew of enzymes that destroy insecticides, according to the study out this week in the journal PLoS ONE. This newly described neutralizing mechanism is in addition to a mutation, which scientists revealed a few years ago, that alters the structure of bedbugs’ nerve endings and prevents common insecticides from binding to their nerves. Together, these defenses could form a one-two punch that protects bedbugs from exterminators’ chemicals.

“The enzymes we discovered in the context of this paper are essentially the initial line of defense in breaking insecticide down before it reaches the nerve,” Zach Adelman, lead author of the paper and an associate professor of entomology at Virginia Tech, says.

To figure out bedbugs’ defenses, Adelman and colleagues started by gathering a sample of bedbugs from Richmond, Va. The Richmond bugs had demonstrated strong resistance to a class of insecticides known as pyrethroids—the agents of choice for exterminators. Pyrethroids paralyze bedbugs by keeping open the sodium channels where nerves meet and communicate with one another. “The nerve will keep firing, and it can’t relax,” Adelman explains. The result: paralysis and eventual death.

The researchers also used some bedbugs that had been reared in a lab in Fort Dix, N.J., for decades, and had not been exposed to chemicals. When Adelman’s team blasted both sets of bedbugs with two different pyrethroid insecticides—one called beta-cyfluthrin and another deltamethrin—they found that the Richmond bugs could withstand 111 times the dose of the beta-cyfluthrin insecticide compared with the Fort Dix bugs, and a whopping 5200 times the dose of deltamethrin.

Clearly, the hearty Richmond bugs had adapted some strong defenses. Adelman and company found that the bugs possessed one of the two mutations in genes coding for their sodium channels that researchers had previously seen in populations of New York bedbugs that were also resistant to this class of insecticide. The mutation is analogous to camouflage—it’s as if the insecticides can’t recognize the nerve endings they typically target. Adelson’s group also saw that the Richmond bugs were producing far higher levels of suspected insecticide-busting proteins in the cytochrome P450 monooxygenase and carboxylesterase families.

With these identifications, Subba Reddy Palli, an entomologist at the University of Kentucky, thinks the study will help in bringing bedbugs to heel. “This paper is good progress toward understanding insecticidal resistance,” he says.

Now that Adelson’s team has identified the genetic sequences bedbugs use to make these detoxifying compounds, Adelman says scientists can check populations worldwide to see how far this defensive capability extends. That will be important for establishing surveillance of growing resistance, as well as for creating new strategies for controlling the critters. For example, he says, if it seems that only the Richmond bedbugs have the genetic mutations needed to crank out this particularly powerful cocktail of enzymes, exterminators should engage in an all-out assault to try to wipe out that bedbug population before it spreads.

The arms race against bedbugs and other insects mirrors the battle with bacterial “superbugs” that have developed antibiotic resistance, such as those that cause staph and tuberculosis. Indeed, bedbugs have a long history of developing defenses against our chemical warfare agents. Bedbug “superbugs” first emerged in the 1950s. DDT (which was banned in 1972 because of human health concerns) wiped out most native bedbug populations in the U.S. by 1950. But some bedbugs survived, developing resistance to it, and later, organophosphate insecticides such as malathion.

Now pyrethroids are losing their effectiveness. “We have all these bedbugs we’ve chased from one chemistry to another,” Dini Miller, a co-author of the study, an urban-pest management specialist for the state of Virginia, and a professor at Virginia Tech, says.

Yet the identification of bedbugs’ enzymatic countermeasures could ultimately provide exterminators with fresh ammunition. Besides insecticides, exterminators use a range of methods, including cold air, steam, and vacuums. But these repeated treatments can add up to hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Rejiggering conventional insecticides might still do enough damage to keep bedbugs at bay. “We can look at formulating things in new ways and get better penetration into these bedbugs,” Miller says.

Down the road, scientists can base next-generation insecticides on chemicals substantially unlike those that bedbugs have already mastered disarming. Adelman says: “We can come back to the bugs and say, ‘We have a chemical you can no longer deal with given your arsenal. Now try this on for size.’”

New offensive weapons can’t come too soon, as the spread of these brownish or reddish bloodsucking insects has residents of heavy-hit urban areas such as New York City on edge. “Bedbugs don’t kill you,” Adelman says, “but they can drive you crazy.”

ABC Local: Anti-bed bug weapons on display in Rosemont

September 26, 2011 (CHICAGO) (WLS) — Bed bugs have become an increasing problem at hotels across the country. This week, dozens of experts invaded Chicago to gather for a summit about how to deal with those pesky bugs. They have some innovative ways to get rid of them.

They are adaptable and not all pesticides work on them. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cautions residents to get professional help for bed bugs. The agency found over 100 people got sick and one woman died after using bed bugs pesticides.

Experts in town this week are swapping information about the latest techniques to keep bed bugs at bay.
The little guys are the stuff of nightmares. Bed bugs can range from the size of a sesame seed to the size of an apple seed. Their food source is you — so what better place to get to you than those overnight hours when we’re sleeping? It’s a veritable buffet for the bugs. As disturbing as that notion may be, they are not life threatening.

“There is awareness of this pest, but people are freaked out and the wrong messages are sticking,” said bed bug central/entomologist Allison Taisey.

Pest control specialists will swarm Rosemont for the next two days for the Bed Bug University North American Summit.

To start, there are special detections devices. There is a kind of coaster for your bed leg: the bugs can crawl in but can’t crawl out. There is an active monitor, which emits heat and CO2 like a person, irresistible to bed bugs.

Mattress and bed spring covers will allow you to see the bugs, as there are no nooks and crannies to hide.

Heat has proven effective if the item or area is heated to 120 degrees for an hour.
There are portable heaters for rooms.
And there is a device to kill any bed bugs you make have picked up on your journey.

Experts say the key to detecting and controlling the bugs is getting professional help.

“They’re really hard to find for one thing, and the products we have available to us&it takes a trained professional to use them,” said Taisey.

The Safer Pest Control Project has been monitoring pest activity in the Chicago area for 17 years. The project reports bed bugs are particularly a problem in multiple-dwelling structures — public and private.

The project’s executive director says, while the beds bug may not lead to the health problems of other pests, controlling these particular bugs can be more expensive.

“bed bugs, they don’t discern between any economics, cleanliness. It’s like, you are the food, so you are like the most delicious thing they’ve ever met. They need you to survive,” said Safer Pest Control’s Rachel Lerner Rosenberg.

The bugs can be hard to see. The marks can be hard to see. And some people don’t react to bed bugs — so some people may not know they have been bitten.

Some good things to know: they don’t fly, they don’t jump and they are not known to carry disease.

City of Chicago
http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/bacp/supp_info/bed_bug_information.html

Chicago Daily Herald: Bed Bugs at Lombard Hotel Send Woman to Hospital

Carrie Brown thought it was one mean and hungry spider that was biting her — and biting her and biting her — during her stay at a Lombard hotel.

A letter she received from TownePlace Suites Chicago Lombard, where she began staying Aug. 21, informed her “a bedbug” was found in the room, and confirmed as such by Ecolab, a Minnesota-based company that specializes in cleaning, sanitizing, infection control and food safety.

Brown’s estimated 50 bedbug bites itched and swelled so much that on Wednesday, she had a friend drive her to Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove, where she was admitted for treatment of an infection called cellulitis.

“One (bite) on my leg got infected to the point where I couldn’t walk or stand on it,” said Brown, 42, of Los Angeles, Calif.

Bedbug bites are a relatively uncommon occurrence among patients at Good Samaritan Hospital, said Dr. Pranjal Shah, an internal medicine doctor and attending physician. The hospital will see about one patient a month with the bites, which usually can be treated with an antihistamine, he said.

Infections occur in rare cases when scratching at the bite allows bacteria to enter the body, Shah said.

“What happens while scratching it is that you break down the skin around it,” Brown said. “Once the bacteria that are normally present over the skin and other bacteria can get into that and that’s how you would get an infection.”

After noticing the first bites Aug. 23, Brown said she tried treating the itch with Benadryl. But she couldn’t sleep. She couldn’t avoid scratching the welts. And she just kept getting more of them.

A longtime friend who was staying in the same room and sleeping in the same bed as Brown found a bug in the bed Aug. 27, snapped a photo of it to show to hotel staff and killed it. The friend, however, has not gotten any bedbug bites, Brown said.

Each person’s body responds differently to bug bites of all kinds, Shah said. So it’s possible Brown’s friend also was bitten but did not react to the bites.

When a person is bitten by bedbugs, Shah recommends washing clothes and inspecting all personal belongings for small bugs as soon as possible. The hospital and hotel took the same precaution with Brown’s belongings, having them sanitized to prevent bedbugs from spreading and others from being bitten.

A representative of the Marriott-owned TownePlace Suites Chicago Lombard said he would issue a statement in an email, but the Daily Herald has yet to receive the email.

The infected bites and overnight hospital stay caused Brown to miss two and a half days of a cake-decorating class at Woodridge-based Wilton Enterprises. The class was the reason for Brown’s stay in Lombard.

She said she saved up for the class and was excited to share her new cake-decorating skills with students at the middle school where she teaches.

Brown said doctors told her she should be released tday and free to fly home. But she’s unsure if she’ll be able to teach right away or how much continued treatment her infected bedbug bites will need.

“It’s just unfortunate. I can barely stand,” she said. “I don’t teach from my chair; that’s not me.”

But as a teacher, Brown said she wants to let people know it’s important to check for bedbugs when sleeping in a hotel bed.

Organizers of the first National Bed Bug Awareness Month that began Thursday, Sept. 1 and the North American Bed Bug Summit scheduled for Sept. 25-27 in Chicago are trying to spread the same message.

Bed Bug Central, an information source about the insect run by entomologists, suggests keeping luggage closed and away from the bed while staying at a hotel. A list of bed bug-free travel tips on the site also suggests checking the bed’s linens, mattress and box springs for any signs of live bugs or dark brown to black spots.

“I’ll check now. I’ll lift the sheets; I’ll check mattresses,” Brown said. “I’ll be more careful in the future.”

Fox Chicago:Bed Bugs Take Over Senior Housing Complex

East Chicago, Ind. – Bed bugs have taken over a public housing complex for senior citizens in East Chicago.

Residents of the John Nicosia Housing Complex packed a meeting on Wednesday night, complaining that the bed bug problem popped up eight months ago. Now, 98 percent of the apartments inspected by the East Chicago Health Department ware infested with bed bugs, and the health department has not yet hired an exterminator.

“It was allowed to perpetuate. About eight months ago, I spoke with a manager about the first case I heard about to my knowledge and I asked her to get it under control. Nothing happened,” said resident Sherlene Lowe.

Now the bed bug problem is out of control, with residents taking cell phone videos of bed bugs and showing off red welts on their arms.

Residents said the infestation happened because some were scared to report the issue for fear of being billed hundreds of dollars for extermination services.

I don’t know that any will be displaced yet, we have not procured an exterminator yet. As I said, we have to review each contract to see what is most healthy for residents and what’s going to be most effective,” said Diana Garcia-Burns, director of the East Chicago Health Department.

Garcia-Burns said she’d meet again with the housing authority on Thursday. The extermination companies need at least week to mobilize their team before they can begin service.

NBC Chicago: Stores Selling Bedbug-Infested Mattresses, Says City

At least five stores in the Chicago area sold new or refurbished mattresses containing bedbugs, city officials said Thursday.

The stores include Mike’s Furniture, Best Mattress Company, TC Furniture, and Guadalajara Furniture. One of the stores, Best Mattress Company, has been shut down.

City officials launched the investigation after receiving a litany of complaints from itchy and sleep-deprived customers.

“This is an issue of taking advantage of consumers,” said Commissioner Norma Reyes with the city’s Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection. “Particularly the most-vulnerable consumers in the City of Chicago — seniors and people with limited income.”

In the process of investigating the mattress stores, investigators found hundreds of mattresses being refurbished in unsanitary conditions. Many of the mattresses were also improperly labeled or not labeled at all, which is a violation of Illinois law.

“In Illinois, a mattress cannot be sold unless it is labeled new, and if it was refurbished, it must say it’s been refurbished,” said Reyes.

One of the affected customers, Yvette Davis, said she began itching two weeks after buying a mattress and box spring from Mike’s Furniture last June. Dozens of bug bites cover her body, she says.

“I knew something was wrong because I was getting bitten too many times and it wasn’t no mosquitoes,” said Davis.

After calling the store to complain, they agreed to send over a replacement set. Shortly after it arrived, she said, there were more bugs and more bites.

But at least Chicago’s not the worst off in the Midwest. On Thursday, the state of Ohio asked for emergency protection to fight their own infestation.

Chicago Tribune: Don’t let the bedbugs bite your association

Friday, January 28, 2011
By Pamela Dittmer McKuen, Special to the TribuneJanuary 28, 2011
Here’s another expense community associations need to add to their budgets: bedbug inspections. Long believed to be almost extinct, these pesky little night-biters have returned with a vengeance and are headed for a mattress near you.

Bedbug infestations in recent years have increased dramatically in all 50 states, according to the National Pest Management Association, which tracks the critters. In a 2010 survey, 95 percent of responding pest-control professionals reported treating bedbugs during the previous year. In 2000, the number was 25 percent.

Last summer, Terminix pest-control service ranked Chicago as the fifth-most bedbug-infested city in the country.

Missy Henricksen, the pest management association’s spokeswoman and vice president of public affairs, cited possible causes of the invasion: People are traveling more often and also to far-flung locations, and some are bringing the pests home. Also, many bedbug strains have grown resistant to the pesticides available to treat them.

The most common species of bedbugs, scientifically known as Cimex lectularius, are small, brown, nocturnal parasites about the size of an apple seed. Mostly, they thrive on human blood. They hide out until they are hungry but can go a year without food. You might not suspect their presence unless you wake up with reddish welts on your skin.

Bedbugs are especially problematic in condominium buildings, said Sara Kantarovich, technical director and entomologist for Smithereen Pest Management Services, in Niles.

She explained: Bedbugs lurk everywhere, but they are especially attracted to environments inhabited by large groups of people, their primary food source. Those environments include apartments, condominiums, hotels, hospitals and assisted-living centers. Bedbugs easily travel from unit to unit through electrical outlets, under baseboards, across hallways, in luggage and on clothing.

“In an apartment building, one owner has the authority to enforce bedbug services or inspections,” she said. “In a condo building, there’s no one authority who can enforce those kinds of procedures.”

“They want to keep things quiet,” she said. “They fear that if word gets out, the value of their property will decrease.”

Condo dwellers will be relieved to learn that bedbugs are not indicative of poor housekeeping, unlike the presence of German cockroaches and other scavengers, she said.

“People are stigmatized, but this is not a sanitation issue,” she said. “You can be the cleanest person on earth or live in a $10million condo. Bedbugs do not see lines of socioeconomic class.”

A cluttered home doesn’t invite bedbugs, but it does provide more hiding places that make treatment more difficult, she said.

Another reassurance is that bedbugs don’t transmit disease. However, they do cause health problems such as varying degrees of skin irritation, stress, anxiety and insomnia, said Henricksen.

Getting rid of the pests is difficult but not impossible. Treatment methods depend on how widespread the infestation is. Among the options are high heat, freezing temperatures, high-powered vacuuming, steam and pesticides, often used in combination. Heavy infestations require more treatments than light ones. Prices range from a few hundred dollars to treat a small infestation to thousands of dollars for a large, stubborn one.

“A lot of things can kill bedbugs,” she said. “You can pour things on them. You can step on them and squish them. But unless you get in to the walls where they are hiding and reproducing, you’re not treating the problem.”

“They are one of our most challenging pests,” Kantarovich said. “It’s not like you can put (poison) down, walk away and they are dead. I would take roaches and ants and rats any day of the week over bedbugs.”

The professionals said the best control is frequent inspections of common areas and residential units. If an infestation is found in one unit, the entire building doesn’t have to undergo treatment, but surrounding units should be inspected.

“Condo buildings that are the most successful with their elimination strategies often have a strong board who is willing to mandate regular inspections,” Kantarovich said. “The sooner they start, the more successful they will be.”

Learn more about bedbugs on the National Pest Management Association’s website, pestworld.org.

WSJ: Why Bedbugs Won’t Die

By ROBERT LEE HOTZ

The first comprehensive genetic study of bedbugs, the irritating pests that have enjoyed a world-wide resurgence in recent years, indicates they are quickly evolving to withstand the pesticides used to combat them.

The new findings from entomologists at Ohio State University, reported Wednesday online in PLoS One, show that bedbugs may have boosted their natural defenses by generating higher levels of enzymes that can cleanse them of poisons.

In New York City, bedbugs now are 250 times more resistant to the standard pesticide than bedbugs in Florida, due to changes in a gene controlling the resilience of the nerve cells targeted by the insecticide, researchers at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst recently reported.

The findings add to a growing body of evidence from molecular-biology studies that bedbugs have recently evolved at leastthree improved biochemical defenses against common pesticides. Bedbugs today appear to have nerve cells better able to withstand the chemical effects, higher levels of enzymes that detoxify the lethal substances, and thicker shells that can block insecticides.

“These bugs have several back doors open to escape,” said evolutionary entomologist Klaus Reinhardt at the University of Tuebingen in Germany, who was familiar with the new research butn’t involved in the projects. “Simple spraying around of some pesticides may not [be enough] now or in the future.”

In an era of antibiotic-resistant infections and herbicide-resistant weeds, the ability of bedbugs to survive once-lethal doses of insecticides is the newest evidence that efforts to eradicate pests that plague humankind may make some of them stronger. It is a key reason for the spread of bedbugs in the past decade, several researchers who study them said.

Well-adapted to homes, hotels and dormitories, these tiny blood-sucking parasites usually hide in mattresses, bed frames and furniture upholstery. Bedbugs feed every five to 10 days, leaving painful welts on the skin and sometimes triggering allergic reactions.

Laboratory tests in the U.S., Europe and Africa show today’s bedbugs can survive pesticide levels a thousand times greater than the lethal dose of a decade or so ago. “There is a phenomenal level of resistance,” said bedbug entomologist Michael Siva-Jothy at the University of Sheffield in the U.K. “It has evolved very recently.”

Since the pesticide DDT was banned starting about 40 years ago, people usually have treated bedbug infestations with pesticides based on a family of compounds called pyrethroids, usually deltamethrin or lambda-cyhalothrin, synthetic versions of chemicals found in chrysanthemum blossoms.

There are few chemical alternatives, because the residential market for insecticides is relatively small, and the cost of development, safety tests and regulatory approval is relatively high, several researchers said. Since the bugs don’t transmit any serious infectious diseases, there also is little medical funding to research new control measures.

Repeated applications of the same insecticides act as a form of natural selection for bedbugs. Any surviving insects pass on traits to their offspring and to succeeding generations.

“Insect resistance is nothing more than sped-up evolution,” said insect toxicologist John Clark at the University of Massachusetts, who led the research team there.

By analyzing thousands of RNA sequences—the biochemical record of the parasite’s genetic activity—entomologist Omprakash Mittapalli and his Ohio State colleagues found that bedbugs exposed to pesticides showed unusually high levels of activity among those genes controlling enzymes able to turn the toxic chemicals into water-soluble compounds that can be safely excreted.

“When we mined our database for these specific genes, we found that the bedbug has quite a few of these enzyme systems,” Dr. Mittapalli said.

They all belong to a major family of enzymes called cytochrome P450 that act as a catalyst for a broad range of chemical reactions and are implicated in pesticide resistance in other insect species.

In addition, an independent analysis of bedbugs by researchers at Virginia Polytechnic Institute in Blacksburg, Va., suggests that other genetic changes may be giving the insects sturdier hides that can keep these chemicals from penetrating their exoskeletons.

Moreover, resistance to chemicals designed to kill the bugs can become a permanent part of their genetic inheritance. Researchers at the University of Kentucky showed that bedbugs, sampled at a half-dozen U.S. locations, remain relatively immune to DDT generations after the chemical was banned for general household use.

“We have changed the genetic make-up of the bedbugs we have in the United States,” said urban pest-management specialist Dini Miller at Virginia Tech. “That’s what I call unnatural selection.”

The researchers hope that a fundamental understanding of the insect’s biochemistry will lead one day to more lasting control measures.

“This is an important first step,” said Barry Pittendrigh, an expert in insect genomics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Resurgence of pest is driving Chicago buggy

Dana Strong lies awake every night wondering if bedbugs are crawling up her bed and onto her sheets. She scratches imaginary bites and tosses and turns on her new mattress, which has a plastic cover to keep out the bloodsucking parasites.

“It’s horrible,” Strong said. “I haven’t slept in weeks.”

Her ordeal started about a month ago when she spotted black dots on her bed in her Albany Park apartment. She looked closer. The dots were small bugs. She froze.

“I started freaking out,” Strong said. “We had them.”

With concern about the bedbug resurgence reaching a fever pitch across the country, Chicago’s own battle with the pests continues, with almost double the number of tenant complaints to the city’s help line this year as compared to last.

The resurgence of bedbugs in recent years has spurred a pest-fighting industry, as well as confusion over how to get rid of the bugs.

Officials have launched awareness campaigns on how citizens can help control the infestation, and committees and task forces are investigating what cities should do. In July, New York City allocated $500,000 to create a bedbug Web site and improve training of city inspectors and exterminators.

It is hard to say with certainty how Chicago ranks among cities in bedbug problems.

Bedbugs are not known to carry disease and therefore aren’t a public health risk, so federal agencies don’t track the complaints. Some cities are keeping track of tenant complaints to 311 help lines, but those tallies don’t account for homeowners, hotels or retail businesses that might also be dealing with the pest.

In Chicago, bedbug complaints to the city’s 311 help line increased by about 76 percent in the last year, with 1,478 made between Sept. 1, 2009, and Aug. 31, compared with 842 in the same period the year before.

Chicago’s Metropolitan Tenants Organization, a nonprofit renters rights group, has also seen an increase in calls. In 2009, it received 206 calls about bedbugs — about 200 more than the year before. So far this year, the organization has received 150 calls.

In July, Gov. Pat Quinn signed a bill creating a bedbug committee to determine the extent of the city’s pest problems. That committee has until the end of next year to come up with recommendations on the prevention, management and control of bedbug infestations.

Next week, a number of companies are sponsoring a bedbug summit in Rosemont. Last year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s first-ever bedbug summit in Arlington, Va., drew about 300 participants.

Despite the jump in bedbug complaints, pests such as cockroaches, ants and mice remain at the top of people’s grievances, said Sara Kantarovich, an entomologist for Niles-based Smithereen Pest Management. For example, bedbug calls to the Metropolitan Tenants Organization amount to 2 percent of all complaint calls.

Still, bedbugs have a way of crawling into people’s psyche, experts say. The fear the bugs will bite at night can cause stress, fear and insomnia. People start feeling that bedbugs are omnipresent and can’t be escaped, said Lynne Knobloch-Fedders, a clinical psychologist with The Family Institute at Northwestern University. Some people develop nightmares or wake up at night believing they feel the bloodsuckers crawling on them, when, in fact, most people can’t feel such a thing, she said.

“It’s (the feeling of) helplessness and lack of control that’s at the core of all anxiety,” Knobloch-Fedders said.

The parasites can carry a stigma, with some people believing that only dirty homes can get infested. But in reality, bedbugs can hitch rides into any residence on luggage or old furniture, or in used clothing.

Feeding on the bedbug frenzy, dozens of companies in Chicago and around the nation are now selling luggage covers, college kits and a litany of other bug-fighting products. Some companies offer trained dogs that smell the scent of bedbugs and point out their hiding places.

Despite the increased spotlight on bedbugs, or Cimex lectularius, they’re hardly a new nuisance. They have most likely been around for as long as there have been humans, said Philip Nixon, an entomologist with the University of Illinois Extension.

In the U.S., their population dropped dramatically during the 1950s through the use of DDT, but they were never eradicated. Their comeback is attributed to several factors, including a resistance to pesticides, an increase of travel and a lack of awareness, experts say.

They were out for so long, Nixon said, that a generation of people don’t know what they are or how to deal with them. For instance, some people think that bedbugs can fly. They can’t. But they can crawl fairly rapidly to hide in mattresses, box springs and bed frames. Most worrisome, bedbugs can live for months without feeding. And, female bedbugs deposit one to two eggs per day and hundreds over a lifetime, which makes it hard to get rid of them.

Some experts warn against trying to eradicate bedbugs with heavy use of pesticides, however. Overuse could put people’s health at risk, and may not kill the bugs, but instead send them fleeing for refuge in other rooms or apartments.

“I often have to tell people to remain calm so that they don’t panic and make bad decisions,” said Rachel Rosenberg, the executive director of Safer Pest Control Project, a Chicago-based group dedicated to reducing the use of pesticides.

Some of those bad decisions also include throwing away furniture that could be salvaged or moving before exterminating the bugs. The only way to effectively control the parasites is to use a multi-method approach, which includes vacuuming, heat-treating clothing and furniture and using pesticides that explicitly say they kill bedbugs, according to the EPA.

Strong, the woman from Albany Park, has spent more than $3,000 trying to get rid of the pests. Her landlord called an exterminator, but the bugs endured. So she threw away her bed and her son’s as well, put their clothes in plastic bags, sealed her front door with duct tape and armed herself with a vacuum cleaner, a carpet steamer and a flash light. Now she constantly patrols crevices and corners and rubs alcohol on the walls to keep them away.

“It’s the worst thing that could happen to anybody,” said Strong, 32.

She washes laundry every two days, dragging her and her son’s clothes out in plastic bags to keep the bedbugs from infesting her car. A fruitless effort — they’re in her car now too.

After a recent trip to the laundromat, her son Matty, 4, showed off his toy race car. “Doesn’t have bugs!” he said.

He hasn’t been so lucky. “They bit me,” he said, lifting up his shirt to show the red marks on his tummy.

Strong hopes to find a new apartment as soon as she can — one without her bloodsucking roommates.

—Alejandra Cancino