Category Archives: Bed Bugs Texas

No matter where you are on planet Earth, you could have to deal with bed bugs. They are one of the most pervasive and difficult to kill bugs in the world. These blood-sucking critters can cause skin rashes, allergic symptoms, blisters, itching, and even have psychological effects. Contrary to popular belief, bed bugs do not discriminate in whose bed they infect; cleanliness is not a factor when contracting bed bugs. Its possible to have the cleanest sheets in the world and stillfind yourself with these unwanted pests.

Bed bugs plague the rich and the poor, the clean and the dirty, the old and the young. They are survivors, needing to feed only once every five to seven days, which means they can spend the rest of their time wriggling between cracks in mattresses and the comfort of your sheets. Bed bugs can even live for an entire year without feeding once.

Only one female bed bug is needed to cause a full-scale infestation. Over the course of three months, a single female bed bug can produce thousands of offspring. She may leave eggs in your bed, in your mattress, your liner, your pillowcases. When they hatch, they go on to breed more bugs and cause an even larger problem.

Beg bugs like to hide in cracks and crevasses, preferring rough materials like unfinished wood, drywall, and cloth. They know how to make themselves scarce to protect themselves and they know how to swarm. Each bed bug has six life stages and requires a meal of blood to advance to the next stage.

Killing bed bugs can prove most difficult with many over-the-counter options being ineffective. The best way to get rid of bed bugs is to expose the entire infestation to concentrated heat. Thats why Bed Bugs Texas offers heat treatment rental packages for use in your home. Theyre safe, sanitary, and get the job done. Contact us to learn more today.

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Bed Bug Control Service| Bed Bug Information & Treatment ...

Killing Bed Bugs is Hard Work, both Mentally and Physically

Bed bugs are hard to exterminate because the treatment process, which begins with a thorough inspection, is more complicated than for most other insects. Every step, from start to finish, requires skills honed to a degree unmatched in any other field of pest management. Those skills come from training and experience, and must be backed up with effective treatment methods, specialized treatment equipment, sophisticated protective clothing, and personal commitment.

So, mentally, those engaged in bed bug inspections and treatments must be at the top of their class. To the surprise of many, the same also applies to the physical demands of this work. A bed bug inspector who does nothing beyond pulling back the bed clothes, shining a flashlight into a few dark corners, and looking under the bed and at the baseboards, isnt worthy of the title. Real bed bug inspectors sweat. Real bed bug inspections are among the most physically demanding jobs known in the pest management business.

To conduct a valid bed bug inspection the inspector must lift and closely examine every surface, seam, and crevice of the largest, heaviest, most unwieldy mattresses and box springs manufactured. While doing that, the inspector must make sure nothing besides the inspectors gloves contacts the mattress, box springs, or bed frame. Sloppy inspectors contaminate themselves with bugs and eggs while inspecting. Later they carry bed bug infestations from one inspection to the next, as well as to all the places they visit in between, including their offices, their homes, and the places where they shop. Thats not conducive to good public relations.

And the Risks are High, Too

Imagine youre a bed bug inspector/exterminator, standing in line at a coffee shop, when the customer next to you says, in a very loud voice: Hey, is that a bed bug on your sleeve? Youre an exterminator, right? Did you just come from a place infested with bed bugs? The manager of the coffee shop overhears, comes over, sees the bug the customer is pointing to and ushers you out of the shop. There the manager pauses to write down your name and the name of your company. Now imagine, a week or two later, getting a call from that manager informing you the coffee shop has become infested with the bed bugs that you brought into the place, and asking, in an angry voice, What are you going to do about it?

Get the point? If you are a homeowner doing a bed bug inspection in your own bedroom, the same cautions apply to you, as well. Every surface of those articles of furniture, and of any associated bed frames, headboards, footboards, sofas, divans, dressers, etc., must be examined closely from every visible angle, without getting a single bed bug on your clothing in the process. That means lifting mattresses and box springs off the bed and carefully turning them successively through 360 degrees of rotation, all the while peeling back, illuminating, and inspecting every seam, every crack, and every crevice to avoid missing the small, isolated and well-hidden groupings of bed bugs typically present with fresh infestations. The bed frame must then be dismantled it is impossible to inspect the cracks where the pieces mate unless you take everything apart and examined with the same care, as must the remaining articles of furniture in the area suspected of being infested.

An inspector unwilling or incapable of safely and carefully performing such physically demanding work cannot claim to perform effective bed bug inspections. Thats important, because the results of poorly performed inspections are costly, for everybody.

Bed bug treatments require similar, if not more strenuous bouts of sheer physical exertion as inspections. When I finish either a bed bug inspection or a full treatment Im usually soaked in perspiration even in the midst of winter and look like Ive just run a marathon. For that reason, I dress for the job year-round as though preparing for a long hike up a mountain trail, with mountaineer-tested polyester undershirts and shorts that wick enough of the perspiration away so I dont look like a drowned rat when Im done.

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Call EntomoBiotics Inc. at: (512) 331-1111 forquestions about, or help with, your or your customers bed bug issues.

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Training Never Ends

The typical telephone call about bed bugs starts with Hi, I have bed bugs. Do you treat for them? The first question I ask the caller is Are you sure you have bed bugs? Much of the time the caller answers with Yes, Im 100% sure. My doctor says my bites are from bed bugs or Ive seen the bugs, and they look exactly like the ones I found on the Internet.

Yet, even when the caller is 100% certain they have bed bugs, 30-40% of the time, the resulting bed bug inspection finds zero bed bugs and no visible evidence of their presence.

Granted, on rare occasions bed bugs are actually present but cannot be found even after conducting a thorough, well-done inspection. Most of the time, though, when a thorough inspection fails to find bed bugs, something else besides bed bugs is causing the sufferers skin lesions or showing up on or in the bed.Im often presented with specimens of bugs collected by homeowners from their beds and bedrooms. Most are 100% certain the specimens are bed bugs, yet on examination they turn out to be something else entirely. But thats no reflection on the homeowners; insect identification is not quite as simple as it looks.

Not all Skin Lesions are Caused by Bed Bugs

As pointed out later in this article, it is difficult to impossible to identify the cause of a skin lesion just by examining the outward features of the lesion. Patterns of lesions on a persons body dont provide conclusive evidence of the cause, either.Skin lesions that look like bed bug bites can be, and often are, caused by a number of other agents or organisms. It is important to get to the bottom of the actual cause. Just knowing how to identify bed bugs is not enough.

Successful bed bug inspectors must be skilled, not only in finding and identifying bed bugs, but also at finding and identifying practically all the non-bed-bug organisms and agents that may also cause human skin lesions. That, alone, requires a depth and breadth of knowledge, training, experience, and commitment that goes far beyond that needed solely to inspect for and treat bed bugs.

Many companies ignore this and assign inexperienced, poorly trained personnel to perform bed bug inspections and treatments. Others assign personnel to this work whose training and experience appears adequate but whose level of personal commitment is below par. The inspector must be operating at 100% efficiency, mentally and physically, at every inspection. Cutting corners, taking it easy just once out of 100 inspections can spell disaster. Whenever a bed bug inspection or treatment is performed, the individual who signs off on the work must be ready, willing, and able to take full responsibility for following through and ensuring the client is fully satisfied with the result.

Why Many Pest Managers Dont Inspect for or Treat Bed Bug Infestations

Not every pest management firm is willing to subject itself or its employees to the risks that come with inspecting for and treating bed bugs. Those who opt out of that field are often the best and most reputable pest management firms around when it comes to general pest management work. They are also some of the best companies to work for, because they refuse to subject their employees to the risks and overtime commitments that typically go along with bed bug work.

Others specialize in handling pest management issues, like bed bugs, with which most companies wisely prefer not to deal. All those who do bed bug inspections and treatments discover, sooner or later, the importance of making a positive confirmation of the existence of bed bug infestations before treating. Many do not, and pay high penalties for failing to do so. Of those that do, only a few are sufficiently well-versed in finding and identifying the other organisms and agents that can produce skin lesions capable of mimicking bed bug bites. The result is thatmany pest management companies find themselves regularly treating homes for bed bugs when no bed bugs are present. For a while that may even seem like a good financial model. If 30-40% of the time no bed bugs are present, pretending they are and treating for them brings in more revenue. Until, that is, the treatment failures begin to mount up. And, trust me, they will.

As I pointed out in an earlier article, the outward manifestation of a skin lesion is often more a function of the sufferers immune system than of the actual cause of the lesion. Despite a vast array of photos on the Internet showing typical bed bug bites, the average persons skin lesions rarely fit the norm. Many so-called typical bed bug bites turn out to have been caused by something other than bed bugs. Furthermore, many of the other causes of skin lesions that mimic bed bug bites are not resolved by any of the bed bug treatments presently in use, whether the treatment involves the use of heat, steam, pesticides, green products, or any combination thereof.

Whenever new skin lesions occur after a bed bug treatment has been performed, the implication is that the treatment failed and should be re-done. Often, however as noted above there were no bed bugs to eradicate in the first place, or the treatment succeeded in eradicating them, but another undetected organism or agent is still present and fully capable of irritating the clients skin. When either situation occurs, what usually results is a succession of unsuccessful re-treatments that often read like scenes from a horror movie.

Having The Right Equipment is Crucial

It bears repeating that identifying the actual cause of skin lesions on a homes occupant or occupants iscrucial. Doing so requires the use of sophisticated detection, collection, and analysis equipment. The user must also possess extensive training and experience in how to use such equipment. Just as important, the individual who does the collecting must be able, in the field, to study the evidence collected by the equipment and accurately interpret the clues that such evidence provides. For my bed bug inspections I take advantage of almost all of the unique tools used by crime scene specialists for collecting trace forensic evidence, including vacuums and sweeps fitted with trace specimen isolators, digital microscopes, laptop computers, and specialized analytic software.

What happens if bugs are found during the inspection, and a cursory examination with a hand lens confirms that they have all the outward anatomical characters of bed bugs? Can the inspector terminate the inspection immediately and formulate a plan of treatment without further ado? Although most pest management companies do exactly that, much more must yet be done, after bed bugs are confirmed, before a bed bug inspection is complete.

Got Bed Bugs? And What Else?

In truth, bed bug inspections should really be called skin lesion precursor inspections. Sometimes the causes of a persons skin lesions are strictly bed bugs. At other times, the lesions may be caused by another organism or agent altogether and bed bugs have nothing to do with it. More often than not, though, the lesions can be caused by both bed bugs and another easily overlooked organism or agent. Yes, ancillary causes of skin lesions may exist alongside the presence of bed bugs, too. Thats something many pest management professionals dont realize, but ignoring or neglecting it can lead to major problems later.

Many people are afflicted with one or more chronic skin conditions that produce lesions similar to bed bug bites. When bed bugs are suspected, those chronic conditions may be forgotten or discounted. Many people without chronic skin conditions becometemporarilysusceptible to skin lesions caused by other organisms or agents that normally would not affect them, but are expressedduring periodswhen they re subjected to excessive levels of stress. The psychological effect of having to deal with bed bugs is unusually high on the list of human stressors. Coping with such levels of stress often makes one or more of the occupants of a home more susceptible to ancillary causes of skin lesions. Most companies fail to consider the possibility that some of the skin lesions are stress related. That prevents them from taking the time to inspect for possible ancillary causes and identify their presence. Neglecting to deal with such conditions properly is a major cause of what appear to be treatment failures when, in fact, the bed bugs have been controlled but the ancillary issues have not been handled.

Birds, Bats, and Other Causes of Bed Bugs

Even when bed bugs are confirmed to be present, the real cause of the bed bug infestation may not be apparent. Those who assume that bed bugs arebeingbrought in solely by the human occupants of the home are often mistaken, which is why every bed bug infestation must first be examined under the microscope before a treatment plan is formulated.

Over 70 species, in 22 genera, are recognized in the Cimicidae family (the family of insects comprising bed bugs and their kin) worldwide. Most of them are typically found associated with warm blooded animals other than humans, but nearly all are capable of parasitizing human hosts when their typical hosts are absent. Not only that, but nearly all of those are just as transportable, in luggage and other personal effects, by travelers who fly, ride trains and busses, rent automobiles, and sit in waiting rooms at hospitals, medical clinics, and you name it Many people living in Central Texas regularly travel outside the United States, and some of them unwittingly bring back some of the bed bugs they encounter along the way.

Native bed bugs, commonly found throughout the U.S. in general, also include a multitude of species. Birds and bats roosting in a homes attic, eaves, or walls, will often bring bird bugs or bat bugs in with them. Other animals, too, can host cimicid parasites that when their animal hosts are not present will leave the nest and go looking for the closest warm body available. Under magnification the subtle anatomical characters that distinguish non-typical bed bugs from common bed bugs can alert the professional when an atypical infestation of this nature has been found. However, few bed bug inspectors have the knowledge or skills necessary to make such distinctions.

Excluding such Animals is Not Enough

Treatment of cimicid infestations emanating from animal nests must go way beyond treating the secondarily-infested areas inside the occupied portions of a home. If the birds, bats, and other animals that brought the bugs to the home are not dealt with, the bugs will show up again, no matter how well the treatment inside the occupied portions of the home, is done.

Bird, bat, and animal exclusion processes alone, however, will not resolve the infestation if the nesting materials which provide a reservoir of bugs waiting to resurface inside the home are not treated. Bird nests and bat roosts in attics are often extensive. Besides repairing the ingress/egress access ports used by the offending animal, so that future nesting is brought to a halt, existing nesting materials must be disinfected and treated to eradicate existing parasites that must be suspected of harboring not only cimicids but parasitic mites as well.

The Importance of Proper Personal Protective Equipment

In addition to all the complications attending bed bug inspections and treatments mentioned above, the inspector and those performing bed bug treatments must be properly garbed when dealing with any organism or agent suspected of causing skin lesions. Like everything else involving bed bugs, thats easier said than done, but the penalties for failing to wear the right protective gear at the right time, and for failing to remove and dispose of that gear properly, are sobering. Not only does an improperly garbed individual risk being personally contaminated, but everyone who comes into contact with that individual risks becoming contaminated as well.

The fastest way to decide never, ever, to do another bed bug inspection or treatment again is to discover, belatedly, that youve brought bed bugs to your home, or that youve unwittingly passed them on to one of your clients, or to your favorite coffee shop. Imagine walking into a clients office and having someone in your clients employ peer closely at your shoulder, saying Gee, is that a bed bug on your shirt? And didnt you tell me you were coming here from a home you were treating for bed bugs? Talk about a recipe for disaster Imagine, two weeks later, getting a call from that same client saying Remember the bed bug John noticed on your shirt when you were here last? Well, now we have bed bugs in my office. I need you to come out here right now. Dont even think of charging that client for the treatment you will now be forced to carry out for free. And dont be surprised when every employee of that company suddenly has bed bugs in their homes that they also expect you to treat for free.

Mandatory protective clothing for bed bug inspections and treatments include heavy-duty 6 mil. disposable gloves with extended gauntlets, wide-brimmed headgear or, when wearing a full-face mask, a disposable bonnet, plus an ascot to protect the neck, back, and chest from falling bugs that might otherwise fall down inside your shirt, and disposable foot-to-knee cleanroom footwear. These articles of clothing should be donned immediately on arrival at the inspection and/or treatment site, before work commences, for all present to see. During the inspection and/or treatment, it is crucial that sterile, non-contact procedures be followed as closely as possible and that all articles of clothing worn by the inspector/exterminator be treated to deal with bed bugs and eggs that may inadvertently fall onto them while the job is being done. When manipulating mattress, box springs, or any piece of furniture that may harbor bed bugs, inadvertent contact must immediately be followed by an inspection of the personal area where contact was made to ensure no contamination occurred, and to enable the inspector to remove any contamination that is observed at once.

These precautions and procedures reduce the risk of contamination, but they are not foolproof, and they are easily defeated during removal of the protective articles when the job is complete. Remember the problems the nurses treating Ebola patients experienced? Similar issues surround treatments for bed bugs. Before removing disposable protective articles of clothing a complete inspection of ones person must be conducted to make sure no hitchhikers are marching around on shirts, trousers, sleeves, etc. All disposable articles of clothing must be disposed of on site, upon exiting, to ensure no hitchhiking organisms are taken away unwittingly.

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This article is still under construction. As it unfolds actual case histories of good and bad bed bug treatments will be described that demonstrate the importance of having a positive work attitude, and an abiding interest in the customers health and welfare. Pest managers who treat for bed bugs, in particular, have to care deeply about their customers. How deeply? Its hard to place a limit on it. But its impossible to care without first having a positive attitude. Positivity is the cement that holds a good job together. Negativity, on the other hand, makes what should have been a good job fall completely apart, even when the technician is well-trained, and is provided with the best equipment and pesticides on the market.

Ill explain the details as we go along

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Questions? Comments? Corrections? e-mailjerry.cates@bugsinthenews.info.

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This article by Jerry Cates was first published on 27 October 2014, and last revised on 12 December 2014. Bugsinthenews Vol. 15:10(01)

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Abstract:The author, a specialist in bed bug inspections and treatments in the Austin, Texas metropolitan area, reports on the extraordinary difficulties attending bed bug diagnosis and remediation. No insect is more difficult than the common bed bug, and few jobs are nastier or carry more risks than identifying and eradicating them. It is impossible to do either without investing in expensive gear and pesticides vetted and labeled specifically for bed bugs. Yet those prerequisites are useless until combined with specialized knowledge and years of practical experience. Over the years the author has had to investigate for and clean up after a lot of botched bed bug jobs, most done by homeowners, but some done by professionals in the pest management business. In so doing hes noticed several mistakes common to all.

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Bad Bed Bugs in Austin, Texas: Why theyre so Hard to ...

This article by Jerry Cates, first published on 18 August 2013, was last revised on 23 September 2015. Bugsinthenews Vol. 14:08(01).

001. Mature Bed Bug from Northwest Austin, Ventral View

002. Mature Bed Bug from Northwest Austin, Dorsal View

The Early History of Bed Bugs

Unlike the case for most other organisms, whose scientific names were assigned by the scientists who first described them, the label for the common bed bug (Cimex lectularius) was given by the folk who suffered from its bites. They named this insect based on their understanding of the beast itself and the places it tended to haunt.

The Latin word for bug is cimex. Latin for a small couch, litter, or bed islectus. The inhabitants of the sprawling Roman Empire from the modest huts of the poorest commoners to the opulent bedrooms of the Caesars themselves were all afflicted with infestations of these tiny, blood-hungry insects. Just like us, they talked amongst themselves about their problems, and bed bugs were a serious problem. Any mention of this minuscule, ravenous beast would likely have employed both words, along with a few more colorful adjectives as well.

But bed bugs and their afflictions on mankind preceded ancient Rome. In truth, they preceded written history by thousands of years. Archeological evidence, unearthed in Mediterranean caves, suggests they got their start as bat bugs, feeding on the blood of bats inhabiting those caves and similar locales where bats tended to congregate.

Primitive human hunter-gatherers regularly took up housekeeping (or, more precisely cave keeping) in close proximity with bats, and it wasnt long before bat bugs took to feeding on human blood when bat blood was in short supply. That happened rather frequently, because many species of bats are migratory. When the bats departed for their winter or summer homes, most of their parasitic bat bugs whose legs are not well adapted to clinging to bat skin or fur during long periods aloft would go hungry until they returned, six months or so later. Fortunately, these bugs are able to survive for long periods of time without feeding, but having cave-dwelling humans nearby made fasting unnecessary. How convenient

Over many millennia certain of the bat bugs came to prefer human hosts to bats. In time they developed anatomical characters that sharpened their preference for humans and other terrestrial animals, though even today bat bugs and bed bugs are capable of feeding on bats and humans when their preferred hosts are not close by. When cave-dwelling humans became more numerous, and transitioned from caves into loose aggregations of houses and huts, their newfound parasites came along for the ride. There, in the bedrooms of villages, towns, and cities, the accommodations were even better suited for bed bugs to thrive. As mankind continued to move into new and unexplored territories, the bed bugs traveled with them, eventually reaching every corner of the globe that man marched into.

As chronicled by my old friend, Michael Potter, in his excellent paper onthe history of bed bugs, these pests are believed to have reached Italy in 77 C.E. They arrived in China by 600 C.E., and got to Germany and France in the 11th and 13th centuries. They were not reported in England until 1583, but by the 17th and 18th centuries were quite common among the Limeys.

The Americas were different. None of the indigenous American tribes have words in their languages that refer to these pests, suggesting they were not afflicted by them before the first European settlers arrived. When ships from Europe sailed into the natural harbors of the New World, they often brought bed bugs with them. Ships, it so happened, provided perfect habitats in which bed bugs may propagate. Soon native Americans began to feel the bite of the bed bug, along with the rest of the world.

Potter points out, too, that in those days as also is true today the poorest members of society tended to suffer more from bed bug infestations than the rich. This is due, in no small measure, to general deficits in sanitation and the high costs of applying remedial pesticidal measures.

Prior to the 1940s, once bed bugs infested a given locale, they tended to thrive and multiply without respite. There were no economical, sure-fire pesticidal remedies available in those days to combat their spread. Over time practically every possible remedy was tried. Some including highly toxic arsenic, mercury, and cyanide compounds were found effective for bed bug control, but at considerable risk to the human occupants of the treated dwellings. Other effectual remedies included vapor-producing toxins such as high-test gasoline, ethanol, and similar flammables whose use sometimes produced tragic, raging fires. Then came DDT

The Advent of Dichloro-diphenyl trichloroethane (DDT)

DDT was first synthesized in 1874 by Othmar Zeidler, a young Viannese pharmacologist, who was at the time a chemistry student preparing his thesis. He published details of his synthesis, but did not investigate its properties. Thus DDTs utility as a pesticide lay undiscovered for the next 65 years.

Paul Hermann Mller (1899-1965), a Swiss chemist with the Geigy Company, achieved fame in 1937 by patenting a process to synthesize rhodanide/cyanate-based bactericidal and insecticidal compounds. Shortly thereafter he developed Graminone to disinfect seeds without using mercury. These feats led Geigy to finally assign him to a job he had been coveting for some time, developing novel insecticides that would be highly toxic to insects but significantly less toxic to mammals. The most effective, economical pesticides of that period were based on compounds of arsenic, whose indiscriminate toxicities endangered humans and other animals along with the insects against which they were applied.

Mller, no stranger to the search for low-toxicity pesticides, had already come to realize that the absorption of chemicals differed between insects and mammals. He theorized, as early as 1935, that it should be possible to find inexpensive, long-lasting chemicals that were toxic to insects but relatively harmless to humans. Like Thomas Edison, in his ceaseless search for an efficacious filament for his light bulb,Mller began testing every chemical compound that appeared to fit his theorized model. Four years later hed tested as many as 349 chemicals, and every one failed to kill insects. Then, one day in September of 1939, he synthesized Zeidlers compound and smeared a small amount in an enclosure containing a fly. Shortly afterward, the fly expired, and DDT was born.

He subsequently received the Nobel prize in Physiology or Medicine, in 1948. This honor was awarded to Mllerfor, as the official citation asserted, his discovery of the high efficiency of DDT as a contact poison against several arthropods.

100. Mature Bed Bug, showing the insects long, sharpened beak, used to pierce a hosts skin and suck out blood through its straw-like rostrum.

DDTs meteoric Success and cataclysmic Demise

The temptation to launch into a detailed discussion on the miraculous effectiveness of DDT against mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria, typhus, and yellow fever is overwhelming, but I shall albeit reluctantly desist. The storied efficacy of this chemical applied equally to bed bug eradications as well. In fact, by the 1960s, solely due to the widespread use of DDT, bed bugs had been entirely eliminated from every nook and cranny of western Europe and North America, among many other places on the globe. However, DDT was banned for agricultural use in the U.S. in 1972, and later for all other uses in the U.S. as well. The reasons for this are shrouded in controversy, and many in the U.S. pest management industry continue to believe that the case against DDT was flawed and nonsensical.

Scientific evidence, on the other hand, conclusively shows that DDT is a highly persistent organic pollutant that is readily absorbed in soils and sediments, where it is taken up by aquatic organisms. This led to accumulations of DDT in the food web of humans and other animals, and over time unexpected consequences of those accumulations began to surface.

In birds, for example, accumulations of one DDT metabolite, DDE (dichloro-diphenyl-dichloroethylene), caused eggshell thinning. This resulted in dramatic population declines among birds of prey such as condors, bald eagles, hawks, and falcons. In humans DDT is now recognized as a genotoxin and endocrine disrupter. As such it has been linked to increased incidence of diabetes, developmental disorders (particularly in children and adolescents), and thyroid abnormalities, among others.

It cannot be denied that Mller was on the right track. DDT saved a multitude of lives during its thirty-plus years of use. But DDT was not the perfect answer, and in the end its proven demerits which grew more numerous as time passed by finally led to its demise. In truth, though many DDT proponents turn a deaf ear to such facts, had DDT not been banned it would almost certainly have died a natural death within the next two decades. Every insect targeted by this compound had begun, as early as the 1950s, to show unmistakeable signs of acquired, irreversible resistance, requiring higher concentrations of DDT to be used every year to achieve the same effect as the year before.

Post-DDT America

It seemed inevitable, to most entomologists and pest managers, that once DDT was no longer available to treat bed bug infestations, their numbers would rebound throughout the United States. And, of course, that is precisely what happened. The amazing thing is that it took nearly two decades before the anticipated resurgence occurred. By 1995, however, bed bugs were on the rise in Americas largest cities, and since then the scourge of this blood-sucking, cryptic insect has returned to every city in the land.

In Texas, pest managers are today constantly bombarded with requests to treat bed bug infestations in every kind of setting, from low-income public housing and apartment buildings to the most expensive mansions. Many pest managers choose not to respond to such requests, because the treatment regimen required to ensure full control is daunting, labor intensive, and fraught with risks. Risks like overlooking infested areas at the site (which is easy to do) and having to return, again and again, to re-treat a recalcitrant infestation, wondering if the job will be successful this time. Other risks, too, like the possibility of picking up hitch-hiker bed bugs while at an infested site and bringing them back to the office, or to the applicators own home and bedroom.

Treating for bed bugs

Though aware of the serious risks mentioned above, Ive never turned down a bed bug treatment request anywhere in Texas. As might be expected I have encountered a wide variety of interesting bed bug infestations. About 15% of the calls I receive from people who think they have bed bugs turn out to be something else entirely, so I always carry a microscope along, with a box of collection vials in which to store specimens of whatever can be found at the infestation site. My microscope is now fitted with a platform that positions an iPad camera over the lens, so the client can watch with me as the object under the lens comes into focus, and the iPad camera records what it looks like for later review.

A separate article describes some of the organisms that have shown up in such places. Sometimes the actual culprit is never found, not so much because it isnt there as because the client cant wait all day or night for the exhaustive examination needed to find and identify it. That is particularly the case when I am called out late at night, and the client household still has to get some sleep before going to work and school the next morning. Fortunately, even when the causal agent cant be identified right away, a thorough treatment for bed bugs usually clears up the problem, mostly with a single treatment. Of course, there are exceptions to that, too.

I ask my clients to take important, necessary steps in preparation for and in conjunction with my treatment program to ensure it will be successful. With their cooperation, the treatment goes much smoother, and the results are more satisfying for all concerned. As this article expands, I intend to explain some of these steps below, for those who may be interested in learning what they can do to make things easier for the pest manager who comes out to rid them of these pests.

One thing a home owner or apartment resident should not do is attempt to eradicate bed bugs themselves. Expertise in the methods and use of bed bug control products is imperative, because without such expertise the risk of failure is practically 100%. Worse, amateurish efforts to destroy these bugs typically force them deeper into walls, furnishings, and other places. One result is that an inspection afterward, even one lasting several hours, may not turn up specimens of whatever was doing the biting, even though they are still there, deep in the walls where they cannot be seen. This doesnt prevent professionals from eradicating them, but it makes their job more difficult, contributing to confusion over what the culprit was (especially if it turns out later that it wasnt bed bugs after all) and when bed bugs were the cause often leads to sightings of dead or dying bed bugs over a longer period of time, post-treatment, than would otherwise occur. That can be a serious problem, owing to the negative psychological effect of each new sighting, even though they are usually not biting anyone.

Professionals should be able to bring most bed bug infestation under control with a single treatment, provided they are given enough time to do the job right, and provided the area being treated is not too cluttered with a multitude of harborage conditions. Lots of complex furnishings mean lots of hiding places, all of which need to be treated. Follow-up treatments are usually necessary to handle complications from unusual circumstances. In still other cases, even though the initial treatment was successful, the client remains fearful that some remnants of the bed bug infestation remain, and asks for follow-up inspections to help soothe a fevered brow.

Bed bugs make us paranoid. If we are slightly neurotic to begin with (some would ask, Who isnt?), being victimized by a bed bug infestation is sure to push one over the edge. For those teetering on the precipice, my advice is to relax and take heart in the fact that, done correctly by an experienced professional, bed bug eradication can be quick and certain, and even when circumstances prevent eradication on a single visit, one or two more treatments usually manage to bring them under complete control. My experiences prove that, week, after week, after week

Complications to Good Bed Bug Control

I mention, above, that some bed bug treatments are accompanied by unusual circumstances. In truth, every treatment for bed bugs is unique in one way or another. In the material that will soon follow (it will grow slowly as time permits) some of the more novel situations Ive encountered will be described, along with the steps I had to take in order to deal with them. Please stand by for more

Taxonomy:

References:

Feel free to call Jerry at 512-331-1111, or e-mailjerry.cates@bugsinthenews.inforegarding your experiences with, or concerns about, bedbugs. You may also register, log in, and leave a detailed comment in the space provided below.

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Bed Bugs in Texas | Bugs In The News

There is an ongoing debate between landlords and tenants when it comes to who is responsible for pest control. Unfortunately, there is no clear-cut answer as each state and local law varies.

However, there are bed bug laws in Texas. Landlords are legally responsible for what is referred to as the implied warranty of habitability. This means that landlords are required to maintain a livable home which includes routine pest control.

This, however, doesnt necessarily mean that the landlord is always responsible. The circumstances that surround any pest incident also helps to determine who is responsible and what should be done to properly control pests in the residence.

Before we begin, you can often find the answer as to which party is responsible for pest control in the lease agreement. In most states, the lease dictates the landlord will be responsible for certain aspects of pest control.

Texas Property Code section 92.056 states: For a condition that materially affects the physical health or safety of an ordinary tenant, the landlord is required to make repairs or to remedy the condition. Under Texas property codes, the landlord is responsible for a healthy as well as structurally safe building.

If there is a pest problem that is causing structural damage or is an endangerment to the publics health, the landlord is responsible. However, the law does state ordinary. This law doesnt force landlords to cater to those with special health conditions.

For those with sensitive immune systems or health conditions where they require a more sterile environment, and additional pest control management is needed, often that responsibility falls on the tenant.

As the landlord may be responsible for certain aspects of pest control, a tenant can also find themselves legally obligated for pest control in certain situations.

A tenant may find themselves responsible if they created the pest problem. Pests are drawn to certain conditions. To speak plainly, tenants that leave debris outside their building or have a lot of clutter and dont properly discard food and waste can subsequently create a pest problem.

This problem can quickly spread into other tenants dwellings such as apartment complexes. In addition to shared walls and floors, apartments also share connected utilities, which create easy pathways for pests to travel.

A landlord cannot properly battle a problem that a tenant is creating. If a landlord is having several complaints about pests, particularly from those who are creating the situation, then the landlord needs to keep documentation concerning the tenant in question. With adequate proof that the tenant is responsible, the tenant will be accountable for pest control of these pests.

There are many pests that will invade rental homes, apartments, or multi-family housing, which is often controlled by a landlord. As the pests vary greatly, the question is often asked which pests are the landlord or the tenants responsibility for.

Again, it will be stated in the lease. One of the current and largest debates are bed bugs. When it comes to bed bugs, naturally most people will declare it the tenants responsibility. However, due to the current rise in bed bug problems across the country, new laws are being put in place every day.

As current laws are not yet settled, in most cases it is agreed that a current tenant is responsible for treating bed bugs. A situation when a new tenant is moving into a home with bed bugs should be corrected by the landlord.

A local Austin, TX pest control company, A-Tex Pest Management offers great advice for tenants. They recommend that if you do have a pest control problem, be sure to read your lease agreement thoroughly as often the answer is in the agreement you signed before moving in.

Bring the pest problem to the landlords attention if there is a rise in pest activity. As a tenant, make sure you havent created the problem by bringing in pests via second-hand furniture, packages or luggage, and so on. We hope in this blog that we have helped clarify the pest control responsibilities of landlords and tenants.

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Texas Bed Bug Laws & Property Code - Is Your Landlord ...

Bed Bug Hotel and Apartment Reports. Click on the city below to find our latest bed bug reports in Texas on hotels. To report a new bed bug incident, navigate to our city page below to see further details.

Recommended tips after hotel check-in: 1. Pick up the mattresses in the rooms and look under it. Check around the edges of the box springs. 2. Check under the box spring. 3. Lift up each headboard an lay it on the bed. Carefully inspect the hole where the headboard was lifted out of. Also, inspect all niches and corners of the headboard. 4. If you decide to stay in the hotel, do not put any clothes in dressers. Keep them in your luggage and your dirty clothes in plastic bags.

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A friend and I rented this 2-bedroom unit offered on Airbnb starting May 30. The first week we were there, we weren't in the unit during the day or evenings due to work, so only spent time in one of t...

5/30/20 @ 0230, reported bed bugs to hotel staff and management. Moved to a new room. I was told rooms were put out of service for deep cleaning. ...

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