Category Archives: Bed Bugs Minnesota

Extension > Garden > Insects > Traveler Q & A: Preventing bed bugs from hitchhiking to your home

Stephen Kells and Jeff Hahn, University of Minnesota Extension Reviewed 2006

Different stages of bed bugs (1/16 inch to 1/4 inch in size) and fecal spots

Bed bugs on a backpack

This factsheet provides some specific steps that you can use to prevent hitchhiking bed bugs from infesting your home. There is nothing magic about the way these pests initiate an infestation. They are simply parasites that look to resting persons or animals for a meal and, once obtaining this meal, they travel back to a place of hiding.

The thing that makes bed bugs so challenging for detection and control is they have excellent abilities to squeeze into cracks and crevices and will often go unnoticed by the casual observer.

The majority of bugs will cluster around areas where people will rest, but a few of them will move off to hide in more remote areas. They shun light and if they are disturbed or if they suddenly feel exposed, they will attempt to move to quieter (and more remote) areas. It is this cryptic behavior that creates the challenge to dis-infesting articles that have been in areas of bed bug activity and cause the impression that they have special abilities that we cannot contend with.

The following are questions that are commonly asked by travelers and the recommendations you can use to prevent transport of bed bugs from an infested site.

Bed bugs are oval, flattened, brown, and wingless insects approximately 1/4" to 3/8" long (5-9 mm). They are similar in appearance to a wood tick. After the bug has taken a blood meal, its color will change from brown to purplish-red. Also after feeding, it is larger and more cigar-shaped making it appear like a different insect. Young bed bugs are much smaller (1/16 or 1.6 mm when they first hatch) and nearly colorless except after feeding, but resemble the adult in general shape. You may also find cast skins, which are empty shells of bugs as they grow from one stage to the next. After a blood meal, bed bugs deposit fecal spots (composed of digested blood) in areas adjacent to the feeding site or back at their hiding places.

You can only confirm that bed bugs are present by carefully inspecting each item. Pay attention to cracks, crevices, seams, and folds of material. Remember that bed bugs can be 1/16" to 1/4" and young, unfed bugs may be mostly translucent (see pictures). If you find bugs, then you have to be careful in containing the infestation. If you do not find bugs, but still suspect there may be an infestation, the steps mentioned below will provide peace-of-mind and ensure that you do not bring an infestation home.

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Travel Q&A: Bed Bug Prevention - University of Minnesota Extension

Guidelines for Dealing with Bed Bugs in a School Setting (.pdf)

Actual bed bug infestations in schools are uncommon, more often a few bed bugs will hitchhike from an infested home on a students possessions. On the occasion that an infestation starts, it will be because bed bugs have found a site where people rest or sit for a time. A common example of this is with the younger grades, or pre-school, where rest time or nap time still occurs.

It is important to remain vigilant for bed bugs in the school. Treating a bed bug infestation is very difficult and costly. The sooner an infestation is detected the easier it will be to control the infestation. Also, there are steps that can be taken to prevent future infestations.

The most common way for bed bugs to enter a school is through hitchhiking from an infested site. Usually this will be from a student, staff or teachers home which has a bed bug infestation. While teachers and staff can be more easily addressed dealing with students or parents can be challenging, especially if the family cannot afford proper control measures or their landlord refuses to properly treat their home.

Students dealing with a bed bug infestation in their home may show signs of bites. Different people react differently to bed bug bites, some people do not react at all and others have severe allergic reactions. Depending on the students immune response to bed bug bites and the severity of the infestation there may be a few or many welts on the face, torso and limbs. Bed Bugs tend to bit on skin that is exposed during sleep or rest. The visible marks and itchiness may make the student very uncomfortable. Students may also display anxiousness and/or sleepiness due to interrupted sleep as a result of bed bugs biting them.

Bed bugs are not associated with uncleanliness or socioeconomic status, but this insect has a substantial social stigma.

Steps that can be taken if a students home is known to have a bed bug infestation:

Guidelines for Dealing with Bed Bugs in a School Setting (.pdf)

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Guidelines for Dealing with Bed Bugs in a School Setting - Let's ...

Recent reports about bed bugs in U.S. homes and hotels have prompted concerns among some Hennepin County staff. Theyre worried they might pick up the parasitic pests while doing client home visits or during hotel stays while travelling and then, without knowing it, bring them home on their clothes or belongings.

The following information provides practical guidance about bed bugs and how to avoid or get rid of them.

Bed bugs: What are they? Avoiding bed bugs Getting rid of bed bugs

Additional resourcesUniversity of Minnesota Extension | Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) | New York State Integrated Pest Management Program | Toronto Public Health | AllThingsBedBugs.org | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Bed bugs: What are they? Bed bugs are small blood sucking insects that prefer to feed on human blood. Their name, bed bug, stems from their preferred habitat of beds or other interior areas where people sleep.

Bed bugs are mainly active at night and are capable of biting and sucking a sleeping persons blood unnoticed. They come out of hiding only when searching for their next blood meal and can stay hidden for more than a year between meals.

Unlike mosquitoes, fleas and other blood sucking insects which can spread diseases, bed bugs have not been shown to do so. Their bite can cause localized inflammation and itching of the skin surrounding the bite or more widespread rashes and other allergic symptoms. Many people do not react at all to their bite. Still, just the presence of the pest can be disturbing.

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Avoiding bed bugsYou can avoid bed bugs if you know their appearance and habits.

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Bed bugs: What you need to know — Hennepin County, Minnesota

By nature, bed bugs are stow-a-ways. They enter homes or apartments by hiding out in the cracks and crevices of luggage, furniture, clothing, pillows, boxes and other objects when they are moved between apartments, homes and hotels. Bed bugs hide during the day and typically feed at night. Since bed bugs feed on blood, their presence has little to do with the cleanliness of the home, although clutter can provide hiding spaces for bed bugs and make them difficult to treat. Bed bugs can survive for months without feeding, so they may be present in vacant, clean homes when new tenants unpack. Once bed bugs are established, they rapidly reproduce and spread from room to room.

Bed bugs can be very difficult to control, even for trained professionals. Many insecticides are not effective at killing the eggs, so a repeat treatment is often necessary to kill the juveniles after they hatch. Even worse, some populations of bed bugs have developed resistance to common insecticides, making some sprays ineffective. Alternative methods include heat and steam treatments, structural fumigations and cold treatments.

The National Pesticide Information Center (NPIC) received hundreds of calls last year from all over the country about bed bugs. If you have questions about this, or any pesticide-related topic, please call NPIC at 1-800-858-7378 (7:30am-3:30pm PST), or email at npic@ace.orst.edu.

Last updated October 31, 2013

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Understanding and Controlling Bed Bugs - National Pesticide ...

Extension > Garden > Insects > Traveler Q & A: Preventing bed bugs from hitchhiking to your home

Stephen Kells and Jeff Hahn, University of Minnesota Extension Reviewed 2006

Different stages of bed bugs (1/16 inch to 1/4 inch in size) and fecal spots

Bed bugs on a backpack

This factsheet provides some specific steps that you can use to prevent hitchhiking bed bugs from infesting your home. There is nothing magic about the way these pests initiate an infestation. They are simply parasites that look to resting persons or animals for a meal and, once obtaining this meal, they travel back to a place of hiding.

The thing that makes bed bugs so challenging for detection and control is they have excellent abilities to squeeze into cracks and crevices and will often go unnoticed by the casual observer.

The majority of bugs will cluster around areas where people will rest, but a few of them will move off to hide in more remote areas. They shun light and if they are disturbed or if they suddenly feel exposed, they will attempt to move to quieter (and more remote) areas. It is this cryptic behavior that creates the challenge to dis-infesting articles that have been in areas of bed bug activity and cause the impression that they have special abilities that we cannot contend with.

The following are questions that are commonly asked by travelers and the recommendations you can use to prevent transport of bed bugs from an infested site.

Bed bugs are oval, flattened, brown, and wingless insects approximately 1/4" to 3/8" long (5-9 mm). They are similar in appearance to a wood tick. After the bug has taken a blood meal, its color will change from brown to purplish-red. Also after feeding, it is larger and more cigar-shaped making it appear like a different insect. Young bed bugs are much smaller (1/16 or 1.6 mm when they first hatch) and nearly colorless except after feeding, but resemble the adult in general shape. You may also find cast skins, which are empty shells of bugs as they grow from one stage to the next. After a blood meal, bed bugs deposit fecal spots (composed of digested blood) in areas adjacent to the feeding site or back at their hiding places.

You can only confirm that bed bugs are present by carefully inspecting each item. Pay attention to cracks, crevices, seams, and folds of material. Remember that bed bugs can be 1/16" to 1/4" and young, unfed bugs may be mostly translucent (see pictures). If you find bugs, then you have to be careful in containing the infestation. If you do not find bugs, but still suspect there may be an infestation, the steps mentioned below will provide peace-of-mind and ensure that you do not bring an infestation home.

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Traveler Q & A: Preventing bed bugs from hitchhiking to your home ...