Category Archives: Bed Bugs Pennsylvania

By Mike Dunn

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) There was plenty of squirming in City Council chambers this morning, as lawmakers convened a hearing on the vexing problem of bed bugs and how hard they are to exterminate in a city of row homes.

The problem is real, and its only getting worse, said Martin Overline of Aardvark Pest Management.

Overline was one of the exterminators who came before city council bugged by bed bugs. He told of one recluse whose home he visited.

I saw literally hundreds of bed bugs in his front window, he said. Thats just in his window, thats not even counting whats in his bedroom. He wouldnt allow nobody in his house. But unfortunately for the neighbors and the rowhouses next to him, three on each side now have activity in their homes now from bed bugs from this gentleman.

Bed bugs are wingless insects that feed on human blood and can be found not just in beds and box springs, but even in drawers, couches and electrical outlets. Dr. Palak Raval-Nelson, director of Environmental Health Services for the city Health Department, said eradicating bed bugs is no easy task.

You have to de-clutter, you have to find the source of the bed bugs, she said, and wherever possible find somebody to help you with the problem.

Michelle Niedermeier of the Philadelphia office of the Pennsylvania Integrated Pest Management program testified that many residents dont know what to do.

Residents often seek the cheapest and most readily available materials, including insect foggers, boric acid dust, bleach, detergent, rubbing alcohol and moth balls, Niedermeier said. All of these are ineffective in managing bed bugs and many can be harmful or even dangerous.

Michelle Niedermeier (center) of the Philadelphia office of the Pennsylvania Integrated Pest Management program. (credit: Mike Dunn)

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City Council Puts Bed Bug Problem Under Microscope

Bed Bugs

How do bed bugs invade a home? In most cases, bed bugs are brought into a home by clinging onto someones clothing, crawling into luggage, or are brought in the home along with new furniture or bedding. Bed bugs are increasingly being found in homes, apartments, hotels, motels, health care facilities, dormitories, shelters, schools, and public transportation (bus, train, etc). Less common sites where one might pick up bed bugs include movie theaters, laundries/dry cleaners, furniture rental outlets and office buildings.

How do I know if I have bed bugs? One of the easiest ways to identify a bed bug infestation is by the bite marks on the face, neck, arms, hands, or any other body parts while sleeping. However, these bite marks may take as long as 14 days to appear and may look similar to bites from other insects such as mosquitoes and spiders. A more accurate way to identify bedbug infestation is to look for physical signs of the insects:

You may see the bed bugs themselves, small bloodstains from crushed insects, or dark spots from their droppings.

Because many other kinds of small brown bugs may be discovered, it is critical to ensure that the bugs are correctly identified. It is often hard to see them because they hide in or near bed cracks, folds and creases in the bed linens, and seams of mattresses and box springs. They may also be found in pleats of curtains, beneath loose areas of wallpaper near the bed, in corners of desks and dressers, in wicker furniture, in laundry or other items on the floor or around the room.

How do I get rid of them? If you are a homeowner, you may want to consider using a licensed pest management professional who is knowledgeable and experienced in managing bed bug infestations. The Chester County Health Department recommends that homeowners hire a pest control professional licensed by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture to evaluate what type of pest is present, and to handle insecticides.

You may also consider taking the following steps to eliminate bed bugs:

Landlords and property owners have specific obligations to provide safe and livable accommodations for tenants. Tenants have an obligation to cooperate with owners and landlords. This includes preparing the apartment so that the pest management professional can easily inspect the rooms and treat if necessary. It is illegal for pesticide applications to be performed by an unlicensed person.

Where does the Chester County Health Department fit in? The Chester County Health Department has housing regulations that deal with the extermination of insects and rodents in rental properties. This applies to bedbug infestations in rooming houses and in two or more units in a multi-unit rental property. In these situations, the property owner or landlord is responsible for the treatment to eliminate the bedbugs.

Link: Chester County, PA Official Website Bed Bugs

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Affordable Bed Bug Exterminator > Chester County, PA ...

Cherie Horrigan-Happy, a Philadelphia row house resident with a bed bug problem, contacted Dion Lerman, PA IPMs environmental health programs specialist. Due to their shared walls, the bed bugs were migrating from Horrigan-Happys neighbor into her residence. I instructed her to practice IPM by sealing cracks and crevices and using Diatomaceous Earth in wall voids to block bed mug migration, Lerman explained.

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is an approach to pest management that emphasizes prevention of pest problems, and the use of the most effective, long-term and least hazardous solutions. Diatomaceous Earth is a naturally occurring siliceous sedimentary rock consisting of the fossilized remains of diatoms. It is often used to control pests by disrupting their waxy shell, making them more prone to eventual death by dehydration. Its use in wall voids helps prevent the bed bugs from migrating between shared walls and into other rooms.

Horrigan-Happy was bed bug free for about six months and was in the process of securing funds to make a documentary about her experiences when the bed bugs returned. Michelle Niedermeier, community IPM coordinator, worked with Horrigan-Happy to facilitate several meetings with Philadelphia First District Councilman Mark Squilla, along with neighbors, Rhonda Griffin from Pest Free Maintenance, Inc., and representatives from the Tenant Union Representative Network, to find out what legally could be done.

Horrigan-Happy and her neighbor spoke about multiple treatments from pest control operators, recommendations they received from PA IPM, and the lawsuit against the former row house owner who knowingly sold her an infested house. She was ready to abandon this property because she could no longer deal with the bed bugs.

Councilman Squilla said he would like to propose a resolution, and at PA IPMs recommendation, the resolution was set forth in front of City Council at the end of October 2014. Philadelphia City Council is now planning hearings on bed bug infestations, with the first set for December 3.

According to Niedermeier, residents living in row houses and apartments often cant afford repeated bed bug treatments, and simply getting rid of the mattress is never the answer. Often bed bugs will be in more than one room of the house, in the woodwork, receptacles, or even behind pictures hanging on the walls. It is important for neighbors to communicate with each other about possible bed bug sightings, so that everyone can be vigilant. Horrigan-Happy and her neighbors are hopeful the hearings can get them the help they need to get rid of bed bugs in their row homes once and for all.

Bed bugs were once a common pest, but were mostly eradicated by older types of insecticides and improved home cleaning technologies in the early to mid 1900's. Unfortunately, bed bugs have evolved and older type insecticides are no longer an effective means of controlling them. Current research shows promise for IPM methods of control including the use of heat, steam and other non/low-toxic tactics. Since they seem to be making a come back, everyone should learn to identify bed bugs and their signs, and to reach out to area experts for assistance. Information on effective bed bug management in multiple environments can be found at the Pennsylvania IPM Programs bed bug resource web page. There is also information for pest control professionals and information in Spanish.

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Bed Bugs Hearings Set for Philly Pennsylvania ...

Image Caption: Like the "kissing" bug, bed bugs can transmit deadly parasite via feces, researchers showed. Credit: Penn Medicine/Robert Press

Provided by Steve Graff, The University of Pennsylvania

The bed bug may be just as dangerous as its sinister cousin, the triatomine, or kissing bug. A new study from Penn Medicine researchers in the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics demonstrated that bed bugs, like the triatomines, can transmit Trypanosoma cruzi, the parasite that causes Chagas disease, one of the most prevalent and deadly diseases in the Americas.

The role of the bloodsucking triatomine bugs as vectors of Chagas diseasewhich affects 6 to 8 million worldwide, mostly in Latin America, and kills about 50,000 a yearhas long been recognized. The insects infect people not through their bite but feces, which they deposit on their sleeping host, often around the face, after feeding. Bed bugs, on the other hand, are usually considered disease-free nuisances whose victims are left with only itchy welts from bites and sleepless nights.

In a study published online this week in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, senior author Michael Z. Levy, PhD, assistant professor in the department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvanias Perelman School of Medicine, and researchers at the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Peru conducted a series of laboratory experiments that demonstrated bi-directional transmission of T. cruzi between mice and bed bugs.

In the first experiment run at the Zoonotic Disease Research Center in Arequipa, Peru, the researchers exposed 10 mice infected with the parasite to 20 uninfected bed bugs every three days for a month. Of about 2,000 bed bugs used in the experiment, the majority acquired T. cruzi after feeding on the mice. In a separate experiment to test transmission from bug to mouse, they found that 9 out of 12 (75 percent) uninfected mice acquired the parasite after each one lived for 30 days with 20 infected bed bugs.

In a third experiment, investigators succeeded in infecting mice by placing feces of infected bed bugs on the animals skin that had either been inflamed by bed bug bites, or scraped with a needle. Four out of 10 mice (40 percent) acquired the parasite by this manner; 1 out of 5 (20 percent) were infected when the skin was broken by the insects bites only. A final experiment performed at the Penn bed bug lab in Philadelphia demonstrated that bed bugs, like triatomines, defecate when they feed.

Weve shown that the bed bug can acquire and transmit the parasite. Our next step is to determine whether they are, or will become, an important player in the epidemiology of Chagas disease, Levy said. There are some reasons to worrybed bugs have more frequent contact with people than kissing bugs, and there are more of them in infested houses, giving them ample opportunity to transmit the parasite. But perhaps there is something important we dont yet understand about them that mitigates the threat.

T. cruzi is also especially at home in the guts of bed bugs. Ive never seen so many parasites in an insect, said Renzo Salazar, a biologist at the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia and co-author on the study. I expected a scenario with very low infection, but we found many parasitesthey really replicate well in the gut of the bed bugs.

Wicked Cousins

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Bed Bugs Can Transmit Deadly Parasite That Causes Chagas Disease

Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics

The role of the bloodsucking triatomine bugs as vectors of Chagas diseasewhich affects 6 to 8 million worldwide, mostly in Latin America, and kills about 50,000 a yearhas long been recognized. The insects infect people not through their bite but feces, which they deposit on their sleeping host, often around the face, after feeding. Bed bugs, on the other hand, are usually considered disease-free nuisances whose victims are left with only itchy welts from bites and sleepless nights.

In a study published online this week in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, senior author Michael Z. Levy, PhD, assistant professor in the department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvanias Perelman School of Medicine, and researchers at the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Peru conducted a series of laboratory experiments that demonstrated bi-directional transmission of T. cruzi between mice and bed bugs.

In the first experiment run at the Zoonotic Disease Research Center in Arequipa, Peru, the researchers exposed 10 mice infected with the parasite to 20 uninfected bed bugs every three days for a month. Of about 2,000 bed bugs used in the experiment, the majority acquired T. cruzi after feeding on the mice. In a separate experiment to test transmission from bug to mouse, they found that 9 out of 12 (75 percent) uninfected mice acquired the parasite after each one lived for 30 days with 20 infected bed bugs.

In a third experiment, investigators succeeded in infecting mice by placing feces of infected bed bugs on the animals skin that had either been inflamed by bed bug bites, or scraped with a needle. Four out of 10 mice (40 percent) acquired the parasite by this manner; 1 out of 5 (20 percent) were infected when the skin was broken by the insects bites only. A final experiment performed at the Penn bed bug lab in Philadelphia demonstrated that bed bugs, like triatomines, defecate when they feed.

Weve shown that the bed bug can acquire and transmit the parasite. Our next step is to determine whether they are, or will become, an important player in the epidemiology of Chagas disease, Levy said. There are some reasons to worrybed bugs have more frequent contact with people than kissing bugs, and there are more of them in infested houses, giving them ample opportunity to transmit the parasite. But perhaps there is something important we dont yet understand about them that mitigates the threat.

T. cruzi is also especially at home in the guts of bed bugs. Ive never seen so many parasites in an insect, said Renzo Salazar, a biologist at the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia and co-author on the study. I expected a scenario with very low infection, but we found many parasitesthey really replicate well in the gut of the bed bugs.

Bed bugs and kissing bugs are distant cousins but share many striking similarities. Both insects hide in household cracks and crevices waiting for nightfall and the opportunity to feed on sleeping hosts. They are from the same order of insects (Hemiptera) and both only feed on blood. (One main difference is their size: kissing bugs are five times as big as a bed bug). With so much in common, it seemed logical to the authors that the kissing bugs most infamous trait, the transmission of T. cruzi, is also shared by the bed bug.

Other investigators have shared this suspicion. In 1912, just three years after Carlos Chagas described the transmission of the disease by kissing bugs, French parasitologist mile Brumpt recounted that he had infected almost 100 bed bugs exposed to an infectious mouse, and then used them to infect two healthy mice. Decades later an Argentine group replicated his work. These experiments, largely ignored during the recent bed bug resurgence, missed one key point.

Mice can hunt and eat bed bugs, said Ricardo Castillo-Neyra, DVM, PhD, coauthor and postdoctoral fellow at the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia and Penn. The older studies were almost certainly only documenting oral transmission of the parasite. Our work shows for the first time that bed bugs can transmit the parasite when their feces are in contact with broken skin, the route by which humans are usually infected.

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Penn Study Shows Bed Bugs Can Transmit Parasite that ...