Bedbugs – Coming to an Apartment building you’re responsible for!

The newest vermin problem is an old one, bedbugs.  I am not even sure how old the saying “sleep tight and don’t let the bedbugs bite” is.  If you manage apartment buildings, hotels or other multifamily buildings this is a problem you will have to soon deal with.

It has always been my understanding that we owe this country’s respite from these bugs to the use of DDT. According to the exterminators I have spoken to, bedbugs are hard to kill and only really diligent methods or really strong poison will do the trick.  Since DDT is no longer an option we are left with hard work and diligence and attention to detail.

From the Mayo Clinic website: (http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/bedbugs/DS00663)

“Bedbugs will feed on any mammal, including cows and dogs. In North America, migratory birds and bats have been sources of infestation. More recently, as world travel has increased, bedbugs are finding their way into the home through luggage and clothing worn abroad. Another contributor to the resurgence of bedbugs in the West is changing pest-control practices. Sixty years ago the common use of DDT — which kills most insects — nearly eliminated bedbugs in the United States. Today the use of DDT is being phased out due to human toxicity concerns. Further, current extermination practices are more insect-specific — what’s toxic to a cockroach may not kill a bedbug.”

So how do we counter this problem?  Isolating the bed since bedbugs can’t fly is one way, but you have to be sure the bed is clean of the infestation first.  A good beginning primer is from the University of California’s, Davis site: http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7454.html

Another site, which unfortunately is trying to sell you there solutions is polite enough and thorough enought that I am going to list it here: http://doyourownpestcontrol.com/bed-bugs.htm It lays out the steps that I have gotten from several extermination firms in striaght forward languages and steps ao that you can atleast not be taken advantage of by an outside firm if you don’t want to try and solve the problem your self.

Finally here is a video courtesy of National Geographic on bed bugs.  It is short and may gross out some folks, fair warning…..

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