Archive for the Bed Bugs Category
Posted on June 18, 2013 with No Comments
Bed bug extermination is not a do-it-yourself job! There is specialized knowledge and equipment is used for successful heat treatment and temperatures need to be continually monitored. One man in New Jersey trying to get rid of bedbugs from his Woodbury home accidentally set it on fire Tuesday, injuring himself and a firefighter.
Gloucester County spokeswoman Debra Sellitto said firefighters responded to the house on the unit block of Penn Street just before noon to find the second floor on fire.
The homeowner, a male who was not named, had apparently been trying to eradicate the bedbugs from his house using a home remedy that included a space heater, hair dryer, and heat gun to “heat” the bugs out, Sellitto said.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, to kill bedbugs using heat treatment, the temperature in the home or area where the bedbugs are must be at least 110 degrees for about three hours.
One Woodbury firefighter was taken to Cooper University Hospital with elevated blood pressure and dizziness and was released, Woodbury Mayor Bill Volk said.
The homeowner was taken to Cooper University’s trauma center with unspecified injuries, Sellitto said. His condition was not known.
A second fire broke out in the home shortly after 5 p.m. It was not known what caused the second fire, which was brought under control by early evening.
Firefighters from Woodbury, Deptford Township, Woodbury Heights, and West Deptford Township assisted in putting out the first blaze, Volk said.
The fire was ruled accidental by the Gloucester County Fire Marshal’s Office.
Posted on June 17, 2013 with No Comments
A week after a bedbug discovery at the Chappaqua Library was announced, Library Director Pam Thornton announced Monday that a follow determined that it is free of bedbugs.
“Good News! We had the exterminator here today to perform a follow-up canine sweep and they report that there was zero signs of bed bugs in the library.”
Bedbugs were discovered after the Friends of the Chappaqua Library’s annual book sale wrapped up last Sunday, prompting a wave of local and regional media headlines. In response, a bedbug elimination event was scheduled for Saturday, in front of New Castle Town Hall, involving a beagle to detect the creatures on books for they could be eliminated.
Posted on June 17, 2013 with No Comments
CHAPPAQUA —Book buyers who went home with purchases from the Chappaqua Library — where bedbugs were recently discovered — had some anxious moments when they found out they might have checked out the tiny pests along with their books.
The book buyers got some relief Saturday thanks to a 5-year-old beagle named Trixie who is trained to sniff out bedbugs. The dog and handler went through hundreds of books at the Town Hall parking lot to find traces of contamination. A local pest-management company, JP McHale, donated its services.
Mimi Fine, a mother of three, brought a load of old books to be searched. They all came out clean.
“What a relief,” she said. “I got a whole box of books here for $7. Now it’s funny, but it wasn’t funny about a half hour ago.”
Fine said the June 5-9 book sale had been the talk of the town since the library sent an email advisory about the pests.
“It’s sort of funny it happened in Chappaqua. The Chappaqua moms must have been going crazy,” she said.
Jennifer Topiel didn’t go crazy, but she said she came close.
“One of my biggest fears is bedbugs,” she said. “When I got the email, I gasped.”
Topiel was relieved to hear that her purchases, the entire “Harry Potter” series — “what a score,” she said — were cleared.
“If it can happen here, it can happen anywhere,” she said.
People started lining up early in the morning for Trixie’s services, along with her handler, Bob Outhouse. The dog found several books with the scent of bedbugs on them. A nearby heated trailer was used to decontaminate any suspect books.
James McHale, who owns the pest-control company, said he organized the event as a good-will gesture, one that also helps market his business.
“There was a lot of hysteria, and as a community service, a way of giving back, we stepped forward and did this free event,” he said.
“Over the past seven or eight years, the bedbug population has spiked, but the media coverage has dropped off, and the public hysteria has dropped off,” McHale said.
Library director Pamela Thornton said many public institutions are having to cope with the problem. The Chappaqua Library is checked four times a year, she said.
Posted on June 14, 2013 with No Comments
(Below is a copy of an announcement from the Town of New Castle about a bed bug elimination event being held in reaction to a bed bud discovery this week at the Chappaqua Library).
Free Bed Bug Elimination-Info Event in Chappaqua this Saturday, June 15 – Town Hall Parking Lot
Bring Your Books-JP McHale Pest Management to Host “Bed Bug Elimination Station” Mobile Thermal Remediation Unit in the Town Hall Parking Lot
WHAT: There will be a free bed bug elimination event in Chappaqua this weekend, sponsored by the New York region’s largest pest management company JP McHale Pest Management. The bed bugs recently discovered at the Chappaqua Library’s Annual Used Book Sale (where an estimated 32,000 books were sold) has led to a full-scale bed bug elimination program that is being conducted by JP McHale Pest Management using their guaranteed thermal remediation method that eliminates all stages of bed bug activity.
Residents concerned about the books purchased from the Library at their recent book sale are invited to drop off their books – that are either boxed or in a bag, and labeled with name/address — between 10am-12noon (for pick up at 3:00pm) at Town Hall Parking Lot where JP McHale will have a Bed Bug Elimination Station set up. JP McHale’s Thermal Pest Units are in keeping with environmental codes and use only glycol, a derivative of vegetable oil, to generate the highest levels of heat needed to completely eliminate any bed bug infestation.
Jim McHale, a Cornell University entomologist and president of JP McHale Pest Management, along with other JP McHale experts will be on-site to answer questions, address concerns about bed bugs and hand-out tip sheets.
Anyone wishing a canine-assisted bed bug examination in Chappaqua for the next 30 days will receive a $75 credit.
Coffee, bagels and refreshments will be served.
WHEN: Saturday, June 15
Book drop off: between 10:00 am-12noon
Book pick-up: 3:00pm
WHERE: Town Hall Parking Lot
200 South Greeley Avenue
Chappaqua, NY
WHO: JP McHale Pest Management Inc., serving all of Westchester County and the New York region, focuses on the most progressive environmentally-responsible methods for preventing and controlling pest manifestations for over 40 years. The family-owned business is run by Jim McHale Jr., a Cornell entomologist with Douglas J. McHale, a plant pathologist, and Richard D. McHale, who holds a BA
degree in Environmental Science. The company’s website, www.nopests.com, includes consumer tips, online pest identification center and the “no pests” blog.
Posted on June 14, 2013 with No Comments
The Library Is Offering To Treat All Books On Saturday. Watch the CBS News Segment here.
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — You may want to avoid curling up in bed with any books that you bought at Chappaqua Library’s used book sale.
A single bed bug was found hanging on a stage curtain in the auditorium that hosted the sale. During the event, the room was crawling with buyers and fears persist that a bug may have hitched a ride on one of the $17,000 worth of used books that were sold.
“We don’t want to sweep it under the rug,” assistant library director Martha Alcott told CBS 2′s Dave Carlin on Thursday night.
Other areas of the library were given the all-clear, but some families said they weren’t taking any chances.
“We put all the books that we got into this big bag,” said 7-year-old Niamh Lee.
Most Chappaqua Library patrons consider themselves bookworms, but they said they aren’t willing to scratch and suffer for their reading habits.
The library has offered a solution that could give concerned buyers peace-of-mind. On Saturday anybody who bought books during the sale can bring them to the parking lot across the street for treatment, Carlin reported.
“You’re going to bring them in boxes or bags and they’ll collect the books and they’ll treat them and you can pick them up later,” Alcott said.
Pest management expert James P. McHale offered his own solution.
“Look through the books when you get them, fan them,” he said. “Freezing them for three hours will kill them at all stages of bedbug life.”
Patrons told CBS 2 that they were pleased with the library’s response.
“I’m not worried. I’ll be back next year if they have it again,” Chappaqua resident Cathy Burns said.
The library promised that in the future the sale area and all sale items will be checked for bed bugs before hand.
Posted on June 13, 2013 with No Comments
Free Bed Bug Elimination-Info Event in Chappaqua this Saturday, June 15 – Town Hall Parking Lot Bring Your Books—JP McHale Pest Management to Host “Bed Bug Elimination Station” Mobile Thermal Remediation Unit in the Town Hall Parking Lot.
WHAT: There will be a free bed bug elimination event in Chappaqua this weekend,
sponsored by the New York region’s largest pest management company JP
McHale Pest Management. The bed bugs recently discovered at the
Chappaqua Library’s Annual Used Book Sale (where an estimated 32,000
books were sold) has led to a full-scale bed bug elimination program that is being
conducted by JP McHale Pest Management using their guaranteed thermal
remediation method that eliminates all stages of bed bug activity.
Residents concerned about the books purchased from the Library at their recent
book sale are invited to drop off their books – that are either boxed or in a bag
– between 10am-12noon (for pick up at 3:00pm) at Town Hall Parking Lot
where JP McHale will have a Bed Bug Elimination Station set up. JP McHale’s
Thermal Pest Units are in keeping with environmental codes and use only glycol,
a derivative of vegetable oil, to generate the highest levels of heat needed to
completely eliminate any bed bug infestation.
Jim McHale, a Cornell University entomologist and president of JP McHale
Pest Management, along with other JP McHale experts will be on-site to answer
questions, address concerns about bed bugs and hand-out tip sheets.
Anyone wishing a canine-assisted bed bug examination in Chappaqua for the next
30 days will receive a $75 credit.
Coffee, bagels and refreshments will be served.
WHEN: Saturday, June 15
Book drop off: between 10:00 am-12noon
Book pick-up: 3:00pm
WHERE: Town Hall Parking Lot
200 South Greeley Avenue
Chappaqua, NY
WHO: JP McHale Pest Management Inc., serving all of Westchester County and the
New York region, focuses on the most progressive environmentally-responsible
methods for preventing and controlling pest manifestations for over 40 years. The
family-owned business is run by Jim McHale Jr., a Cornell entomologist with
Douglas J. McHale, a plant pathologist, and Richard D. McHale, who holds a BA
degree in Environmental Science. The company’s website, www.nopests.com,
includes consumer tips, online pest identification center and the “no pests” blog.
Posted on June 6, 2013 with No Comments
UBURN UNIVERSITY – The first thing that Zach DeVries does when he opens the door to a new hotel room is to put his luggage in the bathtub. “I’m not being paranoid,” DeVries says. “I’m being cautious.”
It is a caution born of insight that DeVries has acquired over the past couple of years as an Auburn University master’s-level entomology graduate student whose research is aimed at discovering basic biological information to add to the relatively shallow body of scientific knowledge about bedbugs.
So there is method to his madness: He puts his bags in the tub so that, if his subsequent examination of the bed and everything around it reveals the tell-tale signs of bedbugs – mainly fecal and blood stains in the seams and crevices of mattresses – he can grab that luggage and scram.
“All it takes is one female bedbug that has been mated getting into your luggage and going home with you, and you could have a real problem,” DeVries says, noting that the insects can lay as many as 500 eggs in their lifetimes.
Working under the guidance of Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology head and professor Art Appel, DeVries is studying bedbug metabolism – specifically, how the tiny pests’ metabolic rates are affected by feeding and starvation and what is at play metabolically that enables bedbugs to survive a year or longer without feeding.
Bedbugs are a global pest and for centuries have plagued people physically, psychologically and financially, but the insects seemed to disappear in the U.S. in the early 1950s, a situation likely attributable to the use of DDT, according to DeVries’ study of previous research literature. So it was that many Baby Boomers and Gen Xers grew up thinking that the bedbugs of bedtime-rhyme fame were more or less imaginary.
As bedbug populations dwindled, so did the scientific community’s interest in studying and searching for control strategies of the parasitic pests. Thus, when the insects returned with a vengeance in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the most recent research was four decades old and light-years removed from today’s technology.
“Some of the research today is on different insecticides to try to control bedbugs because they quickly build up resistance, but the overall goal of our research is first to better understand these cryptic pests,” DeVries said.
In their project, DeVries and Appel are using closed-system respirometry to measure bedbug metabolism. Specifically, they are measuring oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production for individual bed bugs and have measured the metabolic rates of immature bedbugs as they progress through their five developmental stages and of adults for more than 800 hours after feeding. Their findings thus far indicate that the insects’ metabolic rate slows significantly during starvation.
“When they have a constant food supply” – a bedbug feeds, on average, about once a week – “their metabolism is at a rate that allows them to grow and reproduce at an optimal level,” DeVries said. “If they miss feeding, in the first few days after that, their metabolism basically plateaus, but then they enter energy conservation mode. The metabolism drops noticeably. We believe it’s their way of conserving energy in an effort to survive for as long as possible, until food becomes available again.”
The Auburn scientists are also studying the effects of temperature on bedbug metabolism.
“We believe this information will be helpful in control methods, although the benefits won’t necessarily be realized right away,” DeVries said. “After we complete the study, we won’t have the cure for bedbugs, but the findings will help us better understand bedbugs and therefore be better able to control and manage them down the road.”
Though bedbug infestations currently are most severe in major tourist cities, the pests are a growing problem in the South. To help Alabamians become more familiar with and alert to bedbugs, DeVries, Appel and Auburn entomology professor Xing Ping Hu have written a highly informative publication about the pests titled “Battling Bed Bugs: Know the Enemy.” To find the report online, go to www.aces.edu and search for ANR-1464.
(Written by Jamie Creamer.)
Contact: Jamie Creamer, College of Agriculture, (334) 844-2783 (creamjs@auburn.edu), or
Charles Martin, Office of Communications and Marketing, (334) 844-9999 (marticd@auburn.edu)
Posted on June 3, 2013 with No Comments
A Maryland tenant plagued by bedbugs has won a mega-cash payout from her landlord.Faika Shaaban will receive $800,000 after jurors ruled she lost “practically everything” due to the infestation that left her with hundreds of bites and lesions. The 69-year-old launched legal action against property owner Cornelius J. Barrett and West Street Partnership after claiming it knew about the bugs before she moved in.
A court heard about how she was bitten relentlessly by the critters shortly after moving into the Annapolis flat in September 2011.Attempts to get the landlords to fumigate the property failed. It was later revealed that they had also ignored complaints from other tenants before she moved in.
Shaaban was ultimately evicted from the apartment. Bailiffs put her possessions outside on the curb, and they were soon stolen.
“She lost practically everything due to this,” her attorney, Daniel Whitney, told the Baltimore Sun.
Whitney added that the huge sum – which an Anne Arundel County jury took just 45 minutes to decide – reflected a growing sympathy from jurors to tenants with bedbug lawsuits.
Alabama-based attorney Tom Campbell agreed, telling the Sun he expected a surge in bedbug claims over the next decade.
“There are enough lawyers who are getting trained so that people will be able to find lawyers, so that people will find a way to get relief,” Campbell added.
Of the compensation payout, $650,000 was punitive damages, reports WUSA9. Barrett and West Street Partnership has not responded to the lawsuit and the property has since gone into foreclosure.
If you reside in NY, NJ or CT and are a property owner or landlord, contact JP McHale Pest Management to find out how you can protect yourself, your tenants and your properties from
bed bug invasions.
Posted on May 30, 2013 with No Comments
While last year’s bed bug conference as held at the Red Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, NV, The National Pest Management Association has announced that this one will be a Global Bed Bug Summit and will be held Dec. 5-6, 2013, in Denver, Colorado.
The National Pest Management Association (NPMA) announced the launch of the Global Bed Bug Summit, an educational conference and expo designed to provide advanced technical training as well as management courses related to the business of bed bugs. Sponsored by Bed Bug Central, the Global Bed Bug Summit will be held Dec. 5-6, 2013, at the Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel in Denver, Colo.
This event is a merger of BedBug Central’s North American Bed Bug Summit and NPMA’s Bed Bug Forum. “For the past three years, BedBug Central has hosted the annual North American Bed Bug Summit. During that same time period, the NPMA also hosted an annual Bed Bug Forum. And, while the audiences for each event were not exact, it is clearly evident that a merger of these events could only serve to benefit the pest management industry,” stated NPMA Executive Vice President Bob Rosenberg. “So, with that in mind, BedBug Central and NPMA have created an event that plays to the strengths of both organizations and provides the pest management community with a high caliber, comprehensive program that addresses both technical and business oriented topics.”
“While this event is new, we are pleased that it will be retaining some of the tried-and-true elements from our past Summits,” stated BedBug Central CEO Phil Cooper. “The trade floor will continue to be referred to as ExpoCentral, and will remain open during sessions; the Beer Tasting and Night with the Experts will be prominently featured; and BedBug Central’s Jeff White and NPMA’s Jim Fredericks will oversee the program development. BedBug Central and NPMA are committed to ensuring attendees receive a tremendous experience – complete with fantastic content and a relaxed and fun atmosphere!”
Posted on May 29, 2013 with No Comments
Hospitals are increasingly plagued by another problem: bed bugs.
More than a third of pest-management companies treated bedbug infestations in hospitals in 2012, 6% more than the year before and more than twice as many as in 2010, according to a survey released by the National Pest Management Association. The percentage of exterminators dealing with bed bugs in nursing homes has also almost doubled since 2010, to 46%. Bed bug experts also report seeing them in ambulances.
While bed bugs have not been found to transmit infections to humans, for those who react to bed bug bites, they leave itchy bites after feeding on people’s blood, which can lead to secondary infections when victims scratch. This is especially problematic in hospitals, where there is a greater likelihood of catching the highly potent and contagious staph infection known as MRSA, says Dr. Jorge Parada, medical director of the infection prevention and control program of Loyola University Health System in Chicago. “You don’t need one more ingredient to increase your risk of infections in the hospital,” he says. Although hospitals are putting a growing emphasis on strict cleanliness and sterilization protocols, bed bugs still arrive via the many patients and visitors going in and out of their emergency rooms and waiting areas. “We never know when somebody might show up with bedbugs,” Parada says.
The high instance of bedbugs in nursing homes is also concerning, he adds, because hospitals receive many transfers from such facilities, and elderly people often don’t exhibit the same telltale signs of bedbugs—red, raised, itchy lesions—that other patients do: “It’s one less tipoff that it’s a problem.”
