by marex on June 19, 2010

Making use of a bed bug mattress cover can come in handy especially when traveling as even nice hotels can become unsuspecting victims of infestation problems. In fact, a recent study suggests that the increase in world travel may have contributed to the rise in reported incidents each year. Here are 3 tips to help prevent these critters from attacking.

1. Use a bed bug mattress cover

As mentioned above, even nice hotels may have bug problems in certain rooms but this is generally an exception. To be safe, you can make use of a cover that encases the entire mattress which works to keep these insects from attacking if they are nesting in the bed. Since these critters attack late at night, using a cover will help prevent them from getting in and out of the mattress.

2. Thoroughly wash your clothes and luggage

Bed bugs can easily transmit between clothes and luggage which is why it is essential that you thoroughly wash everything before heading home on a trip. This will ensure that even if these insects did somehow latch onto your luggage, you can prevent them from entering you home. Even if you do not travel frequently, it is still a good idea to always keep your clothes clean.

3. Keep a spray with you

If you notice bed bugs in your room or on your mattress, a quick way to eliminate them is using insecticides specifically designed to kill them. Be sure to only use a light mist on the affected area as some sprays contain toxic chemicals that are not healthy to breathe in. If you are constantly around children or pets, then it may be good idea to get a spray that does not contain hazardous ingredients.

When it comes to prevention, be sure to use a bed bug mattress when traveling and to always thoroughly wash your clothes. A good idea before traveling would be to read reviews on certain hotels you expect to stay in to make sure infestation problems are kept at a minimum. Be sure to keep the above factors in mind when it comes to preventing bed bugs from attacking.

They told us in the past that pesticides like DDT were safe to kill bugs, including bed bugs. But they turned out to be carcinogenic. ThermaPureHeat CEO Dave Hedman asks that, in light of the bedbug epidemic facing the US today, why would people let pest control companies spray toxic chemicals and powders (which don’t kill bed bugs and their eggs without multiple applications) on your bed and bedding when there’s a new, green, chemical-free and laboratory tested safe and effective way to kill bed bugs? www.thermapure.com It’s a single heat treatment, normally taking just a few hours, that kills bed bugs and their eggs and does not harm the structure or the contents.

But even though those solutions are generally effective, that does not mean that a mere application of them will get bed bugs annihilated. You basically can’t just leave all the work to the product as it sure will need your aide to effectively work. Your effective fulfillment of your part is a major element of getting the method’s success. That part that you have to get done generally refers to how you will use the product. Sure, it is easy to use formula or pesticides as you can just apply them directly to the damaged surface, cracks or crevices. Usually, you can just spray them. Nevertheless, apart from spraying there are still other steps that must be implemented before they can be effective. Here are the effective ways of how you should use pesticides to really kill bed bugs. Read the instructions, before you go and start using the solution, you should read first the instructions. Going over it will give you clear idea of how you will use. If you don’t understand any of the instructions, you can search or ask someone to make the application proper. More than that, reading the instructions will also help you prepare all the materials you will need. Use just the right amount, if you are using an organic pesticide, you don’t have to worry about over treatment. However, if you are utilizing a chemical-based solution more than the recommended amount, over treatment will most likely happen. And that can negatively affect the items or surfaces where you are trying to get bed bugs off. Nonetheless, even if you are opting for organic solutions, you should use just the right amount. Doing so will make your product last longer which means you don’t have to buy another so soon. Make sure that bed bugs are targeted, this means that you should confirm bed bugs infestation first before you start spraying. In a general sense, this prevents the waste of solution and also money.

But even though those solutions are generally effective, that does not mean that a mere application of them will get bed bugs annihilated. You basically can’t just leave all the work to the product as it sure will need your aide to effectively work. Your effective fulfillment of your part is a major element of getting the method’s success.

That part that you have to get done generally refers to how you will use the product. Sure, it is easy to use formula or pesticides as you can just apply them directly to the damaged surface, cracks or crevices. Usually, you can just spray them. Nevertheless, apart from spraying there are still other steps that must be implemented before they can be effective.

Here are the effective ways of how you should use pesticides to really kill bed bugs.

Read the instructions, before you go and start using the solution, you should read first the instructions. Going over it will give you clear idea of how you will use. If you don’t understand any of the instructions, you can search or ask someone to make the application proper. More than that, reading the instructions will also help you prepare all the materials you will need.

Use just the right amount, if you are using an organic pesticide, you don’t have to worry about over treatment. However, if you are utilizing a chemical-based solution more than the recommended amount, over treatment will most likely happen. And that can negatively affect the items or surfaces where you are trying to get bed bugs off. Nonetheless, even if you are opting for organic solutions, you should use just the right amount. Doing so will make your product last longer which means you don’t have to buy another so soon.

Make sure that bed bugs are targeted, this means that you should confirm bed bugs infestation first before you start spraying. In a general sense, this prevents the waste of solution and also money. Read more about our Bed Bug Products.

What do these pests look like?

Bedbugs are very tiny, flat, wingless bugs.  Their size can vary from a head of a pin to about one-quarter of an inch in length when fully mature.  They have an oval shape and look like small watermelon seeds.  Their color can vary from a translucent yellow to a dark reddish brown.  If they have just dined on a person’s blood they may appear dark brown or black in color. 

How easy are they to detect?

Most travelers are not aware of bedbugs until they see the red bite marks on their bodies and start scratching their itchy wounds.  Bed bugs can be extremely difficult to find if the infestation is light.  Their eggs are very tiny and about the size of a grains of rice which are even harder to see.  To make matters worse they tend to be nocturnal so they are waking up and looking for a blood breakfast when most vacationers are going to sleeping.

When you check into your room it is advisable to roll the bed sheets, blankets and comforters all the way down to see if you can find any bed bugs.  A tell tale sign that they are there are dark fecal spots or drops of dried blood on the linen, pillowcases, or in the seams around the mattress or box springs.  You may also find what appear to be shells of bed bugs which are in fact the skins that they shed as they mature.  If you find any sign of their presence, call down to the front desk and ask for another room.  You may be able to get a discount on your room for the upsetting experience and inconvenience.

However, bed bugs do not reflect on the cleanliness of hotels and resorts.  These insects do not eat crumbs or dirt, or anything we may associate with unsanitary hotel room conditions.  They only feed on blood. 

In terms of a vacationer’s health, current research indicates that these insects do not appear to spread disease even though they can harbor well over twenty-five different pathogens. 

Not everybody gets bitten by bed bugs.  Sometimes, if there are two travelers sleeping in the same bed, only one may get bitten.  However, bed bugs do not discriminate.  Given a chance they will gladly dine on anyone’s blood.  Bed bugs are attracted to the heat of our bodies and the carbon dioxide that we exhale when we breathe.  They also release chemicals to attract and find each other.  These night crawlers move fast and are excellent climbers.  They can quietly tag along in a traveler’s luggage or on their clothes. 

What can you do to avoid these pests when traveling on your holidays?

Unfortunately, apart from checking the bed linen, mattress, box springs, bed frames, behind the bed’s headboard, any upholstered furniture, and along the baseboards in your room, that’s about all you can do. 

Bed bugs are a universal problem and can be found in motels, hostels, bed and breakfasts, hotels, pod hotels, resorts, hospitals, airplanes, trains, buses, cabs, cruise ships, etc.  These little blood suckers can be found near any readily available sources of blood, like tired travelers.   Bed bugs can even hitch a ride home with you, turning your home sweet home into a living hell. 

What can you do to get rid of bed bugs?

You should leave the job to a professional pest control company as these pests are very difficult to get rid of.  It’s expensive and can take time treating an infestation of bed bugs which usually involves using steam and pesticides.  This process may have to be repeated a number of times before the very hot steam and pesticides kill all of them.  Keep in mind that the insects must come into direct contact with the hot steam and pesticides for these tactics to be totally effective.

As far as your home is concerned, prevention is a lot easier and far less costly than the cure.  In your home, you do not have to throw your mattress and box springs out.  You can easily cover your mattress and box springs with zippered plastic coverings which will prevent bedbugs from hiding in the cracks and crevices of your mattress.  There are also zippered plastic protectors that are just as effective for your pillows.  This will prevent any possible bedbugs that are inside from getting out.  At the same time it will prevent any new infestations from getting in, thus eliminating the bed as a problem.  However, this is only one part of the solution.  You will still need to apply steam and pesticides to any areas of the home where they could be hiding.

There is a new and exciting revolutionary product that looks very promising for monitoring and eliminating bed bugs.  It’s called the NightWatch Bedbug Trap designed by Bio Sensory, Inc.. 

This small, easy to use product has a kairomone, carbon dioxide, and heat lure that traps and kills bed bugs.  Under a monitored field test this product captured and killed over a thousand bed bugs.  The company’s website is Biosensory.com.

TheOmahaChannel.com
10:01 a.m. MT, Mon., Jan. 28, 2008

OMAHA, Neb. – Angie Rempe finds herself staring at the ceiling wherever she goes. It’s a nervous habit, born out of living with bed bugs for eight months. “Good night, sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite. I don’t say that anymore,” the Lincoln woman said.

Rempe, her husband and four children moved into a Lincoln apartment in June. She said by July, the family was scratching with unexplainable welts that resembled mosquito bites. An inspection of the mattresses revealed a creepy discovery.

“By the time we found out what they were, the bed bugs had totally coated the seams of the mattresses,” said Rempe.

She now finds bed bugs in the baseboards, closets and in cracks in the ceiling of her apartment.

Bed bugs are flat, brownish bugs that feed off humans. Adult bed bugs are about one-quarter inch in size. They don’t spread disease, but the psychological impact of thinking about these nighttime visitors is unnerving.

“If he falls on me, I’m going to scream,” said Rempe recently, watching bed bugs crawl out of a hole in her textured ceiling.

Bed bugs can live in second-hand furniture, especially in bed frames and mattresses. They lay eggs the size of a pin head, and adult bed bugs can stay dormant in a wall without feeding for up to a year.

“I’ve seen bed bugs on the kids before. My sister stayed here one and had one crawl in her ear,” said Rempe.

According to health experts, the United States has seen an increase in infestations of bed bugs in hotels, apartments and homes in recent years. Experts said pesticides like DDT, that controlled the population of bed bugs in the past, are no longer safe for humans.

Last week, officials in New York, Kentucky and Ohio held emergency meetings to form task forces to educate people about outbreaks of bed bugs plaguing residents in increasing numbers.

New York is dealing with infestations of bed bugs in expensive hotels, with unwitting guests taking the bed bugs home with them, stowing away in luggage or clothing.

Cleanliness does not come into play in an infestation. Bed bugs can be found in low-rent apartments and high-end houses. The only requirement is that bed bugs have something to eat.

“Bed bugs only feed by sucking blood. They’re parasites,” said Barb Ogg, UNL extension educator.

Lincoln property managers and Rempe are at odds over who’s responsible for the infestation of bed bugs. But both are working together to exterminate the pests. Ogg said licensed exterminators must use insecticide every few weeks until inspections no longer reveal evidence of living bed bugs.

Tiny brown spots in patches on the wall indicate droppings from bed bugs, a tell-tale sign of a possible infestation.

“You can’t just come in and spray the baseboards and leave,” Ogg said.

Ogg instructed property managers of Rempe’s apartment to have exterminators drill holes in the ceiling to insert the pesticide, and then caulk the holes and plug up any cracks and crevices where the bed bugs might live.

Rempe said exterminators have completed two treatments in recent weeks and she isn’t seeing as much activity from the bed bugs as she has in the past. She said exterminators also treated the vacant apartments that share walls with her unit.

She’s thrown away most of her furniture, sitting only on lawn chairs or milk crates in her three bedroom apartment.

The family sleeps on the floor, with quilts and blankets that can be laundered weekly. Rempe said anything worth saving she’s stored in the garage, hoping sub-zero temperatures will freeze the pests.

Rempe said when she threw her bedding and upholstered furniture in the dumpster, she cut it up, to prevent anyone from trying to salvage it.

Ogg said if you suspect bed bugs, trap one and take it to an exterminator or extension office. With proper identification, pest control and vigilance you don’t have to let the bed bugs bite.

Experts sais that if you travel, inspect your luggage, wash your clothing and vacuum suitcases. Be cautious about used furniture and mattresses. And thoroughly inspect homes and apartments before moving in.

Because bed bugs aren’t known to spread disease, renters and hotel guests aren’t required to report infestations to health authorities. So many times, the extent of the problem is difficult to determine.

It is important to know what bed bugs look like so that you may correctly identify them if you see any. They are brownish red in color and they are small, flat and round, but not too small that you cannot see them. Bed Bugs feast on human and animal blood in order to survive and it is the only thing they are looking for. They will attach themselves to a viable host and suck the skin until their entire body inflates with blood causing them to plump up and turn completely red. You can see the blood right through their skin once they have ingested it. They are similar to a tick, or a flea, but unlike ticks, they usually won’t stay attached onto their host for very long. They will bite, suck and then move on. They leave behind red itchy welts that will usually heal in a couple of days. Since they are relatively small, their bite is not very big. As far as the bite itself, it is usually painless as well as harmless. If anything, the person who experiences a bed bug bite is more traumatized emotionally than anything else.

They like to hide out in cracks, crevices, creases, and seams, which can make them hard to find but not hard to see. Since they are good at being undetected, it has allowed them to spread and lately there has been increasing reports of bed bug bites in the US. Travelers do not realize that the bugs have found their way into their luggage and this tends to be the number one reason people carry them along onto their next destination, whether it be home, another hotel, or a family member or friends house.

The best and most effective way to avoid getting bed bug bites is to invest in a bed bug mattress cover. They are specifically designed to keep bed bugs sealed up inside the mattress and are even bite proof. This is a good idea if you anticipate traveling anywhere no matter how short the trip may be. You never know where you may find them.

These types of covers are only effective provided they are used correctly. They have to cover and seal the entire mattress making sure you do not leave the zipper open at all. it must be kept zipped while in use on a mattress. This is recommended for travel only to use on beds that are unfamiliar to you. It is not a permanent solution and therefore would not be a good idea to use them if you have bed bugs in your home. That will require a different course of action and this information is only intended for those traveling. It is also important that you clean these covers in between uses, making sure that any bed bugs trapped inside be properly exterminated and disposed of.

You have to wash the covers in very hot water or you can put the cover in a sealed plastic bag and store it in the freezer. Any bed bugs trapped inside will freeze and die, then you can simply unzip the cover and easily dispose of the dead bugs the following day. Make sure this is done between uses. Both the heat from hot water or the cold from the freezer will definitely kill bedbugs.

Sprays are also available which you can buy and use in addition to the mattress cover in order to help keep bed bugs off of you while you are asleep. Select a spray that will not irritate your skin if at all possible and check with your local outdoor gear or camping store, they should carry this product. A quite effective way to avoid any bed bug bites is to have both the mattress cover and the spray in use while sleeping in any unfamiliar bed such as in a hotel room.

The only way to prevent any bed bug bite is to to never allow them the chance to bite you in the first place. But there could be a time when you just happen to stumble across them and it is best for you to be prepared. Always carry these items with you while traveling. It’s your surest bet against getting bed bug bites.

The most important part of this MacGyverized contraption is an insulated one-third-gallon jug — like the kind sold in camping-supply stores — filled with 2½ lb. of frozen carbon dioxide, which costs about $1 per lb. (and should be handled only with gloves). As the dry-ice pellets slowly evaporate, the open thermos spout lets the CO2 — which falsely signals bedbugs that a breathing, blood-filled meal is nearby — seep out overnight. That’s usually enough time to entice the nocturnal insects into the other key component of the trap: the overturned food-and-water dish on which the thermos sits. The bugs climb the outer surface of the dish, which can be scuffed with sandpaper for better traction, and get stuck in its moat, made slippery-smooth with a dusting of talcum powder.

This trap was designed to give consumers a cheap way to determine if they have — or, in many cases, still have — a bedbug problem that requires a proper extermination. Bedbugs have made a serious comeback in North America over the past few years, especially in big cities like Toronto and San Francisco. And they are notoriously hard to get rid of. As evidence, amid the enthusiastic talk on Bedbugger.com about the Rutgers invention, one commenter noted, “Dude, I am so going to try this once a month or so.”

If you do bed bug treatments, you may have heard or will hear about an article published in Time Magazine recently, How to Build Your Own Bed Bug Detector at Home. The article references a Rutgers University study to see if heat, pheromone cues from the host, or carbon dioxide is the best attractant for bed bugs. The study concluded that dry ice was the best attractant. Dry ice produces carbon dioxide as it melts. Bed bugs are attracted to carbon dioxide, which humans exhale, and that is believed to be the method bed bugs use to find humans to feed on.  So it makes sense, but are these safe?

A customer called us who believed her 18-month-old son was getting bed bug bites. She read the Time Magazine article and wanted to place a dry ice pitfall trap under her sons crib. My first question with new products is always-how safe are they? So, I checked the MSDS for dry ice. Below are some of the statements from the MSDS that caused me to be concerned:

Signal Word: Danger!
Acute Health Hazard-Severe: X

Special Hazard Precautions: Concentration in excess of 1.5% carbon dioxide may cause death. At higher concentrations, displaces oxygen in air below levels necessary to support life.
Target organs: Respiratory system, skin

Carcinogen: Formaldehyde

In my opinion, the use of homemade dry ice traps by consumers may be dangerous, as indicated by the signal word “Danger.” According to the New York State Health Department Website, “Dry ice can be a very serious hazard in a small space that isn’t well-ventilated. As dry ice melts, it turns into carbon dioxide gas. In a small space, this gas can build up. If enough carbon dioxide gas is present, a person can become unconscious, and in some cases, die.” “Symptoms of overexposure to carbon dioxide include headache and difficulty breathing, and with greater exposure, nausea and vomiting.”

As pest control professionals, customers depend on us to provide information regarding responsible control of pests in their homes and businesses. In my opinion, everyone who may discuss bed bugs with customers need to aware of the dangers of dry ice.  I have e-mailed Time Magazine regarding their article, I have not heard back as of this time.