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Follow-up Makes the Difference
19 Jan, 2009 By: Mark Sheperdigian Direct To You: Bed Bug BusinessThere are many companies that have achieved success against bed bugs after a single treatment. Unfortunately, it cannot be done reliably. Every job is so different and the populations are so variable that the wisest course of action is to schedule follow-up visits.
Why we do follow-up visits
Follow-up visits allow you to evaluate the previous treatment, determine the status of the population, and set expectations for the client. Your goal will be to find and eliminate the bed bugs remaining after the initial service. They may be remaining for a number of reasons, such as undiscovered eggs that may have hatched or bed bug nymphs that were quietly awaiting a molt. In heavier infestations, you may have to cut the population way down to detect some of the more obscure harborage sites. For those accounts where there is a constant supply of new bed bugs being brought in, only follow-up treatments will help you figure this out. In populations of resistant bed bugs, you may need to physically remove the bed bugs with a vacuum or apply material directly to them to get control.
How to do follow-up visits
Of course, you should begin with an interview with the client. Ask whether they have still been getting bites. Have they seen any live bed bugs? Go back over the areas of heaviest activity from the initial visit. If the last service was also a follow-up, check any areas that had activity. Check any new areas that have reported bed bug activity.
Be sure to check other primary harborages around beds and upholstered furniture, even if they did not have activity during the last service. If you use a vacuum during your initial services to remove all the evidence you find, it will be easier on a follow-up visit to determine new activity such as cast skins. You will use all the same materials and methods on follow-up visits that you use on initial services, but you will be more focused on known and reported areas of activity. It is common to go thoroughly through a home or apartment where some bites have been reported since the initial and find only a single nymph or two. This leaves you to wonder whether these individuals are responsible for the bites — or are there more?
When to do follow-up visits
There is wide variation in the way in which different companies schedule follow-up visits for bed bugs. Eggs will hatch in seven to 10 days, but adverse conditions may lengthen that interval to two weeks. Nymphs will usually molt into the next stage within that time, but in cooler conditions, it may be much longer. In all cases, most eggs will have hatched and most nymphs will have molted within the seven- to 10-day interval under normal conditions. If you are the sort that must wait for the 99th percentile, you may want to stretch your follow-up period to two weeks.
As you put more and more dead bed bugs behind you, you will get a better feel for what you can expect and how to schedule your follow-up visits.
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