MATTRESS COVERS A MUST

The treatment of mattresses, box springs and furniture continues to be a concern. Experienced PMPs agree that the bed, bed frame, headboard, nightstand and the close surrounding areas are where the most activity will occur.

"Source elimination is a prime concern for us," says Stephen Gates, Cook's Pest Control's director of technical services. "We have all infested bedding carefully wrapped and discarded rather than try to treat it. The new bedding is wrapped in bed bug-proof mattress covers to eliminate the mattress and box spring as a harborage for bed bugs".

CHEMICALLY SPEAKING

Eric Snell, president of Snell Scientifics in Barnesville, Ga., has conducted many bed bug pesticide exposure studies. He notes it can take a long time for bed bugs to pick up a toxic dose from a treated surface — especially porous surfaces, where they are likely to be in typical field situations.

"I'm not sure that a bed bug is going to be killed by simply walking across a 12-inch-wide treated band of carpet," he says. "It's much more important to get the treatment to the harborage, where the bed bug will be contacting the residual and increasing the exposure time."

An adult bed bug is built "flat," allowing it to get into the smallest of cracks and crevices. Bed bug eggs and immature nymphs are smaller yet, broadening the potential hiding places. After an application, PMPs are counting on the bed bug to pick up a toxic dose of insecticide from a treated surface for a residual effect.

SUMMARY

At one location the author visited recently, bed bugs were almost everywhere. In one apartment bedroom alone, there were more than 200 smears of crushed bed bugs on the walls where the residents had squashed them.

It is apparent that bed bugs are here to stay, and the problem is growing.

"Bed bugs are not a simple problem to get rid of," stresses Frishman. "They require knowledge and a willingness to work hard. As an industry, we are needed more now than ever."

Bed Bug Management: Steps to Success

• Properly train your service technicians.
• Provide customers with written pre-treatment preparation instructions.
• Provide customers with a clearly written description of the scope of your services and reasonable expectations.
• Ensure your service agreement states what you intended.
• Provide your customers with viable prevention recommendations.
• Be thorough.
• Use all viable control means available.
• Use non-traditional control techniques, combined with insecticide treatments.
• Use suitable vacuums.
• Use suitable steamers.
• Use the best-available products at the appropriate label rates.
• Use mattress encasements.
• Follow up in a timely and adequate fashion.
• Consider getting additional help for problem bed bug accounts.

Going to the Dogs

Termite detection dogs have been used by the industry for about 10 years. Recently, dogs have begun to be trained to help with bed bug detection.

"We began training dogs for bed bugs by request about two years ago," says Pepe Peruyero, president of J&K Canine Academy in High Springs, Fla. He adds that what sets J&K apart from other dog trainers is that for more than seven years, his team has worked in cooperation with the University of Florida's Department of Entomology, establishing certification and accreditation standards for entomologically trained detection dogs that is overseen by the National Entomological Scent Detection Canine Association (NESDCA).

Peruyero reports that not all dogs are well suited for bed bug detection.

"Hunting breeds are good choices," he adds. "For bed bugs, we prefer dogs in the 30- to 35-pound range because bed bugs may be found high or low in rooms and the dog may need to jump so it can let its handler know where the bed bugs are."

While it might seem a good idea to have a dog trained for both termites and bed bugs, Peruyero says a "single-discipline" dog is best because of the nature of the pests in question. By contrast, a drug detection dog may be able to sense several types of illegal substances – but the handler is only looking for the presence of these items. The differences between where a termite or bed bug might be in structures make it impractical for a dog to be "cross-trained," because it might alert to termites within a wall when the handler is looking for bed bugs.

Of course, there is no 100-percent accuracy with any method, and that includes using dogs.

"Dogs can make mistakes just like people," Peruyero says. "But overall, we are satisfied with the capability of our dogs, and we have the scientific research that backs up their dependability."

Peruyero also points out that dogs are not for every bed bug case: "If you have an account that's loaded with bed bugs, you probably don't need a dog to help you find them. A dog will help you when the human eye can't easily detect the bed bugs and the customer is getting bitten. Trained dogs are best used in tough-to-solve bed bug cases."

If you're considering acquiring a bed bug detection dog, here are some tips:

• Get a dog that is healthy, has a good temperament and is willing to work.
• Rather than bringing in a dog for training, experts say you're better off letting the trainers select the dog and you buying the preselected, trained dog.
• Buy from a trainer that offers a good guarantee.
• A single-disciplined dog is better than a cross-trained dog.
• Realize that having a dog is a huge commitment. Dogs require dedicated handlers and daily, documented training to retain certification accreditation status.

For more information, visit http://www.jkk9.com/.

For additional information, you can reach Bello, president of PJB Pest Management Consulting, at pbelloconsulting@earthlink.net
.

Bed Bugs — What's Really Working (Part 2) will run in April.