Joe Barile, BCE, Technical Services Lead, Bayer
Bed bugs can be maddening. These pests are small, mobile, cryptic hitchhikers, and their activity may remain undiscovered until the population grows to hundreds of insects. Pest management professionals should remember to use bed bugs’ basic biology and behaviors in planning their service process.
Start inspections and focus initial service efforts where bed bugs can routinely find their food: where people sleep and/or remain sitting or reclining for prolonged periods. Remember that the elderly and infirm may be bitten not only in bed, but in daytime resting sites, too.
Additional tips include:
- Provide customers with educational material that is objective and easy to understand. A true/false myth list is very effective in teaching the realities of bed bug infestations.
- Plan on providing multiple technicians to perform the service. Bed bug service is hard work and can overwhelm a single technician.
- Studies have demonstrated that heat treatments do not degrade residual insecticide formulations. If you use heat, apply insecticides before the heat treatment so bugs trying to escape the heat will be exposed in treated sites.
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