Bed Bugs
BEDBUGS - Bedbugs are a pest that has had resurgence in recent years from being nearly wiped out and unheard of for many years. They bite and feed on blood like fleas and mosquitoes. They quickly become a huge and expensive problem if infestation occurs. Travelers are most susceptible. They are master hitchhikers, catching rides in our luggage and clothing. They are not known to transmit any diseases yet but they can cause severe reactions to their bites and distress, as shown in bottom picture.
BIOLOGY- Bedbugs belong to the order Hemiptera. They go through Gradual Metamorphosis, meaning egg, nymph(middle picture), and adult. The adult is about ¼ inch long and reddish brown in color except after feeding when it will be more red in color and enlarged. Their body is flattened and oval which makes it easy to hide in cracks and crevices. The adult female will lay about 200-500 eggs but only a few per day and it takes from 18-56 days for the eggs to become adults. Adults live for about 6-12 months. They will not starve because they can survive for most of that time without food. They can even endure freezing temperatures, however heat is their enemy. They can not handle temperatures above 100 degrees for very long.
CONTROL - To control Bedbugs you have to be patient and persistent. You need to treat the mattress and box springs with a pesticide labeled for that such as the aerosols Bedlam, PT 565 XLO, and CB-80. Bedlam has up to a 7 week residual and is made especially for bedbugs, the other two do not have a residual but rather they kill on contact. You can also use it to treat any and all cracks and crevices around the structure and furniture also, especially where the carpet meets up to the baseboard, that is a key place. You can also use residual liquid insecticides such as Onslaught, Evercide, Suspend SC, Demand CS, etc., dusts such as EcoEXEMPT D Dust or Delta Dust for inside walls and behind outlet covers, crack and crevice aerosols such as Cy-Kick, Invader, Intruder, CB-80, and PT-565 Plus XLO. You can also use environmentally friendly and safer pesticides such as EcoPCO WP-X. One of the most important things to use is an Insect Growth Regulator called Gentrol. This is basically birth control for them; they will grow up to adulthood but will be unable to reproduce thus breaking their life cycle. It is very simple to use, you mix the concentrate with water and the residual insecticide in your sprayer. The best approach is to use a combination of products such as Bedlam, a dust for voids, and a residual liquid with Gentrol. Just realize, it will probably take multiple treatments to get rid of them completely so again be patient and persistent. That is especially true for hotels and motels because you also need to treat any adjoining rooms to the ones that have Bedbugs and also quite probably laundry and storage rooms too because of how easily they can be transported and how they get into the walls.
Geographic Location(s): Nationwide and spreading rapidly.
Some online retail products cannot be shipped to all states, most notably
are New York, California, Alaska, Hawaii, Vermont, and Connecticut.
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