Although bedbugs treatment is more of an issue in domestic properties, it can occur in commercial settings as well. It is a subject that must be given considerable thought while formulating infestation dynamics that is based on locali and singleii source exposures.
To zero the bedbug existence, the famous Sherlock Holmes approach can be adopted by pinning down the places where the initial traveling bugs were picked up. Cross matching the places may present the source of recent ‘re-infestation’ regardless of the facts how far occupants have moved away. If these bedbugs are being reintroduced from work, they will need to be treated at work, and/or the occupants educated on how not to bring these bedbugs back to home. Bedbugs are ‘everywhere’, one can never be sure the place is rid of bedbugs forever.
“By Identifying the source, one can avoid the dynamic revert from a ‘local source’ back to ‘single source’, and is thus easier to resolve.”
Everywhere… really?
Assuming the presence ‘everywhere’ at times might kill the spirit of bedbugs’ killing. The aim must lie in finding the local and single source and its dynamism. Offering K9 inspections three times a year one can pretty much catch an infestation before being seen. With the use of K9, source can be pinpointed where the infestation lies exactly, and then one may treat as per the professional opinion. Again, for a well-trained bug detector to pinpoint and visually confirm an infestation, K9 could be a great tool, but not enough, as the issue is that every few days someone in the property could be bringing in fresh bedbugs and as such the treatment programme could appear to be failing. In a lot of cases the source can be narrowed down to at least a room, if not a specific item which prefers spot treatment rather than a full home treatment. Since most products used hold some residue for at least 30 days, this usually means anything reintroduced within this time frame will be taken care of from the residue. Anything after that would not be an infestation and can be spot treated.
“There have been cases in which source was found in a completely different area than suspected”
The K9 Inspection
Bedbugs are hitch hikers and are not very visible to the naked eye. The point of K9 inspections are to find infestations, and keep a level of peace of mind. This applies to commercial or residential places equally. Finding the level of infestation about how long the bedbugs may have been is equally important as pin pointing the source. Having a K9 on some type of inspection programme will eliminate the need for full treatments and/or find the source.
If one lives in a duplex and does not want to treat the entire duplex, then the occupant is taking a risk of possible re-infestation. Perhaps the most important thing is being aware of how bedbugs work as each situation is different and should be handled that way.
If you are a hotel owner who comes across bedbugs infestations more often, getting the cleaning staff involved and regular K9 inspections will greatly reduce the amount of treatments and cost to keep bedbugs under control. If the worker is suspected as a carrier, a screen of the facility would be advisable but short of shadowing a person 24/7; there has to be a line between investigation and advice.
• Bed bug control is intensive, and two or more visits from your pest control company are likely necessary to achieve control.
• Select a pest control company based on their bed bug experience and knowledge; the cheapest company is not always the best choice.
• Even experienced pest control companies may not successfully eliminate bed bugs on the first series of treatments.
• To optimize treatment effectiveness, you must follow directions provided by your pest control company.
• You can supplement professional pest control treatments with control tactics of your own, including steam cleaning, washing and drying textiles on the hot cycle, and using diatomaceous earth dust.
• When traveling, take the proper precautions to avoid bringing bed bugs back to your home
Educating
There are so many contributing factors with reintroduction that have to be taken into account. Human activity and not eliminating the outside source (where the bugs came from to begin with), play a large role along with personal items that were not even treated to begin with. The list goes on and on.
“A bedbug has a life span of six weeks.”
While treating secured facility, where inmates may be housed outside, administrators must be taught how to control re-entry to the facility, as almost all bed bug re-infestations begins without any blood spotting. Bedbugs are more of a matter of avoiding than treating owing to fast re-infestation. Maintenance crews of apartment complexes are now being trained on how to avoid bringing bed bugs home from the job.
“While treating, all the three – structural, social and environmental variables must be taken into account.”
Chemical treatment is more popular over heat treatment, as it is easy to treat and takes less timwe. The BIG issue remains reintroduction as many bring them in from other family or friends homes, work, and sometimes their cars. Also if they remove items and bring them back untreated. In fact the bugs could be riding around in the host clothing. Either as an adjunct to treatment or as QC, Passive Monitors (BB Alert or PackTite Passive) which provide the perfect harbourage for bedbugs when installed correctly in an occupied room, any bedbug that gets in prefers to inhabit the device other than places of the room; similar to a bird using the bird box despite having lots of other potential nesting sites. The key difference is that with Passive Monitors, bedbugs are induced to defecate on the detection skirt on the outside of the device and so can easily be visually confirmed.
A single pesticide resistant or otherwise still surviving pregnant female can quickly re-infest an otherwise well treated area. In other words, ‘they are not dead till they are ALL dead’. That’s where the problem often lies.