Archive for year: 2015

As we have warned you before on this blog, bed bugs can find you even on vacation and in fact they enjoy residing in hotels. There have been huge infestations uncovered in hotels around the country. People are scared and for good reason and this is hurting the hotel industry in quite a few ways.

In 2010, it seemed all but impossible to escape bedbug infestation and paranoiain New York City. Almost everyone knew someone that had to deal with them; I remember guilt-ridden conversations of how to politely escape social gatherings at the homes of friends who had had them.

That year was the peak of bedbugs in New York. The Department of Housing Preservation and Development reports that infestation cases have been falling since then; last year’s case number—2,268—is less than half of what it once was.

Nevertheless, bedbugs are still a huge concern for the hospitality industry.  The reason isn’t merely the bugs themselves, but how travelers choose their accommodations these days: online, guided by the reviews of their fellow travelers. And those online reviews can do real damage to a hotel if there is just the slightest hint of a bedbug infestation.

That’s the finding of three researchers—Michael Potter, veteran entomologist, and agricultural economists Jerrod Penn and Wuyang Hu at the University of Kentucky—who teamed up to look at the economic impact of bedbugs for the hotel industry. Their forthcoming report was funded by Protect-A-Bed (a company that makes mattress protectors), and it shows that bedbug reports lowered the value of a hotel room by $21 for leisure travelers and $38 for business travelers.

The researchers conducted a survey of more than 2,100 respondents, asking them what factors were important to them when picking a hotel. In order to mimic the way bedbug information would be discovered in real life as travelers booked hotels online, Penn explained, the information about bedbugs required a couple extra clicks from the participant. They found that bedbugs were at the top of people’s lists of concerns when picking a hotel. Further, if an actual bedbug was found—participants reported it as the number one reason they’d leave the hotel immediately.

Read more at: http://theatln.tc/1KjaI8H

Most people realize the severity of bed bug infestation but there are few who understand exactly how endemic it is and the dangers these bugs could potentially have if the infestation grows large enough. Since the problem is growing at an alarming rate, the rate at which people are attempting to eradicate bed bugs on their own is growing. Because people are resorting to doing the extermination themselves, the bed bugs don’t really go away and unnecessary pesticides are being used. Do yourself a favor and call Arizona Heat Pest.

A resurgence of bedbugs across the U.S. has homeowners and apartment dwellers taking desperate measures to eradicate the tenacious bloodsuckers, with some relying on dangerous outdoor pesticides and fly-by-night exterminators.

The problem has gotten so bad that the Environmental Protection Agency warned this month against the indoor use of chemicals meant for the outside. The agency also warned of an increase in pest control companies and others making “unrealistic promises of effectiveness or low cost.”

Bedbugs, infesting U.S. households on a scale unseen in more than a half-century, have become largely resistant to common pesticides. As a result, some homeowners and exterminators are turning to more hazardous chemicals that can harm the central nervous system, irritate the skin and eyes or even cause cancer.A resurgence of bedbugs across the U.S. has homeowners and apartment dwellers taking desperate measures to eradicate the tenacious bloodsuckers, with some relying on dangerous outdoor pesticides and fly-by-night exterminators.

The problem has gotten so bad that the Environmental Protection Agency warned this month against the indoor use of chemicals meant for the outside. The agency also warned of an increase in pest control companies and others making “unrealistic promises of effectiveness or low cost.”

Bedbugs, infesting U.S. households on a scale unseen in more than a half-century, have become largely resistant to common pesticides. As a result, some homeowners and exterminators are turning to more hazardous chemicals that can harm the central nervous system, irritate the skin and eyes or even cause cancer.

A resurgence of bedbugs across the U.S. has homeowners and apartment dwellers taking desperate measures to eradicate the tenacious bloodsuckers, with some relying on dangerous outdoor pesticides and fly-by-night exterminators.

The problem has gotten so bad that the Environmental Protection Agency warned this month against the indoor use of chemicals meant for the outside. The agency also warned of an increase in pest control companies and others making “unrealistic promises of effectiveness or low cost.”

Bedbugs, infesting U.S. households on a scale unseen in more than a half-century, have become largely resistant to common pesticides. As a result, some homeowners and exterminators are turning to more hazardous chemicals that can harm the central nervous system, irritate the skin and eyes or even cause cancer.

Read more at: http://huff.to/1EtaslN

It is an unfortunate reality that bed bugs prey on humans when they are the most vulnerable and feed on those with the least defenses. Nursing homes are one the latest battlefields for bed bug warfare. This is a place that is often overlooked but is something that you should check into if you or a loved one resides in one of these facilities. You’d be surprised just how common it is.

Nearly 60 percent of pest control professionals have found bedbugs in nursing homes in the past year, according to an industry survey, up from 46 percent in 2013. Bedbug reports in other medical facilities have gone up slightly. Thirty-six percent of exterminators reported seeing them in hospitals, up from 33 percent. Infestations seen in doctors’ offices rose from 26 percent to 33 percent in the past two years.

“Nursing homes would be difficult to treat for the simple reason you don’t use any pesticides there,” says Billy Swan, an exterminator who runs a pest-control company in New York City. That and the fact that there’s a lot more stuff. “Somebody’s gotta wash and dry all the linens, you know, and all their personal artifacts and picture frames.”

Those personal belongings might help account for the big disparity in infestations between nursing homes and hospitals, according to Dr. Silvia Munoz-Price, an epidemiologist at the Medical College of Wisconsin who studies infection control in health care facilities. “The more things you bring with you, the more likely you’re bringing bedbugs, if you have a bedbug problem… and you live in a nursing home, so all your things are there.

Read more at: http://n.pr/1EsDCjf