2011 Bugs Without Borders Survey

Before I go into detail about this weeks topic, a personal story. Myself and a group of friends travelled over the previous weekend to a popular Michigan travel destination. Upon arrival at the hotel, because of my awareness, room inspections were completed and low and behold... Bed bugs in 1 of the 3 rooms where we were staying. The hotel agreed to move our 3 rooms to another wing of the hotel and after 3 more room inspections we were satisfied that we were clear. Unfortunately with bed bugs you must always be vigilant and not complacent.

This week I am going to relay information posted by the National Pest Management Association's "2011 Bugs without Borders Survey: New Data Shows Bed Bug Pandemic Is Growing" that was recently released. You can find the entire article here : http://www.pestworld.org/Bed-Bug-Survey-2011.

Some of the highlights of this survey of Pest Professionals:

1) 99% have encountered Bed Bug infestations in the last year (11% a decade ago)

2) 9 of 10 Pest Pro's dealt with bed bugs in homes, but they are especially on the rise in Pulic Areas:

-College Dorms - 54%, up from 35%

-Hotels/Motels - 80%, up from 67%

-Nursing Homes - 46%, up from 25%

-Office Buildings - 38%, up from 18%

-Schools/Day Cares - 36%, up from 10%

-Hospitals, - 31%, up from 12%

-Transportation - 18%, up from 9%

-Movie Theatres - 17%, up from 5%

3) Over 70% of Pest Pro's name Bed Bugs as the hardest to control

4) Most Professionals feel Bed Bugs are year-round with a minority stating they get more bed bug calls in the summer.

5) Visual inspections are still the #1 monitoring/identification tool used. Although canine detection units are on the rise.

6) 25% of Consumers still attempt to DIY with bed bugs, but engage in often dangerous techniques and are mostly ineffective in their attempts.

You may ask why are Bed Bugs growing to such Pandemic porportions and why can we not get rid of them?

The answers lie in a multi-faceted answer. The largest factor that has allowed bed bugs to spread so effectively is that no one insecticide/pesticide is 100% effective in killing bed bugs on contact and residually. Current bed bug strains are resistant to most pesticides, meaning if you sprayed 100 bed bugs, only a portion of them would die, depending on the active ingredient. Most insecticides have very little residual effect, meaning after the pesticide is 'dry' bed bugs are not harmed by them.

Now remember bed bugs spend most of their time hiding in places that alot of the time are inaccessible, like in wall voids, electrical outlets, under carpets and the like. So if you have to kill them "on contact" it would be virtually impossible to find them all. Pesticides are just part of the problem. Other issues includes very porous multi-family home structures where bed bugs can move from unit to unit easily. This porous nature allows them to spread and move easily, while the moderate and heavily infested units are treated, the lightly infested units go unnoticed.

Furthermore, DIY's and people that do not report the problem until they are largely infested compound the problem. Increased international travel has also caused the spread not only of bed bugs but of different strains of bed bugs that have different resistance levels to multiple pesticides currently used. Imagine in an apartment building, bed bugs from South America, India, and Asia, all transported from the host countries with varying degrees of resistances to the differing pesticides used in the industry. One pesticide will not control them all and so integrated pest management approaches and alternate methods need to be used now more than ever.

Steve's Pest Management, treating bed bugs for 8 years, with over 10,000 treatments in the last two years, has developed a 5-Layer Defense process against bed bugs that includes either no or very little pesticide use. Our process comes with one of the best warranties available today. Visit our website at http://www.stevespestmanagement.com.