Little bugs, big problems: News in the war on bed bugs

Inspector Kody of Purity Pest Control in Thornhill, ON has been sniffing out bed bugs for five years

THORNHILL, ON—When the Structural Pest Management Association of Ontario held its 32nd Annual Symposium last month, it attracted 200 delegates including representatives from hotels, university residences, hospitals, long term care homes and multi-unit dwellings, as well as pest control companies.  One of the reasons for the conference’s big turnout was the timely topic headlining the meeting—bed bugs.

Jeffrey White, research entomologist with Bed Bug Central in Lawrenceville, NJ and  host of Bed Bug TV, provided both good news and bad.  The bad news comes as no surprise to hoteliers—bed bugs have come back over the last 10 years, and Toronto and other Canadian cities are definitely affected.  

“The good news is that 10 years ago we were curious whether it was possible to ever get rid of bed bugs.  And yes it is,” White told the symposium, adding that now the goal is to make it more cost effective.

White stressed the need to be pro-active and educate staff.  “Have treatment protocols in place and document everything you do.”


Dogs great for large-scale inspections

He talked about research regarding different “monitoring devices”, including dogs, Climbup insect interceptors, Nightwatch and CDC 3000 attractors, and even a do-it-yourself device involving dry ice to attract the bugs (not recommended due to problems of dealing with dry ice).

“Canine scent detection is great for large-scale inspections.  Dogs can blow through an entire hotel in a day.  They are more efficient and less invasive than visual inspections,” White said.  He added that a 2008 University of Florida study found that dogs had a 95 per cent success rate in discriminating between live bugs or eggs and dead ones.

Michael Goldman, general manager and certified handler with Purity Pest Control, has three dogs that do bed bug monitoring, including Inspector Kody, a German Shepherd/Border Collie mix  who has been on the job for five years.   Goldman claims Kody is the first dog in the world to sniff out bed bugs.  The other dogs are Alexa, a Golden Retriever, and Radar, an nine-month-old Australian Shepherd who is still in training.

“The percentage of accuracy goes down in someone’s apartment if they are a hoarder, but in a hotel room they have a very good accuracy rate because there is not a lot of clutter,” Goldman said.

Goldman noted that people react differently, and sometimes it takes a few days for people to feel the bites.

“The problem arises when somebody travels to New York on Monday, Chicago on Tuesday, and Toronto on Wednesday, but doesn’t get a reaction until Friday.  He calls the manager of the Toronto hotel, who takes the room off the market to have it treated.”

But the person could just as easily been bitten in New York or Chicago.  And that’s where Goldman’s dogs can help.

“If the dog doesn’t alert us to bed bugs, we go in deeper. If there’s still no alert, the hotelier can tell the person ‘you didn’t get bitten in that room’.”

Goldman said preventive maintenance inspections using dogs can help mitigate damages and litigation, by showing that the hotel was practising due diligence.

He gave an example of a dormitory situation. Not only did Kody show them which room was Ground Zero for bed bugs, but Kody also put his paw on a wheelchair in the downstairs hallway, indicating that it had bed bugs.  “Only one person had used the wheelchair, so they were able to tell which room was Ground Zero and which person was Ground Zero.  Dogs can provide so much information.”

But, says White, dogs need to be trained at a very high level. “Canine scent detection requires an incredible amount of commitment and dedication to work effectively.  And running a proper and effective program is expensive,” he said, estimating the cost at $80,000 per year in the New Jersey market.

The Climbup Insect Interceptor is a passive bed bug monitor that intercepts bed bugs as they migrate to and from the bed or couch. This device has two wells: a center well and an outer pitfall.  These can be installed on beds and couches (that fit the trap) and left in place to serve as an ongoing bed bug monitor to determine the presence and level of bed bug activity. As long as the talcum powder that is present in the wells of the device are fresh and still active and no natural bridges from the floor/walls to the bed are present (bed pressing against the wall, sheets or comforter touching the floor, etc…), any bed bug that falls into the monitor will be trapped and can be flushed down a toilet or disposed of in an outdoor trash receptacle. This inexpensive monitor should not be viewed as a control device but as a proactive, ongoing monitoring device for bed bugs and can play a very valuable role in many bed bug management and control plans.

“The Climbup was a great, cost effective monitor, but it did take seven to 10 days to work,” White said.

Other monitors include the CDC 3000 and the Nightwatch. These devices cost in the $500 – $700 range, and use kairomones, CO2 and heat to attract bed bugs into the monitors, and then trap them.

“CDC worked 60 per cent of the time in one night for low-level infestations. Nightwatch, when used as intended to be used, can be very effective in detecting low-level infestations,” White said.

White said some of the key elements of combatting an infestation are:

• The earlier bugs are detected the easier they are to control.
• It is virtually impossible to declare a dwelling bug free.
• Infestation can extend beyond the bedroom and can be found virtually anywhere.
• Eggs are particularly difficult to locate.
• Movement of the bugs to surrounding units will happen.
• Vacating structures is not recommended.
• Thorough and well-designed follow up inspections are imperative.