Bloodsuckers are invading homes, offices, motels, college dorms and even a military base. Their immunity to the DDT pesticide is making eradication tough.By Alicia Cruz
The Black Urban Times
Adding to the immigration problem in the United States are Cimex lectularius, otherwise known as, bed bugs. While not known to spread disease, the buggers bites leave itchy red welts and are just a hot nasty mess to deal with.
U.S. officials practically eradicated the pesky hematophagous during the 1940s and 1950s, and are blaming the recent rebound of the pests in major cities and small towns alike on the spike in international travel and the fact that they have developed immunities to many of the pesticides used to abate them.
During the second half of World War II, allies utilized a better developed and safer version of DDT to control the insect vectors of typhus (jail fever) on American troops as well as civilians, nearly abolishing the bacterial disease, which is spread by lice or fleas. The vaccine was also used to control malaria in other parts of the world.
Pest control company, Terminix released a list consisting of 15 cities with the highest rate of bed bug infestation and the Big Apple topped the list followed by Philadelphia, Detroit and Ohio, which had four cities that made the "top 15" list: Cincinnati led the pack at number four, Columbus came in seventh, Dayton was eighth and Cleveland was 14th.
The company based the list off of call volume and confirmed bedbug cases from 350 of it's service centers, dispatch.com reported.
According to bedbuggers.com, experts believe bed bugs have multiplied 500 percent in the last five and taking into consideration, the fact that the bugs are getting stronger, no one was surprised when the first annual North American Bedbug Summit kicked off in Chicago September 21.
Hundreds of bug experts, vendors, exterminators, and scientists gathered to exchange information on combating the buggers, ABCNews reported. Their audience, the worst sufferers, included group home and college dormitory officials, military base housing and hotel proprietors.
According to bedbuggers.com, experts believe bed bugs have multiplied 500 percent in the last five years with a lot of help from international travel. At the top of the bed bug chart, stands the Big Apple.
Not only did the obligatory bloodsuckers invade the AMC movie theater in Times Square, Niketown, a Victoria's Secret store in Lenox Hill and the Time Warner Center, but they set up shop in a uniform storage area where Empire State Building employees change clothing.
An ESB official told The New York Daily News that the bugs hitched a ride into the storage room, which is located in the basement of the building, on an employee's clothing.
"The area has been treated and fully cleared," a source told The Daily News.
"We actually use New York City as a barometer for what we think is going to happen across the country over the next five to 10 years," said Jeffrey White, a research entomologist, and considering how many buildings in New York City that have been infested, it doesn't look good.
In Eastern North Carolina, leathernecks aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune discovered the obligatory bloodsuckers in seven rooms, a lounge and a duty office at HP-295.
Items sit on the grass in front of HP-295 after bed bug infestation
Public Affairs Office Maj. Brad Gordon said the entire barracks, including the gear and other items within the building will be exterminated to eradicate the bed bugs.
Nina McBroom, Director of Bachelor Housing at Camp Lejeune told Eyewitness News 9, “Wherever you have a large transient population, you have an increased risk for beg bugs. Its not a one time and you've gotten the problem,” said McBroom, "you just have to stay vigilant and stay on top of it.”
Combat gear lays on grass to be exterminated after bed bug infestation
Exterminators will be spraying the barracks once a week for the next thirty days, according to Major Gordon, who added that the Marines have been told there is sufficient funding to pay for the treatments.
The New Jersey Newsroom reported that while New Jersey has not reported a major infestation, there have been cases in 10 cities and towns reported according to state environmental officials.
Last week bed bugs were discovered in two Middletown senior citizen housing projects and in the past year have been discovered in Eatontown, Newark, Jersey City, Elizabeth, Perth Amboy, Harrison, Kearny, Linden and South River.
With an eye on safety, state Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin is urging New Jerseyans and pest control experts to use only registered pesticides and utilize good housekeeping practices to control the nuisance insects.
The DEP is advising the hiring of licensed pest control companies to battle bed bugs. But if that is too costly they have urged New Jerseyans to use only federal and state-registered pesticide products. These bugs are hard to find and expensive to eradicate, but with the proper chemicals, steam and a lot of heat, you can rid your home, dorm, office or hotel of the bed bug calling card. N.J. DEP officials advise anyone affected with bed bugs to follow label directions explicitly to avoid health risks.
"It's a matter of public health,'' Martin said. "There are effective ways to deal with this growing problem while not jeopardizing the health of yourself and loved ones. Choose carefully in deciding how to deal with his issue. It's most important to do it safely.''
WHAT ARE BED BUGS?
Bed bugs are small, flat insects that feed on the blood of sleeping people and animals, according to the federal centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
They are reddish in color, wingless, and range from one to seven millimeters in length. They can live for several months without a blood meal.
Bed bugs are experts at hiding, finding refuge in places such as the seams of mattresses, bed frames, headboards, box springs, dressers, behind wallpaper and on or under any clutter or objects near a bed.
HOW DO I INSPECT FOR AND GET RID OF BED BUGS?
Step 1 Prepare the area : Pre-treatment Procedures
* Reduce clutter to make inspection easier.
* Personal items (stuffed animals, soft toys, blankets) should be removed, cleaned with a vacuum cleaner, and bagged in plastic for for a couple of days with Nuvan Strips if infestation is severe.
You can also bag your laptops, phones, radios in a bag as well. The insecticide in the Nuvan strips will not harm these items and is a non residual, so you don't have to launder these items after using the Nuvan strips
* If you dismantle the bed frames, you may expose additional bedbug hiding sites. * Remove drawers from desks and dressers and turn furniture over, if possible, to inspect and clean all hiding spots.
* Stand up the box spring....CLICK HERE TO READ MORE
For Information on licensed pest control professionals in New Jersey, click HERE
BED BUG BIOLOGY 101, Click HERE
Click HERE for detailed information on bed bugs from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Black Urban Times
Adding to the immigration problem in the United States are Cimex lectularius, otherwise known as, bed bugs. While not known to spread disease, the buggers bites leave itchy red welts and are just a hot nasty mess to deal with.
U.S. officials practically eradicated the pesky hematophagous during the 1940s and 1950s, and are blaming the recent rebound of the pests in major cities and small towns alike on the spike in international travel and the fact that they have developed immunities to many of the pesticides used to abate them.
Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) a well-known synthetic pesticide was first synthesized in 1874, it's insecticidal properties were not discovered until 1939 by Paul Hermann Müller, a Swiss scientist. His efforts earned him the 1948 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine.
During the second half of World War II, allies utilized a better developed and safer version of DDT to control the insect vectors of typhus (jail fever) on American troops as well as civilians, nearly abolishing the bacterial disease, which is spread by lice or fleas. The vaccine was also used to control malaria in other parts of the world.
Pest control company, Terminix released a list consisting of 15 cities with the highest rate of bed bug infestation and the Big Apple topped the list followed by Philadelphia, Detroit and Ohio, which had four cities that made the "top 15" list: Cincinnati led the pack at number four, Columbus came in seventh, Dayton was eighth and Cleveland was 14th.
The company based the list off of call volume and confirmed bedbug cases from 350 of it's service centers, dispatch.com reported.
According to bedbuggers.com, experts believe bed bugs have multiplied 500 percent in the last five and taking into consideration, the fact that the bugs are getting stronger, no one was surprised when the first annual North American Bedbug Summit kicked off in Chicago September 21.
Hundreds of bug experts, vendors, exterminators, and scientists gathered to exchange information on combating the buggers, ABCNews reported. Their audience, the worst sufferers, included group home and college dormitory officials, military base housing and hotel proprietors.
According to bedbuggers.com, experts believe bed bugs have multiplied 500 percent in the last five years with a lot of help from international travel. At the top of the bed bug chart, stands the Big Apple.
Not only did the obligatory bloodsuckers invade the AMC movie theater in Times Square, Niketown, a Victoria's Secret store in Lenox Hill and the Time Warner Center, but they set up shop in a uniform storage area where Empire State Building employees change clothing.
An ESB official told The New York Daily News that the bugs hitched a ride into the storage room, which is located in the basement of the building, on an employee's clothing.
"The area has been treated and fully cleared," a source told The Daily News.
"We actually use New York City as a barometer for what we think is going to happen across the country over the next five to 10 years," said Jeffrey White, a research entomologist, and considering how many buildings in New York City that have been infested, it doesn't look good.
In Eastern North Carolina, leathernecks aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune discovered the obligatory bloodsuckers in seven rooms, a lounge and a duty office at HP-295.
Items sit on the grass in front of HP-295 after bed bug infestationPublic Affairs Office Maj. Brad Gordon said the entire barracks, including the gear and other items within the building will be exterminated to eradicate the bed bugs.
Nina McBroom, Director of Bachelor Housing at Camp Lejeune told Eyewitness News 9, “Wherever you have a large transient population, you have an increased risk for beg bugs. Its not a one time and you've gotten the problem,” said McBroom, "you just have to stay vigilant and stay on top of it.”
Combat gear lays on grass to be exterminated after bed bug infestationExterminators will be spraying the barracks once a week for the next thirty days, according to Major Gordon, who added that the Marines have been told there is sufficient funding to pay for the treatments.
The New Jersey Newsroom reported that while New Jersey has not reported a major infestation, there have been cases in 10 cities and towns reported according to state environmental officials.
Last week bed bugs were discovered in two Middletown senior citizen housing projects and in the past year have been discovered in Eatontown, Newark, Jersey City, Elizabeth, Perth Amboy, Harrison, Kearny, Linden and South River.
With an eye on safety, state Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin is urging New Jerseyans and pest control experts to use only registered pesticides and utilize good housekeeping practices to control the nuisance insects.
The DEP is advising the hiring of licensed pest control companies to battle bed bugs. But if that is too costly they have urged New Jerseyans to use only federal and state-registered pesticide products. These bugs are hard to find and expensive to eradicate, but with the proper chemicals, steam and a lot of heat, you can rid your home, dorm, office or hotel of the bed bug calling card. N.J. DEP officials advise anyone affected with bed bugs to follow label directions explicitly to avoid health risks.
"It's a matter of public health,'' Martin said. "There are effective ways to deal with this growing problem while not jeopardizing the health of yourself and loved ones. Choose carefully in deciding how to deal with his issue. It's most important to do it safely.''
WHAT ARE BED BUGS?
Bed bugs are small, flat insects that feed on the blood of sleeping people and animals, according to the federal centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
They are reddish in color, wingless, and range from one to seven millimeters in length. They can live for several months without a blood meal.
Bed bugs are experts at hiding, finding refuge in places such as the seams of mattresses, bed frames, headboards, box springs, dressers, behind wallpaper and on or under any clutter or objects near a bed.
HOW DO I INSPECT FOR AND GET RID OF BED BUGS?
Step 1 Prepare the area : Pre-treatment Procedures
* Reduce clutter to make inspection easier.
* Personal items (stuffed animals, soft toys, blankets) should be removed, cleaned with a vacuum cleaner, and bagged in plastic for for a couple of days with Nuvan Strips if infestation is severe.
You can also bag your laptops, phones, radios in a bag as well. The insecticide in the Nuvan strips will not harm these items and is a non residual, so you don't have to launder these items after using the Nuvan strips
* If you dismantle the bed frames, you may expose additional bedbug hiding sites. * Remove drawers from desks and dressers and turn furniture over, if possible, to inspect and clean all hiding spots.
* Stand up the box spring....CLICK HERE TO READ MORE
For Information on licensed pest control professionals in New Jersey, click HERE
BED BUG BIOLOGY 101, Click HERE
Click HERE for detailed information on bed bugs from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
NINA MCBROOM SPEAKS ABOUT BED BUG INFESTATION ABOARD CAMP LEJEUNE
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