The fourth stop on our tour of uninvited holiday guest is
the bed bug. Do you have a college student complete with a carload of dirty
clothes and a laptop coming home for the holidays? Do you have family members or
friends traveling to visit with you that might have stayed in a hotel on their
way to your house?
The raise in bed bug population has been linked to the
disappearance of DDT; however, there are many other factors that led to the
surge of the bed bug population. We are a much more mobile society. People
travel all over the world now all the time for business (global economy) and
pleasure. In parts of the world bed bugs are an acceptable nuisance, like roaches
(oh, I mean Palmetto Bug – they are nasty and we make a cute little name for
the disease carrying, asthma causing uninvited guest), gnats and mosquitoes are
here in the Lowcountry.
Roach gel baits have also contributed to the raise in bed
bugs. We have seen this in turf with a product that is great on mole crickets
and fire ants. Kill the ants and mole crickets, but the grubs go unchecked
increasing damage from grubs and moles. The roach gels do a fantastic job
killing roaches, but do nothing to kill other pests. The homeowner, hotel
operator, movie theater owner, nursing home, clothing store, etc stopped
spraying in cracks and crevices to kill roaches and other insects as a bonus
and just relied on the gel for roaches, giving the bed bug a chance to make a comeback.
Bed bugs, as luck would have it, love the temperatures that
we generally keep our homes (the low to mid 70’s). They can be treated with
heat (do not burn your house down), steam, and/or cold air. There are many
organic products on the market, traps, mattress sealers, as well as chemical
control products available to control this very illusive and persistent pest. A
combination of methods and products is probably your best approach, or simply
calling a pest management professional that has experience dealing with bed
bugs.
Dealing with bed bugs is expensive. In most cases you have
to throw away furniture, mattresses, couches, clothes and other infested items.
Watch picking up that nice chair on the side of the road, you might bring home
some uninvited guests. Bed bugs can hide in strange places and even mobile
places like a laptop computer. They are small and several can hide in something
as small as a Phillips screw head. Inspection is crucial – again maybe a job
for a pest management professional.
It looks like this is going to be a multi-part topic. Enjoy
your “Guests”!
Always read, understand and follow product label. The
product label is a Federal Law.
