Category Archives: Bed Bugs United States

OFarrell St., between Hyde and Leavonworth, San Francisco

Some exciting things are happening in California, and have been for some time. Since weve been giving a lot of love to Cincinnati lately, I wanted to fill you in on the California scene.

First, Bedbuggers should know have a friend in California: Dr. Laura Krueger. Shes the Associate Public Health Biologist in the Vector-Borne Disease Section of the California Dept. of Public Health. Laura has commented here a number of times, and has been reading the site for a while. She co-wrote the Guidelines for the Control and Prevention of Bed Bug Infestations in California (February 2007) (click here for a PDF). The California Bed Bug Guidelines were based, in turn, on other similar documents. A footnote tells us: CDHS adapted these guidelines for bed bug control from the San Francisco Department of Public Health and the Australian Environmental Pest Managers Association. (Click here for a PDF of the 2nd edition of the Australian Guidelines (June 2007; California based their guidelines on the first edition); the San Francisco Guidelines link is currently down.

The California Bed Bug Guidelines are just that: suggestions, a good plan, for how PCOs, and owners of hotels and multi-unit dwellings should work to prevent and control bed bugs. The Guidelines are not enforceable in and of themselves.

As an example, the Guidelines suggest that PCOs should come a minimum of three times, spaced two weeks apart; that hotel or apartment managers should respond to complaints of bed bugs within 48 hours with a plan of action (and that the plan of action should be executed within 72 hours of the complaint being made); and that tenants should should not remove anything from the infested room until the PCO comes and directs them.

I would argue that some aspects of the guidelines need to be revised. For example, one guideline states that tenants should report bed bugs to the owner or operator within 24 hours of the pest sighting. This seems like good advice, but many people are bitten by bed bugs for a long time without actually seeing a pest. PCOs and other professionals are still learning how very stealthy bed bugs can be.

Nevertheless, the Guidelines are impressive and I am grateful that the California Department of Health Services has compiled them.

There have also been some recent positive developments in California in terms of government funding to help those with bed bugs fight the problem. In San Francisco, as the second item down on this page of the Central City SRO Collaborative (CCSRO) website states,

The Central City SRO Collaborative organized with tenants and other community groups to demand funding for subsidies for low-income tenants. At the urging of this activist group, [City of San Francisco] Supervisor Chris Daly got $63,000 in this years budget for subsidized laundry and freezing services for low-income tenants with bedbug infestations, a huge public education campaign for tenants and landlords, and 2 annual forumsone for landlords/tenants and one for social service workers/tenantsthat will teach public health code, bedbug cleanup, and tenant advocacy.

Lets pause a moment and reflect on the historical context of this: the hearing happened three months before NYC held its city council hearing on the resale of mattresses (one which has not yet borne fruit), and a good 16 months before Cincinnatis recent fabled town hall meeting on bed bugs.

See the article here:
California fights bed bugs: good news from the golden ...

Apr 01, 2015 A bed bug, Cimex lectularius. Ohio State University entomologists found that ActiveGuard mattress liners reduce feeding and egg laying, even in bed bug populations that are resistant to pyrethroids. Credit: Gary Alpert, Harvard University, Bugwood.org, CC BY-NC 3.0 US

Products that claim to control bed bugs have been on the market for years. Some work, and some don't.

Dr. Susan Jones, a professor of entomology at Ohio State University, knows this as well as anyone, after having tested many such products for years. While there have been some flops in the past, she and her colleagues have found one that looks promising as a new tool for bed bug control programs. The results of their research are published in an article in the Journal of Medical Entomology.

Mattress liners sold under the trade name ActiveGuard are impregnated with an insecticide called permethrin, which is considered safe for humans and other mammals. Permethrin - which belongs to a class of pesticides called pyrethroids - is found in medical creams to treat scabies, shampoos for head lice, and it's the active ingredient in some flea-control products for dogs and cats.

In recent years, however, some bed bug populations have developed resistance to some pyrethroids and related pesticides, making them less lethal. But for Jones and her team, killing bed bugs is only one part in the effort to control them.

"Death doesn't have to be the end-point that we measure in studies," Dr. Jones said. "Physical or behavioral changes can significantly affect the impact of bed bugs before death even occurs."

One of these things is fecundity - the bed bugs' ability to lay eggs and reproduce. In order to lay eggs, female bed bugs must first have a bloodmeal, so the Ohio researchers set out to test ActiveGuard's effects on bed bug feeding.

"Feeding in bed bugs and fecundity are very tightly coupled," Jones said. "If a female bed bug doesn't feed, then she is unlikely to lay eggs, and if she doesn't lay eggs, then the life cycle is interrupted."

Surprisingly, they found the ActiveGuard fabric to be extremely effective, even in bed bug populations that were resistant to pyrethroids. Bed bugs that were exposed to the fabric for ten minutes were significantly less likely to even attempt feeding compared to those on untreated fabric, and the majority were unable to feed successfully. Even when they were successful, their bloodmeals were only half the size of bed bugs that were not exposed to the fabric.

Even more surprising, out of 52 females tested, only one laid a single egg.

Read the rest here:
ActiveGuard mattress liners reduce bed bugs' ability to lay eggs, study finds