Protect-A-Bed Hospitality

58% of scientists responding to a survey by Principal Investigators Association believe in a surge of bedbug infestations.

The survey was conducted through the weekly ezine PI e-Alert, to thousands of researchers in all fields of science. The response was voluntary, so the results should be regarded as “indicative,” not statistically proven, said publisher Leslie Norins, MD, PhD.

Over half reported bedbugs afflicted somebody known to them. Of this group, a startling 38% had been affected personally. Another 23% said the insects had troubled their “significant other” or family. The remaining 47% knew of infestation suffered by colleagues or friends.

The two leading sites of personal encounters with bedbugs were “home” (43%) and “hotel” (41%). Fifty-three percent of the scientists were aware of bedbug infestations in their neighborhood, town, or state.

When asked if they were taking any special “bedbug” precautions for travel, notable responses were:

* check hotel sheets and mattress for blood stains (from previous victims) and bug feces.

* keep luggage off floor; hang all clothes in closet

* check online travel warning boards for posting of infestation at your contemplated hotel—though it was noted these may not be accurate and often outdated.

Illustrative incidents from scores submitted about the bedbug experiences include:

*While interviewing for a faculty position, brought home bedbugs from the high-end hotel. We had to dispose of half our belongings, and eradication cost over $18,000.

* On a trip to Madrid received hundreds of bedbug bites. Developed severe hives affecting eyes and throat. Now travel with “epi” (epinephrine) pen.

* Eradication can take 6-8 months. Get rid of mattress. Fumigate. Spray. Dryclean or hot-launder all clothes.

Frustration was expressed with lack of official guidelines and “cures”. “Why don’t the NIH, FDA and Department of Agriculture stop chasing third-world diseases and get effective bedbug prophylaxis and treatment right here in the USA?” Also: “Test hundreds of already-approved compounds for efficacy against bedbugs”. And: “The hysterical DDT ban not only allowed malaria to kill millions, it deprived us of a great agent to aid bedbug control.”

Principal Investigators Association is a not-for-profit organization which helps scientists in all fields of research better perform their non-science duties by providing expert advice and continuing professional education. Dissemination of information is through newsletters, ezines, Webinars, and special reports. www.PrincipalInvestigators.org.

Guests are cancelling plans to visit New York City, but officials say sightings of critters are rare.

BY SARA KUGLER FRAZIER
Associated Press

 Northbrook, IL, <October 5, 2010> — The bedbug epidemic currently keeping Americans awake at night is the stuff of nightmares for hospitality managers. But hotel guests can sleep easy in rooms protected by BugLock™ protective bedding from Protect-A-Bed  (www.protectabed.com).

The BugLock™ covers for box springs and mattresses feature Protect-A-Beds patented BugLock with Secure Seal™ that locks bed bugs out. And our innovative Miracle Membrane ™ prevents bed bugs from biting through the cover. With the Secure Seal™ and Zip-Tie system, housekeeping and management know the integrity of the mattress has not been compromised. Lab tested and entomologist certified for effectiveness BugLock™ mattress encasement system protects a property’s investment while delivering peace of mind to its overnight guests.

The BugLock™ bedding for hospitality includes an impenetrable polypropylene cover for the box spring and a waterproof air vapor porous mattress cover that does not change the feel of your mattress and is not hot to sleep on. The pliable Miracle Membrane mattress cover features a micro thin barrier, which allows air to pass through for a cool and comfortable sleep, but blocks bedbugs, water allergens and dust mites. 

Customized for Hospitality applications, our encasements include “Flip Instructions” printed on all sides and our exclusive size color coding label system so housekeeping can easily identify sizes after laundering.

“The BugLock™ bedding from Protect-A-Bed is engineered to meet the extreme demands of the hospitality industry. Bed bugs, allergens and dust mites do not have to disrupt business. Our barrier bedding assures that any hospitality establishment can prevent and control a real or potential infestation,” said James Bell, CEO of Protect-A-Bed.

Protect-A-Bed’s full line of The Bedbug Solution products includes all box spring and mattress sizes for the hospitality industry. For more information about Protect-A-Bed bedbug barrier bedding, call your distributor or contact Protect-A-Bed at (847) 998-6901 for a list of hospitality distributors.

By Michael Simpson

Protect-A-Bed, an international supplier of mattress protection has perfected it’s bed bug encasement. The new mattress encasement is Bed Bug entry and escape proof and most importantly Bed Bug Bite Proof. By encasing your mattress and box spring (where most bed bug reside) you can cut them off from thier food source. The encasements include a patent pending Bug Lock which stops the bugs from entering through the zipper opening.

Rick Cooper recently made a presentation at the ESA based on tests he had done on six mattress encasements currently being sold and labeled to protect mattresses from bed bugs. This information is now available to us.

The encasements tested were: Bed Wetting Direct, Clean Rest, Mattress Safe, National Allergy Classic, National Allergy Elegance, and Protect-a-Bed® AllerZip. Each test was run five times on each model, with first instar nymphs.

Cooper’s research attempted to answer three questions about these encasements:

1. Could bed bugs get through the zipper teeth when the zipper was closed? (All passed.)
2. The end stop: could bed bugs escape from the area where the zipper closes? (Mattress Safe, National Allergy Elegance and Protect-a-Bed all passed.)
3. When the zipper is open slightly, by 1-2 teeth, could bed bugs escape? Cooper’s research suggested the Protect-a-bed encasement was the only one which would prevent bed bugs from escaping when the encasement zip was slightly opened. The “BugLock” feature is a quilted pad behind the zipper which is sucked towards the zipper, creating a tight seal even if the zipper of the Protect-a-Bed is slightly opened.

Many people have used National Allergy or Mattress Safe covers. Cooper’s research suggests that of the National Allergy covers, the Elegance is likely more effective than the Classic. And it would be essential that the zip not be allowed to open. Many people tape those zippers, as recommended by NA (and by many readers here), but keeping those zippers entirely closed can be very tricky.

Cooper’s research suggests that the Protect-a-Bed encasements may now be the most effective encasements for keeping bed bugs inside the encasement (or keeping them out). 

Check out our new Bed Bug Protection Packs Here

by Douglas Stern

When bed bugs invade an apartment, who calls the exterminator and who pays? The conundrum in the emerging field of bed bug law is pitting landlords against tenants and filling court dockets.

Legislation recently introduced in the New Jersey Legislature as Assembly Bill 3203 would force landlords to shoulder the entire financial burden of combating bed bugs by making them solely responsible for conducting annual inspections, distributing and displaying educational material created by the state, immediately treating reported bed bug infestations, and maintaining a bed bug-free environment throughout the apartment building or complex. Similar bills are under consideration in other states.

Citing the nationwide 500 percent increase in bed bug infestations and calling the common bed bug “a public nuisance,” Bill 3203 states, “it is a matter of public welfare to protect New Jersey citizens’ health from this pest.” Noting that owners of multiple dwellings are “in the best position to coordinate the extermination bedbug infestations in that multiple dwelling,” the bill directs, “Every owner of a multiple dwelling shall be responsible, at his own expense, for maintaining the multiple dwelling free of an infestation of bedbugs.” Landlords who fail to act would be fined $300 per infested apartment and $1,000 per infested common area. Local health boards would have the power to act for and bill unresponsive landlords. (You can read the complete text of New Jersey Bill 3203 on the Stern Environmental website.)

Given the exponential increase in bed bug infestations nationwide, landlords are leery of the possible financial repercussions of such legislation. In New York City, bed bug complaints jumped from 1,839 in 2005 to 8,830 in 2008. Violations issued by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development rose from 366 to 2,757 over the same period. New York and New Jersey apartment owners are legally tasked with providing pest control for tenants. It’s the apartment owner’s responsibility to provide tenants with a pest-free living environment. That wasn’t always true. Since the 1908 case of Jacobs v. Morand, tenants had been legally obligated to pay their rent even if bed bugs had made their apartment inhabitable. That changed in 2004 with Ludlow Properties, LLC v. Young when Judge Cyril Bedford ruled in favor of a frustrated tenant who had refused to pay rent for six months because of a persistent bed bug problem, writing:

“Although bed bugs are classified as vermin, they are unlike . . . mice and roaches, which, although offensive, do not have the effect on one’s life as bed bugs do, feeding upon one’s blood in hoards nightly turning what is supposed to be bed rest or sleep into a hellish experience.”

Today, tenants seem to be winning the litigation war against landlords, but it’s a tough fight. When bed bug infestations are discovered, tenants and landlords point the finger of blame at each other. “It gets back to the issue of responsibility,” said attorney Ronald Languedoc. “In law, the party that asserts a claim usually has a burden of proof. I think it is probably hard to track down where, precisely, they came from and how they got in there.”

Under current New York and New Jersey law, apartment owners bear the responsibility and financial expense of providing housing that is rat-free, roach-free and now bed bug-free. For cash-strapped apartment owners, there’s the rub. Rats, roaches and other vermin are attracted by garbage and unclean conditions. The connection to proper maintenance, efficient trash collection and regular pest control is obvious. The cost of such regular maintenance is an expected part of managing an apartment building. Just like electric, water and other utility costs, these expenses are figured into monthly rent payments and recouped.

Bed bugs are an entirely different problem. Bed bugs are not attracted by filth. They are insects of convenience like lice and fleas. These tiny insects crawl from one infected individual to another. They set up house near beds and in bedrooms, hiding in cracks and crevices during the day and creeping out at night to feed on the blood of their unsuspecting prey — humans. The size of an apple seed, bed bugs multiply quickly and are adept hitchhikers. You can get them from contact with an infected individual, visiting his home, brushing his clothing, standing next to him or borrowing his belongings. You can get bed bugs by sitting in a seat just vacated by an infected person on a subway, park bench, taxi or airplane. Since not all people react to bed bug bites, people often spread bed bugs without even knowing they have them.

Bed bugs can come into an apartment on someone’s clothing, in suitcases and backpacks, in the creases of storage boxes, in the cracks and crevices of used furniture, in the upholstery of a rental sofa and in refurbished mattresses. Apartment owners have no control over what attracts bed bugs or how the annoying little buggers get into the building. You can understand their reluctance to take responsibility for a problem they didn’t create and have no control over. Yet that is exactly what housing legislation requires them to do. Particularly exasperating are the strictures in New York City and under consideration in Jersey City and the New Jersey state legislature that prevent apartment owners from passing along the often hefty costs of eliminating bed bug infestations to their tenants.

The life cycle and living habits of bed bugs only confound the problem. A single female bed bug can produce up to 500 eggs during her one-year lifespan, laying about five eggs per day. Moving through five nymphal stages, bed bugs reach maturity in just five to eight weeks. They nibble on their human prey at night, feeding for up to 10 minutes every three to five days. The tiny bugs are often mistaken for other pests and their bites for mosquito or spider bites. Not all people react to their bites which look like raised, red welts and many don’t react (itching is typical) for several days after being bitten. Some people are so embarrassed, they fail to report an infestation or uselessly try to treat it with Raid. By the time the problem is noticed or reported, a considerable infestation can have developed.

Often by the time they’re identified, bed bugs have spread to other units in a building and the original culprit can be hard to identify. Because bed bugs spread easily through wall voids, elevator shafts, plumbing and wiring conduits, and heating and cooling ducts, next door units and those on the floors above and below an infested unit are also likely to be infested. Treatment of one unit can simply send bed bugs scurrying to find new living quarters. Even vacant apartments are not safe as bed bugs can live for one to seven months without a blood meal.

Eliminating bed bugs in a multi-unit apartment building can be a nightmare for everyone and an unexpected financial burden for the owner. Because of the many variables involved — the need for tenant cooperation, the bugs’ minute and numerous hiding places and their tendency to spread quickly and easily — multiple pest control treatments over a spaced period of time and mattress encasements are necessary to completely eradicate bed bugs from an apartment building. Apartment owners are being asked to shoulder the financial burden without remuneration, sometimes without essential tenant cooperation, and with no guarantee that the whole mess won’t happen again. It’s not hard to understand why apartment owners feel new bed bug laws are unfair.

Bed bugs are in bedrooms, hotelrooms, dormrooms — but they may also be lurking in mattresses you buy at the store

Cooper hadn’t even seen a live bedbug until 1999. Since then, treating them has become almost a full time job for his company, Cooper Pest Management in northern New Jersey.   His colleague Jeff White says these small, blood-sucking pests sneak out during the night, feed, and then retreat. Sometimes the only evidence they leave behind are hideous welts running up arms and legs. 

“I’ve had people just be completely, completely upset about it, I mean, literally hysterical,” says White.

The first time Dateline came face to face with a bedbug was in 1996, when we investigated the mattress business — specifically, reconditioned mattresses that are supposed to be stripped and sterilized, re-covered and sold for less than what you’d pay for a new one. Back then, we bought nine mattresses and opened them up. What we found was shocking. Beneath new covers, filthy old materials were contaminated with urine, fecal matter and dangerous fungi, all of which can seep out through the cover over time. We also found a dead bedbug with its eggs.

With the Orkin pest control company now reporting bedbug infestations in all 50 states, we decided to take another look at reconditioned mattresses to see if the companies that produce and sell them are doing a better job than they were 11 years ago. Right away we found that some things have changed for the better. In 1996, 19 states had laws in place regulating the sale of reconditioned mattresses.  This year that number is up to 26.  We started our investigation in New York, where state law requires them to be labeled clearly with yellow tags marked “used materials.”  Not disclosing that information is also against federal law.

Saying “Have no fear, lay down,” a salesman in 1996 tried to sell us rebuilt mattresses as if they were new.

But this year was a different story. “These are the refurbished ones right here,” said one salesperson. In the small Mom and Pop stores in low income communities where most of these mattresses are sold, clerks readily told us the mattresses were rebuilt. Dateline saw one full size set selling for $49.99, compared to new sets which start around two hundred dollars. 

“If it has a yellow ticket it’s refurbished,” said the salesperson. “We don’t tell our customers it’s brand new if it’s not.  We don’t lie to our customers.”

The yellow tags also clearly say the mattresses are sterilized.  In shops and factories, we were told they were clean.  “They clean them and fumigate them,” said one salesperson. Owner Francisco Chavez told us, “We clean, we’ve got to spray, we spray with alcohol, not just regular alcohol, special alcohol.” Reconditioned mattresses begin their journey once they’re thrown out to sidewalks or garbage heaps. At dawn, in many American cities, men with vans come out and cart them off to factories, where we were told they sell for five dollars a piece.

We asked entomologist Rick Cooper to ride along with us as we documented what happens to them. Here in Brooklyn, we found these mattresses tossed to the curb. Right away Cooper found a bedbug, fat from a recent feeding. 

“Now this has a fresh blood meal in it you can see,” said Cooper. Cooper says adult bedbugs are easy to spot, but eggs or brand new hatchlings are nearly imperceptible. “All those little pearly white things are eggs, they’re bedbug eggs,” he pointed out. “They’re a millimeter in size and they’re clear. Think about a period on a piece of paper, but make it translucent.  And put that inside the expanse of a mattress.” His colleague Jeff White added, “It would be very difficult to detect, you’re talking about worse than a needle in a haystack.”

As for those bedbug infested mattresses we found, we came back the next day at dawn to check on them. Two were gone. We watched a man pick up the remaining one and load it into this white van. So we followed the van. He picked up more mattresses. That’s the one with bedbugs up on the top. By 11:00 a.m., there were nine mattresses stacked in the van and more inside — 22 in all. He delivered them to a company we knew all too well.  In fact, in 1996 the company was called Quisqueya mattress and had sold us several contaminated rebuilt mattresses.  Eleven years later, it’s now called Brooklyn Sleep Products, and, it appears, business is booming. There’s a fleet of delivery trucks and a huge factory and salesroom. We watched as the bedbugs on that mattress hitched a ride in. What would Brooklyn Sleep Products do to make sure the bugs didn’t come back out on a newly rebuilt mattress? We went in with hidden cameras, and found men making rebuilt mattresses and spraying them here and there with a common household cleaner. The owner told our undercover shopper his workers use disinfectants to prevent bedbugs, but he said there are no guarantees.

“If you don’t spray, [there] can be bedbugs,” said one worker who was spraying. “We’ve got to do it.”

We asked him, “Do these have bedbugs?” The worker answered “I can’t say you yes or no. Because it’s possible maybe the bedbug don’t die with the, some bedbugs don’t die.” Rick Cooper agreed. He says sprays like the ones used here kill bedbugs only on direct contact — and they don’t kill bedbug eggs. Brooklyn Sleep Products also makes new mattresses. We saw stacks of them leaning up against newly rebuilt and old mattresses. It’s a bad idea, says Rick Cooper. “If one mattress is in contact with another, and there are bugs on it.  Then there’s a very strong likelihood that they’re going to move to the adjacent one.”

There were mattresses everywhere.  How would we possibly determine if some had bedbugs?  This seemed like an undertaking that might require dogged determination. Nudey is one of a handful of dogs Pepe Peruyero has trained to detect bedbugs. “She’s got a really, really good nose,” he says. “Eight pounds.  You know no one would ever suspect that this is a detection dog.” A former DEA agent and police dog handler, Pepe runs J&K K-9 Academy in northern Florida where he’s trained dozens of dogs to find drugs and pests.  His star student is Gidget, a beagle mix rescued from a shelter.  “Gidget is our machine,” says Pepe.  “Gidget is like the old gunny sergeant in the military. She just absolutely loves to work.” Rick Cooper sometimes turns to Pepe’s dogs for help finding bugs, so we flew him, his daughter who works with him, and the dogs to New York to see if they could find live bedbugs in mattresses.  “Find your bees,” Pepe told his dog. It’s the dog’s signal to start sniffing. Pepe says it’s easy to see when the dogs have detected the scent of a live bedbug.

“All of a sudden that head snaps. The tail may start to wag a little bit stronger and then of course the alert, the physical alert, of– of scratching,” he said. “Scratching right at the at the point where the odor is coming out of.”

Sometimes, to indicate a bedbug, they just sit down.  If the dogs are to be believed, plenty of these old mattresses were infested with bedbugs. What about the newly rebuilt mattresses?  We took the dogs to stores and factories and with some help from them, chose dozens of mattresses to buy and open up.   Would we discover bedbugs?  And what else would we find?   When trainer Pepe Peruyero and his detection dogs hit the Big Apple and started touring the bedding factories and stores of Brooklyn, he was struck by one thing right away.

“I could not believe how many mattresses are moved in just one of those stores on a daily basis.  It was amazing.” The factories we visited in Florida, California and New York were bustling.  Rebuilt bedding is a high-profit business not many people even realize exists.  “They might pay a collector $5 per product,” says bedding industry consultant Gordon Demant.  “They might sell that product to the consumer for $50. And all they’ve done in many instances is to put a new cover on it.” Refurbished mattresses are bought in bulk by lower-end hotels, shelters, and some school dorms.  Demant says though they fill a real need in low income neighborhoods, unsuspecting consumers don’t realize the risks. “They believe that they’re getting a product which is maybe of lower quality, but not a product which could subject them to significant health problems.”

We bought our first batch in New York — 11 mattresses and box springs — from two different stores, for about $40 each.

We brought them to Cooper Pest Management where bedbug experts Rick Cooper and Jeff White offered to help us examine them. The first mattress looked clean and fresh and as good as new on the outside. What we found on the inside gave new meaning to the term dirt cheap.

“Oh my gosh, look at this,” said Dateline correspondent Victoria Corderi, seeing cigarette burns, dust and huge unsightly stains.

“This is exactly like what I saw ten years ago.  It’s unbelievable.” Some of the mattresses looked ok inside. Others looked disgusting. The fifth mattress we opened was filled with layers of old mattress covers, foam and even two long stuffed cardboard tubes. Of more concern to Rick and Jeff was how the tops of old mattresses were layered one over the other under the cover, each one a possible carrier of bedbugs.  We asked Rick Cooper, “So it’s like layer after layer of opportunity from different beds?” Cooper said, “Right.  Any one of these layers that has bugs associated with it is going to be a route of introduction of bugs into the mattress itself.” Jeff pointed out, “There’s black stains all along the piping of that old one.” These dark marks — called fecal spotting – are signs that bedbugs had been there, digested a blood meal and excreted it right out.  All along the border of the mattress was clear evidence, says Jeff, that the mattress layer had once had a significant infestation.  Then there was more proof. “I have a bedbug,” said Jeff. There was a dead bedbug amid the filth.

“So the fact that it’s disgusting is not enough,” said our correspondent.  “The fact that it could also have bedbugs?” “That’s what would bother me,” said Jeff.

As we went through the other mattresses, we found more of the tell-tale stains and plenty of grime but no more bedbugs, dead or alive.  We returned to Brooklyn Sleep Products and bought ten more mattresses — twins and full-sized — for an average of $40 each. “Find your bees,” Jeff instructed Gidget, the bedbug sniffing beagle, who worked on one end while Rick and Jeff worked on the other. “I got a bug,” Jeff exclaimed. We found a live bedbug and an unhatched egg. Rick, pointing at the mattress, said “This spot right here and this spot right here, these two sort of reddish spots are eye spots. That tells us that we have a growing embryo inside this egg.” There was a little hatchling, translucent and small enough to squeeze through the stitch holes in the mattress seams. It came from a growing family. “Probably, there was more there if we had looked harder,” said Rick. When we brought Gidget around to that end of the mattress, she agreed. “That’s a good girl!”

In our investigation in 1996, Dr. Philip Tierno, Director of Clinical Microbiology at New York University, had tested our mattresses and was shocked at the levels of fungi and bacteria he found, pointing out “We had eclubziella growing.” So this year we sent him new samples from the factories we visited in Florida, California and New York.  “Ten years ago, we found similar fungi,” said Dr. Tierno. “In one of these cases, the fungi here were far in excess of what we found 10 years ago.” All of the samples were contaminated — including those from mattresses made in California, which has strict laws and enforcement.  The testing revealed traces of urine, fecal matter, at least seven different fungi, most of which are potentially harmful to children, the elderly, anyone with a compromised immune system. We asked Dr. Tierno, “Did you think maybe in the ensuing years that something would be done, that maybe these reconditioned mattresses might be in better shape?” “No,” he said. “I considered that in 10 years they would be eliminated from society.”

The dirtiest mattresses we found came from the Brooklyn Sleep Products factory — the factory that sold us the mattress containing live bedbugs. Eleven years ago, we asked owner Francisco Chavez how he cleaned the reconditioned mattresses. We went back again recently with the results of our latest investigation. He wasn’t surprised, and he showed us boxes of Sterifab, the disinfectant he uses.   We showed him our video of the so-called sterilized mattresses we bought from him. We asked him, “There was urine, fecal matter, fungi, bacteria …  What do you think about this?” “That says used material,” Chavez said. “We clean, we sterilize it.” When Dateline objected that it doesn’t say there could be bedbugs, Chavez replied “Go to the city if you have a complaint.”

We did go see what New York City’s Department of Consumer Affairs had to say.  Director Jonathan Mintz blames the state for ignoring the issue. “They haven’t passed the rules telling dealers how they have to sanitize their mattresses.” He says 10 years ago the state passed a law requiring sterilization of reconditioned bedding but then never bothered to pass regulations on how to do that. “The retailers are out there using their own best judgment rather than following state rules,” Mintz said. Still, his department came out against a recent proposed ban on rebuilt mattresses, saying it penalized the poor. “For a lot of people used mattresses are the right economic choice for them.  And you have to be very careful before you take that product away from them.” Dateline asked whether just because a family is poor they had to settle for a mattress full of fecal matter, bacteria and fungi. “Nobody would ever knowingly buy a contaminated mattress,” said Mintz.  “That’s not a rational choice.” We asked him, “How much contamination is enough or how many bedbugs do you need to do something?” “That’s the right question.  And the state needs to answer it,” said Mintz.

The New York Department of State declined our request for an interview  but did e-mail us a statement saying “It takes information about improper activity on the part of licensees very seriously … and that the department has no outstanding complaints but now plans a full investigation given our findings … And is reviewing the statute and the need for stronger regulations.” This time around, every reconditioned mattress we tested was contaminated, but only one had live bedbugs.  Dateline asked Jeff White, “Are we overstating the problem here?  We only found one live bedbug and some eggs.” White replied, “If I have a chance of buying a mattress and there is a 5% chance that it’s infested with bedbugs, that’s too high for me.” His colleague Rick Cooper agrees.

“I don’t so much care whether it’s five percent, 10 percent, or 30 percent infestation rate,” says Cooper. “There’s not supposed to be live bugs inside of the mattress when you buy it.” In the end, Rick Cooper says that with bedbugs creeping slowly to a bed near you, buying a reconditioned mattress can be anything but a good deal.

“They’re taking off right now,” says Dan Mizer, associate director of residence life at Texas A&M University.

Bedbugs are everywhere, he says. “They’re finding these things in public transit, in movie theaters, in cruise ships, in all the hospitality accommodations.”

Blame an increase in international travel, bigger bedbug populations worldwide, new protocols that discourage widespread spraying and possibly even tougher bugs that are resistant to pesticides.

The size of an apple seed, the nocturnal six-leggers hitchhike on luggage, old furniture and clothing and can live up to a year without a blood meal. So a dorm room left empty over the summer poses but a brief nutritional challenge.

Among those fighting the bugs:

• Ohio State University has seen “several incidents” over the past 15 months, spokeswoman Ruth Gerstner says, including an outbreak in May 2007 in three rooms of a high-rise dorm. Workers treated 114 rooms.

• At the University of Florida’s 4,000 dorm rooms and 980 apartments, “bad” infestations are limited to a couple of times a year, says Wayne Walker, who supervises dorm pest control. The school treats the problem with extreme heat, steam cleaning and pesticides.

• Greg Baumann of the National Pest Management Association says he has heard from “quite a few” members called to campuses. Like hotel rooms, dorms are the ideal bedbug habitat: small and crowded, with “quite a bit of humanity per square foot.”

Unlike cockroaches, bedbugs aren’t an indicator of bad housekeeping, says Richard Cooper, co-author of Bedbug Handbook: The Complete Guide to Bedbugs and Their Control. “The bug doesn’t discriminate on social status. Blood’s blood.”

Texas A&M has spent $37,000 in the past year to fly in bedbug-sniffing dogs. This fall, Mizer plans to call in a Minnesota outfit called Temp-Air, whose eradicator heats the room overnight to 130 degrees, killing the bedbugs but leaving students’ belongings unharmed. His other secret weapon: eternal vigilance. “When we get a report, we get the pest-control staff, and we respond. These bugs can take over quickly.”

Prior to leaving on your trip make sure you take preventative measures at home. Encasing your mattress and box spring will prevent them from infestation in case you bring bed bugs back with you. The bite proof Bug Lock™ encasement from Protect-A-Bed® is ideal for the prevention of mattress infestation and is available for all mattress sizes. Click here for more information on Bug Lock™ by Protect-A-Bed®.

Before booking a hotel room, you may want to read user reviews of the particular hotel and location — frequently, guests who’ve had bug problems report them online. Check the National Bed Bug registry http://www.bedbugregistry.com. Bear in mind that a report about one hotel does not mean the issue wasn’t isolated to one room, or that hotel management hasn’t since exterminated.

Still concerned? Concerned travelers may want to check their bed for telltale signs of the bugs, a more common practice years ago. Before jumping into bed, here are a few spot check tips:

1. Peel back the bedsheets and check the mattress, running your fingers along the upper and lower seams. Make sure to check the mattress tag, bed bugs often hide there.
2. Experts recommend removing and examining the headboard if possible. Check for tiny black spots (excrement) that are smaller than poppy seeds. You may also see translucent light brown skins or, in the case of an infestation— live bugs.
3. Check the bedside table. Look for signs of bed bugs in the drawers and along the wall on the side of the bed that is less likely to be disturbed by cleaning staff and guests.
4. Close and elevate suitcases and keep them off the floor, like on a luggage stand.
5. If you see powder in the drawers or on the headboard, it is likely that the room has already been treated for bed bugs by an exterminator.
6. If bed bugs are detected, travelers should request for another room. Be sure to inform hotel management. Just moving to a different room may not be the total answer. You should repeat the thorough inspection of any new or different room you are offered.
7. When you pack to leave, inspect your luggage carefully first, and inspect every item as you pack to help detect any bugs or their signs.
8. Laundering most cloth items with hot water and detergent followed by drying on low heat for at least 20 minutes (or standard dry cleaning) should kill all bed bugs in or on such items. Sealing freshly-laundered items inside a plastic bag should help keep any more bed bugs from getting in those items later to hide and be carried back with you.

Bedding encasements play a key role in resolving bed bug problems in both residential and commercial applications. Encasements allow you to address bed bug problems without applying chemicals to a mattress.

WHY IT IS IMPORTANT TO ENCASE YOUR PILLOWS, MATTRESS AND BOX SPRING

• Infestations are most commonly found in mattresses and box springs
• Some infestations may take up to three months to notice
• Infestations are very difficult to eliminate
• A Protect-A-Bed bed bug mattress protector is more cost efficient than replacing your mattress once it is infested
• If your mattress or box spring is already infested, a protective barrier will lock bed bugs inside

The scientifically proven system includes our patented BugLock® and Secure Seal^® 3-sided Zipper System. This locking mechanism is a major component to Protect-A-Bed’s success in providing complete protection against allergens, dust mites and the prevention of the entry and escape of bed bugs.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER YOUR BITE PROOF ENCASEMENT TODAY!

By Colleen Mastony | Chicago Tribune reporter

February 26, 2009

When Lisa Tousant woke up one morning in August with itchy, red splotches on her elbow, she thought she had been bitten by a mosquito. A few days later, she found more strange, swollen spots up and down her arms and legs.

“You get to scratching and scratching. I almost dug a hole in my arm, that’s how bad they were,” said Tousant, a 41-year-old city worker who lives in Rogers Park. After scouring her tidy one-bedroom apartment with ammonia in an attempt to wipe out the mysterious scourge, she inspected her mattress. “I pulled the sheets back and turned on the light, and there’s the bugs.”

These nocturnal bloodsuckers are on the march in Chicago. After being nearly eradicated in the United States by DDT in the 1950s, the creatures have launched a comeback. Reports of the bugs spiked locally last summer and have been rising ever since. Prompted by an outcry from angry, itchy citizens, city officials next month will train 45 building inspectors to spot the critters. A coalition that includes the Metropolitan Tenants Organization, the Safer Pest Control Project and Ald. Joe Moore’s (49th) office is lobbying for a coordinated response that would educate school nurses, establish citywide tracking and launch an aggressive public-awareness campaign.

“It’s not at epidemic proportions, but it could be. It certainly is moving in that direction, and that’s why the city has to move proactively,” said Moore, whose ward has been called a hotbed for the infestation. “We don’t want to let this get out of hand.”

Orkin Pest Control’s Chicago office reports that bedbug complaints doubled from 2007 to 2008. Likewise, Smithereen Pest Management officials said they made 1,650 bedbug calls in Chicago in 2008, up from 900 in 2007. The Metropolitan Tenants Organization, a non-profit renters rights group, is receiving almost a half-dozen calls a day. The problem, experts say, has been exacerbated by the economy. Landlords are slow to send exterminators. And cash-strapped neighbors seem more likely to pluck infected furniture from Dumpsters. What’s more, some suspect the bugs are spreading through used-furniture outlets and online networks such as Craigslist.

“Five years ago, it wasn’t an issue,” said Arturo DelAngel, who works the complaint hot line at the Metropolitan Tenants Organization. “Now it’s bedbugs all the time, every day.”

The common bedbug, Cimex lectularius, is a brownish, flattened insect that typically feeds on humans but will also bite animals, including dogs and cats. Hardy survivors, they can live for more than a year without a meal and thrive anywhere they can find a warm-blooded host. Prolific breeders, female bedbugs lay as many as five eggs per day and hundreds during a lifetime. Unlike roaches or mice, colonies are equally comfortable in immaculate homes as they are in squalid flophouses. “The bedbugs, all they need is you. You’re the food,” said Rachel Rosenberg, director of the Safer Pest Control Project, a group that works to reduce pesticide use. Entomologists say the resurgence in bedbugs is the result of tougher restrictions against the use of toxic pesticides such as DDT, which was banned in 1972, increased travel to Third World countries and the bugs’ growing resistance to modern insecticides. Michael Potter, an urban entomologist at the University of Kentucky, believes that bedbugs are poised to become the country’s most pressing pest problem. “We’re going to see serious increases of this pest, and it’s going to affect a lot of people,” he said.

For a glimpse into the future, look no further than New York, where bedbug reports have quadrupled, with 8,830 complaints received in 2008, up from 1,839 in 2005. Cincinnati recently established an inter-governmental task force. In Boston, officials slap fluorescent orange stickers that read, “CAUTION! THIS MAY CONTAIN BEDBUGS!” on discarded furniture.

In Chicago, those who have experienced an infestation describe it as traumatizing. “In June, we started noticing little bumps on us. We couldn’t figure out why we were scratching,” said Tonya Moore, 35, of Rogers Park. Two of her children scratched so persistently they ended up in the emergency room with secondary infections. Other apartments in their 77-unit building became infested too. “A lot of people lost everything. They’re too embarrassed to have people over because they have no furniture. They had to throw it all away.”

“You wake up in the morning, and they’re in your face. They’re in the sleeves of your coat. You’re tying your shoes and the bugs are coming off your shoelaces,” said Trenton Allen, 32, of South Austin. “It’s embarrassing because you never know when you’re going to take them with you.”

State and city agencies don’t track bedbug cases in part because, until recently, officials hadn’t received widespread reports. A smattering of cases began appearing in Illinois about 10 years ago, according to Linn Haramis, an entomologist with the Illinois Department of Public Health. “Five years ago, we started getting calls monthly. In the last year, we’ve been getting calls weekly,” he said.

In August, calls began flooding into Moore’s 49th Ward office. Some bug-bitten residents complained that when they called 311 operators didn’t know where to refer them. The Chicago Department of Health doesn’t handle complaints because bedbugs don’t carry disease. “The system wasn’t set up to deal with this unique problem,” said Moore.

Another misstep occurred when city hearing officers deemed landlords in compliance after just one visit from an exterminator, Moore said. Successful extermination requires multiple visits over weeks or months. According to the city code, landlords are only responsible for infestations that affect two or more units, but city inspectors are now cracking down and issuing citations if any bugs are found. “This is not as simple as sending the Orkin guy to spray in the corners,” Moore said. “We need to educate the public, landlords and judges.”

While city officials mobilize, tenants have been left to battle the bugs. The bites “felt like little pinches, like someone sticking you with a needle,” said Tousant, the woman who first thought she had mosquito bites. “You’re always looking for them. You don’t eat. You can’t sleep. You’re always nervous. It messes up your mind.”

After her landlord refused to send an exterminator, she began sleeping in the living room on an air mattress and keeping her clothing outside in plastic bags. She tossed out furniture, circled her bed with double-sided tape and started buying chemicals at the hardware store, employing a strategy of “eenie-meenie-minie-mo” to pick an effective pesticide.

This weekend—after six months of torture—she’s moving out. “No one should have to live like this.”