Tag: Bed bugs

Bed bugs’ resurgence in last 10 years

Bed bugs have made a comeback in a huge way, and researchers are finally understanding some of the causes. Militerriers can help search out the little critters, but it’s important to understand why people in Southwest Ohio are having so many problems.

“During the past decade or so, the resurgence of [bed bugs] has been recorded across the globe including North America, Europe, Australia, and Eastern Asia with an estimated 100 percent to 500 percent annual increase in bed bug populations,” the researches continue.

The bed bug revival has been blamed on many factors, including frequent international travel, the increased exchange of used furniture, and the insect’s resistance to insecticides.

Hotels are far from immune from the bed bug invasion. The famed Waldorf-Astoria in New York recently faced a third bed bug lawsuit. Travelers are encouraged to check hotel rooms for the tiny, rust-colored insects in mattresses and cracks.

The bugs are extremely resilient, and can live for a year without feeding. Bites from the blood-sucking insects cause itching but do not transmit serious diseases.

via Why Bed Bugs Won’t Go Away – AOL Travel News.

Bed bug fears heightened across Southwest Ohio

People are finding bed bugs in strange places. People across the region are reporting finding the bugs in places that aren’t normally infested, so general anxiety about the pests have increased.

Hodgson, of Cuyahoga Falls-based Rose Pest Solutions, confirmed exterminators are responding to more reports of bedbug infestations in Stark County and across Ohio.

“It’s beginning to ramp up here. It started in Cincinnati and Columbus and now it’s coming up here,” Hodgson said. “… We haven’t seen the peak yet.”

Hodgson spoke Wednesday at an educational seminar presented by the Stark County Bed Bug Prevention Task Force at the Massillon Knights of Columbus. The task force has staff members from all four of the county’s health departments.

The reddish-brown, appleseed-sized insects, which had been on the decline for years, are making a strong comeback and Ohio is among the top states for reported infestations.

Bed bugs are not easy to get rid of, and the cause of infestation is not always what people think it would be. Sometimes exterminators are called in unnecessarily, and time and money is wasted.

In addition to waging a physical fight, officials also say they are battling an emotional stigma attached to the insects.

“They’re getting at you when you are the most vulnerable (sleeping). I’ve had people tell me they’d rather be bitten by a mosquito,” Hodgson said.

Recently, Rose Pest Solutions was asked to inspect a multimillion-dollar Lear jet because the owner wanted peace of mind. No bugs were found.

“I think it’s going to get to the point where hotels are going to have to put up signs stating they do routine inspections,” Hodgson said.

Residents may be hesitant to report infestation because they associate the bugs with unsanitary living conditions.

But nothing could be further from the truth, according to Hodgson.

“The problem is going to be anywhere people gather,” he said.

Clutter, not unclean conditions, is a breeding ground for bed bugs, Monachino said. The insects can be found in the cracks and crevices of mattresses, box springs, linens, quilts, night stands and furniture, Hodgson said.

via Bedbugs becoming real pest to get rid of – Massillon, OH – The Independent.

Bed bug genes may be altered due to pesticides

Bed bugs are studied throughout the region, and scientists are finding that the very pesticides that were created to exterminate them may be helping their numbers grow stronger. Because Southwest Ohio is a hotbed for bedbugs, it’s important to home and business owners to know what they are up against when fighting the pests.

As the war on bedbugs wears on, scientists try to understand the invasive pests so they can kill the suckers.

Now, Ohio State University researchers have conducted the first genetic study to identify pesticide-resistant genes the bugs carry. It may lead to new ways of controlling the bugs in the future.

“Right now, these studies are still preliminary and only scratching the surface of the bedbug genome,” said Omprakash Mittapalli, Ph.D., assistant professor of entomology at Ohio Agricultural and Development Center and corresponding author of the study. “But bedbugs could be a lot more complicated than previously thought.”

Mittapalli and his team analyzed laboratory-reared bedbugs vulnerable to insecticides, and compared them to pesticide-exposed bedbugs found in a local apartment in 2009 and 2010. Researchers identified more than 35,000 expressed sequence tags, tiny portions of a gene that can be used to help identify unknown genes and map their positions within the genome.

“The genetic bases for these genes could enable us to formulate newer development strategies that may be more effective than what we have right now,” said Mittapalli. “But a lot more studies need to be done, not only to identify candidate genes, but also to get a better understanding of the biology of the insect.”

The study, published in the journal PLoS ONE, found that there were differences in a gene, known as CYP9, between the bedbugs exposed to pesticides and the non-exposed bedbugs.

via Scientist Study Genetic Makeup of the Bedbug – ABC News.

Hello from the Bed Bug Detection Experts in Dayton, Ohio

If you suspect bed bugs in your home and need to know if you should call the exterminator, you have sniffed out the right site.

Bandit is trained to find bed bugs in all kinds of environments. Militerriers is a veteran-owned business that is highly-trained and can be relied upon to conduct pest searches in federal buildings, hotels, apartment complexes, nursing homes, theaters, hospitals and residences.

© 2024 Militerriers

Up ↑