Posted March 10, 200619 yr I was at my local hardware store last week (Rohs Servistar at 1403 Vine Street), and someone came in and asked the owner (Al)for bedbug powder. After the customer left, Al said that he used to sell lots of the powder in the 70's, but after 25 years of not selling any powder at all, that recently it has become an epidemic again. Yuuch!! Then I talked with a Health inspector yesterday, and he said that the most recent influx travelled from NYC to OH in some used mattresses. double yuuuchy!!! http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/wlwt/20060213/lo_wlwt/3263357 http://www.angieslist.com/AngiesList/membermenu/publication/Stories/bedbugs.asp
March 12, 200619 yr It's MrNYC's fault. :-D (Seriously) Wasn't there a recent infestation of bedbugs in NYC?
March 12, 200619 yr Bedbugs do not infest cities. They are localized in building . You won't go door to door and find them. Fleas are far worse, i don't see why they talk about bedbugs this like it's an epidemic. Bedbugs are harder to control though, since they do not live in the carpets or baseboard. They usually live or feed high up off the floor which would make it difficult to treat with pesticides.
April 19, 200619 yr ^I understand that they don't infest cities. But for some reason there are more reports of them in this area. Is an increase caused by lack of cleanliness of the residents or purchase of used mattresses from disreputable dealers or some other cause?
April 19, 200619 yr I think i would put it more on bad luck. I would inspect everything, before bring it inside the home.
April 19, 200619 yr Oh good...an authority. Have you ever seen large black ant-looking things with wings, but who can't fly? We use Terminex and the our idiot (whatever you call a bug guy) can't even identify them. We get them for about a week every spring and they hang out in the top of our vaulted dining room ceiling.
April 20, 200619 yr Oh good...an authority. Have you ever seen large black ant-looking things with wings, but who can't fly? We use Terminex and the our idiot (whatever you call a bug guy) can't even identify them. We get them for about a week every spring and they hang out in the top of our vaulted dining room ceiling. I'm assuming it has three body parts? Then that's an ant. If it has 2 body parts and their wings fall off. That is a termite. They swarm in the spring, but not for a whole week unless maybe it's a HUGE colony. Now if you see winged ants ranging in size that that could be any number of species. If you give me the location(basemant,2nd floor, etc) of where they swarmed i can maybe narrow it down.
April 20, 200619 yr ^Nuts...I'm not entirely sure if they are two or three sections, but I'm leaning on three. They are different sizes, but all decently bigger than what I would call a normal ant. The room has a vaulted ceiling so they come out next to a beam right at the ridge, so just below the shingles.
April 20, 200619 yr When a colony swarms you can be sure it's been there several years.It takes 2-3 years before a colony matures to swarm. You can pm me if you find anything. goodluck.
April 20, 200619 yr I didn't even think bedbugs were real. I just thought it was a saying that my grandmother would say to me before bedtime.
April 20, 200619 yr I didn't even think bedbugs were real. I just thought it was a saying that my grandmother would say to me before bedtime. LOL - same here brother...
April 21, 200619 yr I didn't even think bedbugs were real. I just thought it was a saying that my grandmother would say to me before bedtime. That's because they had been almost entirely wiped out for most of the late 20th century. That is also why the recent infestations are news.
August 6, 200618 yr Yeah these things are out of control now. People wait too long to call. TIPS: Rubbing alcohol kills them on contact. Never take furniture from off the street. They tend to hid in the creases of the bed, just out of sight. They are nocturnal, so they will more likely feed on you when you are sleeping. Simply because they don't want you to kill them..lol
June 24, 200717 yr As usual, the Enquirer reports the news a year or so later: http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/AB/20070623/NEWS01/70623005/ BEDBUGS ON THE MOVE T om Hartke can’t keep sprays and powders purported to kill bedbugs in stock. The special pesticides have been best-sellers at Hartke’s Hardware in the West End for the last few months. “Our big business has always been locks and keys and security hardware,” Hartke said. “But all of a sudden, three or four months ago, we started getting calls and people coming in about bedbugs.” (Actually the increase started about 2 years ago, but this makes the Enquirer's reporting look more timely.) The powders and sprays are so popular that Hartke keeps the boxes next to the cash register. “I got tired of going to the backroom to get it,” he said. Bedbugs, tiny insects that feed on people’s blood, have gained a firm foothold with all six legs in homes throughout Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. In 2002, officials at the Hamilton County General Health District receivedno complaints about bedbug infestations, said Chris Eddy, environmental health director for the department. But by 2005, 36 reports were logged. Last year, the county received 83 complaints about bedbugs. And so far this year, the health department has received 49 complaints. “We’re on track to beat last year,” he said. Dale Grigsby, supervising sanitarian for the Cincinnati Health Department’s environmental health division, said the department receives 15 to 20 calls about bedbugs a week. A few years ago, they never got those calls, he said. “It’s a problem that’s almost logarithmic in how it’s increased in the last few years,” he said. The bugs had all but disappeared from the U.S. by the 1960s, thanks to DDT and other now-banned pesticides, but they have reappeared with a vengeance. In Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, much of the problem seems concentrated in apartment buildings, according to residents and pest-control experts. But bedbugs are just as comfortable in suburban McMansions as they are in rental properties, experts say. Bedbugs began reappearing in the U.S. in the late 1990s, carried in by overseas travelers and immigrants. ... Most pest-control experts have a story or two to tell about homeowners who have hauled out infested mattresses or furniture during the middle of the night so that their neighbors wouldn’t know they had a problem. Unlike cockroaches, rats and other vermin, bedbugs aren’t attracted to filth, Potter said. A spotless home is no defense against the tiny invaders, which can be carried into homes in luggage, used furniture or clothing. They also don’t spread a disease, which means they are not covered by health regulations in many communities. The Hamilton County General Health District can order property owners to treat infested homes and apartment buildings for bedbugs. Neither the Cincinnati nor the Northern Kentucky health departments have such authority, though. But Grigsby said Cincinnati health officials are considering revising the law because of the scope of the problem. State Rep. Dale Mallory, D-West End, is aware of bedbug infestations in public housing and senior apartment complexes. He is considering having a public hearing to listen to families who are affected by the pests. “We can cure this problem,” he said. “Let’s cure it.” But getting rid of bedbugs isn’t cheap, he said. Grisby has talked to some pest-control companies that estimate treating an apartment building can cost as much as $500 a unit. “If you’ve got 100 units, that’s a lot of money,” he said. In some cases, the only way to get rid of bedbugs infesting furniture is to get rid of the furniture itself, experts say. ... Patrick Boland, technical director for Scherzinger Pest Control in Columbia Township, called bedbugs “very accomplished hitchhikers.” They can travel into homes in luggage that has been left in infested hotel rooms. They take up residence in used furniture, clothing and bedding. When Grigsby sees people raiding Dumpsters or curbs for discarded furniture and bedding, he tries to warn them that they might be bringing home more than a chair or mattress. “I always stop and say, you’re running a risk of transferring whatever’s on that into your own household,” he said. Diane Davis thinks her Golf Manor apartment was infested after she bought a used bed. “I never knew anything about bedbugs ’till I started getting bit,” she said. Davis got rid of the bed, but the bugs had already moved into the carpet. One difficulty in getting rid of bedbugs is that pesticides kill the insects, but not their eggs. Since a female bedbug can lay about 500 eggs in six months, it’s a big problem, said Bill Beattie, residential branch manager for Terminix in Milford.
June 24, 200717 yr They are mostly harmless, right? I always thought that for years, the saying, "Don't let the bedbugs bite... or let the wooley-buggers get you tonight!" was just... a saying. Great, so bedbugs are now confirmed. Can I expect wooley-buggers to feast on my supple body too?
August 18, 201014 yr Ohio's Bedbug Battle <a href="http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2011509,00.html?xid=rss-topstories-cnnpartner">Time Magazine</a> The Ohio Department of Agriculture has ... petitioned the EPA for an exemption to allow in-home use of propoxur, a pesticide and neurotoxin banned in the 1990s out of concern for its effects on children.
August 18, 201014 yr Step up to the bar....What's your poison, Mac...... Bedbugs or cancer? What are you talking about?
August 18, 201014 yr Step up to the bar....What's your poison, Mac...... Bedbugs or cancer? What are you talking about? EC doesn't believe in using chemicals for anything.
August 18, 201014 yr If you've never experienced a major attack, you can't comprehend the intensity of the itching. It's like chigger bites multiplied by a hundred. Hydrocortisone ointment (i.e. Lanacort 10) helps a little, but it has to be used often. The motel in La Porte, Indiana, where I was a long-time customer, developed an infestation. I first got bitten about a year ago, and told the manager about it so I assumed he had taken care of it. I stayed there this Spring, though, and was bitten so badly that I became physically ill and had to have a prescription antihistamine (phenergan) to knock down the allergic reaction. This time, I contacted the county health department about the place, and on subsequent visits to the area I've stayed at a better motel. The extra 20 bucks a night is well worth it. I just feel lucky that I didn't bring them home in my luggage and infest my house; for a couple of months, every time I got a mosquito bite I freaked out -- "OMG! Are they in my house?" A friend in Bloomington, Indiana, who works for IU, says that some IU dorms and Bloomington motels have developed infestations. It's possible to encounter them even in the best accomodations, but the management in those places is more likely to spend whatever it takes to preserve the value of their investment. Owners/managers of cheap motels may be too tight-fisted to aggressively treat the problem, because they depend more on turnover by from outfits like commercial pavers and roofers and others with traveling crews than on repeat business and word-of-mouth advertising.
August 18, 201014 yr This is a known problem in several states. I now have a "bedbug" clause in my meeting contracts with hotels. There isn't always anything they can do about it though, they're limited in what they can use and when and they just tend to go from place to place. It's not like a hotel is ever 100% empty so it can be fumigated all at once.
August 22, 201014 yr They are taking over New York City. In movie theaters, apartments, hotels, clothes stores, and now even the Empire State Building http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/08/21/2010-08-21_empire_bedbug_building_parasites_found_in_one_small_area.html
August 23, 201014 yr I have a meeting this fall in Cols and am really paranoid about bringing these back with me. Is there anything I can do to avoid it? Other than not going, which isn't an option? I mean, I can live literally out of my suitcase so maybe my clothes will be spared, but I have to sleep somewhere. Is there a spray or something I can bring? I'm ridiculously worried about this.
August 23, 201014 yr Problem is, they could hitchhike home on/in your suitcase. I've been lucky on my two encounters, I guess, because I always put my luggage, etc. on one of those fold-out stands that the hotels usually provide, or on the metal rack up on the wall. That's no guarantee, though. There are powders and maybe some sprays that are effective. What I've read is that many of the bugs have developed resistance to most household insecticides. You might check with a local hardware store, Walgreens, or CVS to see if they have anything. Or you could just sleep in your car! :wink: Seriously, sometimes I've thought about that; I have a station wagon with enough room in the back. So if you don't hear from me in a while, you'll know I've been picked up for vagrancy. The cheap motels (where the owner/manager and his whole family live on the premises and do all the work are often too inept and too tight-fisted to deal with the problem. While the bugs may get into even the good hotels/motels, the management usually is quick to respond before resident colonies develop.
August 24, 201014 yr 4 Ohio Cities are on this list! Columbus ranks high on national bedbug-infestation list By Adrian Sainz Associated Press MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Bloodsucking bedbugs are biting in New York, and Philadelphia, and all over Ohio. The pest control company Terminix released today a list of the 15 most bedbug-infested cities, based on an analysis of call volume reporting bedbug infestations and of confirmed bedbug cases reported by sales professionals in 350 of the company's service centers. The Big Apple topped the list, followed by Philly and Detroit. Ohio has four cities in the top 15 -- Cincinnati is fourth, Columbus is seventh, Dayton is eighth and Cleveland is 14th. “All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.” -Friedrich Nietzsche
August 25, 201014 yr Whenever I stay at a hotel the first thing I do is check the bed and sheets for signs of bedbugs. All you have to do is remove a corner of the comforter and then the sheet and look at the seems of the mattress for either bugs or the little black marks left behind by the bugs.
August 30, 201014 yr Is the EPA to blame for the bed bug ‘epidemic’? But why are bed bugs back? Though they’ve been sucking humans’ blood since at least ancient Greece, bed bugs became virtually extinct in America following the invention of pesticide DDT. There were almost no bed bugs in the United States between World War II and the mid-1990s. Around when bed bugs started their resurgence, Congress passed a major pesticides law in 1996 and the Clinton EPA banned several classes of chemicals that had been effective bed bug killers. ... The issue has led to a standoff between Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, a Democrat, and EPA chief Lisa Jackson, who shot down Strickland’s appeals over the issue in a tersely worded letter in June. Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2010/08/30/is-the-epa-to-blame-for-the-bed-bug-%E2%80%98epidemic%E2%80%99/#ixzz0y7fVOAJ0
August 30, 201014 yr Im in the pest control industry and i blame prostitutes. They get them from the john's and the prostitutes spread them from place to place.
August 31, 201014 yr Im in the pest control industry and i blame prostitutes. They get them from the john's and the prostitutes spread them from place to place. I'm a victim (twice in a year) and I don't mess with prostitutes or stay in places they frequent. I blame the dad-burn U.S. Gummint, dang it! :whip: Is the EPA to blame for the bed bug ‘epidemic’? But why are bed bugs back? Though they’ve been sucking humans’ blood since at least ancient Greece, bed bugs became virtually extinct in America following the invention of pesticide DDT. There were almost no bed bugs in the United States between World War II and the mid-1990s. Around when bed bugs started their resurgence, Congress passed a major pesticides law in 1996 and the Clinton EPA banned several classes of chemicals that had been effective bed bug killers.
Create an account or sign in to comment