We are extremely excited to announce that Richard Cooper will be appearing on the Dr. Oz Show along side Dini Miller, Ph.D. as bed bug experts on Friday Nov. 20^th!

You can check out a preview of the segment here: http://www.doctoroz.com/. Just click the “Friday” tab on the right-hand side of the screen. We will send out a link to the full video when it becomes available.

Previously, Dr. Oz was a featured health expert on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” for over five seasons, spanning 55 episodes. He is also Vice-Chair and Professor of Surgery at Columbia University and directs the Cardiovascular Institute and Complementary Medicine Program at New York Presbyterian Hospital.

As always, thank you for visiting our site and be sure to check out the episode on Friday Nov. 20^th. Show times in your area can be found on the Dr. Oz homepage: http://www.doctoroz.com/.

I suppose it was only a matter of time before someone developed an iPhone/iTouch app involving bed bugs …

Bed Bug Identifier by Nuvenco LLC

Available via iTunes in the App Store under the Travel section.

Tags: iPhone, iTouch

Source:  cbc.ca

Toronto is experiencing a dramatic spike in the number of bed bug infestations, according to a new report.

The report, funded in part by the city and the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term care, found that over an eight-month period in 2008, Toronto Public Health received 1,500 reports of bed bug infestations.

For all of 2003, in comparison, the city’s public health department received 46 such complaints.

The report says a rise in infestations isn’t unique to Toronto — Ontario towns like Ottawa, Owen Sound and London have also been hit. Meanwhile, New York City and even some cities in Australia have reported similar spikes in the past five years.

More than 100 people —including social workers, MPs and landlords — crammed into a conference room at City Hall on Monday to discuss the report’s findings with its authors.

Wide variety affected

Sean Meagher, one of the authors, blamed the increase of infestations on a lack of awareness of how to deal with bed bugs. He said the problem affects a wide variety of dwellings, from university student dormitories to swanky hotels and low-cost rental housing.

Those who have had to deal with infestations have been hit hard, he said.

“People suffering from bed bugs frequently experience shame, fear, isolation and insomnia,” he said.

“Many face serious economic consequences, including loss of income and loss of work. The cost of eradications can run into the thousands of dollars and the replacement of infested household items are also expensive.”

Meagher said the bugs are notoriously durable.

“Bedbugs can live, breed, hatch and carry out their entire lives while still being exposed to … pesticide used for bed bugs. Bed bugs have even shown resistance to DDT.”

‘Psychologically terrorized’

Toronto resident Fionna Blair is one of the unlucky ones to be hit by an infestation.

Two years ago she started getting mysterious bites. She soon found the culprits — bed bugs in her sofa.

“They hide very well and only come out at night,” she said.

It took lots of money, time and energy spent cleaning, fumigating and even caulking the space between walls and baseboards before Blair got rid of the bed bugs. But even now, she can’t be sure they’re all gone.

“They can stay dormant for a year and a half, so they leave you psychologically terrorized … Perhaps you don’t have them, but perhaps they’re just hibernating until they come out again,” she said.

The problem could get out of hand unless the government steps in to co-ordinate the response to the infestation, said Meagher.

“It will impact all parts of our city. And the failure to act will result in wider infestations and more costly responses. Consistent use of best protocols can and will work, but co-ordination and education are needed to make that possible,” he said.

The problem can only be meaningfully solved, he said, through “extensive public education to ensure early identification and the participation of governments, landlords, medical professionals, institutions, as well as residents.”

Tags: Toronto

Source:  KETV.com

SHENANDOAH, Iowa —

An Iowa inspector has ordered the Days Inn in Shenandoah closed because of a bedbug infestation.Crews spent their lunch hour on Thursday changing carpet inside the motel as a sign outside declared that the business was closed for remodeling.Former employees said that wasn’t the real reason that the motel was shut down.”My manager told me there was a bedbug infestation,” said a former employee who asked to be identified as Aubrey.Several former employees at the motel told KETV NewsWatch 7 that the problem has been going on for months.”There were just spots of blood on, I’d say, 90 percent of the sheets,” Aubrey said. “We’d have to replace the sheets all the time.”

KETV NewsWatch 7 learned that an Iowa inspector heard a guest complain about bedbugs on Thursday morning. A search of the guest’s room found multiple insects and the business was immediately closed.”We washed everything and they put it back in circulation,” Aubrey said. “Washing sheets doesn’t kill bedbugs.”The motel has been inspected three times since May. It passed inspection in the spring, but was found to be out of compliance in July for dirty rooms. A July report also noted there was no pest control certification.The manager denied Thursday morning that the sudden closure was because of an infestation, saying that the motel was being remodeled. The manager was unable to respond to questions about the inspector’s report later in the day.The motel will remain closed until a certified pest control company can prove that the infestation is gone.

Tags: closure, Days Inn, Iowa, Shenandoah

Source:  CBS News

(AP) COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) – Bug spray that produces a fog to kill insects is likely to blame for the death of a 10-month-old South Carolina boy, and his 2-year-old brother was critically injured by the fumes, authorities said Monday.

Anderson County Deputy Coroner Don McCown said the boys’ mother had been using foggers in their single-wide mobile home in Williamston, in the northwest part of the state, because of an insect problem. Elizabeth Whitfield, 25, called 911 on Sunday afternoon to report her youngest son was having trouble breathing.

Paramedics took all three to a hospital, and Jacob Whitfield was pronounced dead. His brother, Kenneth, was flown to another hospital about 20 minutes north to Greenville, where he remained Monday on a respirator, but was starting to stabilize, McCown said.

Elizabeth Whitfield was coated in chemicals when she first arrived to the hospital and had to remove her clothes and take a shower. She was released Sunday, but was re-admitted to the ER on Monday with breathing problems, McCown said.

Investigators found seven fogger containers. She told authorities she set off three when she began renting a month ago, then continued using them when the insects wouldn’t die.

“Most people put these foggers in – they do it one time a month or every couple of months. She was using two to three a week,” McCown said. “She said she followed the directions, but you have to wonder. We can’t attribute it to anything else.”

A single fogger is typically used to treat 6,000 cubic feet and can leave an oily residue on furniture and floors. Directions call for residents to cover all furniture, vacate the home for four hours, then open windows and doors for an hour before returning, he said.

While the pesticides appear to be the cause of death, confirmation through toxicology reports could take eight weeks. Other air quality tests turned up nothing. The baby was otherwise healthy with no signs of abuse or neglect, McCown said.

He said the home was located in a rural area and “pretty infested with insects, roaches. It was her goal to get rid of all of them.”

“The stuff didn’t seem to have too much effect on the bugs,” he said. “They’re still running everywhere.”

The scent at the home was so strong authorities called in a hazardous materials team before entering. One deputy complained of headaches, McCown said.

Investigators initially focused on a grease fire, but tests showed that didn’t play any role in the illnesses, McCown said.

“Right now, we’re just concerned about them. We’re hoping the 2-year-old can make a recovery and hope the mom will be OK,” said Sheriff’s Sgt. Steve Reeves.

Tags: Bug Bomb, death, South Carolina

Source:  CBC.ca

The student union at Montreal’s Concordia University says it wants to help students make sure the bedbugs don’t bite.

The group has launched an awareness campaign after receiving a growing number of complaints about a bedbug problem from students living in off-campus housing.

“They’re crying, they haven’t had any sleep, they have bites all over their body,” said Jonathan Eldon, co-ordinator of the Concordia Student Union (CSU) housing and job bank. “And, you know, when they have a landlord that may not be responding to the issue, they’re even more frustrated.”

The CSU has posted a series of recommendations on its website.

Eldon recommends students be careful when buying second-hand items.

“If they do buy things second hand on Craigslist or at a thrift store, we say, clean it thoroughly and be very careful,” Eldon said.

Eldon said picking up mattresses of the curb is a bad idea.

Concordia student Ami Kingdon was forced to sleep on a yoga mat in her bathtub after two attempts to exterminate the bugs in her apartment failed.

She said she had bites the size of quarters on her arms, legs and neck.

Finally, a third extermination resolved the problem, Kingdon said.

“The thought of saying that I had bugs was just repulsive,” Kingdon said. “Then, when I found it was a widespread problem I felt better because I realized it wasn’t just me. I didn’t do anything wrong.”

Montreal public health authorities said the city has seen a marked increase in the number of bedbug cases since 2005.

Officials say the problem is due in large part to the fact the problem often goes unrecognized and unreported.

Tags: Concordia, Montreal

Source:  Wired.com

Male bed bugs get confused in bed. Now a scientist has found a bug chemical signal that translates, “Whoa, buddy. I’m a guy too.”

Male bed bugs grasp and try to mate with any other member of their Cimex lectularius species that has had a full meal of blood recently, says chemical ecologist Camilla Ryne of Lund University in Sweden. Single-minded males don’t seem inclined, or even able, to distinguish other males from females at first.

At first contact, sex recognition for these insects works largely by trial and error, Ryne says. What corrects those errors, she has found, is a blend of chemicals that earlier work has also described as the bed bug alarm pheromone.

“This is the first time to my knowledge that anyone has shown that alarm pheromones are used for sexual recognition,” Ryne says.

Females can release the substance when disturbed but typically don’t when grasped by a male, Ryne says. But males do exude the scent when grabbed by another male. After a whiff of the stuff, misguided suitors back off, Ryne reports online October 24 in Animal Behaviour.

Considering that bed bugs are making a comeback as a pest in the industrialized world, “knowing how they mate is important,” says entomologist Joshua Benoit of Ohio State University in Columbus. He too has been studying the alarm pheromone, and he agrees that the bugs use it in several ways.

Pheromones may have achieved their fame in popular culture as dizzying lures for the opposite sex, but biologists have discovered plenty of other kinds of pheromones. Compounds can fuel aggression among male mice or urge baby rabbits to search for a nipple.

Bed bugs release the pheromone blend of the small, volatile molecules (E)-2-octenal and (E)-2-hexenal when disturbed, Ryne says. A mating attempt might indeed be disturbing, since males deliver their sperm by what’s called traumatic insemination. They ignore the opening to the female reproductive tract and inject sperm with a needlelike appendage directly through the outer covering of a mate’s body. In the abdominal area most commonly pierced, female bed bugs grow a mass of the kinds of cells associated with immune defense. Males, though, have no extra protection there.

To test the idea that the alarm pheromone helps mistakenly targeted males free themselves, Ryne painted nail polish over the glands that produce the substance, thus blocking its release. Males that couldn’t signal chemically ended up in longer embraces than males dabbed elsewhere with nail polish.

For a different test, Ryne collected the substance by washing disturbed males with a solvent. When she applied wafted the extract over mating pairs of males and females, the males backed off. The finding showed that even in the presence of a suitable mate, the signal disturbed the males, she says.

Ryne herself can smell the pheromone, she says. It’s a bit like almond, but not particularly pleasant. “Older people say that you used to be able to tell whose house had bed bugs because it had a peculiar smell,” she says.

Images: 1) A male and femal bed bud mate.  2) A bed bug feeding on blood from a person. Rickard Ignell/Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

Tags: mating, pheromone

Source:  cincinnati.com

COLERAIN TWP. – Fourteen people were temporarily displaced overnight in a fire at an apartment building in the 3100 block of Regal Lane, according to Hamilton County emergency communication reports.

One minor injury was reported in the 3:23 a.m. blaze, a dispatcher said. The victim was treated at the scene for a minor burn and released.

Flames and heavy smoke were visible from the apartment building when fire crews arrived, reports state.

Colerain Township police officers got to the building just before the fire department and began evacuating residents, said Colerain Township Police Sgt. Mike Owens. They carried out a few people, including an elderly man who was treated by paramedics and released.

Colerain Township firefighters woke a sleeping couple on the third floor, but by then it was too late to take them into the smoke-filled hallway to leave the building, Owens said. They were eventually rescued off their balcony.

The fire was contained to its origin, a bedroom in a second floor apartment, and reported knocked down by 3:38 a.m.

Fire investigators have determined the blaze was started by a resident spraying for bed bugs while smoking, said Capt. Steve Conn, spokesman for the Colerain Township Fire Department.

“They were spraying for bed bugs, and it had alcohol in it,” Conn said. “One of the residents lit up a cigarette, and it basically flashed and started the room on fire.”

By 6 a.m., all but three or four of the residents had returned to their units, Conn said. The American Red Cross is assisting the displaced family.

Damage is estimated at $20,000, according to Conn.

Tags: Cincinnati, Fire

Source:  Inner City Press

September 16, all UN workers in the UN’s Albano Building on 46th Street have been informed by e-mail that

“As you might be aware of the recent case of bed bugs infestation on the 9th floor and the fumigation that took place over the weekend. PES has made an arrangement with the exterminator to come in today starting at 6:30pm with a dog to go through the entire building and make sure that there are no other cases. Please inform your staff who will be here after 6:30pm. I will follow up with PES and ask for a report of what if anything they found.”

This confirms, in writing, that the UN has suffered “bed bug infestation.” Since there are no, or at least few, beds in the UN, it is understood that the bed bugs were introduced by the moving company which the UN contracted to move office equipment and belongings from the Secretariat building to the swing space, between 1st and 2nd Avenue, so that the Secretariat was be gut rehabilitated under the UN’s Capital Master Plan.

Full Story

Tags: UN

Source:  PCT Magazine Online

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Canada — In his full-time position as quality assurance manager and technical advisor for a major North American pest control company, Sean Rollo saw first-hand just what type of challenges were inherent with bed bug control

He also realized the value of bringing together a diverse mix of experts to share their bed bugs experiences, which is why he launched www.thebedbugresource.com in 2007 (which he operates on his personal time). “The site was established primarily to replace a mail serv list that professionals involved with bed bugs were using,” Rollo said. “The forum-based (i.e., message board-based) site allowed for greater interaction and prevented full inboxes from ‘reply to all’ subjects that were not of interest to all those involved.”

When the site was first launched in 2007 it was receiving 1,000-plus hits per day. To give you an idea of how the site has grown (and how people’s interests in bed bugs has grown) www.thebedbugresource.com has received more than 750,000 hits so far this year (93,750 per month) and the number of emails and posts Rollo answers has grown as well.

“The site has evolved from a message board to a full blown information resource on bed bugs,” Rollo said. “The information has been compiled from personal experience as a pest control professional and entomologist along with information gleaned from (University of Kentucky’s) Dr. Michael Potter, (Cooper Pest Solutions Technical Director) Rick Cooper, (Virginia Tech’s) Dini Miller, (Australian bed bug expert) Steven Doggett, (New York PMP) Gil Bloom, (American Museum of Natural History in NYC) Dr. Sorkin, (UK molecular biologist) David Cain, and many other bed bug specialists.”

Rollo said he is proud that the site does not endorse companies, services, or products but rather offers up information about how to choose a company, the types of services that are available, and the product choices and innovations that are out there for readers to be able to make informed choices.

So just who visits the site? Rollo said a diverse mix of people visit the site, including teachers, nurses, housing authorities, lawyers, entomologists, pest professionals, home owners, students, etc. “I am also always amazed at how global the readership is,” he said.  “I get visitors from the four corners of the earth.  I think St. Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean off of Africa was the most unique place a visitor was from thus far.”

Rollo said his short-term goal is to get more industry professionals to participate in the discussion forums. Ultimately, Rollo says he hopes that site will play a role in the industry’s efforts to “make a significant dent in bed bug populations around the world.”

Tags: Cain, cooper, Doggett, Miller, PCT, potter, Rollo, Sorkin