A call arrived from a local hospital where Argentine ants had been a long term problem.  As usual with this species, the ants were seen trailing in kitchen, pantry and break room areas where they foraged for food and numerous ants were frequently observed as they trailed to various locations. They were also appearing in patient rooms.

Ants are generally viewed as tolerable insect intruders in comparison to cockroaches, which are usually seen as being disgusting. It was when these ants made their way to the cardiac intensive care unit patient rooms that the problem became serious enough to garner the attention of management.

Since beginning as a licensed applicator in 1976, it’s clear that I’ve been doing pest work a long time. Pest pros see all sorts of things when working in customer’s homes but it was when working as a pest management consultant on a bed bug remediation project that an incident happened that would forever set the tone for how I conducted bed bug work from that day forward.

I received a call seeking assistance at a large apartment complex.  The call was from the property owner who had been referred to me by an industry colleague.  Our initial conversation indicated that the apartment complex was experiencing a long-standing bed bug situation of at least four years and that it had progressively worsened.  They were on their fourth pest company.  They had simply had enough and were at their wits end.  During the conversation, an action plan regarding the necessary remediation work was discussed and agreed upon.

I. Bed bugs do what bed bugs do.

We need to remember and consider that bed bugs continue to do what bed bugs do. Bed bugs are insects. We are aware of the biology, behavior and capabilities of these creatures. Basically, bed bugs hide, emerge when their hosts are sleeping or at rest, feed, go back to hiding, defecate leaving fecal stains, mate or copulate, females lay eggs, develop, molt leaving shed skins, and basically do what bed bugs do.

Biologically we know the bed bug life cycle, development process, egg laying capacity, that they feed exclusively on blood and other such related factors. We know that these biological factors must be well considered for the overall success of our bed bug prevention and management program efforts.

Bed bugs are still here and still getting the lion’s share of the industry’s attention. At the recent industry conferences nearly the majority of presentations are about bed bugs. While media attention has seemingly waned, pest professionals report that their bed bug work has either grown over prior year, remained about the same and has continued to keep them busy. Bed bug related product introductions have slowed despite that bed bug focused product development work continues at various labs and workshops across the country.

Below are some Do’s & Don’ts related to Bed Bugs for your review and consideration: