RI, MA EHS Pest Control Blog

A Hairy Body Can Mean the Bed Bugs Won't Bite (Because they Can't Get to the Skin)

Finding hairs in your food can be disgusting, and it seems that blood-sucking insects feel just the same.

Scientists have discovered that hairy people are better protected from parasites, as the hair makes it harder for the bugs to reach skin.

Bed bugs and other parasites such as mosquitoes, midges.

But as the insects search for somewhere to dive in, the nerves in hairs also increase the chances of them being felt on the skin and swatted away.

Researchers studied 29 brave volunteers who had one arm shaved before hungry bed bugs were placed on their skin

The results of the experiment showed that people with more hair - both longer hairs and fine, almost invisible 'vellus' hairs - were more protected.

Hair covering the arms extended each insect’s search for an ideal feeding ground, and increased the likelihood of it being detected.

Because of this, bed bugs and other parasites including mosquitoes, midges, ticks and leeches prefer relatively hairless areas such as the wrists and ankles, the scientists claim.

Study leader Professor Michael Siva-Jothy, from the University of Sheffield’s Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, said: 'Our findings show that more body hairs mean better detection of parasites.

'The hairs have nerves attached to them and provide us with the ability to detect displacement. By forming a barrier and providing detection, these hairs prolong search time and make detection more likely because the bug has to spend more time clambering over them.

'The results have implications for understanding why we look the way we do, what selective forces might have driven us to look the way we do, and may even provide insight for better understanding of how to reduce biting insects’ impact on humans.'

The findings may explain why humans have retained a body-covering of fine hair.

'Our proposal is that we retain the fine covering because it aids detection and if we lost all hair, even the relatively invisible fine hair, our detection ability goes right down,' said Prof Siva-Jothy.

The research is published today in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters. Prof Siva-Jothy said it would be wrong to assume women will always be bitten more often than hairier men.

He pointed out: 'Men have more body hair than women which is caused by the action of testosterone at puberty. This does not necessarily mean that women are more likely to be bitten.

'Blood-sucking insects are likely to have been selected to prefer to bite hosts in relatively hairless areas.”

The Sheffield scientists are investigating the biology, reproduction and immunity of blood-sucking insects.

Their aim is to find more effective ways of controlling parasitic insects and the diseases they spread.

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

With Bedbugs on the Rise, Entomologist Urges Vigilance

If the nation's capital wants to contain its bed bug problem, its residents, pest control experts and property managers must put long-term action plans into place, a Maryland-based entomologist said Thursday at a summit on the insect.

"You need to recognize high-risk locations," and be proactive with prevention, said Larry Pinto, a Mechanicsville, Md.-based entomologist who gave the keynote address at the summit hosted by the D.C. Department of Health.

A report released this summer by the pest-control company Terminix ranked Washington, D.C., as the ninth most bed bug-infested city in the country; it ranked New York City as No. 1.

A joint statement released in November by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Environmental Protection Agency said the U.S. is now one of many countries "experiencing an alarming resurgence in the population of bed bugs," which had declined in the mid-20th century.

Bed bugs can become problems in low-income housing areas, assisted living facilities and transitional housing sites such as homeless shelters, where people frequently interact and share common spaces, Pinto said.

But their presence is not limited to apartments or low-income housing.

The pests often "hitchhike" on people traveling internationally, and can now be found in almost any setting, Pinto said. This includes bathrooms, office file cabinets and even the brushes of vacuum cleaners.

He said people such as social workers, who often make visits to high-risk sites, should wash and dry clothing immediately after work, since bedbugs are sensitive to dryer heat.

Purchasing pesticides and cockroach-killing sprays is not recommended to eliminate them. Rather, tenants and homeowners are urged to contact pest control professionals for a series of treatments.

Although bedbugs feed on the blood of people and leave itchy welts and rashes, they are not disease carriers, officials say. But they can cause a variety of "negative health, mental health and economic consequences," the joint CDC/EPA report said, including "mild to severe allergic reaction to the bites" and anxiety and insomnia.

Reactions to bedbugs can be extreme, Pinto said.

People "do some pretty crazy things, like bathing themselves in kerosene," he said. "Their first gut reaction is to throw everything they have out."

But that doesn't work, he said. The bugs almost always return unless treated by professionals with a combination of pesticide, vacuum and heat treatments.

Instead of overreacting, Pinto said, citizens and landlords need to constantly monitor infected homes, by visually inspecting for bedbugs and keeping an eye out for bruises on the skin. Three treatments by a pest management company are typically needed to completely rid a home of an infestation, he said, and the bill can run anywhere around $1,200 or more.

But, he added, "I've dealt with properties who spent 60-to-80-thousand dollars (on pest control), and then had to spend another 60-to-80 thousand," if they don't do it right.

For those who aren't quite ready to lay down the cash for long-term bedbug treatment, Pinto suggested taking some simple measures, such as placing mattresses within encasements.

When moving into a new apartment or traveling, he suggests looking for blood smears on walls and ceilings, hotel beds and headboards. The smears would indicate the bugs' presence, because homeowners are likely to crush the bugs.

Constant long-term vigilance is essential, he said.

"Reinfestation is almost guaranteed," he said. "You need a permanent monitoring program."

Source = Capitol News Services

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA

Bob’s Discount Furniture Gets Bitten by Bedbug Ruling

Bob’s Discount Furniture could be on the hook for allegedly selling a bedbug-infested bedroom set.

A customer brought suit against the retailer after an exterminator found bedbugs harboring in the frame of the customer’s daughter’s bed.

A federal judge ruled in favor of Bob’s, but the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a remand, finding that the judge had erred by preventing the exterminator from testifying as an expert witness.

“This opinion evidence, coupled with evidence that the defendant had no written policy regarding the prevention of bedbugs and that it used the same trucks for both delivering new furniture and retrieving used furniture, is sufficient to support a conclusion that the defendant delivered bedbugs along with the bedroom set,” Judge Bruce M. Selya wrote for the 1st Circuit.

The 21-page decision is Downey, et al. v. Bob’s Discount Furniture Holdings, Inc., Lawyers Weekly No. 01-010-11.

SOURCE = The Docket (Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly)

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA