With so many people traveling over the summer months, we thought if best to offer a few travel tips to help reduce your risk of getting bed bugs. Bed bugs are excellent hitchhikers and travel on your belongings. The more you can minimize your possible contact with them, the less likely it is that you will bring them home with you.
1) Do Your Research – Before you book your hotel, check out sites like www.bedbugregistry.com or www.tripadvisor.com to see if anyone has posted bed bug issues at your hotel. If they have, choose another hotel. Just because your hotel is not listed, does not mean they are without bed bugs. They may still have an issue, but no one has posted anything yet.
2) Pack a Flashlight – Our entire staff travels with flashlights. It’s your best tool in helping to determine if your hotel room has bed bugs. When you arrive at the hotel, if possible, leave your luggage in the car when you check in. Take your flashlight and inspect the mattress and bed. Remove the sheets and look for small rust dots (about the size of pencil eraser head). These will be blood stains. If you see nothing on the mattress, check behind the headboard. If you can take it off the wall, or shake it, go ahead. If you see the rust spots, insect skins or insects, inform the manager and check out!
3) Don’t Put Luggage on the Bed – No one from our office will put their luggage on the bed, furniture or luggage rack. Our suitcases go in the bath tub. I admit, it’s not very convenient, but better safe than sorry. My luggage never leaves the bathroom.
4) Pack Giant Zip Lock Bags – All of my clothes go into a giant zip lock bag before my trip home….even if I didn’t wear them. You can get a box at any grocery store for under $5. Don’t skimp…the bags must seal tight!
5) Don’t Bring Your Luggage in Your House – Once you get home, don’t bring your luggage in your house. You will need to remove everything from your luggage and vacuum thoroughly, inside and out. Vacuum, remove the vacuum bag, seal it tight in a plastic bag and throw it in your outside garbage. If you can make a stop at the car wash with a coin operated vacuum, on the way home, do it!
6) Dry Your Clothes – Take your zip lock bags and empty them directly into your dryer. Set on the hottest setting and leave clothes in there for at least 30 minutes. Don’t fill the dryer too full. You need the hot air to circulate. Shoes too if they can tolerate it (like sneakers). No need to wash clothes first. It will do no good.
This all may seem obsessive and extreme…but trust us; it is well worth the hassle. These simple steps could save you not only from red, itchy welts which can be caused by bed bug bites…but also save you thousands of dollars in bed bug extermination costs.
Bed bugs are everywhere in the news and consumers are looking for solutions. They’re searching the internet for that magic bullet. Of course the internet is full of answers, but doesn’t distinguish between good and bad choices. The bed bug pandemic is a perfect opportunity for scam artists to take advantage of people who are desperate for help. So keep these tips in mind for when you can’t sleep tight.
Ordering pesticides off the internet is a bad idea. DON’T DO IT!
◦You have no way of knowing what you are really buying.
◦Pesticides banned in the US are often still available in other countries.
◦Sellers may intentionally misrepresent their products as bed bug solutions, when in fact; they are worthless in controlling bed bugs.
◦Some products should not be used indoors or around people or pets.
◦At one time, DDT was effective at killing bed bugs, but now DDT is ineffective against many of the current bed bug strains.
◦Most insecticides are not effective at killing bed bugs, or they kill bed bugs very slowly.
If you do choose to try an over-the-counter pesticide for bed bugs, or any other insect, please remember…the label is the law and the label matters. The label is there to ensure your health and safety.
◦If the product is not labeled for bed bugs or not labeled for the treatment area, do not use it. Doing so puts people and pests at risk.
◦Over-application or misapplications are real problems. Follow the label exactly. More is not always better.
There are safe and effective ways to eliminate bed bugs. We encourage you to contact a pest management professional in your area who will outline all the options available to you.
As the bed bug epidemic continues to grow, bed bug detection dogs will begin to play a larger role in bed bug detection and elimination. So what makes these dogs so special and why would you want to use one?
•A Powerful Nose – A dog’s nose generally has between 125 and 220 million smell-sensitive receptors making their nose nearly 100 million times more powerful than the human nose. Dogs can be trained to detect just about anything including explosives, blood, plants, produce, currency, cancer, mold, and even insects.
•Speed – Because a dog’s nose is so powerful, they can search a small apartment for bed bugs in a just a few short minutes. If a human were to inspect the same apartment for bed bugs, it could take 1 to 2 hours, depending on the thoroughness of the inspection.
•Accuracy – Bed bugs are small and can hide anywhere, even in electrical outlets. Humans are known to be only about 30-35% accurate in finding bed bugs during an inspection. However, well trained bed bug detection dogs are between 90% and 95% accurate in finding bed bugs. In addition, they can pinpoint the exact location of the bugs.
Once, monarch butterflies fluttered in huge droves across Windsor and Essex County in July. Unfortunately, that’s no longer the case. For several years, monarch butterflies have become a rare sight, even during July and along their former flight paths.
It’s not just Windsor or Essex County, either. Scientific evidence from all over points to a disturbing trend: monarch butterflies are disappearing. This major disruption to nature is causing quite a bit concern among Monarch watchers, naturalists, academics, and enthusiasts alike. Everyone wants to know: where are the monarch butterflies?
What Are Monarch Butterflies?
A monarch butterfly is a milkweed butterfly that lays eggs on different milkweeds, which also serve as food for the larvae. The striking orange and black markings, and friendly behavior of monarch butterflies are hard to miss.
The inherent ability of these butterflies to navigate so easily across continents has inspired researchers. Volunteers for the non-profit organization “Monarch Watch” safely catch, tag, and release monarch butterflies during migratory periods. If other volunteers ever re-capture a “tagged” butterfly, they’ll be able to study its migratory patterns.
What’s Happening to the Monarchs?
This summer, southern Ontario hasn’t witnessed the influx of monarch butterflies that it normally does. Founder-director of Monarch Watch and professor in the department of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Kansas Chip Taylor, says that monarchs have been slower to migrate in previous years. His findings are corroborated by reports from Windsor’s Ojibway Nature Centre, which counted only one adult monarch during a recent annual butterfly count.
Michigan Butterflies Project Executive director Holli Ward, who specializes in the study of monarch butterflies, says she has seen very few of the brightly-colored species relative to previous years. Even planing hundreds of butterfly-attracting milkweed stalks hasn’t seemed to help. Monarchs lay their eggs only on milkweeds. The poison in milkweeds protects them from leaf-eating insects and animals. By storing cardenolide aglycones milkweed poison inside their bodies, monarch butterflies can use it as a defensive tool. This poison keeps wasps and bees away but often fails to deter their larger predators..
Where Have the Monarch Butterflies Gone?
Taylor blames monarch’s recent struggles on habitat loss. Monarchs require milkweeds to survive, and milkweeds have been in decline in the US and Mexico. Deforestation in Mexico has devastated the monarchs’ typical overwintering environments. Up north, Droughts and record-high temperatures have made much of the territory where milkweed usually grows inhospitable to the delicate plant as well. As a consequence, monarchs have fewer shelters and food sources all year. In Mexico, the butterflies struggle to find their typical overwintering nesting and feeding habitats. Then, when monarchs fly up to the US in summer, they can’t find enough milkweed to eat to sustain their mating and egg-laying.
Unfortunately, habitat destruction isn’t the only plights facing milkweed, either. The proliferation of herbicide-tolerant genetically modified corn crops and soybeans have also contributed to wiping out the plant in its native habitat. Milkweed naturally grows amongst farming crops. When farmers spray their herbicide-tolerant crops with an herbicide called glyphosate to protect them, the glyphosate kills the non-resistant milkweed.
Finally, unseasonably cold spring weather in Texas may also affect monarchs’ eggs. Eggs can’t survive these unseasonably cold temperatures, and monarchs also have less time to mate. In short, there are several different phenomena affecting monarchs and their environments right now, but they all add up to fewer monarch habitats. As monarch habitats disappear, monarchs will disappear with them.
What Happens If Monarch Butterflies Go Extinct?
If the loss of habitat persists, we may stop seeing monarch butterflies altogether. Obviously, this would be heartbreaking, but it would also be an environmental disaster. Monarch butterflies are extremely important pollinators, especially during their annual migrations. Up to 75% of the world’s crops depend on insect-based pollination to grow. The extinction of monarchs could make it far more difficult to grow apples, chocolate, coffee, and many other foods. Obviously, losing these crops would affect the livelihood of millions of people. Crop scarcity will also likely affect the price and availability of a whole host of other staple foods, which will affect even more people all over the world.
Monarch pollination and migration also affects each of the ecosystems they inhabit in incalculable other ways, as well. Without monarch pollination, other flowers and plants could become endangered. Without monarchs as a source of prey, predators could be forced the seek different food sources or could die out. Losing monarchs would have nearly incalculable effects on a wide range of ecosystems all over North America and Mexico. The truth is, we don’t even know how much monarch extinction would affect the world. We only know that it would be significant… and bad.
What Can We Do To Prevent Monarch Butterfly Disappearance?
Preventing monarch extinction on a worldwide scale will require a coordinated national response. Sweet Briar College professor and Biology professor and monarch migration expert Lincoln Brower suggests taking better care of milkweed growing on the sides of highways. Properly managing highways to promote milkweed growth instead of destroying it would substantially help restore healthy environments for monarchs. He also suggests farmers refrain from spraying 100% of their fields with herbicide to preserve some natural milkweed.
Individuals may not be able to directly affect national change, but that doesn’t mean we have no way of helping the monarchs. You could plant milkweed of your own in your garden and yard. Building a “pollinator” garden is easy, fun, and very helpful for local monarchs! Monarchs need milkweed more than anything, so any moment helps, no matter how small! You can also become an advocate for monarchs by supporting conservation efforts. Learn more about how you can help save the monarch with this special pamphlet from the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
The monarch butterfly situation is dire, but that’s no reason to give up hope. On the contrary, protecting and advocating for monarchs is more important now than ever. If we want to keep seeing monarch butterflies in the years to come, we’ll all have to work together.
To find out more about how you can help the monarchs, check out Monarchwatch.org and get involved in your local programs. Thank you for doing your part! Together, we can keep monarch butterflies from disappearing!
It’s back to school time for thousands of kids in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio, and Griffin Pest Solutions wants you to study hard, have fun with your friends and get involved in school activities such as sports, student council or the band.
And just as homework and pop quizzes are part of the daily school routine so are pests. Pests are attracted to schools due to the numerous sources of food, water and shelter that are available to these unwanted visitors.
There are numerous places insects or rodents can call home in a school environment. Cafeterias and college dining halls where food is delivered, stored, prepared and served are bound to produce crumbs, spills, leftovers and garbage that can attract pests.
Student lockers, desks and dorm rooms are also areas where ants, cockroaches and rodents can feed on a leftover peanut butter and jelly sandwich or an open bag of potato chips.
And as classrooms springing back to life, there is one particular group of “new” students that are known to produce an unwanted homework assignment for students and their families. These new students are quite small in stature but have a nasty habit of biting others in search of a blood meal. Who are these new students? They are bed bugs.
Bed bugs are a highly mobile pest that thrives in heavily populated and trafficked locations such as school classrooms, dormitories and even buses. Their ability to hitch a ride home in a backpack, gym bag or in a student’s shoes makes them a challenge to control.
A recent study from the National Pest Management Association and the University of Kentucky found that bed bug infestations are on the rise in many different types of dwellings, including school and college settings.
According to the survey, 47% of the pest management professionals who responded had treated for bed bugs in college dorms in 2013, while 41% had reported bed bug infestations in schools and daycare centers.
Griffin Pest Solutions recommends the following tips to prevent bed bugs and other pests from “making the grade” in your home this year:
Regularly inspect student belongings – backpacks, gym bags, lunch boxes – for signs of bed bugs and other pests.
If your child’s school has reported bed bug infestation, consider storing all school related items in a sealed plastic bin.
Wash and dry cloth items returning from school in hot temperatures.
Remind your aspiring scholars not to leave food or snacks in backpacks, lockers or desks. An open package of chocolate chip cookies or a spilled soda is like an open book test for mice, ants or cockroaches.
For college students the Griffin Pest Solutions recommend the following steps to give bed bugs a failing grade:
Before putting sheets on your dorm or apartment bed, inspect the mattress seams, particularly at the corners, and box springs for telltale stains or spots.
Thoroughly inspect the entire room before unpacking, including behind the headboard and in sofas and chairs.
Inspect any “secondhand” furniture for bed bugs before bringing it into a dorm rooms or off-campus housing.
With so many people traveling over the summer months, we thought if best to offer a few travel tips to help reduce your risk of getting bed bugs. Bed bugs are excellent hitchhikers and travel on your belongings. The more you can minimize your possible contact with them, the less likely it is that you will bring them home with you.
