Brian’s Bug Bits and Bytes

Why are bed bugs so difficult to deal with? By Jasmin Fox-Skelly 19th October 2023 Bed bugs around the world are developing resistance to insecticides, and infestations are making headlines. How do we deal with them? France is currently in the grip of a bed bug invasion. This year, in Paris, bed bugs have been reported in schools, trains, hospitals and cinemas. But the infestation has been gathering pace for some time. In 2020, an entire unit in a French hospital had to close after a patient was admitted carrying bed bugs. The decision to close the unit was taken…

Diatomaceous earth has received a lot of attention as a possible treatment for bed bugs.  However, many of the claims about DE have been based on studies where bed bugs were placed in constant contact with the dust.  In real world application, that just isn’t how it happens.  In real application, the bugs will come into short term contact with the substance, and can make the choice as to whether or not to walk through it or around it.  This photo is of bed bugs 12 days after being dusted with DE.  The bugs continue to feed and lay eggs…

PCO Metzger Shifts Focus to Mask-Making  Brian Metzger, owner of GP Home Defense, Salina, Kan., is taking a break from pest control to make and distribute masks in his community.  June 2020  Brad Harbison  SALINA, Kan. — Brian Metzger, owner of GP Home Defense, Salina, Kan., has shifted his focus from controlling pests to helping keep others safe by making face masks.  Metzger, who founded GP Home Defense in 2018, said March was off to a great start for him, but as COVID-19 turned into a pandemic and began impacting his community, he decided it was time “to put on…

Rockwell-testemonial-GP-Home-Defense-LLC

This question is asked all the time. Many people will claim to be able to tell you what they look like. The fact is, NO ONE can accurately diagnose a bed bug bite by looking at it. Not even doctors. Everyone can react to a bite differently. The amount of redness, swelling and itching have more to do with how your immune system reacts than with the bug that bit you.  “I heard that bed bug bites will be in threes”  Well, they will, unless they’re not. The bites in threes is a myth. A bed bug will start feeding,…

By Anne Nagro BED BUG MINISTRY A good bed bug service doesn’t come cheap. It’s time-consuming, labor-intensive work that often requires follow-up visits. Services that offer a guarantee may cost even more. According to the PCT 2020 State of the Bed Bug Control Market survey, which was sponsored by Bayer and compiled by Readex Research, a privately held research firm in Stillwater, Minn., the average cost for a typical residential bed bug treatment was $892. Prices of course can be higher. In the PCT survey, 43 percent of pest management professionals said the price of bed bug services increased in…

by Elizabeth Pennisi Scientists have recently made progress detailing the evolutionary histories of insects like stink bugs, kissing bugs, and assassin bugs, says Christiane Weirauch, a systematic entomologist at the University of California, Riverside, who was not involved in the new study. But “with bed bugs we have not done too well.” Many species are parasites of bats, and researchers had long assumed that these mammals were their first victims. But bat bed bug species are hard to collect: Many are never found except in the depths of caves where bats roost. “You don’t know how difficult it is to…