Do Not Let the Bedbugs Bite (JPM)

IREM Member Offers Solutions to Eliminating a Fast-Growing Pest Problem

by Greg Martin, CPM� Emeritus

The following is an excerpt from the Nov/Dec 2009 issue (Volume 74, Number 6) of JPM, Journal of Property Management.

I was beginning to get sleepy, having just finished watching an episode of "CSI" when the phone rang. It was my daughter and she sounded a bit frantic. I asked her what was wrong. She said that she had several welts or bites on her arm and that she had noticed a small insect on her leg that had fallen off and scurried away.

"You need to do something, Dad!" she cried.

I did have to do something because I knew she had bedbugs. As the department head of the division that managed her building, it was now my responsibility. But Class A high-rises are not supposed to have bedbugs.

Bedbugs have been considered the scourge of mankind for many centuries. If or when word gets out that you have a bedbug problem in your property, public relations can be a nightmare. Americans are typically quite agitated by the thought of any insect infestation and are very wary they might be �infected� by their neighbor who has the problem. The key to controlling the bad publicity is to treat the problems immediately and continue to check for signs that they might return. The following will help you understand the reason for this growing epidemic and how you can best eradicate and ward off bedbug infestations.

WHO ARE THESE CRITTERS?
Bedbugs are a very small insect (about the size of the end of a pencil point) that live in warm or controlled climates, including residential housing. They are light-shy and tend to hide in dark places, such as voids in walls and bed boards. At night or during periods of very low light, they search for a mammal to extract blood from. Not all people react to the bite. Some people have developed immunity to these insects while others develop large welts.

Although they are not a known carrier of diseases, bedbugs are a great nuisance once they have fed because they lay eggs, which can stick to any variety of objects such as shoes, mattresses, couches, etc. Residents who visit a home infested with bedbugs can accidentally pick up the egg casings on their clothes or shoes. Live bedbugs can hide in packages or other objects that may be moved from one housing unit to another, and also will commonly travel on used furniture or bedding. In addition, bedbugs will travel from one apartment to another along electrical or plumbing runs, as well as under the unit dividing walls.

Bedbugs were virtually eradicated when DDT (Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) was developed in 1939 and subsequently put to use for pest control issues. DDT was later discovered to have a number of disastrous and deadly side effects and was banned in 1972. Over the years, the birds and other affected animals have rebuilt their populations (along with the bedbugs) because of the ban on DDT. There is presently no effective alternative treatment for completely eradicating bedbugs, and their population appears to be exponentially increasing.

The full article is available as an online exclusive in the Nov/Dec 2009 JPM issue.

IREM Members have free access to the JPM online archives and the "Online Exclusives," articles that are only available on the IREM Web site. Non-members can subscribe to JPM at www.irem.org/jpm.