Aug 19, 2012 – Leaving It Up To The Untrained
QUESTION:
Last week I saw a large furniture rental company delivery van across the street. The 2 delivery people had a wooden twin size bed in the driveway and they were spraying it down with one of the ready to use products sold in the big box stores. Then they took the furniture into the home. I get aggravated with companies like this that don't have a clue. If they were treating for bed bugs and told the home owner that they had no worries, we all know that it is not that simple. I believe that anyone who even thinks they know anything about bed bugs should be attending as many seminars as possible on this pest.
ANSWER:
I absolutely agree with you that you cannot learn too much about the Common Bed Bug. The knowledge on this pest is changing constantly as more and more research is done. And, the products available to combat the bed bug successfully are increasing dramatically as well. We were told from the beginning of the resurgence of this serious pest that effective management is going to be difficult and that insecticides probably are not the entire answer. A simple spray over the exterior surfaces of furniture that may be infested would be unlikely to kill all of the bugs or their eggs that might be on and in that furniture. If these folks were treating for bed bugs in this manner then I would say that it was "for show".
View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.
Last week I saw a large furniture rental company delivery van across the street. The 2 delivery people had a wooden twin size bed in the driveway and they were spraying it down with one of the ready to use products sold in the big box stores. Then they took the furniture into the home. I get aggravated with companies like this that don't have a clue. If they were treating for bed bugs and told the home owner that they had no worries, we all know that it is not that simple. I believe that anyone who even thinks they know anything about bed bugs should be attending as many seminars as possible on this pest.
ANSWER:
I absolutely agree with you that you cannot learn too much about the Common Bed Bug. The knowledge on this pest is changing constantly as more and more research is done. And, the products available to combat the bed bug successfully are increasing dramatically as well. We were told from the beginning of the resurgence of this serious pest that effective management is going to be difficult and that insecticides probably are not the entire answer. A simple spray over the exterior surfaces of furniture that may be infested would be unlikely to kill all of the bugs or their eggs that might be on and in that furniture. If these folks were treating for bed bugs in this manner then I would say that it was "for show".
Every business that could in any way be responsible for transporting bed bugs had better get on the wagon. Furniture delivery vans and moving vans and rental vans definitely are a strong potential source of infestation and movement. I recently asked the technician for my own cable company if they had a protocol for ensuring that cable boxes they remove from a home are not infested with bed bugs, and the answer, as expected, was "NO". In fact, this company had no awareness of the bed bug problem, and obviously a cable box in an infested bedroom could very likely have bugs hiding in it or eggs deposited within it, and taking that box to another customer is spreading the infestation. If this were to happen and the customer figured it out, the local media would hear about it and the publicity could kill that cable company's business. No one can turn a blind eye to this problem.
Furniture rental companies probably are aware that they could be a major source of transport for bed bugs, but I really don't know how much effort they are putting into education of their employees and appropriate efforts to ensure no bugs are able to survive from one customer to another. This is another of those frightening moments where you know the problem is likely just to get worse.
View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.
