Federal Report Released on Best Practices for Bed Bug Control in Multifamily Housing

With funding from the Environmental Protection Agency, The National Center for Healthy Housing recently issued a report titled:

What’s Working for Bed Bug Control in Multifamily Housing

From the report's summary:

There is no silver bullet for eliminating bed bugs. They present a challenge to modern pest control that the industry is still struggling to meet. To make up for the lack of chemical power we have for battling this insect, additional people and tools must be involved. Bed bug success stories usually involve people who live and work in a building (including a pest management professional) coming together as a team to battle this pest. Throughout this paper you will see how communication and cooperation among residents, staff, and the pest control service provider are keys to success.

Read the full report.

***

The New York Times published a fascinating article this month about a renter's "best friend" in detecting apartment bed bug infestation.

Dogs like Cruiser, the one featured in the article, can "can inspect a room in minutes, whereas lesser mammals like human beings need hours to conduct a visual inspection," according to the article.

Bedbug-sniffing dogs, adorable yet stunningly accurate — entomology researchers at the University of Florida report that well-trained dogs can detect a single live bug or egg with 96 percent accuracy — are the new and furry front line in an escalating and confounding domestic war.

.