bed bugs

[gene]

Does your bed irritate you? Are you unable to get a good nights' sleep because the mattress is old and worn, or because there are busted springs? Does your bed bug you?

Just joking!!!

This thread is actually about the Cimex lectularius Linnaeus, the insect we call a bed bug.

Bed bugs are in the news a lot today. Unfortunately, it is difficult to know if there is an actual increase in their numbers and locations, or if it is just another manufactured issue by our Federal Government trying to increase jobs and alarm the peoples. I won't be surprised if there is a new tax coming down the pike on bed related items to help fight this dreaded plague.

Anyway, I do not have a problem with them and I do not know anyone personally who has. Everyone seems to know about someone who knows someone... I have not had any customers inquire about it.

However, because it is in the news so much, I have been wondering:

1. Anyone use Sterifab or other product?

2. Anyone use Sterifab or other products on a regular basis?

3. Do you spray your shop to kill bed bugs? Before or after every job? Once a week? etc.

4. Do you offer a service of killing bed bugs by wrapping furniture in a plastic bag, spraying, and allowing it to sit for a prescribed length of time?

5. Do you use your spraying as a selling point to customers? With bed bugs in the news, I'm wondering if it would be a good selling point to let customers know that my shop is a bed bug free zone?

I hope that my initial attempt at humor, and this topic in general, does not bug anyone.

Thank you,

Gene

[Darren Henry]

Unfortunately, it is difficult to know if there is an actual increase in their numbers and locations, or if it is just another manufactured issue by our Federal Government trying to increase jobs and alarm the peoples.

I think it's for real. It's big news up here as well and we haven't had issues with bed bugs in Canada since the depression. Last month they closed two banks and a movie theater in Winnipeg because of them. There is a rather respectable old folks home in Brandon dealing with them.

Our "experts" attribute it to the growing number of people visiting Mexico.Thailand and the third world.

[fragged8]

Our "experts" attribute it to the growing number of people visiting Mexico.Thailand and the third world.

I thought that was bed hopping  ?  :P


Rich

[JuneC]

Whether it's real or not, if the general population believes it is, it could be a very significant marketing point.  I'd certainly give reassurances that incoming furniture will be quarantined and treated so as to not contaminate the shop. 

June

[Darren Henry]

I thought that was bed hopping  ? 

No. That was the 70's. Just after those kids from Liverpool started going to the States. :P And that woodstock thing man. ;D

[bobbin]

Oh, they're real all right.  There's been a public school closing locally so the exterminators could do their thing, and there have been a couple of infestations in dormitory rooms at a variety of colleges in the area.  Treatments of infested rooms vary between super heating the rooms (140 degrees +, I believe) or freezing them with applications of liquid nitrogen (I think).  And then there's always the fall back... heavy duty pesticides.  Evidently, the little critters have the half life of uranium and "disposable" diapers.  ICK.   There've been several very troubling stories on NPR in recent months, most recently on "This American Life" about an infested apartment in NYC; the thing is, all it takes is one or two of them to start the population explosion in your home.  Infestations frequently begin after a stay in a hotel. 

All of it really discourages me as I love to rescue pieces of tattered furniture left on the kerb... until now I'd never really given it much thought, but times change.  I'll have to look into Sterifab and very large plastic bags to entomb the condemed...

From a business perspective, Gene, I would think advertising a pro-active approach to bed bugs would be a very good idea.  Let's face it, if you bring in one infested piece the little rascals will have no trouble moving from the old stuffing to the new stuff in your shop and into newly completed pieces.  Demonstrating that you're aware of the issue would go a long way in setting your shop apart from so many others, too. 

[hdflame]

I had my own pest control business for a few years and got out of it because of liability insurance increases.  I never had a claim, but my premiums doubled every year till I got out completely.

I would look into legality, and liability of treating or offering treatment of furniture if you're not a licensed applicator.  Supposedly, these little critters have become resistive to a lot of chemicals, so I don't know how much luck you would have treating with OTC pesticides.

[flhoosier]

it took about three or four months to completely get rid of my bed bug problem.  they're worse than roaches, head lice, silverfish, ants COMBINED.  expensive to get rid of too.

[byhammerandhand]

I had a customer who got some furniture from their recently deceased mother.  It turned out that the "old folks home" (for lack of a better term because I don't know if it was assisted living or what), was infested with bed bugs.   The pieces were quarantined and treated by a pest control company, who then damaged the casegoods with their chemicals.


I do regular work for two delivery companies that both deliver new mattresses and as a customer service, remove the old ones.   One of them has a semi-trailer outside the warehouse that they fill up and then haul to the dump.  The other just brings them in a corner of the warehouse.  I'd be concerned with either delivering the critters in a customer delivery.

Yesterday at one of them, I picked up a box and out ran the biggest cockroach I'd ever seen.  It had to be two inches long and as big around as my pinkie.  Eyewww!

[Darren Henry]

Hey Gene; What is this sanifab you speak of? I've never heard of it but it sounds interesting. The last big "scare" up here was some infection from moose droppings.That was while I still had my own full time shop and I could have sold gallons of ?? something like that ??  All those cottages on Lake of the Woods that had to close for a little while in winter 'cause the water got harder and thicker than their boat hulls where potential "litter boxes" for the deviate vermin to wipe us all out.


Has anyone ever looked into the effects of ionization in situations like this? I remember Young Andrew (57 Fairlane) out in Vernon BC touting the virtues of it for odor removal but with extreme safety warning about it's use. I'm picturing an over grown restaurant dishwasher. ( no, the machine --- not he fat guy loading it)  A sofa sized dog house just outside the shop. Open the south door--- put the piece on the cart-- spray on any other chemicals for pet dander/urine etc...-- flip it on over night after you close the door-- Open the north end in the morning and work on something that doesn't stink,affect your allergies,or spread disease.

[gene]

Hi Darren,

Here's the link:

http://www.sterifab.com/

Gene

[Grebo]

I jusy found some mouse droppings in the w/shop  >:(
Going to sack the cat.
Guess I better have a turf out & find the little ******