Comments on: Detecting bed bugs using bed bug monitors, Rutgers Cooperative Extension

By: Effective, cheap DIY active bed bug monitor — Got bed bugs? Bedbugger.com

Effective, cheap DIY active bed bug monitor — Got bed bugs? Bedbugger.com — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 06:25:37 +0000

[...] New York vs. Bed Bugs alerts us to a new PDF outlining options for detecting bed bugs, including instructions on how to implement this dry ice monitor: “Detecting Bed Bugs Using Bed Bug Monitors,” written by Changlu Wang. You can download it for free from the Rutgers website. GA_googleFillSlot("bedbugger-under-single-blog-post"); [...]

By: The active spread of bed bugs in buildings: the stakes for cities — New York vs Bed Bugs

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 03:08:44 +0000

[...] Detecting bed bugs using bed bug monitors, Rutgers Cooperative Extension [...]

By: Renee Corea

Renee Corea — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 22:19:16 +0000

Hi Tanya,

This is very interesting, yes? With important implications. In a lab experiment in the 30s someone found that bed bugs did not disperse until 35 days after inactivity. So, when do they spread and then what makes them go such distances and what are the cues they are responding to? (inquiring minds want to know…)

We obviously want landlords to not rent apartments that are already infested, for example, but it may be very difficult to know for sure. Active monitors will be helpful assuming they are available and cost-effective to deploy, but in cases where there is no pest manager involved and the property owner doesn’t even know… it’s really tough. In NYC this is a significant problem, I would say. Btw, there are two other articles that support across the hall dispersal and just sort of, well, how it does get out of hand, noted here.

By: Tanya Drlik

Tanya Drlik — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 21:35:11 +0000

In reading the full text of Dr. Changlu Wang and colleagues’ paper on baited pitfall traps that you mention above and is cited as a reference in the Rutgers fact sheet, I came across the following and thought it was an interesting point about the problem of unoccupied apartments:

Bed bugs can live without a human host for an
extended period. In unoccupied apartments where
bed bugs are still present, the effectiveness of baited
pitfall traps may be higher because bed bugs are hungrier
than those with access to human host. The single
test in a vacant apartment showed that in heavily
infested apartments 1) visual inspections could seriously
underestimate the bed bug numbers, 2) large
numbers of bed bugs were not on the furniture and
survived the chemical and nonchemical treatment,
and 3) baited-pitfall traps were helpful in monitoring
effectiveness of bed bug treatments. From our observations,
bed bugs frequently travel from infested
apartments to the hallways in a multiunit apartment
building (C.W. et al. unpublished data). It is logical to
infer that bed bugs are more likely to disperse into
neighboring apartments through hallways when their
host is no longer present. Therefore, using baited traps
in unoccupied infested apartments may reduce the
risk of bed bug dispersal between adjacent units in
multiunit dwellings.

from:
Bed Bug (Heteroptera: Cimicidae) Attraction to Pitfall Traps Baited
With Carbon Dioxide, Heat, and Chemical Lure
CHANGLU WANG,1,2,3 TIMOTHY GIBB,2 GARY W. BENNETT,2 AND SUSAN MCKNIGHT4
J. Econ. Entomol. 102(4): 1580Ð1585 (2009)