Do it Yoursef Bed Bug Detector

We thought this article was

of interest but it comes with

CAUTIONS!

At our recent Pest Conference this method was commented on by one of our visiting speakers, an entomologist who specializes in bed bugs. After further testing it was found to be highly effective compared to commercial detectors but also comes with some serious risks that you should be aware of.

As a company we are in no way advocating the use of this method, we simply posted it as an article of interest.

Dry ice is the key ingredient in this home made detector.

- Dry ice if not handled correctedly could cause serious frost burns to skin.
- Dry ice gives off large quantities of carbon dioxide gas, which is what makes this detector effective, but also could displace oxygen in the air and pose a danger of asphixiation.
- If ingested accidently by a pet or child it could cause severe internal injuries.

Please see the following website for proper handling of dry ice.
http://www.praxair.com/praxair.nsf/allcontent/6aef77aec129fa0b85256c72006a4dd7?opendocument&urlmenubranch=8e0340f7cb2710a18525706f005112a9

Do-it-yourself bed-bug detector

With bed-bug numbers on the rise in North America, researchers test homemade bug finders

From Science News
By Susan Milius
Web edition : Friday, December 18th, 2009

INDIANAPOLIS — After trying some 50 arrangements of household objects, researchers have come up with a new low-cost, homemade bed-bug detector.

To lure the bugs out of hiding, Wan-Tien Tsai of Rutgers University in New Brunswick put dry ice into an insulated, one-third-gallon jug, the kind available at sports or camping stores. Adding 2.5 pounds of dry ice pellets and not quite closing the pour hole allowed carbon dioxide to leak out at a bug-teasing rate for some 11 hours at room temperature, she said.

She stood the jug in a plastic cat food dish with a piece of paper taped on the outside of the dish as a ramp up to the rim. The bowl’s steep, slippery inside, with an added dusting of talcum powder, kept bugs from crawling out again.

In tests in real apartments, the homemade setup detected bed bugs as well, or better, than did two brands of professional exterminating equipment, Tsai said December 16 at the annual meeting of the Entomological Society of America.

The parts, including the dry ice, cost $15 and don’t require any special skills for assembly. “Everyone can do it,” she said.

These days a growing number of people might want to. The tiny, night-crawling bugs that draw blood and can leave itching welts had dwindled to rarity in North America during most of the last century. But since the 1990s, outbreaks have surged. The bugs flatten themselves into crevices in furniture, fabric and even electrical devices, and can prove difficult to eradicate. Many of today’s bed bugs are resistant to pyrethroid insecticides, which account for much of indoor pest treatments.

Tsai worked with Changlu Wang, also at Rutgers, for six months on designing homemade devices that lure bed bugs out into a trap so residents can tell whether a home is infested. Like many insects that search for blood, bed bugs are attracted to plumes of concentrated carbon dioxide, good clues that an animal filled with liquid dinner is breathing somewhere nearby. In lab tests, carbon dioxide beat heat and several chemical attractants in drawing the bugs out of hiding, Wang reported at the meeting.

He has published on low-tech ways to attract bed bugs with carbon dioxide. For example, setting out dry ice in insulated travel mugs can work. Apartment dwellers don’t need research supply companies for dry ice. Beverage companies, for example, may sell it by the pound.
To design a new low-tech detection system, Tsai experimented with various setups but says her breakthrough came when she discovered the one-third-gallon insulated jugs. They performed well in lab tests, so she decided to test them in apartments that had low levels of bed-bug infestation. She searched for bed bugs herself to confirm that apartments were suitable. Then she set either her homemade detector or a commercial one in each apartment near a typical bug haven, such as the sofa.

Designing and testing a low-cost detector is a substantial contribution to the field, comments entomologist Stephen Kells of the University of Minnesota in St. Paul. During decades of low bed-bug infestations, scientists didn’t study them much. "We have literally skipped a generation of knowledge with this pest," he says.

Studies from early in the last century may not describe today’s bed-bugs well, says entomologist Andrea Polanco-Pinzón of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. Older generations of bed bugs weren’t resistant to pesticides and lived in tougher environments: houses without central heating.
On the bright side though, Polanco-Pinzón reported at the meeting that her survival tests found that a pesticide-resistant strain she collected from Richmond, Va., lived at most two months without feeding. That record, set by the fifth stage of the immature bugs, falls far short of the year and a half reported in the old literature.

Environment Minister Wants YOUR Opinion on Pesticides

Province Seeks Your Thoughts on Pesticide Use

By 250 News
Thursday, December 17, 2009 03:52 AM

Victoria, B.C.- Environment Minister Barry Penner has put out the call for your thoughts on whether additional restrictions should be placed on the use of pesticides for cosmetic purposes.

"It just makes sense to limit pesticide use to what is actually required to accomplish a particular task, which is why we already require the use of integrated pest management for many pesticide uses in B.C.," said Penner. "We now want to have a discussion about how we can encourage all British Columbians to reduce unnecessary pesticide use."

An online public consultation has been launched asking for your views on a number of issues, including: how to define the cosmetic use of pesticides, when it is appropriate to use pesticides and how to best regulate specific pesticides that have both cosmetic and non-cosmetic uses.

Pesticides used in B.C. must first be approved by Health Canada and are also regulated through the Integrated Pest Management Act, which sets rules for both the sale and use of pesticides. The act requires pest control companies to practice integrated pest management, which includes pest prevention and considering alternatives to pesticides. The act also requires that people be notified when pesticides are used on public land, and around multi-resident buildings.

The public consultation, will remain open until Feb. 15, 2010. The results of the consultation will be made public in the spring of 2010, along with information about any next steps to address cosmetic use of pesticides in B.C..

You can make your thoughts known by visiting the website at http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/epd/ipmp/ and clicking on the Cosmetic Use of Pesticides Consultation button.

CANCER SOCIETY PUSHES FOR PESTICIDE BAN IN SAANICH
Dec 14, 2009

THE CANADIAN CANCER SOCIETY WILL ATTEND MONDAY NIGHT'S COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE MEETING IN SAANICH TO SHOW ITS SUPPORT FOR A PESTICIDE BAN IN THE DISTRICT. SAANICH COUNCIL WILL LOOK AT A BYLAW THAT WOULD END THE USE OF COSMETIC PESTICIDES IN THE MUNICIPALITY. CANCER SOCIETY COMMUNITY CO-ORDINATOR NANCY FALCONER SAYS THE PESTICIDE BAN IS SOMETHING THAT ALREADY HAS A LOT OF SUPPORT. "THE CAPITAL REGIONAL DISTRICT ACTUALLY INTRODUCED A MODEL PESTICIDE BYLAW BACK IN 2004 AND TO DATE, ONLY ESQUIMALT AND VICTORIA HAVE ACTUALLY IMPLEMENTED A BAN. SO, WE FEEL THE TIME TO ACT IS NOW FOR SAANICH. IT'S BEEN SIX YEARS AND WE DON'T SEE ANY REASON TO WAIT ANY LONGER." FALCONER WILL MAKE A PRESENTATION CALLING ON SAANICH TO ENACT A BAN ON THE USE OF COSMETIC PESTICIDES BY THE SPRING OF 2010.

- LIZ MCARTHUR
CFAX 1070