How To Get Rid Of Bed Bugs

As you are visiting this site it is likely that you fall into one of several categories.

The Bed Bug

Possibly you may have bed bugs (Cimex lectularius) already and want to get rid of them. Maybe you suspect you may have bed bugs and want information, maybe you may be worried about getting a bed bug infestation and want to know how to prevent this, or possibly you are just curious about bed bugs.

Whatever the case this site has the answer for you.

What are bed bugs?

There are a lot of fallacies and misconceptions about bed bugs, one of the biggest urban myths is that every bed has them.

This is simply not true!

Every bed has dust mites which feed on human skin, these are not bed bugs!

Bed bugs are visible to the naked eye and are surprisingly large, especially after a meal of blood! Adult bed bugs are about the size and shape of an apple pip and can move quite quickly when disturbed.

Where did bed bugs come from?

Bed Bug Life Cycle

They evolved from bugs which feed on bats (Cimex pipistrella etc) and probably evolved around the times when human beings started living in caves.

Bats would only live in the caves for half the year round whereas human beings would inhabit the caves all year round, thus providing a better opportunity for a regular meal.

However, because the bugs historically had to endure long periods without feeding, modern day bed bugs can survive

for extended periods without a meal, up to a year or more in fact.

The Varied Carpet Beetle – Beetles in My House

The Varied Carpet Beetle – Beetles in My House – The Varied Carpet Beetle (Anthrenus verbasci) is a relatively new pest to the north of the U.K. having been largely confined to the balmy southern climate but now pest controllers in Lancashire, Cheshire and Manchester are increasingly having to deal with the insect pest.

It is a very distinctive, easily recognised beetle that can be a serious problem in the household. It feeds on natural fibres and can damage anything of natural origin, woolen carpets, furniture and clothing.
The larval form is known as a woolly bear, a name it shares with the larvae of Pyrrharctia isabella or the Isabella Tiger moth.

A verbasci was the very first insect to be demonstrated to have a circadian and an annual cycle and to date remains a classic example of circannual cycles in insects.
The larval form of A. verbasci are roughly 4-5 mm in length. The body is covered in a pattern of alternating light- and dark-brown stripes. The body is usually wider at the back than at the front and also bears 3 pairs of hair tufts along its rear abdomen that can be used for self-defence

Adult A. verbasci range from 1.7 to 3.5 mm in length. Their dorsal surface has scales of two colours, whitish and yellowish-brown. White scales are condensed along the lateral margins of the pronotum. In addition, their antennae are 11-segmented with a club of 3 segments
The varied carpet beetle has a very unusual life cycle for an insect, developing from larvae to adult in 1-3 years, depending on the environment in which it finds itself.

Fleas In Manchester, Lancashire & Cheshire

Fleas are very important pests. It is estimated pet owners alone spend over £1 billion each year controlling fleas.

Adult fleas are not only a nuisance to humans and their pets, but can cause medical problems including flea allergy dermatitis (FAD), tapeworms, secondary skin irritations and, in extreme cases, anaemia. Although bites are rarely felt, it is the resulting irritation caused by the flea salivary secretions that varies among individuals. Some may witness a severe reaction (general rash or inflammation) resulting in secondary infections caused by scratching the irritated skin area. Others may show no reaction or irritation acquired after repeated bites over several weeks or months. Most bites usually found on the ankles and legs may cause pain lasting a few minutes, hours or days depending on one’s sensitivity. The typical reaction to the bite is the formation of a small, hard, red, slightly-raised (swollen) itching spot. There is a single puncture point in the centre of each spot.  Mosquitoes, bees, wasps and bedbugs cause a large swelling or welt). Also, fleas may transmit bubonic plague from rodent to rodent and from rodent to humans in countries where it is endemic. Oriental rat fleas can transmit murine typhus (endemic typhus) fever among rats and from rats to humans. Tapeworms normally infest dogs and cats but may appear in children if parts of infested fleas are accidentally consumed.

Identification

Wasps’ Nests Destroyed £32.00 Manchester, Stockport, Cheadle, Gatley, Didsbury

0161 930 8814

Wasps’ Nests Destroyed £32.00 Manchester, Stockport, Cheadle, Gatley, Didsbury – Manchester Pest Control announce there will be no change in their fixed price of £32.00 to destroy wasps’ nests throughout the Manchester region, Manchester, Lancashire and Cheshire, in 2010. We work 7 days per week and do not charge extra at any time, evenings or weekends.

Social wasps

The nests of some social wasps, such as hornets, are first constructed by the queen and reach about the size of a walnut before sterile female workers take over construction. The queen initially starts the nest by making a single layer or canopy and working outwards until she reaches the edges of the cavity. Beneath the canopy she constructs a stalk to which she can attach several cells; these cells are where the first eggs will be laid. The queen then continues to work outwards to the edges of the cavity after which she adds another tier. This process is repeated, each time adding a new tier until eventually enough female workers have been born and matured to take over construction of the nest leaving the queen to focus on reproduction. For this reason, the size of a nest is generally a good indicator of approximately how many female workers there are in the colony. Social wasp colonies often have populations exceeding several thousand female workers and at least one queen. Polistes and some related types of paper wasp do not construct their nests in tiers but rather in flat single combs.

Social wasp reproductive cycle (temperate species only)

A young paper wasp queen founding a new colony.

Flying Ants Infestations Cured Manchester

Flying Ants Infestations Cured Manchester –

Do you dread the start of spring when the ants start to wake up?

Garden ants (Lasius niger) are a troublesome pest when they enter properties and can make your life a nightmare year after year, especially in the summer in  the ‘flying ant’ season.

Putting down countless tubes of ‘Ant Powder’ has no effect and the ants crawl over your kitchen surfaces etc. spreading disease and dirt.

Are we ringing any bells?

Well now you can cure the problem by having the property professionally treated with a three-year extendable guarantee.

The treatment involves drilling small holes into the cavity walls of the property from the outside, (a little like putting in a damp proof course) and injecting an insecticidal powder into the cavity under pressure.

This puts a barrier around the house which the ants cannot cross. No more ants can enter the property and those already inside cannot get out to feed and the colony dies off.

The treatment which leaves no smell or mess and is perfectly safe for children and pets.

At the end of the three-year period it is a fairly simple and inexpensive matter to ‘top up’ the powder and extend the guarantee for a further 3 years and so on.

Cavity wall insulation does not affect the effectiveness of the treatment.

It is not possible to give an exact price without seeing your property but costs involved are generally in the range of £75.00 – £275 depending on size of property and number of walls needing to be treated etc.

Late Season Wasps’ Nests in Manchester, Lancashire and Cheshire 

 Late Season Wasps’ Nests in Manchester, Lancashire and Cheshire – If you have a wasps’ nest we need to make you aware of a potential problem which occurs with late season nests and which you may experience. 

From about early September onwards the nest starts to produce the new queens which will hibernate for the winter and then start to build next year’s nests, an average nest producing up to about 2000 new queens. 

These queens then leave the nest and look for places to hibernate, typically in roof voids and lofts and it is quite common to find hundreds of them at a time on the floor of the loft or void. 

This process has already started and continues until the first cold spell, usually in November although in 2006 we were still destroying nests into December. 

Our operative has destroyed the nest on your property but as some queens will have already left the nest they will have escaped the treatment and may continue to cause you a problem. 

This may result in a continued stream of these wasps falling into the upper rooms of the property or the rooms adjacent to the nest. This can continue throughout the winter. 

This does not mean that we have failed to destroy the nest but merely that these queens had already left it. This problem will almost certainly occur with any nests left beyond the middle of September. 

Where this occurs the only solution is to carry out a “fogging” or “smoke” treatment of the loft or void using an insecticidal generator which will kill the vast majority of these queens. 

Unfortunately this incurs an additional expense which is as follows 

Cluster Flies in Manchester, Lancashire, Cheshire and Merseyside

Cluster Flies are a major pest in Manchester, Lancashire, Cheshire and Merseyside

The large, black, pesky flies that show up in bed rooms and on window sills from late autumn through early spring are a common household pest. These flies are known as cluster flies, a name that describes their habit of clustering in large numbers inside attics. Their abundance varies from year to year, possibly in relation to the amount of rainfall through the summer.

Cluster flies do not reproduce indoors, and home owners bothered by these pests do not need to fear the flies are “hatching” from a dead animal or other unpleasant material within the attic or walls. Cluster flies develop as parasites inside the bodies of earthworms. There are three generations of flies produced each summer, and the final generation of the season migrates to houses and other buildings during mid to late September. Casual observation of client reports suggests houses located on an exposed hill top or high ground are most attractive to these migrating flies.

The flies cluster on the warm sides of buildings in late summer during the day. When the sun goes down and the temperatures cool, these flies crawl into the building through cracks under the eaves and around windows or through gaps in the siding. Once inside and secured in a protected location, they remain in hibernation until warmed by heat from the heating system or the sun.

As the flies warm throughout the winter, and especially in the early spring, they come out of their cold temperature dormancy and begin sluggishly moving around. Their random crawling brings them into the house by way of electrical outlets, window pulley holes, and small openings around windows, mouldings and skirting boards.

Recently we received an unusual request from a haulage company owner in Lancashire, to treat the cab of a HGV for a bedbug infestation.

One of the most feared and misunderstood pests known to man is the bed bug (Cimex lectularius).

How many of us dozed off to sleep at night as children with the words of our parents in our ears ‘sleep tight and don’t let the bed bugs bite’?

Bed bugs may have started to feed on man at about the time we moved into caves, the ‘bat bugs’ Cimex pilosellus and Cimex pipistrella primarily feed on bats and it is probable that bat feeding species of bug evolved to dine on human blood when our ancestors started living in bat infested caves.

Until the invention of DDT in the early 20th century bed bugs were common non-paying guests in much poor quality homes. The later part of the 20th century experienced pest control companies dealing with very few bed bug problems indeed, their presence being largely confined to inexpensive vacation camps and student lodging etc.

Many people confuse dust mites, which are not visible to the unaided eye, with bed bugs which certainly are. Adult bedbugs are reddy-brown, about a quarter of an inch in size and greatly swollen after a meal of human blood. They grow by an incomplete metamorphosis which means that the babies are just smaller versions of the adult, they don’t have a maggot stage like a flea or flies.

Bed bugs regularly feed on human blood every 7 – 10 days, coming out in the hours before dawn and sensing their host target by detecting the exhaled carbon dioxide from our breath and when nearing in on their target, infra red body heat. In the absence of a regular human host to feed on they can remain dormant for periods of up to 18 months. Signs of a bed bug problem are spots of blood on bedding and on the base of mattresses and many people can react badly to their bites.

Harrier Pest Control on Radio Lancashire

Harrier Pest Control on Radio Lancashire – Our principal Ken Chadwick now appears regularly on Radio Lancashire to talk about pests and pest control throughout the Lancashire & Manchester areas.

If you have a question about pest control or pest matters, be it bed bugs, mice, rats, flease or any other pest problem then tune in next on December 16th at around 1- 3 pm and email in your question.

Ken is an acknowledged pest control expert appearing on TV, The Radio and in Local & National Press.

For a more immediate answer to your problems why not give Harrier Pest Prevention & Control a ring now on 01257 230637

Hear a recording of one of Ken’s earlier broadcasts.

Manchester Pest Control – Carpet Beetles

Manchester Pest Control – Carpet Beetles – The Varied Carpet Beetle – Beetles in My House – The Varied Carpet Beetle (Anthrenus verbasci) is a fairly new pest to the northern parts of Great Britain having been largely confined to the balmy southern climate but now pest controllers in Cheshire, Lancashire and Manchester are increasingly being called out to infestations of this insect pest.

Image via Wikipedia

A.Verbasci is a very distinctive, easily recognised beetle that can be a serious problem in the house. It feeds on natural fibres and can damage anything of natural origin, woolen carpets, furniture} and clothing.
The larvae are known as a woolly bear, a name it shares with the larvae of Pyrrharctia isabella or the Isabella Tiger moth.

A. verbasci was the very first insect to be shown to have a circadian and an annual cycle and to this date remains a classic example of

circannual cycles in insects.
The larval form of A. verbasci are circa 4-5 mm in length. The body has a pattern of alternating light- and dark-brown stripes. The body of the larvae is usually wider at the back than at the front and contains 3 pairs of hair tufts on its rear abdomen that can be used for self-defence

Ant Problems Cured, Ants in the house? Flying Ants  Call the Ant Killers!

Ant Problems Cured, Ants in the house? Flying Ants – Harrier Pest Control, covering the whole of Manchester, Lancashire and Cheshire announce a special offer on their ant treatment which comes with an extendable three year guarantee.

Flying ants are the scourge of many houses in summer leaving many people to dread the summer and tha annual flying ant invasion.

The treatment which leaves no smell or mess is perfectly safe for children and animals is done mainly from the outside of house and carries a three year guarantee which can then be extended in further three year period by a low cost re-treatment.

Until 30th May 2010 we are offering a 25% reduction in the cost, a site survey will be needed to establish the suitablity of the property.

Image by Wildaboutburnley via Flickr

Pest Control Squirrels in Manchester Lancashire and Cheshire

Squirrels in the loft?

A word of caution, damage caused by squirrels to electricity cables and water pipes with the resultant risk of fire and flooding is unlikely to be covered by your insurance policy as most insurance companies invalidate vermin damage.

Pest Control Services In Your Area

0800 019 8382 or 0161 930 8814

Pest Control Services In Your Area – Harrier Pest Control deal with all pests 7 days per week and offer a fixed price on wasps nests for 2010 of just £32.00 except for postcode areas CH,CW and L where we charge £44.50 due to increased time and distance. These are guaranteed fixed prices 7 days per week.

During 2010 Harrier Pest Prevention will be increasing their area of operation and including a new service of bee swarm removal where we will make every endeavour to rehome the bees with a beekeeper rather than destroy them. As this makes quite an interruption in our day we charge £75 for this service.

Harrier Pest Control deal with all pests and a complete list of our area of operation and pests dealt with is below.

Rats, Mice, Bed Bugs, Bed Bug Bites, Ants, Wasps, Red Spider Mite, Squirrels, Beetles, Pigeons, Cluster Fly, Carpet Beetles, Biting Insects, Bedbugs, Bed Bug Rash, Mattress Bugs, Hotel Bugs, Wasps Nests, Birds, Moles, Flies, Starlings, Fur Beetles, Silverfish, Spider Beetles, Cat Fleas, Flea Bites, Cockroaches, Biscuit Beetles, Cluster Flies, Red Ants, Wasp’s Nests, Spiders, Magpies, Fleas, Bedbugs, Wasps’ Nests, Rat traps,
pest stop, Mouse repeller, rat killer, rat poison, mouse traps, rat repeller
Birds, Insects, Rodents in the following areas:

Manchester Pest Control on Radio Lancashire

Manchester Pest Control on Radio Lancashire – hear our principal Ken Chadwick on his latest radio appearance, talking about pests on Radio Lancashire.

His next appearance is scheduled for 6th April at 1.00pm

Manchester Pest Control on Radio Lancashire

Bed Bugs in Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside and Cheshire

Harrier Pest Control 0800 019 8382

Bed Bugs in Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside and Cheshire – One of the most hated and misunderstood pests known to man is the bed bug (Cimex lectularius). How many of us dozed off to sleep at night as children with the words of our parents in our ears ‘sleep tight and don’t let the bed bugs bite’?

Manchester Bed Bugs

Bed bugs may have started to feed on man at about the time we moved into caves, the ‘bat bugs’ Cimex pilosellus and Cimex pipistrella primarily feed on bats and it is probable that bat feeding species of bug evolved to feed on human blood when our ancesters started dwelling in bat infested caves.

Until the arrival of DDT in the early 20th century bed bugs were common non-paying guests in much low quality dwellings.

The later part of the 20th century has seen pest control companies dealing with very few bed bug calls indeed, their presence being largely restricted to cheap vacation camps and student lodgings etc.

Many people confuse dust mites, which aren’t visible to the naked eye, with bed bugs which very definitely are.

Adult bedbugs are reddy-brown, about a quarter of an inch in size and greatly swollen after a meal of our blood.

They have an incomplete metamorphosis which means that the young are just smaller copies of the adult, they don’t have a pupal stage like fleas or a fly.

Bed bugs typically feed on human blood every 7 – 10 days, coming out in the hours before dawn and sensing their prey by detecting the exhaled carbon dioxide from breath and when close in on their target, infra red body heat.

Squirrels in Manchester, Stockport and Trafford

Squirrels in Manchester, Stockport and Trafford – The grey squirrel population in the Noth West U.K. has rocketed over the last 20 years to the degee that they are now a major pest species.
The grey squirrels which we see in our gardens (Sciurus carolinensis) are not native to Britain, having been introduced here less than 200 years ago from America.
Like other members of the Sciuridae family, the Grey Squirrel is a scatter-hoarder; it hoards food in many small caches for later recovery. Some hoards, especially those made near the source of a sudden surplus of food.
Others are more permanent and are not retrieved until months later. It has been estimated that each squirrel makes several thousand hoards each season. The squirrels have very accurate spatial memory for the positions of these caches, and use distant and nearby landmarks to find them. Smell is used once the squirrel is within a short distance of the cache.
The nest of the squirrel is called a dray (or drey) and it is normal for the female to have two litters per year, each of two to four young..
They are minor problems, digging up bulbs and taking food intended for birds but become major pests when they come into our houses.
It is increasingly common for pest controllers to be called out to homes where a nest has been built in a loft or attic space.
Squirrels are true rodents and as such have continually growing teeth; the word rodent comes from the Latin ‘rodere’ meaning ‘to gnaw’ and this they do very well indeed.
It is rare to enter an attic space where a dray has been constructed and find that they have not chewed electrical wiring, indeed it is estimated that up to 40% percent of fires without an obviously attributable cause may be started by rodents chewing wiring.
Unfortunately they can also chew through water-pipes, especially with the recent trend towards plastic piping.
As if that wasn’t enough, most household insurance policies specifically exclude damage by rodents so if a squirrel floods your home by chewing through a water pipe in the attic you may find yourself without insurance.
Removing squirrels requires a professional, not least in as much as the law regarding squirrels needs to be obeyed. You cannot simply obtain a packet of rat poison from your local store and deal with them that way as you would be committing a criminal offence.
Furthermore you cannot trap them and move them some distance away, not only would removing a squirrel from the area of its food caches would probably condemn it to death by starvation, it is also a criminal offence under the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981 which makes it illegal to release a grey squirrel in Britain.
That pertains also to rescuing, and releasing injured squirrels.
In most cases trapping is the the only option and this must be done in a specified manner with routine, regular inspections of the traps.
Trapped squirrels should be then humanely dispatched.
If you have a squirrel problem in Lancashire, Cheshire or Manchester contact Harrier Pest Prevention on 0800 019 8382

In addition to watering, it is important to preserve as much of the moisture in the soil as you can for plant use. The best way to do this is to cover the soil with mulch, such as leaf mould, grass cuttings or composted or chipped bark.

A layer of about 10cm is ideal. Apply the mulch either after rain or after watering the bed thoroughly. In the garden, we tend to clear the beds of all dying and dead vegetation, so there is little chance of it rolling down where it lies and returning to the soil as nutrients, as would happen in the wild.

However, the prudent gardener does not throw way all these leftovers but composts them and returns them to the soil, which considerably increases the nutritional value of the soil. Preparing the soil thoroughly with garden compost will pay great dividends, but the added nutrients will not last forever.

In the case of annuals, the soil can be prepared afresh each year, but for perennials, which are left in situ for several years, it is impossible to do this. It is, however, possible to top dress the soil each autumn or spring by covering the soil with a mulch of well rotted garden compost, farm yard manure or composted bark.

This can be worked into the top layer of the soil with a fork, while being careful not to disturb the plants’ roots. Alternatively, it can be left on the top of the mulch, which the worms will gradually take down below the surface.

The nutrients in contains will in any event be washed down towards the roots by the rain. If mulch is not available, a balanced fertilizer can be used instead to add nutrients, spread at the manufacturer’s recommended levels, but this is second best to organic material.

Wasps Nests In Liverpool

Destroyed £44.50

0151 471 8660

We eradicate wasps nests in Liverpool, Wirral and Merseyside with a fixed rate of £44.50 for postcode areas L, CH & CW, Liverpool, The Wirral and North Cheshire. No extras will be added and if you’ve got multiple nests we’ll eliminate your second at no further cost and any subsequent ones at an additional £10 each on the same visit.

Wasps Nest Liverpool

A wasps nest is created afresh each spring beginning with an individual queen. In spring over wintering wasp queens depart their hibernation and start setting up new nests with a papery material that she creates by chewing small bits of wood together saliva. This is known as Wasp Paper. She’ll raise the initial few workers by her very own efforts and those workers will then start the enlargement of the nest and caring for the immature wasps to follow.

Nest development starts in earnest in June and may reach its maximum in size in August and September, when 5000 – 20,000 workers may very well be present. At the end of autumn the nest generates as many as 2000 queens to hibernate and build new nests the next spring. The nest itself is then spent and simply not used again.

A wasp nest should not be neared unprotected as wasps will easily attack to defend their nest and it is possible to acquire numerous stings.

Individuals react in a different way to being stung by wasps, some are seldom affected, others suffer significant pain and swelling and a few become severely allergic to being stung, which occasionally ends in sudden death resulting from anaphylactic shock.

Wasps’ nests treated after early September may require additional extra cost work for example loft or attic fogging to destroy emerging Queens.

Jim Mallinder: Wary of Wasps threat

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Northampton Saints rugby director Jim Mallinder has labelled Saturday’s LV=Cup clash against London Wasps at Franklin’s Gardens as a “big game”.

The Saints top pool four by a single point following last weekend’s round of fixtures and thus need a bonus-point victory to not just guarantee a place in the semi-finals, but also a possible home tie.

And with the Saints still smarting from last Saturday’s loss at Bath, Mallinder insists an improvement will be needed against Wasps tomorrow, a team the Saints boss says deserve respect.

“It’s a big game for us,” he said. “We started the LV= Cup well with two bonus point wins and we need to keep that momentum.

“We need to win to get through and qualify for a semi-final. We don’t want weeks off during the season; we want our holidays in the summer.

“That means we’ve got to win at the weekend, it’s as simple as that.

“Wasps will be a difficult proposition. They may be out of the tournament but they’ve still got everything to play for in terms of getting on track in the league.

“They will attack us in a number of ways and we’ve got to make sure we step up and that our defence improves a lot from last week.”

Russians to feature for Wasps

Meanwhile, Wasps are poised to hand debuts to their two new Russian recruits.

Having completed their first full week of training with the squad, both Victor Gresev and Vladislav Korshunov have been named in the match day 23 for the clash at Franklin’s Gardens.

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Hotels, dorms and local groups work hard to keep little suckers at bay

By Steve Law

The Portland Tribune, Feb 2, 2012

Christopher Onstott / Portland Tribune

Grant Walter of Home Forward Pest Control inspects for bedbugs in the couch cushions of an apartment with an LED light during a routine inspection.

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“Goodnight. Sleep tight. Don’t let the bedbugs bite.” The old bedtime saying has taken on new meaning for thousands of Portlanders in recent years, ever since the local bedbug population mushroomed.

Infestations at homeless shelters, hotels, apartments, hospitals and college dorms have served as a wake-up call, prompting a variety of countermeasures.

But bedbugs remain a stigma here, in contrast to places like New York where they’ve long been ensconced. That keeps people and businesses from reporting or acknowledging the problem – making it difficult to track the growth of Portland’s bedbug population and determine if and where we’re making headway.

“Nobody can give you a really clear picture, because we don’t have that data,” says Margaret Mahoney, co-chairwoman of a bedbug work group formed by Multnomah County to forge community-wide solutions.

Homeless shelters and other low-income housing providers stepped up first in Portland, when bedbug sightings grew more common during the past few years. Home Forward (formerly the Housing Authority of Portland) built a “warming room” to kill bedbugs in homeless peoples’ luggage and possession before they could move into the new Bud Clark Commons apartments in Old Town. Central City Concern even developed its own bedbug-resistant bed and made it available to others.

Printer-friendly version

   

Email story link

Hotels, dorms and local groups work hard to keep little suckers at bay

By Steve Law

The Portland Tribune, Feb 2, 2012

Christopher Onstott / Portland Tribune

Grant Walter of Home Forward Pest Control inspects for bedbugs in the couch cushions of an apartment with an LED light during a routine inspection.

ADVERTISEMENTS

“Goodnight. Sleep tight. Don’t let the bedbugs bite.” The old bedtime saying has taken on new meaning for thousands of Portlanders in recent years, ever since the local bedbug population mushroomed.

Infestations at homeless shelters, hotels, apartments, hospitals and college dorms have served as a wake-up call, prompting a variety of countermeasures.

But bedbugs remain a stigma here, in contrast to places like New York where they’ve long been ensconced. That keeps people and businesses from reporting or acknowledging the problem – making it difficult to track the growth of Portland’s bedbug population and determine if and where we’re making headway.

“Nobody can give you a really clear picture, because we don’t have that data,” says Margaret Mahoney, co-chairwoman of a bedbug work group formed by Multnomah County to forge community-wide solutions.

Homeless shelters and other low-income housing providers stepped up first in Portland, when bedbug sightings grew more common during the past few years. Home Forward (formerly the Housing Authority of Portland) built a “warming room” to kill bedbugs in homeless peoples’ luggage and possession before they could move into the new Bud Clark Commons apartments in Old Town. Central City Concern even developed its own bedbug-resistant bed and made it available to others.

Tick and flea bites can cause your dogs discomfort and have them itching and scratching frequently, but are they harmful? In their article “Home Remedies for Dogs with Fleas,”  Shanna Freeman and Dr. William Fortney write, “Some dogs are extra-sensitive to flea saliva. One bite may be enough to bring on the unbearable itching of flea-allergy dermatitis (FAD).” These little critters can also make your pet susceptible to bacterial infections and hot spots, which can spread and become difficult to control. According to the National Pest Management Association Inc., fleas can even transfer tapeworms to pets and cause anemia.

HOW DOES MY DOG GET TICKS AND FLEAS?

In his interview for WebMD, flea and tick expert Professor Michael Dryden says that it can happen when a flea-infested animal roams around your neighborhood carrying flea eggs or female fleas. The latter may leave eggs scattered around your area. “And then those eggs developed into adults and those fleas jumped onto your pet,” he explains. Fleas are known to jump over six feet and latch themselves onto any furry pet they can find.

Dryen says a female flea can lay as many as 40 to 50 eggs per day–that’s 2,000 eggs in her lifetime. And these eggs can hatch in 1 to 10 days. “Over 4,000 eggs are deposited in cracks and crevices along floors, behind dog cages, or even ceilings,” Dryden says in his research entitled “Biology and Control of Ticks Infesting Dogs and Cats in North America.” And once they hatch, they can survive for weeks without feeding while waiting for a suitable host.

HOW CAN I GET RID OF THESE PESKY PARASITES?