Our Bed Bug pesticides are made with organic substances that are more effective than chemical pesticides.

Citrus farmers and pest-control officials continue their work to keep the Asian citrus psyllid out of commercial citrus groves in California, but experts who spoke about the pest threat last week at the World Ag Expo in Tulare urged farmers to be prepared for the possibility of psyllid quarantines in commercial groves.

The small, winged insect isn’t particularly destructive on its own, but as it feeds on citrus it can spread a bacterium that causes huanglongbing disease, also known as HLB and sometimes called citrus greening. The bacterial disease has not appeared so far in California.

It has, however, spread widely in Florida, reducing that state’s commercial citrus production by at least 10 percent a year. In Texas, the first known case of HLB was confirmed in mid-January on orange trees in the Rio Grande Valley, known for its grapefruit and orange production.

The Asian citrus psyllid has also been found in Louisiana, Georgia, South Carolina, Arizona, Hawaii and Mexico. HLB has been found not only in Florida and Texas, but also in Louisiana, Georgia, South Carolina, Belize and Mexico.

Plant pathologists say the proximity of Mexico to California and the rapid rise in globalization of trade, travel and immigration make the threat of the disease entering California through infected plants or insects a serious one.

In a recent California Senate briefing, lawmakers were told Florida has lost more than 60,000 acres of citrus trees and growers there are spending more than $500 per acre on psyllid control and eradication. One projection suggested that almost all of Florida’s citrus trees will be infected in seven to 12 years.

Once trees are infected, the fruit produced is not marketable and the trees ultimately die. There is no cure for HLB.

In California, quarantines for the psyllid have been established in all of Imperial, Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties, as well as parts of Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Santa Barbara counties.

In early February, the San Barnardino County Board of Supervisors adopted a resolution supporting the state’s efforts to stop the spread of the insect. In January, the Redlands City Council approved spending $38,000 to treat city-owned citrus trees to prevent spread of the psyllid.

Ted Batkin, California Citrus Research Board president, said citrus farmers should be prepared for “the call” that the psyllid has been found in or near their grove.

“Eighty percent of issues can be planned for ahead of time,” Batkin said. “Have a plan in place. Know what you’re going to do and take action. Know who to call.”

Typically, that call would be to the county agricultural commissioner or a local pest control district, he said.

“Discuss the steps with your farm management team,” Batkin advised. “Be sure everyone in your organization knows what to do. If you have to treat or clean fruit, know what procedures you’ll have to follow.”

Citrus nurseries have been particularly affected by psyllid quarantines. Larry Rose, field manager for Brokaw Nursery in Ventura, said that to stay in the citrus business the nursery is required to keep its propagative material under screens with positive-atmosphere entrances, which includes a vestibule with air blowers that prevent insects from entering the structures.

“That’s mandatory by state and federal agencies,” Rose said. “We now have citrus registration regulations and we’re operating under two quarantines. It’s not difficult to comply, but it costs a lot of money.”

He said there are about 30 citrus nurseries in the state and that building the required protective structures costs between $2 and $30 a square foot, depending on the level of permanence and site requirements.

“Because we’re in a quarantine area, we’re treating all the time,” San Diego County nursery operator Mark Collins said. “We don’t really have any psyllids and our treatment program is so regular and complete, the problem with this pest has disappeared into the woodwork for us.”

San Diego County, because of its proximity to Mexico, is under continual, often multiple quarantines for invasive insects.

“Our plan is to keep on doing what we’re doing,” Collins said. “Treating for the pest has become a regular part of our operation.”

Scientists say a long-term solution to the vector-disease problem isn’t easy to find, but there are some glimmers of hope. Researchers at the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station have created several orange trees, bred through biotechnolgy, that show pest resistance and could help prevent the spread of HLB.

Entomologists Mark and Christina Hoddle of the University of California, Riverside, located a parasitic wasp in the Punjab region of Pakistan about 18 months ago. The couple found that the wasp lays eggs in psyllid nymphs, killing them through feeding, before emerging as adults.

The Hoddles brought the stingerless wasps back for study and breeding. Last December, university and government researchers joined them in releasing the first batch of the wasps on the UCR campus, to see if they can provide biological control of the psyllid.

Mark Hoddle said the wasps won’t eradicate the psyllid, but might reduce populations and improve chances for control using other methods. Citrus farmers would still have to treat for the pest, but control might be possible with fewer applications, he said.

Bed bugs were discovered this weekend at Riley Hospital for Children, an Indiana University Health official said this morning.

“Bed bugs continue to be an issue nationwide,” said IU Health spokeswoman Abby Gras in an email. “To ensure the safety of our patients and families, we work closely with our infection control and environmental services departments to ensure the incident is isolated and dealt with in a timely manner.”

A family staying at the hospital with a newborn daughter shared photos of the bedbugs and an email with WXIN (Channel 59).

Bed bugs are small, oval, brownish insects that live on the blood of animals or humans, according to the WebMD.com. Adult bedbugs have flat bodies about the size of an apple seed. After feeding, their bodies swell and turn a reddish color.

Although their bites cause redness and itching, the insects do not transmit diseases, according to the medical information website.

Bed bugs can be inadvertently brought home in luggage and other items after motel or hospital stays. They often hide in mattresses, box springs, bedframes and headboards. They are active mostly at night.

Cleanliness and hygiene, experts say, have no connection to incidence of bed bugs. A single stowaway ready to lay eggs can lead to an infestation in a clean and well-kept environment.

Pest control is an important component of any food or beverage plant’s food safety plan, but implementing a proactive preventive program rather than a reactive control program can provide even greater protection against adulteration from food-contaminating pests.

“Control has the designation of being reactive; it means a population exists and you have to deal with it,” said Massey Services Technical and Training Director Tom Jarzynka. If, on the other hand, you implement an effective pest prevention program, the opportunity for pests to come into a protected environment is greatly reduced.

“Then,” he added, “because you’ve taken away the opportunity, there is no reason for pesticide application.”

The difference between control and prevention of pests is similar to that of any potential food contaminant. Control means there is a problem and a solution needs to be found to fix it, said Adam’s Pest Control President Todd Leyse, whereas prevention means one is taking steps to keep a problem from happening.

Ten Tips. Whether conducted by in-house staff or an outside service provider, some recommendations for incorporating a preventive program include:

Preventing Bird Invasion

Because of public perception and federal, state, and local regulations, controlling pest birds can present unique challenges. Thus, implementing preventive practices to discourage birds from taking up residence in or around the food plant can be of benefit for both food safety and public relations perspectives.

“Prevention starts on the outside,“ said Mike Dougherty of Bird-B-Gone sales and training, and exterior sanitation is key. By maintaining sanitation around your plant, such as keeping trash picked up, lids closed, etc., you can greatly reduce the potential for birds living and feeding around your plant and finding ways to come in.

Other bird prevention recommendations include:

Eliminate trees and shrubs near entryways to reduce roosting.
Keep doors closed when not in use. Use plastic strip doors in areas where constant closing of doors is not practical.
Install audio and video deterrents. While these may have little long-term effect on established populations, they can help prevent birds from getting established near your plant—provided that sanitation issues are addressed, Dougherty said.
Install ledge products, such as spikes or shock systems, to prevent birds from landing and roosting. If birds are nesting in the loading dock area, netting can be placed there to restrict access.
Once the concern moves into the plant, it is generally more about bird control and removal than about prevention. However, netting can provide both control and prevention, said Massey Services Technical and Training Director Tom Jarzynka. Generally netting is placed on the girders of a plant because there is a problem with birds nesting in the rafters. But because the netting takes away that potential harborage area, once it is in place, it becomes preventive.

But whether one is seeking to prevent or remove birds, Dougherty said, “There is no magic wand. It comes down to analyzing the situation to determine what is needed for success.”

1. Understand your plant’s needs. The geographic area of a plant can have significant impact on pest potential. Adam’s is located in Minnesota where the cooling temperatures of autumn mean that pests begin to seek shelter in buildings. Thus, prevention can be the seasonal application of a perimeter treatment to keep insects out. For this same reason, one needs to have an understanding of the potential pests, said Adam’s Technical and Training Director Mohammad El Damir.

2. Look for conducive conditions. Pests will enter buildings in search of food, water, or shelter. Thus a preventive program needs to include a complete inspection of both the exterior and interior of the plant for potential entry points and attractants, then taking corrective action to fix these.

3. Reduce attractants. Controlling a pest problem means finding and eliminating the source—identifying the issue then trailing back to determine its origination, Jarzynka said. In the same way, to prevent pest problems, a plant should inspect for and eliminate all potential sources and attractants.

4. Pay attention to the exterior. Often, companies will take care of the inside of the facility but neglect the outdoors, El Damir said. But if outlying conditions and exterior attractants are reduced, there will be fewer pests around the exterior, thus fewer pests seeking to come into the interior.

5. Implement exclusion techniques. One of the most important areas of prevention is the closing and sealing of potential pest entry points, he added. Keeping doors closed and dock doors lowered will help, but sealing pest-sized entry points is just as critical. Rats can enter your facility and seek harborage through half-inch holes; mice through gaps of one-quarter inch; and insects through the tiniest of cracks and crevices.

6. Maintain a sanitary environment. You can prevent a great deal of chemical usage through “heavy doses of water and soap,” Jarzynka said. The cleaner the plant, the less a pest will be attracted or want to stay. If you take away its access to food and water, it will leave or starve; if you reduce clutter and seal off cracks and gaps—taking away its ability to find harborage and shelter, it will be put under a tremendous amount of stress, reducing its ability to thrive. When this is combined with the placement of traps and baits, the pest is left in exposed areas because it has no shelter and must travel farther to seek food and water. “There is greater opportunity for it to come in contact with control measures and be eliminated,” Jarzynka said. “So anything you can do from a sanitation point of view will stress the pest and enable treatment activities to be more successful.”

7. Implement an employee hygiene program. Employees can carry pests into food plants on their belongings and their clothing. Although there has long been a focus on such potential for introducing cockroach infestations, the latest trend, of which many are unaware, is the increasing potential for employees to carry in and introduce a bed bug infestation.

8. Train and educate employees. It is important to encourage a culture of prevention, educating employees to the what and the why. For example: Don’t prop doors open during breaks because any variety of pests can creep, slither, or fly in behind you. Plants need to make cultural changes, or mechanisms to keep the building secure will be of little use.

9. Maintain records for trend analysis. Both federal inspectors and third-party auditors will want to see that pest service and pest activity logbooks and records are maintained—and that steps are taken for corrective action if and when activity is found. But just as important is the data that you can extract from such records. Both Jarzynka and Leyse emphasized the importance of monitoring pest trends. By doing so, recurring problems can be detected and corrected and potential problems can be anticipated—and prevented.

10. Conduct regular assessments. At least once a year—or quarterly if feasible—inspect the entire facility, focusing on all nine steps listed above. Then assess the results for conducive conditions, structural or cultural needs, and trends; address issues; and take corrective action.

University of Nebraska-Lincoln dorm rooms after two more infested rooms were discovered Monday, a university spokeswoman said.

The new infestations were found as part of the school’s effort to wipe out the bugs and curb their spread after students reported finding the bugs in January when they returned from winter break, said spokeswoman Kelly Bartling.
Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Juan Franco said the university will “pay whatever it takes to take care of the problem.”
Bedbugs are nocturnal pests that spread quickly and are tough to kill. Their bites can cause itchiness and skin welts, but they do not carry diseases.
The bugs were first reported on campus in June, when they turned up in a laboratory on the third floor of Nebraska Hall that is used as office space for the College of Engineering. The January dorm infestation reports first came from two students who said they noticed bedbugs when they returned to their ninth-floor room in Abel Hall from winter break.
The pests also turned up in at least one UNL fraternity house. Phi Delta Theta called in experts to check out the premises, and one member’s bed was treated to stem any spread.
Bedbug problems also have been reported recently at two other Nebraska colleges.
University of Nebraska at Kearney director of residence life Tony Earls told Kearney television station NTV (http://bit.ly/yEcZeB ) that officials think bedbugs were isolated to one room on that campus. Nonetheless, Earls said, rooms on both sides and under the affected room were treated by exterminators.
Chadron State College housing director Sherri Simons said it’s believed two rooms were affected by an infestation reported there last week.
A list provided by UNL said more than 30 colleges and universities have reported bedbug problems in the past five years.

At a Colombian National Police base in the outskirts of Bogota, the nation’s capital, a new recruit is being trained.
This new recruit is unlike any other. It stands on four legs, has white hair all over its body and weighs slightly less than a pound. Its name is Rattus Norvegicus — but it’s more commonly known as a lab rat.
During a recent training session, trainers set the white rat on a patch of grass where they had hidden an explosive device underground. It took the rat less than a minute to find it. The rodent was showered with praise. Its trainers also gave it its favorite reward, a treat.
Though safer than a decade ago, Colombia is a country where landmines and car bombs are still a threat. Earlier this month, six people were killed by a car bomb targeting a police station in the town of Villa Rica in the southern province of El Cauca. The day before the February 2 bombing, nine people were killed and 70 were injured by another explosion in the neighboring province of Narino.
Edgar Ramirez, a second lieutenant with the Colombian National Police, says his country still “faces conflicts such as guerrillas, and criminal and paramilitary groups. There are many disputed territories because of the drug trade or simply to take control, and many groups set up land mines in these territories.”
In the past, Colombian police used bomb-sniffing dogs; but the dogs’ weight would often trigger the explosives. That’s not a problem for lab rats that weigh slightly less than a pound.
And according to the trainers, their sense of smell is just as good as a dog’s.
Colombia is not the first country to use rodents in this fashion. Rats have already been put to work in Mozambique to detect landmines.
Ramirez says that the only disadvantage he can think of about using rats is their short life span.
“These animals live only three to four years, which is a relatively short period of time from a human perspective. On the other hand, they’re very prolific. They reproduce themselves exponentially in a very short time,” Ramirez said.
So far, the rats have been trained to detect seven different kinds of explosives including ammonium nitrate and fuel oil, gunpowder and TNT.
The project is directed by Luisa Fernanda Mendez Pardo, a veterinarian who specializes in canine explosives-detection training. Mendez said that in the last four years her team has produced five generations of between 15 and 18 rodents each.
“As a researcher,” Mendez said, “I can tell you that this project has exceeded the expectations we had at the beginning. We have been able to condition the rats to follow simple verbal commands. We have also trained them to not be afraid of their human handlers.”
Their trust has also gone beyond humans. The rats even get on with the cat that protects them from other predators at the lab where they’re trained.
Mendez also says the rats are much more cost-effective than their canine counterparts. “With the money it takes to feed a dog per day, you can feed seven rats for seven days,” Mendez said.
Officials with the Colombian National Police say they expect to take the bomb-sniffing rats into the field in later this year.
“The main goal is to tackle a humanitarian problem in Colombia,” says Mendez. “In my career, I have seen many civilians, police officers and soldiers who have been killed or severely injured in mine fields. It has become a personal challenge, and I want to use this project to help my country.”
The team has been able to successfully train more than 70 rats in the last four years since the project began. The process has allowed them to acquire important knowledge about how the rodents can help authorities clear fields full of landmines in the Colombian countryside.

Beyond Pesticides, along with Center for Environmental Health, Farmworker Justice, Healthy Schools Network, The Endocrine Disruption Exchange and over 100 national, state and local grassroots organizations, told the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to protect public health and eliminate unnecessary pyrethroid pesticides. The group criticized EPA’s cumulative risk assessment, which concluded that pyrethroids “do not pose risk concerns for children or adults,” ignoring a wealth of peer reviewed studies linking this class of chemicals to cancer, respiratory and reproductive problems. EPA went as far as to state that it will consider additional uses, opening the flood gates and endangering public health.

EPA is mandated to complete cumulative risk assessments for pesticides, like pyrethroids, that have the same mechanism of toxicity. However, as the commenters point out, EPA’s evaluation ignores various routes of exposure, underestimating the risks. The agency also chose to reduce the Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA) safety factor from 10 to 3 times for children less than six years of age and eliminate it completely for children over six. The FQPA safety factor is intended to protect infants and children to account for their special vulnerability to pesticides. Given that children are particularly sensitive to certain pyrethroids, this reduction is egregious.

Pyrethroids are used for indoor pest control, mosquito management, in agriculture, and on pets. Exposure has been reported to lead to headaches, dizziness, nausea, irritation, and skin sensations. EPA classifies pyrethroids permethrin and cypermethrin as possible human carcinogens, and permethrin as a suspected hormone disruptor. Pyrethroids have also been linked to respiratory problems and triggering asthma attacks. Many are persistent and CDC reports that pyrethroids contaminate the bodies of more than half of all U.S. residents.

At the same time, there are clear established methods for managing homes, schools and other buildings without toxic pesticides, including exclusion techniques, sanitation and maintenance practices, as well as mechanical and least toxic, non-volatile pesticides. Organic agriculture, which now produces yields similar to or greater than chemical-intensive farming, has proven that these chemicals are not necessary on the farm either. And, it is more effective to fight mosquitoes with natural larvicides than it is to fog with pyrethroids. Based on the host of health effects linked to this chemical class, pyrethroid use is hazardous and unnecessary.

TRENTON — After a series of bedbug sightings at the city’s Daylight/Twilight High School on East Hanover Street, district officials say they are working to wipe them out and prevent any infestations.
After two sightings in different parts of the building last month, the district closed the school early last Thursday to conduct a steam-cleaning and kill the pests. Still, district facilities director Everett Collins yesterday confirmed there were two additional sightings this week.
“The unfortunate thing about the bedbug is you can fumigate, but the next day a student could come in and bring a fresh one,” Collins said. “Unfortunately, that’s what’s occurring at this facility.”
In connection with the original sightings last month, Collins said the district has identified two students whose homes had bedbugs.
“We kept those students out of school with home instructional material while the situation was eradicated,” he said. “Once it’s been eradicated and we get proof of that, we’ll allow the students back in the school.”
Whenever the district manages to identify students who have brought bedbugs into school from home, he said, officials notify the city’s Health & Human Services Department, which works with landlords and homeowners to mitigate the problem.
The district is now trying to find out where the new bedbugs came from, Collins said.
“Any person can bring in another bedbug, so it’s an ongoing process,” he said.
In addition to steam-cleaning, he said, the district uses a citrus-based disinfecting solution to wipe down surfaces in any parts of the building where bedbugs have been detected.

They’re the tiny critters that make your skin crawl.

Bedbugs are creeping their way into the Iowa legislature as landlords try to make tenants more accountable for an infestation.

House study bill 520 would require tenants to report bedbugs within a week of moving into a new apartment or within two days of discovering the bugs. If the renter fails to notify the property manager, they could be stuck with the cost of getting rid of the bugs. The bill is still being debated in a house subcommittee.

According to a study done by Linn County Public Health, it costs about $800 for one professional treatment of bedbugs. Public Health also estimates the community spends tens of thousands of dollars a month killing these pests.

“A lot of times tenants will try to deal with the problem themselves, and then the problem gets out of control,” explained Marion Landlord and former President of Landlords of Iowa, Keith Smith.

Smith says that’s the reasoning behind a new bill backed by the Iowa Landlord Association. The bill tells renters they have two days to alert a property manager about a bedbug problem or risk paying thousands of dollars in pest control fees.

Linn County Public Health says it’s tough to put a time frame on bedbugs.

“I really think there needs to be a robust education training program with this,” said bedbug expert, Ruby Perin.

Perin says it can take two days or two weeks for a bite to show up on skin. The bugs can also hide in other areas of a home. A person could check their bed and see nothing, but still have an infestation.

“It’s very landlord based,” Perin said, “If I was a tenant moving in, I’d want some kind of certification this is bed bug free.”

A member of the Iowa Attorney General’s office, William Brauch, agrees saying he’s “never seen a bill this unbalanced.” But Smith says this is a study bill meant to start conversation about this problem.

He agrees education is a big part of the issue statewide.

“Yes, it’s expensive,” Smith said, “we understand it’s expensive, but the sooner you tell us the cheaper it is to be addressed.”

Bedbugs feed on human and animal blood. They can be found in immaculate places or filthy ones. They show up in apartments, hotels, homes and government buildings. After unknowingly being transported on luggage or clothing, the pests can go undetected in new a location for months.

There is no simple solution for dealing with this national health problem. But legislation being considered by the Iowa Legislature is not a solution either. It does nothing to reduce infestations. Instead, it puts the financial responsibility for dealing with these pests on renters.

House Study Bill 520 should be squashed immediately.

The bill would require tenants to inform landlords about the presence of bedbugs within seven days of moving in. Failure to do that “shall be an acknowledgement by the tenant that the dwelling unit is free of bed bugs,” the bill says. Tenants would also have to report bugs within 48 hours of noticing them. Not doing that could mean being held responsible for the costs of everything from extermination to replacing carpet and cabinets to repainting.

These are ridiculous expectations and timelines designed to protect landlords from liability. Bite marks from the bugs may take as long as 14 days to develop on some people, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The blood-suckers can live for long periods without a meal.

How is someone supposed to know within a week that an apartment or home is infested? And what if the person is elderly or disabled?

Tenants at two Des Moines apartment buildings housing low-income disabled tenants sued property owners after a massive infestation of bedbugs a few years ago. They say bites scarred their bodies. They were forced to throw away furniture. Relatives didn’t want to visit. They have been shunned by other landlords afraid to rent to them.

Court records show managers of the Des Moines apartments left it up to the residents to prepare their apartments for exterminators. About half of them couldn’t complete tasks that included moving furniture away from baseboards and bagging belongings in plastic. Of course they couldn’t. These renters include people with limited mobility, with vision problems and with chronic pain.

Yet the legislation would have renters crawling around on carpet or moving mattresses and furniture to check for pests. They would be squinting to find fecal material of bugs that range from 1 mm to 7 mm long. Then if they fail to comply with procedures to treat an infestation, they could be responsible for the costs of treating other apartments and displacing neighbors.

Yes, bedbugs are a problem for landlords. They want someone else to be responsible for detecting and paying for the treatment of the problem.

They have a well-organized lobby to try to make that happen. Renters don’t. Lawmakers need to stand up for these Iowans, which include people with disabilities. That means quickly exterminating this legislation.