Let’s take a quick look at some pieces of information about bed bugs you might find useful.

Bed bugs don’t spread diseases; they leave you with annoying, itchy bite marks. The itchiness begins because of the saliva they inject into you.

Their perfect target is someone motionless in a dark room.

During the daytime they typically are hiding although some experts claim they occasionally do bite humans during the day.

 They are unintentionally delivered here by visitors and they may also be living in chicken coops. 

Insect foggers don’t kill them but rather inspire them to invade other parts of your home.

Don’t buy used furniture in areas where bed bugs have been reported. They don’t mind moving to your house.

On  a silly or perhaps troubling note, one pest control company would remove bed bug infested mattresses and place them on the curb for pick-up. They painted the mattress with a big red X and figured that would be the end of the mattress. The exterminators would be called out to new locations for bed bugs infestations and find the mattresses with big red X’s on them in the residences. Perhaps people thought the middle of the X indicated the best landing position for their body.

Cryonite works great for bed bug eradication.

Hotels get bed bugs from their guests. Unlike roaches and mice, bed bugs aren’t caused or attracted by filth, dirt or garbage. They come into a hotel in the luggage or on the clothing or person of a guest. During the guest’s stay, they take up residence in the hotel room and wait for the next guest to arrive.

Hotels provide plenty of comfortable places for bed bugs to live: mattresses, box springs, linens, bedside tables, behind headboards, under picture frames, behind loose wallpaper, under carpeting, in ducts, etc. Any quiet, dark place near a bed makes good harborage which makes hotel rooms prime real estate for bed bugs.

Hotels also provide a “moveable feast” for these tiny insects. Each night brings a new guest to bed, creating a smorgasbord for bed bugs which feed on human blood. Bed bug bites can raise itchy red welts but not all people respond to their bites. It may be days or even weeks before an infestation is discovered.

Bed bugs are a serious problem for hotels, motels and resorts. They are easily spread by guests and housekeepers. They can spread throughout a facility as guests move about or on housekeeping and laundry carts. As their numbers grow, they will seek additional food sources, spreading through wall voids, electric and plumbing conduits and air vents.

For information about bed bugs, visit the Stern Environmental website.

When you go on vacation, checking the bed bug history of a hotel isn’t enough to guarantee a bug-free vacation (see our July 2 post). Personally, I avoid staying in hotels, motels and resorts where bed bugs have been reported. Why take a chance? But because bed bugs hitch a ride in on guests’ luggage, belongings and clothing, a clean bill of health when you book the room doesn’t guarantee a bed bug-free stay when you check in.

Before you carry your suitcases in the door, take a minute to check the room. Check the bed, pull back the sheets for a good look and expose the mattress. Look behind the headboard, on bedside tables, in drawers, around vents, behind pictures, and along baseboards. This is what you’re looking for:

• active bugs
• dark or bloody smears on sheets and mattresses, particularly at seams and welts
• bug casings and dark dots behind picture frames, on furniture and along the join between walls and carpeting

For a clear idea of what you might see, visit the Stern Environmental website for pictures of bed bugs and the marks they leave.

If you see any signs of bed bugs, ask for a room change to a different part of the hotel. Don’t take a room next door to the infected room or on the floor above or below. Those are the first places bed bugs will spread. Personally, I’d check into a different hotel. Why take a chance?

Do you have a large number of bees flying around your property but can’t find a hive? Perhaps you are looking in the wrong places. Pest control experts have found bee hives in pots, chimneys, trash cans, bird houses, attics and other locations that are not obvious.

Bees are great for pollinating, so if they are far enough away from human activity typically no action is required.

If  you happen to pass by a swarm or even just a few don’t make any sudden moves because that will make them angry.  Bee hives and ball room dancing simply don’t go together. Africanized honey bees have been known to attack humans that get within a hundred yards of them. 

If the bee hive is situated close to a doorway or perhaps a window don’t be surprised if they join you while your eating butterscotch pecan cookies on your sofa. Also, the bee hive could get accidentally bumped and turmoil might ensue. 

If they have made a nest in the walls, that can lead to damage and the honey will attract other insects as well as the pompous grizzly bears living in the sewer system (just a silly rumor).

A bee control professional can safely eliminate the bee hive.

I just got back from a mini-break on North Carolina’s scenic Outer Banks. I was looking forward to escaping the 90-degree city heat for a long weekend of sun, sand and cool ocean breezes. The kids and I wanted to stay at a small hotel on the beach with some character — but no bed bugs.

As I researched the choices on TripAdvisor, I was surprised to see how many Outer Banks hotels and motels had suffered bed bug infestations either last summer or earlier this year. Some were even “nice” well-known hotel chains. It just points out the fact that bed bugs cross all socio-economic boundaries. They are carried person-to-person. They are not caused by or attracted to unclean or dirty facilities. And they stick around.

Bed bugs are carried into hotels and motels by guests who may not even know they or their luggage are infected. The little vampires crawl into the bed and wait for the next guest to check in. When the hotel closes for the winter, the little buggers just “hibernate” until the vacancy sign lights up in the spring. When the first guest checks in, they’re ready to chow down — on you!

Before you book your vacation, check out your hotel or motel on Trip Advisory and The Bed Bug Registry for a bed bug-free vacation. 

Bed bugs are only one-fifth of an inch in size yet they frighten people more than a grumpy badger. Don’t let them take control of your home.

Some practical advice to safeguard the bed includes  placing the bed away from the wall and apply some Vaseline or perhaps mineral oil to the legs of the bed in a two inch wide band in order to make it difficult for the bed bugs to climb into bed with you. They don’t have wings.

Caulk all the cracks  so they won’t have a place to hide and thrive. Some people suggest creating a barrier around the bed posts made from chalk or silica aerogel. Double sided carpet tape can be efficient at trapping the bed bugs.

Instead of tossing out the mattress you suspect is a playground for bed bugs, purchase a quality bed bug mattress encasement which will prevent them from snacking on you and they will eventually starve to death.

Placing your furniture outside during the cold winter may kill off the bed bugs. However, some experts suggest the temperature has to remain below freezing for probably several days. If they are still annoying, call a professional.

Bed bugs have invaded two apartment buildings Skip Lawyer owns in Reading, Pennsylvania. “It’s so demoralizing,” he told New York’s WNBC. “They get into virtually everything. I have nightmares about them.” His are only two of the buildings under attack by bed bugs. Reading officials say the nasty pests have infected homes and apartments across the city this summer.

WNBC film of the infected apartments shows hundreds of bed bugs crawling all over mattresses and furniture. (YUCK!) Red bed bug bites cover the arms and legs of one tenant. “They’re true vampires,” Lawyer said of the blood-sucking insects. Though not known to cause disease, bed bug bites can raise itchy red hives that bedevil their victims, causing severe emotional distress.

Despite repeated attempts, traditional pesticides have failed to evict the blood-sucking tenants so Lawyer has been forced to tell his human tenants to move out while the buildings are fumigated. Click here to watch WNBC’s video of bed bugs in action and the bites they leave. It will give you a sense of the horror and disgust victims face.

Lawyer’s experience is not unique. Many bed bugs today are pesticide resistant and don’t respond to traditional pesticide treatments. Cryonite is the way to kill these super bugs. The fast-freeze CO2 snow freezes bed bugs in their tracks and kills them, eggs and all. Cryonite is the perfect bed bug solution for multi-unit buildings like apartments, co-ops, condos, hotels, motels and resorts. To learn more about Stern’s amazing Cryonite bed bug treatment, click here.

Man, it just doesn’t get much worse than this. Four skunks dug their winter burrow under Karen McCullough’s house in Sheffield Lake, Ohio. Last November, McCullough and her family started hearing scratching noises under the kitchen and living room floors. The scratching set off the family’s dogs and cats that would bark and hiss and paw the carpeting. The skunks responded in the manner of their tribe — they sprayed, and sprayed, and sprayed.

The over-powering stench caused the McCulloughs to spend most of the freezing winter with their windows wide open. Their clothing, couch, chairs — everything! — still smell of skunk half a year later. McCullough said it’s been embarrassing to have to apologize to friends for the way she smells. “I’ve cried a few times. Inside, I’m having a nervous breakdown,” she confided.

Trappers finally lured the skunks from their den and the family is now living in a cramped hotel room while workers replace all their flooring. They’re also pouring a concrete slab to replace the original crawl space under their home. McCullough isn’t taking any chances on a repeat.

Skunks, groundhogs, raccoons, mice and possums can create some serious problems for homeowners. Particularly in newly developed areas, loss of habitat can force these wild animals to seek a substitute in your warm, cozy home. These animals can bring rabies, mites, ticks and fleas with them. For your safety, trapping and removal should only be performed by experienced wildlife control professionals.

A home owner discovered she had thousands of honey bees in the inside walls of here home. I give her permission to yell “Oh the Horror! The Horror!” at thirty minute intervals.

Who is responsible for this invasion? Well I could easily blame the Queen bees. In the month of June the Queen gets bored with her residence and leaves her comfortable hive and  the rest of the bees begrudgingly or perhaps happily follow her to her new location which can be the inside walls of your home.

The homeowner realized there is a shortage of honey bees in the world for pollination purposes, but was saddened to learn the cost of  having bee keepers remove them was five times more expensive than hiring a pest control company to exterminate the honey bees.

However, exterminating or removing the honey bees will not end the problem. Hundreds of pounds of honey can easily be left in the walls which attracts other pests. Thousands of ants in the walls is not easy to deal with either.

Call a bee control specialist at the first sign of an infestation because “home sweet home” doesn’t make sense  if it’s accomplished by honey bees.

The 4th of July is nearly here and that means picnics: burgers and dogs on the grill, gallons of lemonade, enough potato salad to split a gut, chocolate cake and ice cream — and bees. Lots of bees. Buzzing around the lemonade cooler, crawling into your glass, strafing the dessert table. Unwanted and unwelcome, bees never-the-less put in an appearance at every 4th of July shebang.

This 4th of July you can expect record numbers of the pests to dive bomb your outdoor activities. The mild winter allowed more bees to survive. When it stays cold for protracted periods, “bees will eat all their honey and starve to death,” explained beekeeping specialist James Tew of Ohio State University. While not good news for picnickers, it’s great news for farmers who depend on bees to pollinate crops. Last year, a mysterious disease called Colony Collapse Disorder decimated bee populations nationwide. This year bees appear to be recovering.

But for those allergic to their stings, bees, wasps, yellow jackets and hornets can mean death. For the rest of us, they’re a considerable nuisance. No one likes to be stung and aggressive buzzers can ruin a good picnic. Before you host the family this 4th of July, check the overhangs and eaves on your house and outdoor trees for hives. Wasps can build huge paper hives between the branches of evergreens. If you find a problem, call in the bee experts at Stern Environmental Group. Bees turn angry when their hive is disturbed and angry bees go on the attack. This is one for the pros!