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!

You may think you have a bed bug problem but it might be some other annoying insect. Experts claim that only a small percentage of the insects sent to them turn out to be bed bugs.

Beg bugs are typically about 1/5 of an inch and weigh about thirty pounds (not really). Young bed bugs are typically light yellow in color, however if they just consumed some blood they become dark in the middle region of their bodies. The blood ages and becomes darker and typically a small amount of undigested blood is excreted and ends up on mattresses and bed sheets and four hundred dollar dresses.

Adult bed bugs are reddish brown and they also darken  after a meal. They have no wings, are oval in shape and crawl at a steady pace. If they are scampering, skipping  or sauntering you have another issue to deal with.

They’re usually active at night and when they bite you they often leave bite marks that are two or three in  a row. If you awaken to a pungent aroma you probably have a very large gang of bed bugs lurking. Check for blood spots and fecal matter. 

Call an expert on bed bug pest control if you have spotted them in your residence.