About 50 Department of Transportation drivers from Detroit say that they have been seen bed bugs on their buses while on duty According to The Detroit News on June 29, 2012.  Some have even complained of receiving bite wounds from the bed bugs on the bus.  Drivers say that the sightings have been made over the last year.

The Union that represents the drivers wants the City Council to agree to clean and fumigate all city buses and fumigate each of the agency’s terminals.  There are a couple of reasons why their request would be a waste of time and money spent.

• It has been reported that there are approximately 100,000 Detroit bus riders every day.  People come and go constantly on the buses.  Like is the situation with hotels and motels, a bus can be bed bug free one moment and have bed bugs the following as any person can bring bed bugs in on their person or belongings.

• An argument has been made that bed bugs cannot seek harborage on Detroit’s plastic bus seats.  Bed bugs might not be able to live among the seats, but there are plenty of cracks and crevices within a bus that can provide safe harborage for a hitchhiking bed bug.

• Fumigating an entire fleet of buses and their terminals is a waste of time and money as it appears from the reports that only sporadic bed bugs have been spotted among the buses throughout the year.  Additionally, even if all buses and terminals were treated simultaneously, it does not mean that the first customer that rides the bus would not bring bed bugs with them.

The best alternative is to hire a licensed pest control professional with experience in bed bug eradication.  Bed bug sniffing dogs would be a great tool in detecting bed bugs among a fleet of buses.  These amazingly trained dogs would save the City of Detroit time and money with virtually no down time for buses.