Monthly Archives: January 2017

Bed Bug Monitoring Device, Bed Bug News, Bed Bugs, Commercial Services, News

NYC Hotels May Be Required to Have Bi-Annual Bed Bug Inspections

Mandatory Bed Bug Inspections For NYC Hotels

It was recently discovered that bed bug sightings in New York City hotels were up 44% between 2014 and 2015. Many of the sightings have been at some of the city’s largest, most upscale hotels. Fortunately, that discovery got the attention of several officials in the city council, and a new bill was introduced that proposes bed bug inspections by qualified personnel at all hotels every six months.

In addition, another bill is being introduced that will require the city to publish reports detailing bed bug metrics, including:

• The total number of bed bug complaints

• Bed bug violations in apartment buildings

• The amount of time infestations took to resolve

Under this bill, a map will be required to be published every three months that specifies the locations of bed bug complaints and their current status. In this way, the city will be able to keep tabs on problem areas and trends.

These bills are monumental, and they’re sure to create a significant amount of change for the people of New York City who are tired and frustrated over the bed bug problem that has been plaguing the city for the last several years.

Calling a NYC bed bug specialist is your best plan of action if you have a bed bug problem. Please contact us, your local NYC bed bug specialist, if you suspect an infestation. We’ll help you resolve it immediately.

Bed Bug Information, Bed Bug News, Bed Bugs, Commercial Services, News, Pest Control

Kids Learn About Bed Bug Prevention at School

Bed Bug Prevention Education

As your NJ bed bug specialist, we can tell you that schools can be a great place to pick up bed bugs. We get calls from a lot of parents who suspect that their children brought them home, and now there’s something that schools can do to help stop the spread of these horrific pests.

A new teaching curriculum is now available from the Jacksonville Bed Bug Task Force and the University of Florida, and it’s free of charge. The curriculum is called “Bed Bugs and Book Bags” and it contains 103 pages filled with a teacher’s guide, ten lesson plans, and lots of games and hands-on activities.

The best news is that pilot testing of the curriculum has shown amazing results. Fifth graders have demonstrated the most increases as far as their knowledge and understanding of bed bugs and how to prevent them. In fact, close to half of the people who downloaded this curriculum were not teachers; rather, their focus was on educating adults.

Integrated Pest Management is vitally important, and this new curriculum does an amazing job at it. The more we know about bed bugs, how to identify them, and most importantly how to prevent them, the better our chances will be at eradicating them for good.

If you have a bed bug problem in your home or your office, please contact us, your NJ bed bug specialist for immediate assistance.

Animal Control, Disease Carrying Pests, Nuisance Wildlife Control, Squirrels

Watch Out! Did You Know Squirrels May Be Carriers of Leprosy?

Make Sure Squirrels Don't Bite You!
Make Sure Squirrels Don’t Bite You!

Those cute little squirrels running to and fro, carrying and burying nuts, then running to get more, can certainly be entertaining. But when they make their home in your house or attic, well, they aren’t very cute anymore.

Besides being a major nuisance by chewing up woodwork, running around and sounding like a herd of elephants in your ceiling, or gnawing through wires, they can also carry diseases, and one of those is leprosy.

Red Squirrels

So far, only the red squirrel is known to carry the leprosy bacteria, and of those, only red squirrels in Great Britain are infected. There has been no known infection that has occurred when humans have been exposed to squirrels with leprosy, but that doesn’t mean it is beyond the realm of possibility.

The common grey squirrels, which are abundant on our eastern USA coast, don’t harbor the leprosy bacteria, but they can carry other diseases like salmonella, and they can also carry ticks that may be infected with Lyme disease. Regardless of what type of squirrel, it’s always better to keep them from making your house their home.

For questions about squirrels and how they can be controlled, please contact your NJ squirrel exterminator at Stern Environmental Group. We’re pest control experts and and a NJ squirrel exterminator that you can count on. Stern’s has been serving the NYC and New Jersey areas for over 17 years.

Bed Bug Information, Bed Bug News

Tropical Bed Bugs Surface in Florida for the First Time Since the 1940’s

Taking a Trip to Florida? Watch Out For Tropical Bed Bugs.
Taking a Trip to Florida? Watch Out For Tropical Bed Bugs.

Everyone has heard about the major bed bug infestations around New York and New Jersey. They seem to be everywhere, and the problem is only getting worse, which is why you need to call a NYC bed bug specialist for any infestation that occurs.

Well, thank goodness that in the northern hemisphere there is only one type of bed bug to worry about, called the common bed bug, because in Florida a nasty species of bed bug, called the tropical bed bug, has been found again after 60 years. They had largely been eliminated from the state, but are making a comeback and have grown resistant to pesticides.

The Differences

The biggest difference in each of these species is how they look before having a meal of blood.

Tropical bed bugs have a more pointed abdomen while common bed bugs have a rounded abdomen. However, after feeding both of their abdomens become distended and pointy, making each species harder to distinguish from each other.

Tropical bed bugs thrive in warmer climates, and experts are worried that since they have been found in Florida, they might begin to colonize the entire southern United States.

For questions about bed bug infestation and control, please contact your NYC bed bug specialist at Stern Environmental Group. We’re pest control experts and have been serving the NYC and New Jersey areas for nearly 20 years.