Bed Bug Awareness Week

Bug bug awareness week logo - keep pests away from your home with Johnson Pest Control in TNWith summer travel season quickly approaching, the National Pest Management Association (NPMA) has declared June 7-13 as Bed Bug Awareness Week to remind the public that vigilance is key to quelling a potential bed bug infestation this summer. We are proud to take part in this important public education effort and encourages travelers to brush up on bed bug basics before packing their bags and hitting the road.

Bed bugs are still a pervasive problem, and they can be especially problematic for travelers due to their hitchhiking nature. These biting pests are easily transported from one place to another in belongings, such as suitcases, which means travelers must exercise caution during and after their trips.

In fact, new research by NPMA and the University of Kentucky found that 99.6 percent of pest control professionals have treated for bed bugs within the past year, with 75 percent reporting bed bugs in hotels and motels.

At Johnson Pest Control we have a few bits of advice to vacationers to help ensure they don’t bring home bed bugs as an unwanted souvenir.

  • At hotels, thoroughly inspect the entire room before unpacking, including behind the headboard and in furniture. Pull back the bed sheets and check the mattress seams and box springs for pepper-like stains that may be evidence of bed bug activity.
  • If you suspect an infestation or problem, notify management and change rooms immediately. Be sure the new room is not adjacent to or directly below or above the possibly infested room.
  • Keep suitcases in plastic trash bags or protective covers during a hotel stay to prevent bed bugs from nesting there. Do not put them on the beds.
  • Upon returning home from a trip, inspect all suitcases and other belongings before bringing them into the house.
  • Wash all clothes – even those that have not been worn – in hot water and dry them using an extra-hot dryer setting

For more information on bed bugs check out our extensive amount of write ups on the little blood suckers. If you suspect an infestation of any level give us a call. 

Bed Bug Awareness Week

Apparently there is a week (or day/month) for just about everything. This week is Bed Bug Awareness week. Seriously. No joke, it is bed bug awareness week.

Suppose that Bed Bug Awareness Week isn’t as crazy as “Pig in a Blanket Day” (yes, that is this week as well).

So we thought we’d comb around the internet to find some solid resources as well as some funny/gross (depends on your level of bug love or hate) things as well.

Johnson Pest Control on Bed Bugs

We cover bed bugs quite a bit on this site.

Bed Bugs

This is a great short video by National Geographic that gives you a quick dose of information on the bed bug.

Bed Bug Facts

Need a quick list of facts about bed bugs. PestWorld provides a bed bug facts sheet that covers many of the main facts and tips with these blood suckers.

Bed Bug TV

Of course if there is a Bed Bug Awareness Week then there has to be a TV show. Makes total sense right? Maybe not. Jeff, who is a friend, has an ongoing web video series on bed bug solutions, information, and general topics. Recent releases that you might have helpful are his videos on college issues (which can be a hotbed for bed bugs, no pun intended) as well as a DIY bug monitor.

PEST TV

Not to be outdone, PestWorld has their own youtube series to check out. Cool part of many of these videos is that they are educational and kid friendly. The Pest Quest series is part of PestWorldForKids.org efforts. You can find more straight forward videos on things like ‘signs for bed bugs‘ as well on this channel.

All Things Bed Bugs

PestWorld has grouped together on this page all things they have as well as recent news links to anything associated with bed bugs. Now this might be a bit overload for the casual bed bug awareness week observer. But for those of us hard-core BBAW fans it’s a treasure.

BedBugRegistry.com

We’ve mentioned BedBugRegistry.com many times before. It’s a handy little database for those traveling or renters that around the country (and a bit of Canada) on instances of bed bugs. It is not telling you that you need to avoid each and every place mentioned. It is more to help us be aware of problems, opportunity to ask good questions, and choose places that deal with the problems they have.

Bed Bug Infestation

Here’s a bit of an ‘anatomy of infestation’ that can happen if bed bugs are ignored or not picked up on early enough. The article is provided by our National Pest Management Assoc. website PestWorld.

#BedBugWeek

In what might actually be an overdose of bed bug information you can check out the Twitter stream associated with bed bug awareness week. You have a number of local, national and maybe even global institutions throwing out factoids about bed bugs all week.