Steam is a valuable tool but one must recognize the limitations. For example, I can heat sterilize all the furniture in my mobile trailer, remove baseboards and treat those areas directly with chemicals, and still end up with large numbers of bugs in the glue board traps that avoided all these processes. I have […]

Back in 2008 a single course of Permethrin, mixed at label rates and applied as per label directions, could get rid of bed bugs in a single treatment. Sometimes I would treat a baseboard and find dead bed bugs less than 18 inches from the baseboard. The resistant ones made it a few feet. Over […]

Over the years I have noted that bed bug infestations are easier to treat if the tenant has a bed with box spring and legs. The bugs, at least in smaller infestations, start by infesting the raw wood and cloth folds in the mattress edges and box spring which reduces spread to other areas of […]

In the last few months I was privileged to be involved in treating two suites with slightly different beds. Both beds were melamine construction box frame (sitting on the floor) queen sized beds with wooden slats under the mattress (no box spring). Both suites were comparably infested with bugs limited more or less to the […]

One of my landlord customers has been monitoring a large building and one of the suites contained zero furniture except for a very small stuffed chair and a thin area carpet. The scant furniture and lack of obvious sleeping area created problems for monitoring so random flat trapper max glue boards were placed in the […]

Over the years I have noted that some people find it easy to follow instructions, some people find instructions difficult, and some outright refuse to follow instructions. Sometimes it is easy to figure out who can or can not follow instructions. For example a morbidly obese lady with no feet will have difficulty doing just […]

Having lived in Winnipeg’s inner city for 14 years I have gained a fair bit of “street” wisdom. For example when a woman asks you for the “time” it is simply a precursor to sexual solicitation. Or if a man panhandling on the corner with a sign that says “homeless – please help” it is […]

Over the years we have used glue board traps extensively and trained landlords on how to build and use them as well. We have noted that it is entirely possible, given the right circumstances and tenant cooperation, to remove all bed bugs from a suite with nothing more than heat sterilizing the beds and stuffed […]

There are a number of factors that influence how long a glue board will be effective at catching bed bugs. When new they work very well but age, UV damage, dirt, and the severity of the infestation play a role in their longevity. I have noted that glue boards exposed directly to sunlight turn yellow […]

We know that the bed bug metabolism speeds up in warmer temperatures causing more frequent feeding and shorter life span. On one occasion I took advantage of that quirk when a man in care facility insisted on keeping his suite at 30 celcius on a regular basis. The infestation was well advanced which usually means […]