The Bed Bug Nightmare.

Imagine going away to college to begin your path to life and a career. You get to your new dorm room, home and life and begin to settle in. Life is exciting and wonderful, that is, until you start to notice a rash. You change detergents and soaps and deodorants thinking that maybe you have become allergic. You wonder if it is poison ivy or if you are just coming down with a virus. I would almost prefer the virus. You finally begin to put two and two together and find your dorm room is infested with bed bugs. Let me rephrase that, your dorm. These critters have invaded your personal belongings. They are in your book bag or purse, they are in your clothing, they are everywhere. The most disturbing thing to deal with is when you begin to realize that you have visited friends and family over the several months you have been trying to figure out what this mysterious rash was. You friend now has bed bugs, and when you go home for spring break you find them in your bed there. They have spread like the virus mentioned earlier except there is no easy way to get rid of them. The pure expense and physical labor that is involved in eradicating bed bugs is enormous. What was supposed to be the beginning of a bright future has become a nightmare. The mental anguish is overwhelming, your grades start to suffer, you relationships are strained and the embarrassment of the bed bug problem has made you an outcast, after all, you can't risk any more of your friends or relative getting this problem because of you.

Now wake up...was it really a just a nightmare?

Bed bugs are reported to affect one in five Americans. It is a problem that is going to become way worse before it gets any better. Your best defence is a strong offense. Be educated and diligent and use preventative measures.

College Bed Bugs

Bed bugs are going back to school! They are going to graduate with a degree in organizational management. Bed bugs are on their way to becoming a way of life for college students across the country as the bed bug epidemic grows in vast proportions across dorm rooms and apartments across the US of A. We are almost of the philosophy that getting bed bugs in your dorm room, apartment buildings and even your home is not "if" you get bed bugs but "when" you get bed bugs. The transient nature of students makes the dorm room the perfect storm for bed bugs to grow and travel and spread and the unfortunate fact is that these bugs will travel with the student to their homes, to the movie theater they went to on Friday night and the restaurant or bar they went to on Saturday night. Bed bugs are here to stay and it is time to organize to stop them. What are your thoughts?

Don't Bring Bed Bugs Home With You

Getting ready for a home visit to see mom and dad? Be careful not to bring bed bugs home with you. I would suggest changing your packing regiment. Instead of packing an overnight bag, get a few large trash bags ready. Now go to the laundry area and launder all the clothing you are planning on taking home and dry them on the highest heat setting. Don't forget to do the same with your sneakers and winter coat. After they are dry, put the cloths into the trash bag and then into your trunk. Leave right from the laundry mat with your freshly cleaned cloths. This will kill any potential hitch hiking bed bugs that might have gotten into your sneakers or cloths pockets and will eliminate the possibility of bringing them home to mom and dad.

Bed Bugs Get An A+

Bed bugs have gotten top grades for their skills in the infiltration of dorm rooms at college campuses. With the transient nature of students and the fact that they rotate at least every four years years if not sooner in and out of these dorm rooms makes it a perfect storm for bed bugs to get in and reek havoc. All it takes is a student's friend to come over to their room to study and one bed bug hitch hiking on that students book bag and bang, another bed bug infestation. Is there a way around this spread of bed bugs? Not really. It seems like we are getting to the point in our bed bug lives where we are going to have to learn to co-exist with these little buggers.

Do Bed Bugs Like College Life?

Bed bugs are life long learners, in fact, they are professional students. Back to School time is here and the sorry reality is that bed bugs are back and back strong! These critters have infiltrated the dorms rooms of Wake Forest, NYU, North Carolina, Missouri State,just to name a few. These are all recent infestations as reported in the news for this school year. How scary is that? They have moved into colleges across the country and are not going anywhere and what is worse, if the students are not aware of the infestation and they go home with an overnight bag, these bugs can hitch hike home. Now mom and dad have the problem. It is a problem that is wide spread and getting worse and the college dorm room scene is where the bed bugs are hot to trot.

Living With Bed Bugs

Are we at the point of defeat in this battle of the bed bug? Can we as Americans say that? It looks like these days we are at the very least, challenged. With the fact that bed bugs are resistant to the chemicals out there to kill them, and the fact that the EPA is not being very cooperative to let some old chemicals that may work better come back into production, it looks like we may have to learn to live with a control bed bugs rather than eliminate them. Of course there are other treatments like thermal remediation or heat treatments for bed bugs and fumigation, these procedures are often very expensive and out of reach for the common American. Even companies and colleges want to be cost conscience and limit the higher cost treatments, opting for the traditional controls. The reason for this is because you have to have a 3-D approach to treating these kinds of units. You need to treat the adjacent dorm rooms, above, below, and side to side. The cost to heat treat potentially 5 dorm rooms can be upwards of seven thousand dollars, which can make the elimination of bed bugs cost prohibitive. This is why it is important to monitor and try to catch a bed bug infestation early because the earlier the bed bug is found the easier it is to get rid of them. As much as I hate to say it, until we find a "silver bullet" to kill these bugs, we may have to learn to live with them.

Bed Bug Monitor for Dorm Rooms

There is a devise that is a perfect tool to monitor whether you have active bed bugs in your bed or trying to climb onto your bed. The device is called a Climb Up Interceptor. It's a simple round "coaster" type piece of plastic with an outside and inside well. It is coated with a powder that is slippery and does not allow the bug to crawl out of it. You put the climb up under your bed frame legs. They are cheap and simple, but well worth the investment.