Pub. 3 2018 Issue 3

23 ISSUE 3 2018 Getting Rid of Bed Bugs If you or a tenant suspects the possible presence of bedbugs, you will ideally want verification. That means catching one. Have the tenant put the bedbug into a container that won’t leak, such as a glass jar. You might want to add a little rubbing alcohol in an attempt to kill the bedbug. Although rubbing alcohol can be toxic for bedbugs, the rubbing alcohol usually only affects 50 percent of them. As a result, don’t be surprised if the bedbug survives. If you or a tenant can’t find an actual bedbug after a visual inspection, try using a bedbug interceptor instead. It will need to be in place for a week, and can be passive (that is, it won’t have any attractants in it, making it safe for use around children and pets), but this sort of monitoring might succeed where a visual inspection failed. In addition, bedbug interceptors make it harder for bedbugs to climb furniture vertically in order to reach their human prey. You will want to get rid of bedbugs even if you are not absolutely sure they are there. This means teaching tenants what they can do, but it also means hiring a professional to do the job, too, because the task is harder than you might think. Many of the possible treatments are ineffective, can be unsafe if done incorrectly, or must be used in a specific way. Advice for the Tenants A tenant’s first reaction might be to throw away the infested bed, along with the bed linens that go with it. This is a bad idea. It is expensive, and if the bedbugs are still present, it is also ineffective. The only change for the tenant will be a new bed with bedbugs instead of an old one. Another possible reaction might be to start sleeping in a different location. Again, this is a bad idea. Since bedbugs rely on blood for food, they will follow their food source to the new location, and the infestation will continue its spread. What should a tenant do instead? Reclaim an infected bed by using the following instructions: 1. If the mattress has been on the floor, put it on a bedframe. 2. If the bed is touching a wall or other furniture, move it away. 3. Install bedbug interceptors under the feet of the bed. These are shallow cups that trap bedbugs and prevent them from climbing back onto your bed. 4. Buy covers to protect the mattresses and box springs against bedbugs. Good ones are tightly woven and are constructed so that the bedbugs will be trapped inside and won’t be able to bite anyone through the fabric. 5. Strip the infested bed and double-bag the bedding. 6. Vacuum the mattresses and box springs. Take the vacuum cleaner outside to empty it. If the tenant has a bag in the vacuum, the bag should be thrown away. 7. Put the new covers on the mattresses and the box springs. 8. Throw away the outer bag after the inner bag and the bedding are in the washing machine, because it might have bedbugs in it. Wash the inner bag and the bedding in hot water, and then dry them for half an hour. 9. Have a professional kill any bugs that might be hiding in the bed frame and the headboard. It is probably a good idea to also have a professional systematically treat the other rooms in the apartment. This might include putting different kinds of interceptors in other places, such as doorways, to prevent bedbugs from migrating to a new location. Your Plan of Action You can do several things to help prevent or stop bedbug infestations: • Educate tenants about bedbugs. It’s hard to recognize a problem if you don’t realize it is even there. Help them be more conscious about noticing problems while they are still small. You can easily do this by putting educational information on a website for the apartment or in a newsletter. It doesn’t have to be alarmist. Just focus on being matter- of-fact about an increasingly common problem. • Encourage tenants to let you know when they see a potential problem. • Teach them what they can effectively do on their own. This essentially consists of making sure that everyone in the apartment has a safe place to sleep, minus any bedbugs. • Hire professionals to treat affected apartments, as explained previously. • Continue to monitor apartments where bedbugs have been found previously. Professional treatment may or may not be successful at first, but if you teach tenants how to make their home a less hospitable place for bedbugs, you’ve just increased the chances for success. And although bedbugs are hard to get rid of, even for professionals, there’s just no substitute for a sustained, determined effort.