Bed Bug Compendium and Bed Bug Outreach Efforts, 2017

Abstract

Household bed bug infestations continue to occur in New York State and across the United States. Once mainly common in crowded urban areas, bed bugs have made their way to smaller communities, particularly in Upstate New York, where fewer resources exist for eradication, such as landlord funds and bed bug expertise in the pest management industry. In an effort to help all residents of New York and beyond to cope with bed bugs in an efficient and cost effective way, we designed the guidebook titled “How to Get Bed Bugs Out of Your Belongings”. This is a guide to non-chemical treatment of household items that would otherwise be discarded or overlooked as bed bug harborage, causing reinfestation. The goal is to help residents hang on to their possessions by eliminating bed bugs from them in safe, effective and affordable ways. Treating household items by washing, vacuuming, heating, and storage in isolation will help residents avoid costly replacement of items and reinfestation of bed bugs after professional household treatments (which are not applied to most personal belongings).