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Entrepreneurs see big bucks in tackling bed bugs
Source: Agencies |
September 30, 2011, Friday
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Print Edition
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SOME want to bake them. Others prefer to freeze them. Still others dehydrate them.
Inventors will try just about anything to kill bed bugs - reddish-brown, blood-sucking parasites that are invading hotels, homes, hospitals, offices and university dormitories.
The United States' obsession with bed bugs has led to a rush of entrepreneurs seeking profit from exterminating them, and 75 companies gathered this week hoping to launch the perfect bed bug killer.
"I never figured I'd be in Chicago for a bed bug conference. I never thought that in my wildest dreams," Mike Bourdeau, of Flynn Pest Control in Massachusetts, said at the second annual Bed Bug University.
Bourdeau said bed bug business is booming. It went from virtually zero percent of his company less than five years ago to 20 percent of what it brings in today. "It's probably going to be a big part of our business for the next 10 years," he said.
A study this year by University of Kentucky researchers and the National Pest Management Association showed 80 percent of surveyed pest control companies had treated hotels for bed bugs within a year, up from 67 percent a year ago.
More than 80 percent of surveyed companies said they believed bed bug infestations were on the rise.
Whether there are more bed bugs these days or just more publicity about them is hotly debated, but there is general agreement that the problem is here to stay.
"It will become like roaches and ants. It's not going anywhere. We will deal with bed bugs the rest of our lives," said Phillip Cooper, chief executive officer of BedBug Central, a research and information firm.
Companies at the conference showed search and destroy methods ranging from bug-sniffing dogs to vacuum-like machines that spout carbon dioxide to freeze the bugs.
The Bed Bug Baker features a heated tent to bake bed bugs at home. For hotel room infestations, there's an electric heater that can bake the whole room.
Another product is a dust made of crushed fossils called diatomaceous earth that can be sprinkled on floors. It kills bed bugs by dehydrating their shells as they walk through it.
While hotel infestations get the most attention, a new study conducted by the University of Kentucky showed college dormitories, nursing homes, hospitals and office buildings are the new battlegrounds. Pest control companies report double-digit growth from last year in treating bed bugs at each place.
"It's no longer going to be the hotels that are the problem," said Mike Lindsey, president of Bedbug Boxes. "So you're going to have to keep chasing it around and find that solution for that particular place."
Kenneth F Haynes, a professor who studies insect behavior at the University of Kentucky, said people have a stigma about bed bugs, and are often embarrassed to get help treating an infestation.
Inventors will try just about anything to kill bed bugs - reddish-brown, blood-sucking parasites that are invading hotels, homes, hospitals, offices and university dormitories.
The United States' obsession with bed bugs has led to a rush of entrepreneurs seeking profit from exterminating them, and 75 companies gathered this week hoping to launch the perfect bed bug killer.
"I never figured I'd be in Chicago for a bed bug conference. I never thought that in my wildest dreams," Mike Bourdeau, of Flynn Pest Control in Massachusetts, said at the second annual Bed Bug University.
Bourdeau said bed bug business is booming. It went from virtually zero percent of his company less than five years ago to 20 percent of what it brings in today. "It's probably going to be a big part of our business for the next 10 years," he said.
A study this year by University of Kentucky researchers and the National Pest Management Association showed 80 percent of surveyed pest control companies had treated hotels for bed bugs within a year, up from 67 percent a year ago.
More than 80 percent of surveyed companies said they believed bed bug infestations were on the rise.
Whether there are more bed bugs these days or just more publicity about them is hotly debated, but there is general agreement that the problem is here to stay.
"It will become like roaches and ants. It's not going anywhere. We will deal with bed bugs the rest of our lives," said Phillip Cooper, chief executive officer of BedBug Central, a research and information firm.
Companies at the conference showed search and destroy methods ranging from bug-sniffing dogs to vacuum-like machines that spout carbon dioxide to freeze the bugs.
The Bed Bug Baker features a heated tent to bake bed bugs at home. For hotel room infestations, there's an electric heater that can bake the whole room.
Another product is a dust made of crushed fossils called diatomaceous earth that can be sprinkled on floors. It kills bed bugs by dehydrating their shells as they walk through it.
While hotel infestations get the most attention, a new study conducted by the University of Kentucky showed college dormitories, nursing homes, hospitals and office buildings are the new battlegrounds. Pest control companies report double-digit growth from last year in treating bed bugs at each place.
"It's no longer going to be the hotels that are the problem," said Mike Lindsey, president of Bedbug Boxes. "So you're going to have to keep chasing it around and find that solution for that particular place."
Kenneth F Haynes, a professor who studies insect behavior at the University of Kentucky, said people have a stigma about bed bugs, and are often embarrassed to get help treating an infestation.
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