Bed Bugs Keeping Las Vegas PCOs Busy

LAS VEGAS – Just how busy are bed bugs keeping Las Vegas PCOs? When PCT reached out to Kevin Kellogg, owner of Vegas-based Kellogg Pest Control, he responded, “I’m actually on my way back from a bed bug job.”

Kellogg treats hotel-casinos as well as other commercial properties and, “We’ve definitely seen an uptick,” particularly in non-casinos, he said. “With [hotel-casinos] beg bug service requests go with the territory. If one bed bug is found, the hotel-casinos, understandably, want to take all necessary precautions. But we are getting more requests in other commercial accounts, too.”

One of the drivers for bed bug requests, Kellogg said, is media coverage. For example, Newsweek.com recently released a “Full List of Las Vegas Hotels With Bed Bugs Found by Inspectors.” Kellogg said it’s not unusual for him to receive a call from an account such as a rehab facility with residents complaining of bed bug bites “and when we arrive there are no signs, no excrement, nothing. We’ll talk to the residents and it turns out they were getting bitten by a mosquito or [other insect].”

Another PCO who acknowledged that media coverage is at least partially responsible for increased calls is Joey Toth, owner of Pitbull Pest Control, Las Vegas. “Yeah, it is a hot-button topic,” he said. “I mean if bed bugs show up at a Victoria’s Secret, it’s going to make the news.”

But Toth said that media coverage is only part of the story; the city’s rebound from COVID is the other driving force. “Las Vegas has re-opened, and more importantly the rest of the world has re-opened and they've started traveling again,” Toth said. “We are a destination hub, so the rest of the world is going to bring their stuff with them. As you know, bed bugs are hitchhikers and they come with people.”

Beckie Shudinis, manager of Burns Pest Eliminations, Las Vegas branch, also attributed the company’s rise in bed bug work to COVID recovery. “With more travel happening this year I am sure [hotel-casinos] are seeing more bed bugs in the hotel rooms,” she said. “We started getting more calls after the holidays and when people have visited family or traveled.” Shudinis said that in addition to casinos, Burns' Las Vegas office has received calls from commercial accounts, apartments and residential homes. 

A challenge facing PCOs in Las Vegas are resistant strains of bed bugs, a result of misapplications of residual insecticides, Toth said. "So if a family is traveling from, say Ohio, and they had a low cost, low quality, non-thorough application, it's possible that they bring with them a resistant strain of bed bugs," Toth said. In situations where Pitbull has encountered resistant bed bugs, the company will fumigate, Toth added.

Toth said that almost three-quarters into 2023 and the number of calls Pitbull has received for bed bugs has doubled. This comes after 2022, in which bed bug calls doubled from the previous year (2021), he said.