Cooper, Hardigree Provide Bed Bug Seminar Attendees with Plenty of Food for Thought

Rick Cooper

ORLANDO, Fla. - As bed bugs continue their rapid spread throughout the U.S., there is a greater need to not only learn more about these pests and their control, but to understand implications for being involved in this line of work. It’s for these reasons that more than 75 pest management professionals and other industry professionals attended the PCT Bed Bug Seminar in Orlando on Tuesday.

Attendees heard from Rick Cooper, technical director of Cooper Pest Solutions and Christian Hardigree, a bed bug legal expert, as well as insurance expert Andy McGinty of LIPCA and industry consultants Jim Warneke and Austin Frishman.

Cooper kicked off the seminar by reviewing the recent history with bed bugs. In Cooper’s opinion, the nationwide outbreak of bed bugs could have been avoided if a public awareness campaign would have been launched 10 years ago, when initial outbreaks were being reported.

One of the biggest challenges with bed bugs is that they still are not classified as a public health pest, although in Cooper’s opinion they should be, noting that “they may not transmit disease, but to people suffering from a bed bug infestation, it is an emotional experience,” he said. For example, Cooper listed just a few of the issues people suffering from a bed bug infestation report:

Embarrassment and/or shame

Afraid to have guests or to visit friends and family

Loss of property from discarded furniture

Can’t sleep and have nightmares

Performance at school/work affected from lack of sleep

Uncontrollable itching and disfiguring scars

While Cooper pointed out that bed bug jobs vary based on any number of factors, including structure type, the type of clientele inhabiting a building, etc., there are certain things pest management professionals must keep in mind when doing this type of work.

Always be thinking and evaluating throughout every visit you make

No two bed bug jobs are the same

Where are people sleeping?

What are the various human behaviors in the environment affecting bed bug distribution?

How were the bed bugs introduced?

Don’t become complacent – “The minute you become complacent with bed bugs they do something different," Cooper said. "It’s a lesson we should have learned with cockroaches.”

Confirm that it is a bed bug. “For example, sometimes clients (or PMPs) mistakenly misidentify bat bugs or brown dog ticks as bed bugs,” he said.

Similarly, Cooper provided attendees with common sense tips when making the: 1) the initial service; and 2) follow-up visits.

“The goal of the intial service is to crash numbers — eliminate as many bugs and eggs as possible within the time we have allotted to us," Cooper said. "We need to understand the areas of infestation. This is going to require a thorough inspection and a little detective work to understand the behaviors of the people living in that environment."

In addition to inspecting beds, pest management professionals need to: Identify anyone who sleeps on the floor; identify any other sleeping or resting areas; try to identify the source of introduction; once all of the areas are identified, implement appropriate measures.

The goal of follow-up visits is to eliminate every last bug, said Cooper, who provided these tips for performing effective follow-up visits.:

Reinspect all sleeping/resting areas

Check integrity encasements (note if they are ripped, torn or worn)

Inspect any areas where bugs were observed on the last visit

Inspect any areas where the client has seen bugs or believes they suffered bites

“Step back” and look for things that you may have missed; new items that may have been introduced

Inform client of any new cooperative measures that are necessary

Implement chemical and non-chemical measures as necessary

If problem is persisting beyond what you expected, bring in a "new set of eyes."

Christian Hardigree

Attendees then heard from Christian Hardigree, assistant to the president, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and a former trial attorney who is an expert in bed bug litigation. Hardigree reviewed the legal pitfalls inherent in today's litigious society and discussed key legal and liability aspects of the bed bug issue.

Hardigree provided attendees with advice for staying out of bed bug-related legal troubles. For example, when arriving on site to perform a bed bug inspection and a customer asks if their residence/property is infested with bed bugs, don’t just look at the suspected insect and say “yes.” “Bag and tag it,” Hardigree suggested, emphasizing the importance of getting a positive ID on the bug (by an expert who can review it under a microscope). Hardigree also reviewed with attendees a list of do’s and don’ts.
Don’ts

Ignore a complaint

Assume person is lying

Overstate effectiveness of  a treatment

Misrepresent costs

Ignore early signs of an infestation

Be rude to the customer

Blame others

Do’s

Educate the client

Encourage education of their clientele

Be detailed, honest and thorough

Document (for example, use a 35 mm camera when taking pictures because digital images can be altered)

Make sure you sign all documents and get signatures

Review all documents and advertising with an attorney. “Hire an attorney before getting into this line of work.”

Be responsive when you become aware that a technician is making mistakes. Hardigree said a common mistake is wanting to give second and third chances to an underperforming service professional. In many cases it is better to fire that person.

The afternoon session included presentations from insurance expert Andy McGinty of LIPCA and industry consultants Jim Warneke and Austin Frishman. McGinty, who has been involved in the insurance business for more than 25 years, also provided useful hands-on information, including stressing the importance of inspecting adjacent rooms/property in multi-family/multi-purpose dwellings. “Over half of the lawsuits we’ve dealt with have come not from the rooms that were treated, but from adjacent rooms,” he said.

Warneke, who was responsible for the pest management program for the entire Walt Disney World Property in central Florida, shared some of his experiences with bed bugs and reviewed some of the procedures Disney took when dealing with a bed bug infestation. For example, when removing bed bug-infested items from a room (e.g., mattresses, couches) Disney service technicians would first entirely wrap up and seal the items in plastic so that bed bugs would not be inadvertently spread.

Longtime industry consultant Frishman provided 13 challenges for which the pest control industry should be aware.

Challenges to watch for
1. Fatigue in service technicians — “They will burn out. It is hard work. It’s a lot easier to do residential work or pest control in an office building. They may start out enthusiastic, but bed bug work is hard, hard, work. Consider rotating your people.”
2. Clutter and lack of cooperation. “It exists and it is a reality, just like it is with cockroach control, so your service has to be on an ongoing basis, whether it’s on a monthly or quarterly basis."
3. People in charge say not it’s not a public health threat. “We know it’s a public health threat, but people in public health don’t see it that way, and it’s because it’s a funding issue.
4. How you advertise. “One of my hobbies is reading the Yellow Pages throughout the country and I am horrified with what I see from some pest control operators.”
5. Contracts that you write up. “What some pest control operators are doing now is requiring a separate contact for each apartment."
6. Bringing bed bugs back into service vehicles, the office and home. “Have a procedure specifically written out for your workers.”
7. Insect phobia. “People thinking they have bed bugs when they do not. You are going to get calls from people with head lice, for example.”
8. Dogs. “Why do I think dogs are a challenge? We are in the state of Florida, and if you follow your WDO forms, like you are supposed to, you could be opening yourself up for liability because you are going beyond what you say. They are going to say ‘Why didn’t use the dog on every job? Why didn’t you use the dog to inspect every piece of wood?’ It’s frustrating to me because I know they are a valuable tool.”
9. Overuse of pesticides
10. Destroying the apartment. “You’re taking apartment the apart. There is the possibility that items can be broken. You need to explain to the client what you will be doing.”
11. Clients taking away items from the apartment (prior to it being serviced). “Clients sneak out items, then bring them back after the service is done, and those are the items that are infested.”
12. Monitors. “Yes or no? It’s new science, but the question you are going to get is ‘Why did you not use them in all of the places?”
13. Online misinformation. Frishman noted that there is a lot of misinformation out there on products such as Vapona strips. Specifically, there are online discussions about Vapona being corrosive to electronics. Industry consultant Paul Bello said that the DDVP in the Nuvan Pro Strips is never going build up to the concentration that is going to create any corrosive residue on printed circuit boards.

Sponsors of this year’s PCT Bed Bug Seminars were: Amvac, BASF Pest Control Solutions, Brandenburg UK (Bed Bug Alert), Cimex Science, Hi-Tech Cleaning, Mattress Safe, MGK, Pest Heat, Protect-A-Bed, Sterifab, Susan McNight, Inc., ThermaPure, ThermEx, Temp Air and Zoecon Professional Products.