“Thinking” Like Bed Bugs Will Help You Kill Them Effectively

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One of the things that our customers bring up to us the most when calling in for orders is the question: “How do I eliminate bed bugs completely?” The answer: “It’s not easy.” To rid your home of bed bugs once they’ve arrived, you need to make sure you use the right tools and employ the right methods.

An article in Pest Control Technology magazine written by Dr. Michael Potter of the University of Kentucky recently pointed out that people need to “think like a bed bug” in order to try to prevent and kill bed bugs. It provides some tips to help us to determine some best tactics when fighting bed bugs. As Sun Tzu, an ancient Chinese military strategist widely credited as the author of The Art ofWar, stated around 512 B.C: “to defeat the enemy, you must know the enemy.”

Like a lot of things in life, getting the proper perspective is important in being able to get a handle on how to address a situation. In this instance, it was about how to learn more about bed bugs and how to better control them.

Dr. Potter’s article discussed tracks of individual bed bugs in a laboratory test arena. Bed bugs cover a lot of ground at night even when not stimulated by a host (top image). Note how they tend to follow the edges of the test arena. Movement is more directed when a heat source warmed to human body temperature is provided (bottom image). (Haynes et al. 2008, PestWorld)

What does this mean when treating for bed bugs?

It means that treating the edges, joints and seams offers you a better chance to kill bed bugs than simply treating the surface. Some typical areas that need to get sprayed: baseboards, carpet edges, joints, seams and edges of sofas, chairs, mattresses and bed frames.

Once bed bugs find a host, they tend to move directly toward it because they know there’s a meal. So spraying around sleeping areas 1-2 hours before bed time will reduce issues of biting and kill more bed bugs. Treat around your mattress, along the legs of bed frames, and anywhere your bed touches the floor … that will increase the chance that bed bug getting in contact with EcoRaider liquid, which is the key to kill them.

EcoRaider is a proven green product that had the best performance against bed bugs of all natural products tested, according to an independent study done by Rutgers University. Pest Management Professionals (PMPs) are trained in how to kill bed bugs, but for consumers, you need to “think” like bed bugs.

There is another short cut, that is to download the treatment instruction and watch the demonstration video before treatment. Both are available by clicking here.

To read Dr. Potter’s full article, click here.

Green Bed Bug Product, EcoRaider, Draws Rave Reviews at Public Housing Conference

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EcoRaider, the pest control industry’s top green solution for controlling bed bugs and other insects got rave reviews at a national public housing administrators conference in Las Vegas.

PHADA, the Public Housing Authorities Directors Association, held its annual convention in Las Vegas and EcoRaider was a central figure since it is widely used by public housing executives from around the country. EcoRaider was well received because it kills bed bugs quickly with minimum risk and environmental impact, giving housing authorities a ready-to-use product that delivers long-lasting performance with a fast control of the infestations.

Public housing is plagued by bed bugs. Tenants typically have a transient background, so they have been on the move more than most people and have a greater chance of coming into contact with bed bugs.

EcoRaider has helped public housing authorities control bed bugs quickly and effectively. Officials turn to EcoRaider because it kills fast and leaves a strong residual.

Debra Krueger is the Executive Director of The Mercer County Housing Authority in western Illinois. She depends on EcoRaider and considers it a powerful tool to protect the tenants of her public housing units.

“EcoRaider is a great product for us,” Krueger said. “It’s really important to have a green product because we have elderly and disabled residents. Not only has this worked for us in helping kill bed bugs and other insects but it has made my employees feel better. That’s been huge for us.”

New York is one of the areas of the country hardest hit by bed bugs. Robert Landry, Executive Director of The Glens Falls Housing Authority, uses EcoRaider to keep bed bugs from his tenants.

“It’s big to us and we’re tree huggers so we’re environmental by nature. It’s also a protocol that we bid that out every three years that they use chemicals that are environmentally friendly. We attempt to do that with everything we do and that’s why EcoRaider is good as a green product. It works great for us.”

Martha Carlson, Owner of Maritech Pest Control, uses EcoRaider when she protects The Brunswick Housing Authority in Brunswick, Georgia.

“We started used EcoRaider as a contact, quick knockdown type of application, mainly in areas where there were not enough bed bugs to warrant breaking out a vacuum cleaner. EcoRaider’s knockdown is superb.”

Studies have shown that bed bugs are developing a resistance to pesticides. In tough areas like public housing, having a product that delivers performance immediately is important. In 2014 USDA’s IR4 PHP Program confirmed EcoRaider’s performance in a field study by research entomologists for eradicating bed bug infestations in public housing buildings.

In addition to being a popular bio-insecticide with consumers, EcoRaider is used frequently in hotels, hospitals, cruise ships, multi-family, senior living and assisted-living facilities.

About EcoRaider
EcoRaider is a highly efficacious botanical-based broad spectrum bio-insecticide with proven effectiveness for bed bug control. It can be applied anywhere bed bugs are found without restriction. EcoRaider can be used in various settings, including schools, health-care facilities and public spaces.

For more information, visit https://ecoraiderusa.com/ or call 1-800-338-0212. Also, follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Be Prepared for Ant Season!

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How many times have you left a crumb or a drop of something sugary on the counter and then later noticed ants were present? Everyone has! It’s the season that ants are now foraging and looking for food indoors again – so you’ll notice a good number of ants starting to reach the perimeter of your home, near every entry door as well as around the entire outside of your home.

It doesn’t matter if you live in an apartment or a single-family home, perimeter ants are an issue. EcoRaider is the solution to help you with an all-natural method for killing perimeter ants on contact! EcoRaider is ideal for ant control for a number of reasons:
• Kills ants on contact in 1 minute!
• Repels ants for up to 4 weeks
• Prevents ants from entering a structure
• Disrupts ant trails and feeding
Remember, EcoRaider is safe for children and pets, making it the ideal ant and bed bug control product for the home. It can be used both throughout the home – even in sensitive areas like the kitchen – as well as around the home’s exterior.

For more information, call (201) 751-0011. Also, like our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Why Natural Pest Control is The Healthy Choice

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While there are a lot of companies that will tell you that a pest control product is not going to perform if it is natural or green, that is not the case. In fact, there have been many solutions for pest issues over the years that have been pesticide free.

What’s important about a green pest control product is that it reduces the effect that a pesticide has on both human beings and pets. Green pest control products – like EcoRaider, for example – deliver a solution that is not only good for the environment, but it’s safe for people of all ages and pets, as well.

Pesticides, however, cannot make that same claim. According to Penn State University, the long-term effects of pesticide exposure and poisoning can range from a mild skin irritation to a coma to death. In many cases, the school stated, overexposure to pesticides leads to chronic coughing, wheezing and sneezing.

Respiratory symptoms and problems are another effect from exposure to pesticides. But with the advent of high-performing green products like EcoRaider, you can limit your pesticide exposure by choosing to use a product that the professionals in pest control consider to be the best performing green product in the industry.

EcoRaider proves its value from a natural standpoint in a number of ways:

  • All natural ingredients – a bio-insecticide that simply works.
  • Pests cannot become resistant to EcoRaider because it is green. Bugs and insects typically only resist man-made pesticides.
  • Groundwater contamination is lessened significantly with reduced pesticide use because green pest control products are natural and organic.
  • Eliminates the possibility of oral, inhalation and eye exposure to a chemical not meant to be in contact with the human body.

EcoRaider is a ready-to-use, naturally derived bio-insecticide that can be applied anywhere bed bugs are found without restriction. EcoRaider can be used in various environments, including schools, health-care facilities and public spaces.

 

For more information, call (201) 751-0011. Also, like our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Chicago-Based Rose Pest Solutions Relies on Using EcoRaider® to Control Bed Bugs

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For the fourth year, Chicago has been placed on top of the list of cities with the worst bed bug problems. For Rose Pest Solutions, it’s nothing new.

What has been new is the use of EcoRaider bio-insecticide as a green, natural solution for bed bugs. Rose handles much of northern Illinois and has affiliated pest control firms in other nearby markets such as northern Indiana.

According to Bill Hastings, Director of Special Services for Rose Pest Solutions Chicago, EcoRaider has made a big difference in their bed bug protocol.

“We use EcoRaider as part of our heat treatment services for bed bugs,” he said. “We spray EcoRaider before applying heat to immediately knock down the bed bug populations … EcoRaider has helped us increase our percent control and reduce our bed bug callbacks.”

Hastings says that his technicians tried out the product and came back requesting to use it regularly and that’s how Rose implemented it into its program.

“I gave it to several of our technicians to use and their feedback was, ‘We want more of this stuff,’ which is usually a sign it works,” said Hastings. “I went out and tested it myself and had bed bugs dying four to six seconds after coming in contact with the product which impressed me.

“It acts quickly and fits into our integrated approach to bed bug management that includes heat and conventional pesticide treatments,” says Hastings. “We take it with us on our inspection visits and if we spot bed bugs can we apply it to stop the spread of the infestation and provide the customer with some immediate emotional relief.”

EcoRaider, available at distributors throughout the country, quickly kills bed bugs on all stages without adversary environmental effects. The product, named “the most effective bio-insecticide for bed bugs” by Entomological Society of America-published lab data in the Journal of Economic Entomology, offers PMPs a variety of benefits. Its uncompromising field performance comparing to leading pesticides are proven in recent report by USDA IR4 Public Health Pesticide Program.

EcoRaider offers ready-to-use, naturally derived bio-insecticide that can be applied anywhere bed bugs are found without restriction. EcoRaider can be used in various sensitive environments, including schools, health-care facilities and public spaces.

College Cities Continue to Experience a Rise in Bed Bugs as EcoRaider® Kills in the Hardest Hit Markets

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One of the most aspects of colleges and universities that bed bugs have going for them is the transient nature of students. As each new semester and school year comes and goes, so do new students – some from throughout the country and others from international destinations.

What this does is create a major opportunity for bed bugs to travel from person to person, dorm to dorm and in many cases, university to university. For the last 10 years, bed bugs have experienced a major comeback that has become a tremendous financial problem for colleges and universities.

Each year, a major pest control firm ranks the top bed bug cities, with the top being the worst city in the country based on the amount of bed bug jobs that were performed there. For the 4th year, Chicago has been given that dubious distinction.

In Chicago and surrounding areas, students attend Northwestern, DePaul, Loyola, the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago among several other universities and colleges in this top bed bug market.

And while this problem has really been listed more as an epidemic in the greater Chicago area, one firm has found a true solution to managing bed bugs.

Rose Pest Solutions, one of the leading pest control firms in the Midwest, has been using EcoRaider Natural Bio-Insecticide to protect its clients from bed bugs. Bill Hastings, Director of Special Services for Rose Pest Solutions Chicago, says EcoRaider has made a big difference in their bed bug protocol.

“We use EcoRaider as part of our heat treatment services for bed bugs,” he said. “We spray EcoRaider before applying heat to immediately knock down the bed bug populations … EcoRaider has helped us increase our percent control and reduce our bed bug callbacks.

“I gave it to several of our technicians to use and their feedback was, ‘We want more of this stuff,’ which is usually a sign it works,” said Hastings. “I went out and tested it myself and had bed bugs dying four to six seconds after coming in contact with the product which impressed me.

“It acts quickly and fits into our integrated approach to bed bug management that includes heat and conventional pesticide treatments,” says Hastings. “We take it with us on our inspection visits and if we spot bed bugs can we apply it to stop the spread of the infestation and provide the customer with some immediate emotional relief.”

On the top list of bed bug cities, Chicago is followed by Los Angeles, Washington D.C., New York and Columbus, Ohio to round out the top five – or the worst five. Those four additional cities are home to schools such as USC, UCLA, Loyola Marymount, NYU, Columbia, Fordham, St. John’s, George Washington, Georgetown, American and The Ohio State University – not to mention smaller universities, colleges and technical schools.

STUDENT FRIENDLY

EcoRaider is unlike most products on the market, it is a natural, green solution that does not stain linens or bedding and is safe for college students. It is used in many sensitive areas because it is safe for use – especially dorms

EcoRaider, available online, quickly kills bed bugs on all stages without adversary environmental effects. It is also available to professional pest control operators through national distributors. It demonstrates as the only natural product that kills bed bugs with 100% efficacy based on a research paper published by The Entomological Society of America’s Journal of Economic Entomology – it allows bed bug control with a green, natural product.

EcoRaider offers ready-to-use, naturally derived bio-insecticide that can be applied anywhere bed bugs are found without restriction. EcoRaider can be used in various sensitive environments, including schools, health-care facilities and public spaces.

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Dealing with Bed Bugs? Interview with the Glens Falls Housing Authority

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This month’s EcoRaider Interview is with Robert Landry, Executive Director of the Glens Falls Housing Authority. Situated on the eastern edge of New York, Glens Falls is about 60 minutes north of Albany and three hours north of Manhattan.

ECO: How much of a problem are bed bugs?

RL: They’re a big problem and in many cases everyone has the wrong impression of what bed bugs are. If you have bed bugs in the building everyone panics and in the community they decide they aren’t sending their mom or their dad to that specific senior housing facility. So there’s an overreaction and then the second problem is prevention. You can’t control where people go when they leave your buildings. It’s very easy to feel you’ve eradicated all of the bed bugs and we’ve come to the conclusion as long as we provide education and detection that’s the best we can do. That’s what everyone does and that’s how you control bed bugs but just having them is a black eye that we all in this industry have to deal with.

ECO: How did bed bugs first become a problem for you?

RL: Originally we hired a heat guy and that blew them throughout the building. So we put up a gallant battle and once we got them under control, our staff started using detection devices and monitors and we developed a plan where our maintenance people were checking for bed bugs more often. Do we still have bed bugs time to time? Absolutely. Do we still have hysteria in the building? Absolutely not. It cost us a lot of money in the beginning but I think we have a good plan and program in place.

ECO: How did you hear of EcoRaider?

RL: A friend of mine in New York City has a pest control company and he gave me a lot of suggestions and he said to get EcoRaider until the exterminating company can get here since we aren’t in the middle of a big city. That has really worked and helped kill the bed bugs quickly. We’ve also used your enewsletter to help educate our tenants to show them we have a protocol in place and that EcoRaider is a part of it. We have some used high capacity dryers now so we can take items to a special place to heat their clothes to eradicate bed bugs.

ECO: Where are most of the bed bugs found?

RL: The largest infestation was in the bedroom, second would be the living room area in most cases. The majority of bed bugs were found in bedrooms though and on whatever piece of furniture the residents frequent the most.

ECO: Are there any trends regarding bed bugs?

RL: The trend that I’ve found is that bed bugs have been coming from primarily our active tenants who go out in the community every day rather than those who just go to the grocery store, for example. So we’ve sat down with those who frequent social clubs and those who frequent facilities that provide mental health services because both have people coming and going from areas that may have no pest management.

ECO: Do you use encasements?

RL: Yes.  It’s been hard to tell if just one thing is effective so we regularly monitor and treat quickly. It’s been hard to say that works well but from everyone we talk to it encasements seem to be a good thing. Our protocol is about quick inspections and responding quickly to a bed bug – we provide large bags for mattresses and box springs and furniture so we can do what we can to control any further spreading of the problem.

ECO: How important is it to have a Green or Natural bed bug solution?

RL: It’s big to us and we’re tree huggers so we’re environment by nature. It’s also a protocol that we bid that out every three years that they use chemicals that are environmentally friendly. We attempt to do that with everything we do and that’s why EcoRaider is good as a green product. The reason we do that is because senior citizens don’t want us to spray a bunch of chemicals so we go out of our way to provide a green solution.

ECO: How have you used EcoRaider?
RL: If we have bed bugs then our guys can take EcoRaider and they can spray a little around if there’s been traffic to kill the bed bugs immediately. We’ll put a little here or there as a preventative product too.

ECO: Is having a product that’s preventative important?

RL: Yes absolutely. To me it’s top of the list. We are now proactive and looking for problems to solve them immediately and if someone has seen a bed bug there’s a good possibility if we get in there we might be able to isolate the location quickly and rather than wait two days to get someone in there to see them we can take care of it immediately.

ECO: What advice would you give to a peer who handles bed bug situations at another housing authority?

RL: To remember that it’s not a disaster but you do have to have a bed bug plan before you have a bed bug outbreak. Educate tenants, have a protocol plan and I think that’s what we all can do. Housing authorities are tremendously underfunded but we can still do the job. To me having a plan in place is the key because bed bugs can be very costly if you approach the problem wrong.