Winter Structural Pest Control Advisory Committee meeting

It was a cold, wet day in Austin this week as the Structural Pest Control Advisory Committee met to discuss the business of pest control regulation in Texas. Much of the meeting was going over rules drafted by the SPCS staff that will impact just about anyone who does structural fumigation, provides termite estimates, or who want to get continuing education units online.

Mike Kelly, staff member for the Structural Pest Control Service (SPCS), presented a rough draft of new document requirements for termite treatment disclosures, or as they are now called: "Subterranean Termite, Drywood Termite and Related Wood Destroying Insect Treatment Disclosure Documents" (The new name may be good for clarity, but sometimes I think government rules eat as much wood--in the form of paper--as termites).  Most of the changes are minor, designed to make the regs easier to read; however one positive significant change is that written estimates using these documents will now have to be made by a licensed technician or Certified Applicator--not an unlicensed sales person or office staffer.

Following up on industry recommendations from last meeting, Kelly also presented proposed changes for Structural Fumigation Requirements.  To anyone who is not a fumigator, fumigation requirements are about as exciting as a wait at the DMV.  But to fumigators, any change in rules can be grounds for fightin'.  Acting on our last meeting's discussion, the biggest changes to the rules included an attempt to clarify the responsibilities of fumigation contractors and subcontractors.

Danielle Dean (right) and Betty Thornton explained the new
CEU course they have developed for pest control office
managers and staff. 

Now if it were up to me, I'm not sure I would let anyone subcontract fumigation jobs. Fumigation is risky and technically complicated, and way too many things can go wrong (communications wise) between the customer and the subcontractor(s) who actually does the work.  But that's not the law, so these new rules attempt to reduce the risk of misunderstanding between fumigator and customer. As you might guess, there will be more paperwork.

One proposed rule change specified that only a registered apprentice, licensed technician or certified applicator (CA) can assist the supervising CA with introducing fumigants, or performing reentry and aeration activities. Also Kelly proposed to clarify wording on the required condition of tarps used in sealing in fumigant gases, and what the official time for a start of fumigation should be based on.  Both Brian Springer, Bevis Pest Control, and Debbie Aguirre, Elite Exterminating, commented passionately on the requirements--Springer noting the stellar human safety record of structural fumigation in Texas in recent years.  If you have anything to do with fumigation in Texas, you'll want to review these new regs carefully when they come out this spring. None of the rules are official until you get a chance to review them, and if you're a fumigator I'm sure you'll have an opinion.

We also discussed online CEU courses as supplements or replacements for face-to-face training. There have been numerous proposals over the years to allow applicators to get training remotely; but concerns about accountability, quality of courses, and security have slowed approval of this option.  The committee heard from AgriLife Communications specialist Holly Jarvis and representatives from online training provider, eStrategy Solutions.  According to Jarvis, there are now multiple ways to make these courses interactive, and accountability can be even better than live courses. Committee members felt that it was time to make electronic courses a routine way for license holders to get the CEUs they need.  In addition to the convenience of getting training on any day you need it, online CEU courses allow the applicator a choice of training topics, including difficult-to-find CEUs, like fumigation.  We recommended eliminating the proposed restriction that online CEUs be allowed only every other year.  Such changes won't mean that CEU workshops with face-to-face training are going away anytime soon, but do they mean you'll have more choices when it comes to getting your CEUs.

The highlight of this month's meeting was a presentation by Betty Thornton, Alvin Pest Control, and Danielle Dean, bwi Companies.  Thornton and Dean met earlier in the year with staff at the SPCS to educate themselves about regulations that might affect office staffers at pest control companies. It turns out that a number of laws and rules limit what advice an unlicensed staffer can say to customers over the phone. An unlicensed person, for example, cannot diagnose a pest problem or offer price quotes to someone over the phone or via email. They took lessons-learned and developed a course for office staff and technicians that includes what you can and can't say over the phone, going paperless in a pest control office, role playing, how to get a new technician registered to take their license exam, how to survive a 14-point inspection, and avoiding the top 10 non-compliance issues.  Both Thorton and Dean were engaging and enthusiastic.  They have given their (approved CEU) course several times and are willing to go on the road for groups that want to sponsor them.

Office staff are a critical, and often neglected, segment of the pest control industry.  I commend the SPCS for their train-the-trainer efforts, and hope that all these efforts result in better trained office staff throughout the state. I think bringing office managers and staff into the training picture could turn out to be one of the single most significant things we can do to improve compliance with our pest control laws in Texas.

Perhaps not many of you make it to the end of these long reports.  But the last thing I want to say is that this meeting was very significant to me in that it marks the end of my appointment to the SPCS committee.  By completing the end of my second term I am required by another one of those dern rules to step down and let someone else get to drive to Austin four times a year.  I anticipate that my replacement will be Dr. Robert Puckett, our newly hired extension urban entomologist in College Station.  I know he is excited about the chance to serve and will do a great job representing Texas A&M AgriLife.  My thanks to all the faithful committee members who have served this committee on their own dime over the years, and to the TDA/SPCS staff who take the time to listen.  It's been a pleasure.

Is your customer left holding the bag?

Bagged items following an insecticide treatment for bed bugs. 

One of the great conundrums of bed bug service is what to do with the mounds of clothing, shoes, electronics, books, papers and other personal items that must be bagged prior to, or during, a bed bug treatment. These items are potentially infested with adults, nymphs and bed bug eggs, and should not be returned to the home until all bed bugs inside are killed. So what to tell the customer?

Clothes are usually the least troublesome bagged item, because they can be run through the washer or drier.  But many bagged personal items are not appropriate for the laundromat.  What can be done for non-washable items that might harbor bed bugs?

Heat

There are several options for treating "hard items" like books and electronics.  Heat is one of the best choices, because bed bugs don't do well in heat. A study by Stephen Kells and Michael Goblirsch from the University of Minnesota, showed that bed bugs exposed to rising temperatures for two hours began to die at around 104 degrees F, though eggs were not greatly affected by this temperature.  Both adults and eggs were  killed immediately by exposure to 122 to 131 degrees F, respectively.  The authors concluded that bed bugs in a room could be eliminated by heating all parts of a room to 122 degrees F for an hour, a guideline followed by most heat treatment companies today.

These same heat treatment guidelines can be used for heat-treating hard or soft goods in garbage bags.  The cheapest and easiest way to accomplish this is through solar heat during the summer months.  People have used this method for many years, especially in tropical areas where mattresses and clothing can conveniently be bagged and placed in the sun all day to kill bed bugs.  My summer intern and I attempted to replicate this approach in 2012 by bagging 7 lbs of soft goods in both clear and black plastic bags on a summer afternoon with an ambient outdoor temperature of 95 degrees F.  We put the bags on pavement at mid-morning and monitored temperatures within the bags through the afternoon. Thermometer readings in the clear plastic bags easily exceeded the lethal temperature for the minimum one-hour exposure; however black plastic bag contents never exceeded the one-hour lethal temperature required to kill all adults and eggs.  We found that even when daytime air temperatures stayed under 90 degrees, clear bags can heat soft goods sufficiently to kill bed bugs.

Many people are surprised that, when it comes to heating, clear plastic bags are superior to black. We've all been taught that black absorbs heat; however in this case the greenhouse heat-trapping effect is more powerful than bag color. The greenhouse effect happens when the short visible and UV wavelengths pass through the clear bag and begin heating the objects inside. The same plastic keeps the radiant heat produced by light inside the bag. Black plastic doesn't let much visible light through, so greenhouse heating effect is minimal. Hence clear is hotter than black (and tinted windows do keep a car cooler in the summer, as Texans will tell you). A second important advantage of using clear bags in bed bug work is that the customer can see what items are stored in the bags, for easier retrieval.

Temperatures from the middle of clear and opaque black plastic bags set
outdoors on a clear summer day with a maximum ambient temperature of
95 degrees F. Note that only temperatures in the clear bag exceed the lethal
temperature for bed bug adults and eggs. M. Merchant, unpublished data.

Clearly, solarization provides one simple, fast and inexpensive solution for dis-infesting personal belongings during the summer.  To make sure that lethal temperatures are reached, I suggest using a relatively inexpensive wireless (or wired) weather monitor with thermometer capabilities, in the middle of whatever items are in need of treating.

Cold

But what if it's not summer, or you live in areas where outdoor temperatures just aren't that hot? Another option is cold.  Unfortunately, cold is not a very fast or effective treatment for bed bugs.  Simply putting items in the refrigerator freezer is not a guarantee of lethality.  Dr. Dini Miller, at the recent bed bug summit in Denver, CO, reported that five bed bugs (out of 200 bed bugs) in a vial she stored in a refrigerator freezer for TWO YEARS recovered on removal from the cold. Granted, colder temperatures do kill bed bugs eventually, but cold is not a reliable or fast method to disinfest bags.

Fumigants

The final option for killing hidden bed bugs is use of fumigants.  Fumigants are insecticides in gas form, and hence have the potential for penetrating many substances to kill hidden pests. Nuvan™ Prostrips placed in plastic bags is a fumigant option used by many PMPs.  These strips were tested as a means of controlling bed bugs in infested items by Dini Miller's Virginia Tech lab.  While dichlorvos, the active ingredient in Nuvan™ Prostrips, is toxic to bed bugs, it's ability to provide 100% control was limited in the Virginia tests.  The only time Dr. Miller's group was able to document 100% bed bug adult and nymph mortality was with hard goods when bags were held for 14 days (significantly longer than the 48 hour "minimum" time recommended on the label). Miller's lab concluded that dichlorvos is a slow dispersing fumigant and that the limited air flow in closed bags makes it difficult for dichlorvos to reach bed bugs in small crevices of enclosed items. Soft goods were much more difficult to treat with fumigants because of more limited air flow through clothing and fabrics.

Another bed bug fumigant tested by Miller's lab, and now being actively marketed for use in bags, is Cirkil®.  The Cirkil® active ingredient is neem oil, a plant-based extract with a good safety record and the cachet of being a natural product.  Terramera, Cirkil's manufacturer, has just published a new protocol for using the product that they refer to as "Rag in a Bag". The method involves spraying the undiluted product on a rag and placing it with the items to be treated in plastic bags. The protocol is based on Miller's research that showed that one treated rag could effectively fumigate a bag with hard goods in 3 days.  One big drawback of the Cirkil product, according to some who have used it, is the strong, lingering odor of the product.  If you are interested in this product, I suggest you try it on a small scale to assess the odor issue before subjecting clients to a potentially smelly product.

Lastly, carbon dioxide has been suggested as a means of controlling bed bugs in plastic bags. Dr. Changlu Wang from Rutger's University has tested placing commercially available dry ice pellets in plastic bags to kill bed bugs. As I reported in an earlier blog, Wang found that 3 lbs of dry ice in a 42 gallon (3 mil-thick) garbage/yard waste plastic bag was sufficient to suffocate all stages of bed bugs in up to 22 lbs of clothes, when held for 24 hours. This amounts to a cost of approximately $4 to disinfest 22 lbs of clothes or other items that would fit in the bag.  Sounds like a great option, except that the U.S. EPA considers carbon dioxide to be an insecticide and discourages its use for safety reasons. Indeed, CO2 can be toxic in high enough doses, and several leaking bags in a bed room (all bags will leak) or other closed living space could certainly elevate gas levels into the range of health concern to humans. Until the EPA gets this figured out, I am reluctant to recommend use of dry ice as a bag treatment.

Patience

So where does that leave the average bed bug client?  As we've seen, heat, cold and fumigants all have their place, but their usefulness can be limited.  If none of these options works, the client may be left holding the bag--literally.

But even when the only option appears to be waiting, the wait isn't forever. Bed bugs without access to blood will eventually starve. But how long does it take to kill bed bugs?  Current research on bed bug longevity suggests that 3-5 months is long enough to starve bed bugs.  This is a long time, but not an impossible task, especially for personal items that are not immediately needed. For this reason, it may be a good idea to suggest to your clients that they store items together that do not need to be used quickly. It may be possible to use some of the methods listed above on higher priority bags and let the rest just sit. And items that are needed immediately can be individually inspected and/or washed if you are unsure whether there might still be live bed bugs hidden within.  This option is probably good for children's toys that cannot be placed in the wash.

When storing bags, keep in mind that the warmer the temperature, the shorter the lifespan of starving bed bugs. A warm bed bug respires faster, consequently using up its energy stores more quickly. If you keep bagged items at 70 degrees or higher it should be safe to remove items after three months.  But if they've been stored at slightly cooler temperatures, you may want to keep those bags shut a little longer. Putting bags in an unheated shed or closet outdoors might not be the best solution if those bags are needed within 5-6 months. Remember the bed bugs that survived the freezer for two years?

If your company conducts bed bug control with insecticides, the question of what to do with bagged items is critical. Because each client and job is unique, it's up to you as a professional to advise your customer what their best options are for handling those important personal items.  After all, no one wants to be left holding the bag--especially one full of bed bugs.