BEDBUGS! - Your New Weapon to Combat Them In Your Buildings

Rent Our Boxes
Friday, October 01, 2010

Bedbugs are small, elusive, and parasitic insects of the family Coincide.  They live strictly by feeding on the blood of humans and other warm-blooded animals.  The name "bedbug" is derived from the insect's preferred habitat infesting houses and especially beds or other common areas where people may sleep.  Largely eradicated as pests in the United States in the early 1940's, bedbugs have been resurgent in the past decade to near epidemic proportions. Bedbugs are typically found in temperate climates throughout the world.

Adult bedbugs are reddish-brown, flattened, oval, and wingless.  A common misconception is that they are not visible to the naked eye.  Adults grow to 4-5 mm in length and 1.5-3 mm wide (about 1/16” x 1/32” respectively).  They do not move quickly enough to escape notice of an observer.  Newly hatched nymphs are translucent, lighter in color, and become browner as they molt and reach maturity.  Bedbugs are true insects and are not arachnid, unlike dust mites and ticks.

Although bedbugs can live for a year to eighteen months without feeding, they normally try to feed every five to ten days.  Their typical life span for well fed bugs is six to nine months; however a bug that goes dormant for lack of food can live longer than a year. 

Bedbugs seem to possess all of the necessary prerequisites for being capable of passing diseases from one host to another, but there have been no cases of bedbugs passing disease from host to host.  As such, bedbugs are less dangerous than some more common insects such as the flea.

It was believed that bedbugs were altogether eradicated about 50 years ago in the United States, as well as elsewhere, with the widespread use of DDT.  Bedbug populations in the US have increased by 500 percent in the past few years and much of this is believed related to international travel, immigration, and the use of baits rather than insecticide sprays in the control of cockroaches.   With the use of cockroach bait in monthly building treatments, as opposed to the typical residual insecticides and other liquid prays common prior to the 1990's, cockroach levels were lowered.  While effective for the control of cockroaches, the cockroach is a natural enemy of the bedbug and therefore the demise of the cockroach population allowed bedbug numbers to grow continually.

In places that are severely infested, bedbugs may actually crawl onto a person's clothes and be carried from location to location.  It should be noted that this sort of hitchhiking behavior is typically associated with severe cases or with cases of heavy infestation that are poorly managed.  Generally, bedbugs will not usually be carried from place to place on clothing that individuals are wearing, and not on clothing and personal items that are
subject to regular washing and high heat drying. This process will disinfect most clothing of potential bedbugs and will kill their eggs. The most typical transmission items include mattresses and bed covering, and clothing that does not normally receive proper, regular cleaning. 

Bedbugs exist throughout the world, inclusive of Australia.  However, since the inception of the moving box rental business in Australia, the transmission of bedbugs in the Australian market, through the use of moving companies (“removalists”), has not been found to be a problem.

Rent Our Boxes DC/VA/MD recognizes that Bedbugs are an issue of great concern to the national capital region and the Apartment and Office Building Association of Metropolitan Washington, its member owners, leasing agents, and building managers.

Rent Our Boxes DC/VA/MD employs the following standard operating procedures to minimize and potentially eliminate the transmission of bedbugs through the use of its MOVING BOX RENTAL PROGRAM…

1. Delivery Vehicles are specific to delivery or pick up operations, eliminating cross-contamination.
2. Incoming rental inventory is isolated to a separate storage area to prevent cross contamination between box inventories. 
3. No inventory is moved from the return location until it has been subjected to a heat level of 120F for a period no less than two hours. The U.S. Department of Defense recommends using a temperature of at least 120F for at least 20 minutes. We use a two-hour time frame to insure that all of the box material reaches the proper temperature. The use of heat has been proved to be the most effective method of killing both the active bedbugs, as well as their eggs.  While there is always a slim possibility that an egg may survive the heat treatment in our standard operating procedures, the process provides the best possible method of insuring no cross contamination between box uses.

Rent Our Boxes DC/VA/MD feels strongly that the institution of our Moving Box Rental Program will:

1. Assist in eliminating the re-use of contaminated boxes from renter-to-renter as they share or find pre-used boxes.  It is therefore a proactive measure in the control of the spread of bedbugs and should be instituted as standard operations within your buildings and apartments.
2. Dramatically reduces the amount of cardboard refuse in the dumpster systems at each location saving space and money.
3. Provides an economical solution to your potential and existing renters, as renting is an average of 40% less expensive than purchase, and RYB provides free delivery and pick up with a reasonable minimum order.
4. Allows the client up to three months use of the boxes for ease in packing and unpacking at a new location also allows for a referral commission to be paid to the Owner.
5. Has a referral program that provides a benefit to the renter for using the service as referred by the Owner/ Manager/Leasing agent, and also allows for a referral commission to be paid creating income.

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