Forum Offers Advice to Make Sure Bed Bugs Don't Bite Ocean City

Four experts on Wednesday morning warned a roomful of Ocean City real estate and accommodations professionals that no matter how clean they maintain their properties, they still risk bedbug infestations.

"Even the Ritz Carlton has had incidences of bedbugs," said Harry Ross, owner of Ross Environmental Solutions, Inc.

The four pest-control professionals spoke at a bedbug forum sponsored by the Ocean City New Jersey Hospitality Association at the Ocean City Tabernacle.

The aim of the forum was to encourage property owners to recognize the potential for infestations and to act quickly if they are discovered—none of the professionals in attendance had experienced past problems with bedbugs in Ocean City.

But on a small island that swells to a population of 150,000 in the summer and relies on tourism, bedbugs could bite into more than just a few sleeping visitors.

"There are things you can do to limit how far they can spread," Pat Gallelli of the Hospitality Association said in encouraging attendees to be proactive in addressing the issue.

The problem:

Ross opened the forum by describing the spread of bedbugs nationwide.

He said they can be found not only in beds but in movie theaters, furniture stores, schools, camps, nursing homes—"anywhere there are people."

The insects are "hitchhikers," he said. They travel on people, with their luggage, in packages and on virtually anything that is moved from an infested place.

Bedbugs are attracted to body heat and the carbon dioxide humans exhale, Ross said. That's why in infested properties, they are typically found in or around beds.

The small brown, sometimes reddish, insects grow from tick-sized to more than a half-inch in length, and they're climbers and great hiders. Ross said he's found bedbugs in picture frames, curtain rods and even in the unused prosthetic limb of one customer. The insects often leave welts on the humans they feed on.

Ross said he wouldn't have been able to identify a bedbug when he started in the industry 25 years ago, but in the past 10 years, his company has become increasingly busy treating properties for them.

He warned that with people traveling from all over the world to Ocean City, the risk remains.

"Just listen to the accents on the Boardwalk," he said.

The precautions:

Ross, Michael Fiedor of Elder Pest Control and Melvin Washington of Ehrlich pest control offered a handful of tips for travelers.

• Each said the first thing they do is to check a room for signs of bedbugs.
• Check the seams of a mattress, where they like to burrow. Look for black spots that could be fecal matter.
• Keep luggage off the floor and away from the bed.
• Put shoes on top of luggage.
• Don't leave clothes on the floor.
• Don't use hotel dressers to store clothes.
• Pull the headboard off a bed and check there.
• "My rule of thumb is 'Don't get used furniture,' " Ross said.
• Store linens in plastic Tote cartons and tape them shut.

Prevention and response:

Because bedbugs can arrive at any time with any new person, effective preventive measures are limited.

The key, the experts said, is to recognize an infestation early, before it spreads. One of the most effective ways is through the use of dogs.

Kelly Charles, the owner of Super Sniff Bed Bug Dog Inspections, demonstrated how Emmy, a red retriever, could quickly find a container that held live bedbugs.

Dogs are trained in the same way bomb-sniffing canines or arson dogs are, she said. And they can work much more quickly than humans tearing apart rooms.

She said her dog could inspect 25 hotel rooms in an hour and easily do a 100-unit motel in a day.

If bedbugs are discovered, quick treatment is essential to stop their spread. Companies such as Ross and Elder offer three-stage chemical treatments, and Washington described a one-time treatment offered by Ehrlich that uses extreme heat.

For more information from any of the companies:

Super Sniff: Kelly Charles, 856-883-3335, supersniff.com

Ross Environmental Solutions: Harry Ross, 856-875-7677, rossenvironmentalsolutions.com

Elder Pest Control: Michael Fiedor, 609-926-6566

Ehrlich: Melvin Washington, 609-399-6563