New off-site decontamination service to tackle 'Bed Bug' revival
They may be called bed bugs but they do not just live in beds. They can make their home anywhere that their human food source is stationary for any length of time and in virtually any surface or material. Bed bugs are now making a big comeback and after receiving over 258,000 hits in one day on its website (see image below right) , Bed Bugs, the UK's specialist bed bug control company, has launched a new service - Off Site Decon.
Molecular Biologist David Cain, Bed Bugs managing director, says: "Off Site Decon is a remarkably simple yet completely effective process offering complete eradication of bed bugs and their eggs from complex or delicate items. Customers can now send infested items to our London premises where they are treated and then returned. As far as we are aware, this is the only facility of its kind anywhere in the world."
For domestic customers the process takes 14 - 18 days for most items. For commercial customers, such as hotels wishing to treat a guest's luggage, or where time is limited, there is an express overnight service that still guarantees the destruction of all bed bugs and their eggs.
Virtually any item can be treated, although the process is not suitable for electronic products, and the procedure also offers complete discretion. Provided the company's packaging instructions are followed, there is no need for its staff to open suitcases or boxed items.
David Cain says: "This is a huge step forward in the fight against bed bugs. It enables us to meet the increasing demands for our services from customers as well as helping international travellers who need assistance at very short notice or in a very short timeframe."
Bed bugs are largely nocturnal, feeding at night before finding undisturbed nooks and crannies to rest during the day, to digest their meal and lay their eggs. Besides beds, nest sites include under-bed drawers and storage boxes, wardrobes, curtains, bookcases and children's toy boxes. In a hotel, this can include one's suitcase or clothes if they are underneath or near the bed. Bringing home luggage infested with bed bugs or their eggs will almost certainly result in an infestation in one's own home.
Large or simple items such as beds are relatively easily decontaminated by a competent pest controller but infested clothes, delicate fabrics, curtains, books, picture frames or soft toys present a more difficult problem. By their very nature they are difficult, if not impossible, to decontaminate by traditional chemical means and are often too expensive or too valuable for sentimental reasons to simply throw away.
Dry cleaning will not necessarily kill bed bugs and especially not their eggs. Delicate or complex items such as books, artwork, photographs or documents are easily damaged by chemical sprays, even if it were possible to reach every crack or recess in the first place. Until now this has presented a difficult dilemma.
The website was launched by David Cain in 2005, primarily as an information portal for the exchange of ideas about bed bugs. The sheer volume of requests for help in tackling infestations demonstrated that existing control methods were becoming increasingly ineffective. A new approach was clearly needed and led to the establishment of Bed Bugs Limited, a company dedicated solely to the control and eradication of this pest.
David Cain is one of the UK's leading authorities on bed bugs and has appeared on national and local television and radio and in numerous press articles.
T: 0207 720 6468
1st May 2008