Pest Control: Are Bed Bugs a Recurring Epidemic?
Learn if bed bugs are a recurring epidemic in this pest control video. Expert: Jeff White
Up next in How to Get Rid of Bugs & Pests (21 videos)
Bed bugs, stink bugs, pantry pests -- whatever crawlers are creeping you out, entomologist Jeff White helps you kill them in these Howcast videos.
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Transcript
"My name is Jeff White and I'm the research entomologist for Beg Bug Central and the host Bed Bug TV, bedbugcentral.com. I have no idea how I got into bugs and bedbugs. And here I am 6 years later, and having a lot of fun working with bedbugs. And I'll be talking to you about pest control. You might ask yourself, when are bedbugs going away again? We see stories on the news about bedbugs being virtually eradicated from the US around World War II. I know growing up as a kid, we never dealt with bedbugs. Bedbugs weren't even you know, you didn't see them in anybody's house. It was just something your parents told you when they tuck you in at night. Sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite. It's not a real problem. Oh wait, yes it is, and bedbugs are on the comeback. You know we had pesticides back at the end of World War II that we don't have available to us today. Residual pesticides. Pesticides you can apply in a house and they might remain active for several months, if not several years on end and in a way, protect your house against bedbugs. And a lot of those pesticides have been taken off the market. For good reason. You know, they have been very good for interior pest control, but people misapplied them in the environment, and they had a lot of secondary effects on other organisms. Whether it be birds of prey or whatever else might have come in contact with those pesticides. And so unfortunately, many experts are predicting that bedbugs are back. They're probably here to stay at least for a good portion of time. We don't see any silver bullet on the horizon. Nothing that's just gonna eradicate bedbugs, you know, anytime soon. You know, we look at other insects. We haven't been able to get rid of cockroaches. You know, they're still around these days. We've been battling them for thousands of years. And so I think we got lucky with bedbugs back again in World War II and I think there's a good chance that they are here to stay. We're gonna have to deal with this. There's no silver bullet. And so what I can recommend is, to get educated. Go out, go to websites, bedbugcentral.com, other university based websites. Find out what bedbugs look like, find out how to avoid bringing them into your house. That way you don't have to deal with the problem, and you don't have to worry about the silver bullet that's not out there right now. And so, get educated, know how not to bring them and that is your best defense against a bedbug infestation.
