Bed Bug Solutions for Multi-Family Residences

Bed Bug Detection and Elimination for Condos, Apartments, and Multi-Family Houses

Bed bugs are big risk for residents of apartment buildings, condos and coops.  A recent bed bug survey of New Yorkers showed bed bugs are a widespread problem —1 in 10 New Yorkers had bed bugs, a big gain from the NYC Department of Health’s survey the year before. There is a high likelihood that there is already a bed bug infestation in your building. And once they’re present, bed bugs can quickly spread and affect many of your residents.  A study by a Rutgers professor noted that bed bugs spread to 45% of units within 41 months.  Even more alarming is that 50% of the people with a bed bug infestation may not even realize it!

All residential buildings- including Manhattan co-ops, and condos from SoHo to Park Avenue, and apartment complexes from Tottenville, Staten Island to Little Neck, Queens and multifamily buildings from Coney Island, Brooklyn to North Riverdale, Bronx are at continual risk for bed bugs. Before World War II, an estimated 30-40% of buildings in New York City had a bed bug problem. In Europe in the 1930s and ‘40s, an estimated one-third of dwellings in major cities had bed bugs. Half the population of Greater London encountered them at some point during the year, and in some areas, nearly all households were affected to some extent. At the current rate of bed bug growth, experts like Dr. Michael Potter of the University of Kentucky suggest that the epidemic will once again reach these levels.

Management companies and boards do not have a lot of time to discuss how to handle bed bug control issues once they are suspected or reported. A bed bug infestation is analogous to a leaky pipe; management must stop the problem before it causes untold damage!  Bed bugs most often spread by hitchhiking and crawling under an apartments’ front door!

Having a protocol in place for dealing with bed bugs is vital to ensuring a prompt and effective response. Providing residents with a bed bug solutions protocol, as well as educational materials, shows them how seriously the board, owners, and management take this issue.

Bed Bug Detection is an Important First Step

A proper bed bug control protocol includes proactive and reactive components, such as preventing bed bugs, early bed bug detection, fast response times, residents’ pre-treatment preparations, remediation strategies, and budgeting. Prevention and early detection practices include educating residents about the signs of bed bugs and a thorough bed bug inspection by certified bed bug sniffing dogs.

Once a bed bug infestation is suspected, it’s important that building management work closely and cooperatively with residents to end the problem with effective bed bug solutions.

• Encourage residents to report any signs of bed bugs
• Remind staff and residents that bed bugs are not a factor of class or cleanliness
• Explain that bed bug control is an extended, demanding process: preparations are significant, multiple treatments are required, and areas must be treated extremely thoroughly to ensure complete bed bug elimination

Bed Bug Inspections and Bed Bug Control for Communal Environments

As the leader among bed bug companies, Bell Environmental can help you plan for or deal with a bed bug infestation. Bell has worked with hundreds of building managers to outline solutions from the first sighting to develop routine residential vigilance and remediation plans. Roscoe the Bed Bug Dog and his fellow canine detectives can sniff out the slightest trace of these parasites with 98% accuracy, eliminating guesswork and ensuring more targeted bed bug exterminations that prove cost-effective by lowering the scope of the area that needs to be treated.

Once these bed bug sniffing dogs have located the source of the invasion, our veteran technicians will apply InstantFreeze technology, freezing bed bugs and killing them on contact without the use of pesticides. Our safe and thorough bed bug treatments don’t harm furnishings and allow residents to re-enter their dwellings immediately, now free of bed bug worries!

Contact Bell Environmental today at 877-376-1775 to discuss a bed bug control protocol for your building(s) if you’re a building manager, superintendent, property manager, board member, or building counsel.