Physical removal Exclusion Physical removal and exclusion

Public Health Significance of Urban Pests 143 indication of a developing infestation.

4.5.2.3. Education

Educating dwelling occupants affected by bedbug infestations is essential to ensure that they actively and voluntarily cooperate in any control programme or effort needed. These occupants are usually the ones who must improve and maintain sanitation, reduce and minimize clutter, and perhaps seal harbourages, to exclude or restrict the movements of the bug population. It can be helpful if dwelling occupants affected by bedbug infes- tations understand as fully as possible the bugs – their biology and behaviour – and the strategies and techniques proposed or being used to control them. To foster such unders- tanding, educational efforts may include verbal explanations, answering questions, infor- mation posted on an Internet web site, or at least a concise printed handout in a language that people can read and understand. Good communications with homeowners, housing managers and any relevant government agencies should be maintained throughout a bed- bug control programme.

4.5.3. Physical removal and exclusion

A number of possibilities exist for physically removing or excluding bedbugs.

4.5.3.1. Physical removal

Bedbugs can be physically removed from exposed harbourages or resting sites, such as edges of a box spring or mattress seams, by sucking them up with a vacuum cleaner. Using a HEPA-filtered vacuum, which removes more than 99 of all particles greater than 0.3µm in diameter, would ensure that allergens associated with bedbugs or their debris were being removed concurrently. Vacuuming will usually kill a large portion of those bugs and can be done at the same time as an inspection, eliminating immediately a significant portion of the pest population. Bedbugs might also be lifted from exposed res- ting sites with commercially available tape or by hand, or just brushed off directly into a container of rubbing alcohol or soapy water Potter, 2004; Gooch, 2005.

4.5.3.2. Exclusion

Sealing access to harbourages can effectively isolate bedbug populations. Bedbugs have specially adapted piercing–sucking mouthparts, and three-segmented, structurally pri- mitive tarsi the terminal segments of the leg with claws. That makes them incapable of chewing or clawing through even a very thin layer of sealant or an unbroken layer of paper or cloth. Sealing a layer of almost any material in place, so that it completely covers the opening of any harbourage, can stop bedbugs from passing through. If any bedbug is thus effectively sealed inside a void or harbourage, it could be permanently removed from the pest population. Even if such a bedbug were to live for another year, or two years or longer, it must die there if that space is never unsealed while the bug is still alive. Just sealing most of the known openings between a harbourage and the bugs’ usual host access sites will restrict the bugs’ movements and help temporarily reduce the inten- sity of their feeding. Enclosing clothes and other items in plastic bags and similarly tigh- Bedbugs 142

4.5.2. Inspection, detection and education