Pest Management Strategies for Bed Bugs (Hemiptera: Cimicidae) in Multiunit Housing: A Literature Review on Field Studies

Abstract

Bed bugs (Cimex lectularius L.) continue to increase as serious pests in the built environment. These insects are particularly problematic in low-income multiunit housing buildings, where infestations are difficult to control, tend to become chronic, and the locations serve as reservoirs from which bed bugs disperse. This document reviews and reports on published accounts and validations of various methods to detect and manage bed bugs in these urban settings. The analysis demonstrates that programs using IPM approaches for bed bug management can lead to significant reductions in bed bug incidence and density when compared with insecticidereliant approaches. However, total elimination of bed bugs in multiunit environments remains a challenge and is often reported as unattainable, raising concerns about the effectiveness of strategies for bed bug management used in these environments. Several factors may contribute to the persistence of bed bugs in low-income, multiunit housing situations, including lack of awareness and education of residents and staff about bed bugs, overall building infestation levels, resident lifestyles, reluctance to report infestations, resident abilities to undertake unit preparation required by some pest management companies, and low efficacy of insecticide treatments. Although community-wide and proactive bed bug management programs are shown to be more effective, sustainable, and economically viable in the long term than reactive and insecticide-only programs, general adoption of best practices may be impeded by budget limitations and interest of affordable multiunit housing providers. ResumenLos chinches de cama (Cimex lectularius) es una plaga que se sigue expandiendo en ambientes urbanos. Estos insectos representan un serio problema en edificaciones multi-residenciales de familias de bajos nivel de ingresos econ omicos, donde las infestaciones son dif ıciles de controlar, tienden a volverse cr onicas y sirven de reservorios desde donde los chinches se dispersan. Este documento revisa y reporta informaci on publicada de la validaci on de varios mé todos para para detectar y manejar los chinches de cama en estos ambientes urbanos. El an alisis mostr o que los programas que usan abordajes de Manejo Integrado de Plagas (MIPs) para el control de los chinches de cama pueden reducir de manera significativa la incidencia y densidad de estos insectos, si se compara con los programas donde se utilizan solamente insecticidas. Sin embargo, la erradicaci on de los chinches de cama en estos ambientes sigue siendo un reto y muchas veces dif ıcil de alcanzar, lo que genera dudas acerca de la eficacia de estos programas para el chinche de cama usados en estos ambientes. Varios factores podr ıan contribuir a la persistencia de chinches de cama en estas edificaciones, los cuales incluye la escasez de concientizaci on y educaci on de residentes y personal administrativo acerca del

Influence of physical factors of apartments, educational attainment, nationality and unemployment on the number of Cimex lectularius inquiries

“…Bed bug infestations cause health problem predominantly in low-income housing communities since ineffective pest management practices are frequently associated with low-income households (14). Especially the multiunit housing buildings are affected where infestations chronically persist serving as dispersal foci of the pest (15). Studying the resurgence of the pest in Canada, Hwang et al found that bed bugs started appearing in homeless shelters (16).…”

Effects of Resident Education and Self-Implementation of Integrated Pest Management Strategy for Eliminating Bed Bug Infestation in Ahvaz City, Southwestern Iran

“…Generally, integrated pest management strategy which uses various non-chemical techniques/ tools before chemicals becomes more prevalence and promising in last decades. Furthermore, IPM considered as practical strategy in urban environment where bed bug control is challenging in low-income communities and multiunit housing building (18). Due to the high cost of bed bug elimination (about $ 0.78 per m 2 ) by pest control services, residents in low-income communities prefer to control the infestation themselves.…”

“…Little studies have been documented the usefulness of IPM strategy for control bed bugs (5,13,18,19). But there are no studies on resident education and self-implementation of IPM strategy for control of bed bug infestation.…”

Prevalence and Spatial Distribution of Bed Bug, Cimex lectularius, Infestation in Southwest of Iran: GIS Approach

“…The people should be educated about bed bug controls via Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approach. This is the collection of physical methods like killing and eliming the insects using heating, freezing, steaming, vacuuming, washing and drying and chemical tactics based on recommended insecticide dosage (32).…”