Contact: Ted Snyder, 262-797-4160 or
Chris Venuti, 262-797-0088
Jordan Fox. 414-352-2645
(New Berlin, April 28 –) A beagle named Scooby is helping Batzner Pest Management, New Berlin, fight the very real and on-going war against bed bugs, those bloodsucking creatures that Count Dracula today would consider his chief competition.
Hopefully, you haven’t noticed this first hand, but bed bugs, have become a large problem. “They’re real, they’re back, and they’re breeding in hotel rooms, homes and multi-apartment units, and in hospitals and senior living centers in Wisconsin,” says Jerry Lohr, operations manager for Batzner. He reports getting calls almost daily for bed bug treatments compared with none before 2000, when the resurgence gradually began. “In fact, they’re being found all over the USA,” he says.
That’s why Batzner employed Scooby and his handler Linda De
Velasco several months ago. They accompany Batzner service professionals several times a week on bed bug calls. “Scooby’s scent training has made him 97-98 percent accurate in sniffing out live bed bugs or their viable eggs. That compares to about a 30 percent accuracy rate for trained technicians. When the bed bugs or their eggs are found, our service professionals can successfully eliminate them,” says Lohr.
Scooby went to a special school in Florida for approximately 40 days where he was trained and certified to detect the bed bug scent. With his paw, he can alert pest management service professionals to tiny bed bugs or their eggs within about three feet.
According to Jerry Batzner, president of the 63-year-old company bearing his family name, bed bugs were commonly found many years ago. Then for about 25 years, they didn’t pose a problem. But, now these nighttime visitors have again emerged to feast on blood from sleeping humans.
The bed bug primarily bites humans, but can feed on any warm-blooded animal, including birds, mice and pets. It’s usually just under a quarter-inch long, brown or reddish brown, and relatively flat. It’s able to crawl into very small crevices in and around human living spaces. These include between mattresses, seams in bed linens, upholstery, behind wood trim, inside electrical boxes, in floors, behind wallpaper and in other spaces close to a potential meal. A female can lay 10-20 eggs per week (500-1000 eggs per year).
“An infestation doesn’t necessarily mean there are unclean or unsanitary living conditions,” Batzner notes. “Even highly regarded hotels in the USA have had bed bug infestations lately, probably because of domestic and international travel.”
According to Batzner, the first sign of bed bug infestation is the appearance of small brownish or reddish spots on bed linens. These are droppings from the bugs. Bitten individuals may also notice swelling and sometimes localized itching.
“Washing bed linens or other infested areas might not eliminate the source. The first thing to do is to have a pest control professional thoroughly inspect the area. We do this to determine the places where the bed bugs are living. To get rid of them, we’ll then do an appropriate treatment of these areas as well as adjacent areas.”
Batzner (http://www.batzner.com) is a pest control company servicing southeastern Wisconsin, Madison and northern Illinois with the latest pest management methods and technology available. It’s the largest independently owned pest control company in Wisconsin.
