[Bed Bug Supplement] Let’s Beat the Bug!

The Let’s Beat the Bug! (LBTB) campaign started at the University of Minnesota in 2011 out of a growing need for accurate and easy-to-understand information on bed bug prevention and control. Phone calls from individuals saying, “I’ve read all this content about bed bugs, but what should I do?” brought home the need for this type of service. With so many hurdles, societal disconnect, lack of funding for research and the fight against misinformation on bed bugs, it was hard to know where to begin.

Even though our society is currently considered more connected than ever, in many ways we are actually much more fragmented when it comes to accurate and practical information. Informational silos, where information is not shared across professions, was an issue we saw frequently when beginning our work on bed bugs. Bed bugs take advantage of all the ways society is connected through people and personal items moving and resting in different places. To successfully combat the bed bug issue, we need to work together across traditional boundaries and create connections that will help stop bed bugs from finding new infestation sites.

In addition to the disconnect between the various sectors of society that are affected by bed bugs, we also encountered a large strategic gap; a major lack of information as bed bugs were removed from mainstream society for more than 35 years. In addition, there was little to no funding during the height of the resurgence for work on bed bug prevention and control as it is considered by policy makers to be a nuisance and not a public health threat. This made it challenging to start our campaign.
 

Centralized Information.

Against this backdrop, the Let’s Beat the Bug! program started slowly, with a workgroup that grew from only three people to more than 30. The main need identified was a central source of authoritative information, combined with a system to distribute this information to Minnesota residents. Due to the formation of this workgroup, we were positioned to take advantage of two coinciding incidences — a bed bug infestation in the Minnesota Department of Health’s office and a pesticide misapplication (regulated by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture) involving bed bugs that resulted in $22,000 in reparations to an apartment in St. Cloud, Minn. As a result of the concern raised by these two incidences, we were able to apply for funding from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, supported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. This grant allowed us to hire a community health coordinator and begin work on establishing a strong educational campaign.

Misinformation is one of the main issues that we face. Bed bugs cause a lot of fear and anxiety among those suffering from an infestation. This has created an opportunity for unscrupulous individuals to capitalize on those fears by selling ineffective products and disseminating incorrect information. Also, we live in an age where information, be it correct or incorrect, is widely shared on the Internet. More often than not it is the sensational stories and products that promise a silver bullet which receive widespread attention and not the methodical and labor intensive methods that are actually useful for successful bed bug prevention and control. In an attempt to contend with all of the misinformation on bed bugs, we have focused on creating quality educational materials based on science whenever possible.

In addition to developing these base materials during the first year of our project, we established a bed bug hotline (now known as the Bed Bug InformationLine) to provide a responsive resource where individuals can call and get their questions about bed bugs answered. The InformationLine receives, on average, 57 inquiries a month. The majority of these inquiries (about 80 percent) are from Minnesotans, but we continue to see demand from across the country as well. We developed and delivered 8 hours of bed bug prevention and control training to more than 400 stakeholders in a series of 5 seminars across the state of Minnesota. We also updated and expanded the reach of our website: www.bedbugs.umn.edu. Our website currently has more than 56,000 visitors a month from all over the world.

As we worked through our first year of the campaign, we identified additional potential needs for bed bug prevention and control education amongst Limited English Proficiency communities. In our second year, we expanded our available resources to include factsheets in languages other than English and online videos about bed bug prevention and control. As a result of the second year of grant funding, we have been able to translate eight of our most popular factsheets into Arabic, Hmong, Somali and Spanish. We have also created seven short videos covering different facets of bed bug prevention and control and one longer (about 30 minutes) video which provides in-depth information on many aspects of bed bug prevention and control. This longer video is available in Arabic, English, Karen, Hmong, Somali and Spanish. As a result of our efforts, we saw a substantial response from communities where English was not the primary language.

We are currently working on expanding the reach of our campaign. This year we have focused on increasing the number of community members we reach. Using the materials we have developed over the past two years, we are initiating and participating in new community outreach events. These events have varied from small groups at a women’s shelter to large community health fairs. Working with a wide variety of organizations and individuals has allowed us to increase the number of people who are aware of and have access to our materials, thus improving the knowledge base in our community. Moving forward we plan to continue expanding our campaign to include other states in EPA Region 5 (Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio). Working with stakeholders and other researchers in the region, we will bring our expertise to augment already existing programs. This will allow us to continue to spread the word about our effective bed bug prevention and control campaign while supporting our regional partners.
 

Our Findings.

As we move forward with our expansion, we are focusing on bringing the lessons we have learned over the last three years to bear on our new endeavors. Some of these lessons include:

• Keep your information short and to the point. Most people do not want the details of bed bug biology; they just want to know what they need to do to get rid of bed bugs.
• Do not be dismissive. Many people who are dealing with bed bugs have never encountered anything like this before and truly do not know what to do. What seems like a strange idea (e.g., eating garlic to ward off bed bugs) to those with years of experience may make a lot of sense to someone who has never dealt with bed bugs before.
• Be consistent in messaging:
  • You can beat the bed bugs!
  • Hire a pest management professional if possible.
  • Follow the instructions provided to you by your PMP.
• Provide as much reassurance as possible; individuals dealing with bed bugs are most likely very stressed and unsure of themselves.
  
   

Shindelar is a community health coordinator in the Department of Entomology at the University of Minnesota. Kells is a professor of entomology at the same university. The authors thank the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Minnesota Department of Health for their support in this campaign. They also thank Dr. Hao Yu, Guardian Pest Solutions, Dr. Mohammed el Damir, Adam’s Pest Control, Jay Breusch, Plunkett’s Pest Control, and Erik Larson, Be There Pest Control.