Kilauea Pest Control Recounts Honolulu Airport Bed Bug Job

OAHU, Hawaii – There’s probably not too many calls more unnerving to a pest control company than one beginning with the phrase “We need you at the airport to take care of a bed bug infestation.”

Bed bug work in airports comes with its own set of challenges, so when Jimmy Fitzgerald, commercial pest control manager, Kilauea Pest Control, Kailua, Hawaii, received that service request May 29, he knew it was going to be a long night (and subsequent days).

Kilauea was called because bed bugs were being reported at multiple gates in the terminal used by Southwest Hawaii flights at Honolulu’s Daniel K. Inouye International Airport. Airport officials called Kilauea on Monday afternoon, but asked that that the company not arrive until 11:30 p.m., to perform the work. The reason for the delay is that the airport had closed three suspected gates in order to perform a deep cleaning.

“When I arrived they had cleaning staff there in Hazmat suits that had vacuumed and sanitized everything,” Fitzgerald recalled. “I was just in my [uniform] with a flashlight, there to inspect the gates. I understand them wanting to clean but a lot of the evidence had been cleaned up.”

© credit | Kilauea Pest Control

Fitzgerald’s first task was to find/identify the bed bugs and then determine if they were in established harborages or if they were in transit. This process always begins by interviewing workers. At airports, the interview process is complicated because you are dealing with multiple workers on multiple shifts. 

“One of the challenges was finding the person who put in the original complaint, because there are so many [personnel] levels that a complaint has to go through before they get approval to have a pest control company come out,” Fitzgerald said. “So, by the time it gets to us we’re getting a lot of second- and third-hand information.” 

It wasn’t until 8 a.m., the following day that Fitzgerald was able to find and interview the correct Southwest employees, all of whom described the bed bug encounters similarly. At the gate where the bed bugs were found, adjacent to the podium (where passengers board) there was a carpeted bench that butted up against a wall. Southwest employees who would lean up against the bench, or otherwise come in contact with it, were getting bitten. 

“One of the employees said that after two to three flights she would lean against this bench, so the bites were always on her left leg,” said Fitzgerald, who added that another employee shared that same story.

© Jimmy Fitzgerald

Once the carpeted bench was pinpointed as the source of the infestation, it was disassembled and Fitzgerald found evidence of bed bugs, including molted skins, feces and eggs. This bench and surrounding area were then given a heavy vacuuming, which Fitzgerald followed up with a pesticide treatment. And although Fitzgerald was able to narrow the problem to this one isolated area, he inspected an additional nine gates.

Between Southwest employees, airport employees (e.g., cleaning crews), airport and Southwest officials, Fitzgerald estimated 30 to 50 people made unsuccessful bed bug search attempts. “I was able to show where the problem was and that they weren’t there now – that the treatment was working – and that is what Southwest needed to see,” Fitzgerald said.

Fitzgerald has been following up with re-inspections and will be performing another re-inspection and treatment at the site in the coming weeks.