Bed bugs!

All,

Due to popular demand ... Bed bugs! This will be the first in a series, since there is so much information to cover. As always, please let me know what you need and I will get the information to you!

1. News you can use

First, bed bugs prevention/elimination are part of healthy housing. How? "Keep it pest free" is one of the seven principles of healthy housing.

2. Housing question of the week: Why do we care about bed bugs, anyway?

Basically...

     * They feed on us (they feed exclusively on humans; bed bugs need a blood meal)
     * They increase quickly; they can build up in large numbers before they are noticed
     * They are hard to eliminate!

3. Fun Housing Picture
These pictures are compliments of Pawnee County. Trinity had a consumer with an overwhelming bed bug problem. Here is a photo that the consumer provided. Yes, it is a bed bug (front and back) and it is hungry.

The first person to explain how we know it's hungry will get a prize (a healthy homes tool of my choice). Thanks for the photos, Trinity! 

4. Anything else I can think of to help you in your work 

I have 15 people signed up for the upcoming "Essentials for Healthy Homes Practitioners" course. Here, you will learn LOTS about bugs and how to help prevent/eliminate them.

If you want to know more about the training, I'd be happy to fill you in. This is for your professional development. There are no strings attached. Basically, I want all of you to be thoroughly training in healthy housing so that we can get some GREAT programming done.

That's it for this week!

GP