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How Do Bed Bugs Get into the Office?

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Bed bugs are a serious problem across much of the country. While they’re most often associated with homes and apartments, they can be a nuisance for business owners as well. Even if a business doesn’t have beds for them to hide in, bed bugs tend to congregate in any building where there are a lot of people coming and going. Here’s how you can find them and use St. Louis commercial bed bug systems to get rid of an existing infestation.

Where Are Bed Bugs Most Common?
Bed bugs can live just about anywhere, but they’re more likely to be found in buildings with a lot of foot traffic. Businesses like hotels, restaurants, daycare centers, hospitals, and airports are some of the most common places to find these troublesome critters. Still, they can be found in any office, even if you take great pains to keep your building clean.

Top Bed Bug Cities
Some areas of the country are known for being hotspots for bed bugs. In general, large cities tend to have the worst infestations since bed bugs are drawn to areas where lots of people are present. Cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., New York City, and San Francisco are notorious for their bed bug populations and frequently top the lists of bed bug incidents each year.

How Bed Bugs Travel
Unlike many parasites, bed bugs won’t usually hitch a ride directly on you or your clothing. Instead, they’ll typically travel in your suitcase, briefcase, gym bag, or other containers. They don’t fly or jump, so usually elevating your bags up off the floor is enough to prevent them from hitching a ride with you. They are nocturnal and do most of their feeding and moving around during the night. They’ll hide in the carpet or in cracks in the walls during the day and are so small that they’re extremely difficult to spot until the infestation has really gotten underway.

How to Spot an Infestation
If your employees are complaining of getting itchy bites at home or in the workplace, it’s a good idea to check your building for bed bugs. Check around the bases of walls and any upholstered areas such as carpets, curtains, or furniture. You may find discarded shells left behind by the insects, or you may find tiny black spots of waste that the bed bugs excrete. You might even find some of the bugs themselves, especially if there is a large infestation. They are small, flat, and oval: about the size, color, and shape of an apple seed.

What to Do if You Find Bed Bugs
Immediate treatment with St. Louis commercial bed bug systems is necessary if you find bed bugs in your office. Bed bugs can lay hundreds of eggs over their lifetime, meaning your population can expand rapidly once it takes root. Vacate the infested area, and leave all your bags and other belongings behind for treatment as well. Advise your staff and customers that bed bugs have been spotted and that they should take precautions such as checking their clothing and bags for insects before they go home.

Bed Bug Heat Treating Equipment

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Bed bugs can be more than a nuisance–they are a serious health hazard to many Americans. Like mosquitoes and ticks, bed bugs are a parasitic insect that feeds on the blood of humans and other animals. This can cause severe itching and rashes over the whole body. Finding and killing them can be quite difficult because they like to hide in the darker areas of the house, not just in between the mattresses. One of the best treatments is using bed bug heat treating equipment in St. Louis.

Get Everybody Out
Bed bugs cannot live in heat conditions over 122°. The pest control technician will raise the interior temperature of the house to a range between 135° and 145° to get into the walls and floors where the bed bugs like to set up their colonies. This high temperature can also kill the bugs living in the bed or other hard to locate places. The high temperature can also affect not only pets and humans in the house, but softer plastic items or vinyl. The pest control technician will have a list of anything in the house that could be affected by the high temperature. All of these will need to be removed and treated separately.

Safety First
One of the biggest reasons to hire a technician that has been trained in heat treating is safety. They are controlling a giant heater that can damage the house and they should understand how the heat will affect it. Bricks and concrete react differently to heat than wood or metal. The brick and concrete will expand and move, weakening the support they provide. Metal will also expand but can soften and bend and everyone knows what happens to wood that his heated. The technician also needs to know how the heat will affect various safety features in the house. The heat can not only set off a fire detection system, it can melt the burglar alarm panel.

Monitor the Temperature
The first thing the technician will do is figure the volume of the house and determine how many heaters will be needed. They may use one heater that is moved from room to room in a smaller house. This keeps one room from being the hot spot and potentially being damaged. Larger rooms may need multiple heating units to prevent the bugs from escaping to a cooler zone. No matter how many units are used, temperature sensors are placed in each room to make sure the they get hot enough.

Follow Up
While heat treating is the most effective method for resolving a bed bug problem, it does nothing to prevent future infestations. That is why a comprehensive plan should be developed before bed bugs are detected. Regular inspections for many different types of bugs can detect them early and make controlling them easier. Preventative chemical measures can be implemented in high risk areas to keep the bugs from getting in the house. Once the colony is killed off, the chemicals can be used to treat their favorite nesting areas to make them less desirable for new generations.

Package Precautions: Ensuring a Safe Delivery Every Time

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In this article we are going to recap a handful of simple safety instructions for courier drivers. Whether you are new to courier work or an experienced old hand, it’s never a bad idea to remind yourself of the easy actions you can take before, during and after a delivery job to ensure the safety of yourself, your customers and members of the public.
Driving in a careful and considerate way not only protects everyone on the road, it keeps everyone in a good mood, which, in turn, increases your chances of repeat business.

Preparation is Key

There are a few ways you can prepare before starting a delivery job to make certain that everything goes smoothly.

? Know your route: Try to get to really know the areas you regularly drive in so you can stay away from problem areas, such as one way streets and traffic-heavy roads. Make a mental note of good places to park in towns and cities where you deliver often. ? Loading: Pack smart by loading the packages you need last at the back of your lorry and those you need first at the front. While it might take a little extra effort, it will certainly save you time on the job. Also take care to stack lighter packages on top of heavier ones, as this will help protect more fragile items and decrease the movement of packages in your lorry. ? Timings: Have all the paperwork prepared before you get to the delivery site so you can just grab a signature and go. Customers will be impressed with your efficiency and you can move straight on to the next job without delays.

Stay Alert on the Job

Here are a few tips that will help you and those around you stay safe and happy when you are out on a delivery job.

? Parking: Try to avoid reversing into a parking spot; instead, find a larger space where you can leave enough room for other vehicles to move around you. Turn on your hazards before opening the door and always watch out for oncoming traffic as many drivers are not as aware of their surroundings as courier drivers are. ? Unloading: If you are delivering heavy items, make sure you are prepared to do so. If you need a hand, call ahead to check there will be someone to meet you at the delivery site.

Make a Safe Getaway

Once you have successfully dropped off the package it is time to continue on your route. As an extra precaution, we recommend double checking the items in your lorry before you leave, so you can drive on assured that everything is safe and secure. Always signal before moving into traffic, and watch out for pedestrians. If you have had to park in a tight spot, ask someone to help you manoeuvre out, because it’s far better to be safe than sorry.

So, before you next hit the road, take a few minutes to check that you’re fully prepared for your delivery job. Whether it’s reordering the items in your lorry or re-routing your drive, even little changes can help make your job easier and safer.

Norman Dulwich is a Correspondent for Courier Exchange, the world’s largest neutral trading hub for same day jobs in the express freight industry. Connecting logistics professionals across the UK and Europe through their website, Courier Exchange provides services for matching any kind of delivery job with available drivers or operators. Over 5,400 member companies are networked together through the Exchange to fill empty capacity, get new clients and form long-lasting business relationships.

Tips and Tricks for Dealing with Online Customer Reviews

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When a courier job goes wrong, you’ll find that the customer often has something to say about it. Although the internet can be the perfect place to scrutinise, insult, and even ruin a business, it is also a platform that portrays the best of its attributes. Here’s how to maximise the positives and avoid online embarrassment.
Don’t Ignore It

Actively responding to online negativity about your business is the best way to resolve it. The complaining customers will seldom expect a reply, so it will already act as a sign that your company is keen to help and improve the delivery experience. Going beyond what customers expect is always a positive and, in this instance, will mean that other viewers on the site will be aware that you’ve made the effort to deal with an unhappy client. This personal approach could even lead to new customers, as you will have shown that your company are quick to respond (which is often what people are expecting from the courier job itself). A Way with Words

There are certain techniques you can use when writing your response that are more likely to boost the reputation of your business. The first of these is expressing empathy. Showing the customer that you understand and care about their problem is a key element of an effective reply. It reveals a more personal side to the online interaction, which could otherwise come across staged.

Another effective technique is to offer a solution within your message. An error made while carrying out a courier job is usually not difficult address, so giving the customer multiple constructive solutions is a simple way to deal with the issue. Of course, actively following through with your proposed solution as soon as possible makes for an even more successful outcome. If the complaint is more complex, offer your company’s contact details so that the customer can speak to you directly at their own convenience.

Making sure you speak like an actual person rather than ‘on behalf of a business’ is equally important. Doing this will make you appear honest, approachable and real. Not only will this put your customer at ease, but it will also come across brilliantly to other online readers, which in turn can help to boost your reputation.

Bring It On

It’s crucial to remember that throughout all the negativity you must remain calm, polite and professional. Lashing out or being too defensive can result in further undesirable comments, and eventually a downward spiral of unpleasantness. Simply showing the customer some compassion and solving their problem as quickly as you can is usually enough to persuade them to update their review favourably.

Norman Dulwich is a correspondent for Courier Exchange, the world’s largest neutral trading hub for same day courier job capacity in the express freight exchange industry. Over 5,400 member companies are networked together through the Exchange to fill empty capacity, get new clients and form long-lasting business relationships.