Are you living in one of the worst places for fall allergies?  Check out the latest list for the Top 20 Fall Allergy Hotspots.   

Fall Allergy Hotspots: The 20 Worst Places In The U.S.

If you’re an allergy sufferer, you hardly need us to remind you, but it is that time of year again! Fall allergy season is upon us.  Think you live in a particularly bad spot?

The non-profit Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America has, once again, compiled a list of the 100 worst metro areas for seasonal allergies — rankings that are based on pollen scores, the number of allergy meds used per patient in any given area, as well as the number of specialists in that spot. According to WebMD, one of the main culprits for fall allergies is ragweed, which typically begins pollinating in August, but can linger into the fall. Mold spores can also play a major role.

Wondering if your hometown made the so-called “allergies capital” list? Check out the 20 worst offenders below as reported in the Huffington Post.

1. ENCASE:  Cover your bed with allergy encasings!  They’re the #1 doctor-recommended step for allergy relief!
2. WASH:  Wash linens to remove allergens.  Make your job easier with allergen-removing detergents.
3. CLEAN:  Every little bit helps with cleaning and certain household cleaners are designed to tackle allergens.
4. REMOVE:  It’s best to remove carpets, but that can be touch.  Use carpet treatments that remove allergens.
5. FILTER:  Air filters trap allergens and keep them from circulating in your home. 
6. PURIFY:  HEPA air purifiers capture airborne allergens.  Save now on Blueair HEPA filter replacements! 
7. SAVE:  What’s this 7th step?  Oh yeah, it’s an extra bonus from us!  SAVE 20% with code 20SPOT until 10/31.  If you’re in a tight spot with allergies, get the products and the relief you need! 

“If you suffer from allergies, you may experience sneezing, stuffiness, a running nose and itchiness in your nose, the roof of your mouth, throat, eyes, or ears. These allergic reactions are most commonly caused by pollen, mold spores in the air, or effects in the weather and location,” says Rima DeFatta, M.D., an ear, nose and throat specialist at Sacred Heart and St. Joseph’s hospitals.

“Finding the right treatment is the best method for managing your allergies. There is no reason to suffer during allergy season,” says Dr. DeFatta.

Limit exposure to the pollen or molds that cause allergy symptoms

Find out — Know your triggers
Watch out — Monitor pollen and mold counts, stay indoors when counts are high
Keep the pollen outside — Keep windows closed at your home and in your car
Mask your misery — Wear a pollen mask when outside for long periods of time
Clean — After being outdoors, take a shower, wash your hair, change your clothing, have furnishings and carpet cleaned, and clean your nasal passages with saline sinus rinse
Take a Vacation — Consider taking a vacation during the height of the season to more of a pollen free area, close to a beach or sea
Don’t let up — Don’t stop your allergy medication too soon

Read the full Chippewa Herald article at: http://chippewa.com/lifestyles/article_f32e4d9e-ea07-11e0-bb9a-001cc4c002e0.html#ixzz1ZM8wL8Pl

On this last day of BED BUG WEEK, we thought it would be cool to profile the difference between beastly bed bugs and disgusting dust mites. Thanks to www.yourdiscovery.com for shedding some light!  

Bedbugs and Dust Mites

Let’s get one thing straight – bedbugs and dust mites are not the same. The first is a nasty little bloodsucker that makes you itch and the second is a nasty little dead skin eater that makes you sneeze.

How about we start with the nasty little bloodsuckers?
Remember what your Gran used to say as she tucked you in? “Sleep tight; don’t let the bedbugs bite”? Well, she should know, because fifty years ago one in ten homes had them. Thankfully the little monsters are much less common than they used to be, mainly due to the modern, clean homes that we now live in. They feast on human blood, but will slum it on pets if they have to.

How do you know if you have bedbugs?
You’ll wake up with itchy, whitish bites, usually on your neck and arms. Bedbugs don’t carry disease – but don’t scratch the bites because they may become infected. Another way of finding them are the telltale spots of blood you will find on your bed linen after they’ve had dinner at your expense.

You’re not likely to see your houseguests, because they only come out to feed at night when you’re asleep. They are about the size of an apple pip, a reddish brown colour and have six legs. By day they hide in cracks and crevices around the home like skirting boards, behind loose wallpaper and in your bed.

Bedbugs live between six and 12 months and adult females will lay an average of 2-3 eggs a day. So once they’ve moved in, they tend to take over. They also love to travel – on clothes, luggage and in second hand furniture. Therefore, houses or hostels with a lot of people coming and going are more likely to be infested.

The only way to get rid of bedbugs is to call in a reputable pest control company to spray your home with insecticide. Your local council should be able to recommend one, and may even pay for the treatment.

Before they visit, pest control will ask you to wash all bed linen, soft toys and clothes in the hottest wash allowed – 60 degrees if possible. You’ll need to expose all potential hiding places and make sure the kids and pets (especially fish) are out of harms way. After the spray has dried, expect a break from the housework because you won’t be able to vacuum for at least ten days!

Invisible filth
Like it or not, no matter how clean you think your house is, you live in invisible filth. Eighty per cent of house dust is made of dead, human skin. We shed 5-10 grams a week and this is what dust mites like best for dinner.

The average house will be home to 100,000 to 10 million of the little monsters. You can’t see them; they’re translucent and only about 0.3mm long. Most people don’t even know they share their home with dust mites, but their existence is evident is you have asthma, eczema or allergies due to the enzymes in the mite droppings.

The good news is you won’t have to call in the pest controllers; the bad news is you’ll never get rid of them completely, no matter how much you clean your house.

There are ways to control dust mites by simply reducing the dust they like to eat. They love bedding; a two year old pillow is full of dust and will be made up of 10% dead mites and their droppings, so start by getting new ones. Vacuum your bed regularly, you might think it sounds bonkers but it helps! Wash your bed linen on the hottest temperature allowed and air duvets and pillows regularly. Dust mites love moisture but hate air and light.

Dust mites will aggravate asthma so if you or any members of your family are sufferers, it would be a good idea to get rid of carpets and rugs as they are real dust traps. These can be replaced with wood or vinyl flooring. If this isn’t an option, vacuum everyday if possible and dust surfaces with a damp duster (a feather duster just moves it from one place to another).

To see the full article, click here.

Traveling on your own or with friends and family can be one of the highlights of your year!  We want to make sure you have a great time, enjoy the sites, relax at the hotel, and most importantly – leave those nasty bed bugs behind when you leave for home!  

UPI.com recently recently spoke to the Restoration Industry Association, a non-profit trade association that promotes best practices in the cleaning and restoration industry.  They have laid out these steps to avoid bed bug infestations while traveling and we wanted to share them with you:

• Before traveling, pack clothes in a large Ziploc bag.
• At the hotel, check the piping along the mattress and frame around the bed, look for empty body shells under the bed and between the mattress and box spring.
• Use a flashlight, check the closet for evidence before using.
• Leave clothes IN a suitcase, ON a luggage rack.
• Place shoes out in the open instead of under the bed.
• At home, immediately unpack in a laundry room or garage, wash clothes and inspect the suitcases.
• If bed bugs are discovered once home:  washable items should be laundered using the hottest temperature for washing and drying.  Suitcases, purses and unwashable items can be placed in a plastic bag and left in the sun for a day.

If you’re in college or have a college-aged child, we’re sure you’re not surprised that bed bugs are becoming such a problem across the U.S. and internationally as well.  The news regularly reports on the bed bug problem, and it’s pretty ugly out there.  College dorms are seeing a huge rise in bed bug infestations.  A recent study by the National Pest Management Association found that 54% of college dorms have bed bugs.  Gross!  

We know you have might have just taken your child back to college or maybe brought him or her for the first time.  It’s hard enough to get ready for that journey away from home – packing the car for every day college needs…never mind having to worry about bed bugs!  At college, you shouldn’t have to worry about bed bugs in your room.  Save the getting acquainted part of college for your roommate, not a blood-sucking pest.  And Mom and Dad,  we hope that you didn’t get any unwanted travellers that came back home with you.  While you’re focusing on unpacking all of the college necessities, Mr. Bed Bug & Friends may be hopping a ride in your stuff for the trip back home. 

 Click here to view the video of a story that shows a college family and their recent experiences with bed bugs and trying to get rid of them.   

Do you have any stories you can share with us regarding your college experience?  Do you have tips or ideas on how to avoid them at school?  Did your college or university address the issue with you before arrival?  We want to know!

A seriously gross thing that we heard on National Geographic’s bed bug video is that these nasty critters can bite you up to 500 times a night!  The bites are itchy and painful, and while they are horrendous to even think about, the bites may be the least of your problems.  If you’ve encountered bed bugs, you’ve got Trouble with a capital T!  If you’re at a hotel with bed bugs, you could bring them home where all heck will break loose (more on this topic this week).  And if bed bugs have infested your home, serious steps will need to be taken to get rid of them.  Some people have to resort to throwing away bedding, mattresses, couches or other bed bug havens.  And these pests are hardy so they don’t go down without a fight. 

Encasing your bed is a major preventative step to avoid bed bug problems and save your bedding (and your sanity).  Consider how the simple step of encasing your bed can help you: 

• Bed bugs like to burrow into dark, soft areas where they are in close proximity with their major food source … namely you and your blood.  (We have to say ICK again, just writing these words.)
• If bed bugs get into your home, they will likely head for your bed and bedding.  If you’ve covered your bed with a bed bug proof encasing, the bed bug can’t get into the bedding to make its home there.  The encasing acts like a KEEP OUT sign to protect your pillow, mattress, box spring or comforter.
• Encasings slip onto your bedding in a matter of minutes to form this protective barrier.  And it’s not like you have to trade off comfort and resort to some sort of crinkly, hot encasing.  These encasings are not vinyl!  COTTON PERFORMANCE encasings are made from 100% cotton.  Pristine COMPLETE encasings are 100% microfiber.  Both are soft, smoothe, quiet and invisible on the bed.  You won’t know they are there! 
• You might be wondering how 100% cotton or 100% microfiber gets the job done to keep out bed bugs?  These encasings aren’t made from any old fabric.  They’re specially woven, advanced fabrics that are about as high tech as you can get when talking about fabric.   In addition to the specialized fabric, the encasings have superior construction features that block bed bugs (or keep them in, if you’ve already had a problem).  The seams, stitching and zippers are all high quality and tight so that bed bugs don’t get in or out. 
• If you already have bed bugs in your home (ouch, we feel for you), you can salvage your mattress or box spring by placing encasings on both and leaving the encasings on for at least 18 months.  These pests can go a long time without food and therefore, leave the encasings on to starve them!  As for pillows and comforters, encasings can help here too but you may want to consider getting rid of both or possibly numerous hot water washes. 
• Two other great things about COTTON PERFORMANCE and Pristine COMPLETE encasings are that they also protect you from dust mite and pet allergens for a healthier night’s sleep AND they are 25% OFF  through 9/30 when you use code BUGWEEK! 

Our best advice, be proactive with encasings rather than being reactive!  Use the 25% discount with discount code BUGWEEK and encase your bed.  Enjoy allergy relief, bed bug protection and savings!

Welcome to BED BUG WEEK at Allergy Control Products in honor of National Bed Bug Awareness Month!  

Photo from NYC Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene

This week we’ll shed some light on bed bugs in the home and office, college dorms and when taking it on the road.   Check back every day for more information and a promotion designed to help prevent bed bugs infestations in your life.

Today, get the facts and be in the “know” as we feature an article we found pretty gross yet helpful!   Get the ‘Myths’ and ‘Truths’ pertaining to bed bugs and their existence in our world.    Check it out here! See how many True/False statements you can get right!

Let us know your personal experiences with bed bugs and any tips you might have learned along the way.  Things that you may have learned will help others avoid the nightmare of bed bug infestation!

Article from New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. 

School is starting and if you have a child with food allergies, it can be an especially scary time.  In this video, Dr. Ruchi Gupta discusses food allergies along with some equally scary facts:

• A whopping 6 million children suffer from food allergies (1 out of 13 kids!). 
• Nearly 40% of the food allergic children have severe reactions. 
• Their study showed top food allergies are to peanuts and milk  (25% have a Peanut Allergy and 21% have a Milk Allergy).  Other food allergies included Shellfish, Egg, Wheat and Soy. 
• Food allergy reactions often differ from environmental allergies.  Reactions can include trouble breathing or other life-theatening symptoms.
• Sensitivity can be caused by touch and does not always have to be through ingesting the food. 
• Scientists are studying causes of food allergies.  Some theories include additives in food causing sensitivity or even that we are too focused on cleanliness.  Without exposure to some healthy bacteria, our immune system can get out of whack and start fighting incorrect things like foods or particles in the environment.   

To watch this this informative video, click here:  Dr. Ruchi Gupta Discussing Food Alleriges 

Or watch for more information:   

Parents, if you have advice for handling food allergies in the classroom or at birthday parties, we’d love to hear your comments! 

Can you believe summer is over?  My next door neighbor is packing the car right now for college and she cannot wait to get back.  Her mom…well that’s a different story!  Needless to say, someone will be missed!

On the Today show this morning, David Gregory and a recent Quinnipiac College Grad went through MUST HAVES for your DORM ROOM.  There were quite a few essential items that I wish I had when I went to college…many moons ago.

Here are some of the ESSENTIALS they listed:

• Double Stick Tape & Command Hooks - you can’t hammer nails into most college walls so these are great for decorating
• Light bulbs - you have your lights on most of the time in the dorms – so bring extra
• Surge Protectors - in our technology driven world you never have enough plugs
• Pant Hanger Valets - save space in your closet with one hanger for multiple pants
• Portable Steamer - makes getting those wrinkles out so much easier!
• Laundry Organizer – they are available in fun bright colors that look good in your dorm room yet you still keep brights & whites separate!  Mom..where are you when we need you?
• Bedbug Mattress Encasings - unfortunately bedbugs are becoming more and more common.   Let’s keep those disgusting bed bugs off of you!
• Bed Risers - such a simple purchase and you can raise your dorm bed and have more room for storage under the bed
• Clock Radio – the louder the better so you don’t miss class
• Cork Boards & Wipe Boards – the key to success is staying organized and of course you can pin up your favorite pic of your dog that you left at home!

We are excited about starting a whole new dialogue with you about your allergies and asthma!   And don’t forget those awful bed bugs! 

Let’s join together in opening the information highway for finding relief.   Our hope is to provide you with the latest and greatest content currently available as well as helpful resources.  We hope you will do the same!  If there is something out there that you feel this community would benefit from, please send it our way!  Any tips, comments or suggestions that you have will be greatly appreciated.  We are in an age where it can be difficult to find helpful information and companies you can trust.  At Allergy Control Products, we hope to be a trusted source for you and we can’t wait to start up this discussion!

To get you started, check out our most recent post regarding BEDBUGS!  Animal Planet is airing a MUST-SEE do***entary called “Bedbug Apocalypse” Thursday night, 8/25, at 10.p.m.  You don’t want to miss it!!  Or maybe you do…  :)