BRINGING HOME UNEXPECTED GUESTS: WALMART PHOENIX
A lesson in bed bug mobility; Phoenix Walmart customers may have taken home more than they bargained for!
Bed bugs can come from just about anywhere. In Phoenix, shoppers at Walmart learned this lesson all to well.
From an article originally posted on ABC15 Phoenix:
PHOENIX – Don’t let the bed bugs bite — is not a saying that should ever apply to a grocery store, but one Valley man said he was bitten by bugs several times at a Valley Walmart.Jose Avalos de Leon and his wife, Lupita Cruz, said they went to a Walmart at 35th Avenue and Bethany Home Road this past weekend.
Avalos had an injured leg so he decided to use one of the store’s motorized shopping scooters.“Just riding down Walmart for a little bit, my back started getting itchy,” said Avalos.Avalos got off the scooter to look at the seat and saw tiny brown bugs crawling around in the seat’s crevices. They looked at another scooter chair and found the same thing. “I got off the chair, turned around and the whole chair was infested with bed bugs,” said Avalos.
ABC15 asked a pest expert to watch the video, and he confirmed that the tiny brown insects are indeed bed bugs. Ian Campbell, who owns The Works Pest Control, said somebody who has bugs at home probably brought them into Walmart on their clothes. He said anybody who sat on the scooters after the infestation could have accidentally taken some bugs back to their home to start a new colony.“That person goes home and sits on their couch and instantly the bed bug tries to hide,” said Campbell, describing how an infestation begins. “That bed bug is gong to feed on and once they feed they start laying eggs.
”Walmart issued a statement to ABC15.“The carts have been pulled from public use, and we’re awaiting a team to arrive at the store for testing,” said the statement from Charles Crowson, senior manager of corporate communications for Walmart.On Monday afternoon, there were seven motorized carts sitting outside behind the Walmart. The vinyl cover had been removed from several of the scooter seats.
Once they are in... they are in
Bed bugs are incredibly mobile. The truth of it is: while the bud bugs were found on the scooter, anyone near the scooter or in the store might have taken them home. Anyone in the store who went to another store after… might have taken them to another store. And it goes on… and on…
