Pest Control and Bug Exterminator Blog

Pests love celebrities too.

Halle Berry, Howard Stern, Queen Elizabeth, Renee Zellweger, Bradley Cooper, Maya Rudoplh….

What do these famous people have in common aside from money, fame and paparazzi camped outside their homes?

They have been overrun with bugs!

The only advantage a celebrity might have in conquering bugs is that instead of cleaning and treating everything, they just replace it!

Halle Berry Forced Out Of Home By Spiders

Halle Berry, who is deathly afraid of bugs, was forced to evacuate her Hollywood home a few months back when her gardener uncovered a nest of Black Widow spiders. The deadly spiders where living underneath a lawn chair near the actress’ pool. The Academy Award winning actress and expectant mother said:

“There were hundreds under this lawn chair that we would all sit on around the pool every other day.

“We found out there was a whole village, a colony of black widows… One of the gardeners decided he should clean it and when he looked under it it was like, ‘Argh!’

“I just left… I said, ‘I’m gonna leave and you’re gonna have to handle that because I can’t stand spiders…’ I don’t even like Daddy Long Legs.” 

Black Widow Spiders

The Black Widow spider is the most dangerous North American spider. They inject a neurotoxin when they bite which can be serious and even fatal. A bite results in extreme pain and cramping that can take several days to diminish.

Queen Elizabeth Overrun With Silverfish

Even the Queen of England must deal with pest infestations. It was well reported last year that the Queen’s Scottish home was overrun with “embarrassing swarms of wingless insects.”

Those wingless insects just happened to be silverfish, which commonly feed on discarded food, human hair, wallpaper, and clothing fabric. Silverfish thrive in humid or damp conditions. The only way to completely eliminate them is to remove the source of the problem.

Pest control professionals in Scotland helped advise the Queen’s staff, and ended up removing all the wood surrounding the pipes which were causing the damp conditions the silverfish love.

Silverfish

Silverfish are flat, gray, scaly insects that have the ability to squeeze into tiny cracks. They have an uncanny ability to hide or to gain entry into homes. They are extremely quick, and will dart away when you turn on the lights. Silverfish prefer to live in damp, cool places such as bathrooms, basements and laundry rooms.

Howard Stern Battling Multiple Bug Infestations 

Ants 

The popular shock jock Howard Stern has had the misfortune of battling pest infestations multiple times. Over the holiday, Howard Stern and his wife Beth Ostrosky were forced to flee their luxury resort vacation in Turks and Caicos when the villa they rented became infested with ants.

Stern paid $5800 a night for a little time away with his wife, in a private 3 bedroom villa with ocean access. It wasn’t long into his vacation before they found themselves itching to get back home. A few minutes after they settled in to relax with some transcendental meditation, they found themselves covered with ants.

Howard Stern reported:

“We’re talking covered in ants. They’re swimming over you-in a sea of ants–encapsulating you. They’re not even looking like normal ants. If they were normal ants I could handle it. They looked like flying fish.” 

Multiple pest control fumigation efforts were performed on the property, in hopes the famous couple would stay, but new ant infestations continued to swarm.

Beetles 

Upon returning home from their unfortunate vacation, the couple found their Manhattan penthouse apartment infested with beetles. A colony of dead beetles was found in their oatmeal, while other containers in his pantry had been overrun with live beetles.

Bedbugs 

Howard Stern has also reported on his Sirius XM Radio show that he has been “scratching every minute,” since his New York apartment and limousine have been infested with tiny, bloodsucking bedbugs.

Celebrities Attacked By Blood Sucking Bedbugs 

In addition to Howard Stern; celebrities like Renee Zellweger, Bradley Cooper, Maya Rudoplh, Aubrey Plaza, Lauren Hildebrandt, and President Bill Clinton have dealt with bedbugs.

Bedbugs can be a common occurrence for celebrities, who do a lot of world traveling for both work and leisure.

President Clinton’s bedbug infestation may be more of a case of having too many guests in his bed.

To read more about celebrities being attacked by bloodsucking bedbugs, click here.

Pests Don’t Play Favorites 

It goes to show you that bugs play no favorites. Even famous celebrities, with lots of money, are susceptible to their malevolence. Black Widow spiders, beetles, silverfish, bedbugs, and ants can affect anybody. Get pest control!

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Anthony Ball

Celebrities Attacked By Blood Sucking Bedbugs

Bedbugs can be a common occurrence for celebrities, who do a lot of world traveling for both work and leisure. One of the biggest misnomers is that bedbugs only live in poor, dirty hotels. The truth is they can be just as common in a five star hotel as a dilapidated transient housing unit.

For an informative infographic about the rising bedbug epidemic, click here.

Here are a few celebrities who have recently had run-ins with bedbugs:

Howard Stern

Howard Stern reported on his Sirius XM Radio show that he has been “scratching every minute,” since his New York apartment and limousine had been infested with the tiny nuisances.

Renee Zellweger & Bradley Cooper

Last year, the National Enquirer reported that then couple Renee Zellweger and Bradley Cooper had to throw out a mattress crawling with bedbugs. Cooper had been doing a lot of traveling, staying in various hotels, and figured he picked them up and brought them home (which is very easy to do)… Maybe they were nesting in those dreadlocks he grew for the film “Hit and Run.”

Lauren Hildebrandt

The pop singer, best known for her song “Boy Shorts,” was attacked by blood-thirsty bedbugs while sleeping in four star New York City hotels last year. She said, “I couldn’t sleep at night, because I kept thinking they were in my bed.”

Maya Rudolph

A couple years back, Saturday Night Live star Maya Rudolph moved into their New York SoHo apartment only to find it filled with bedbugs. Rudolph, who had a baby at the time, began finding bedbug bites all over her and her family. The matter was resolved after pest control efforts… and a $450,000 lawsuit against the landlord.

To read more about landlord pest control violations ranking among the fastest growing consumer complaints, click here.

Aubrey Plaza

Parks and Recreation actress, Aubrey Plaza, was filming in Seattle, WA last month when she had an unpleasant encounter with these tiny pests. The actress reports getting bit by them at a local hotel, which she did not name, and says “it was a nightmare.”

Bedbugs 

The last several years we have been inundated with bedbug horror stories like this. Both local and national news stations, radio stations, and newspapers ran with stories that we were under attack! During that time a lot of pest control companies experienced an unexpected boom.

There is plenty of fear out there surrounding bedbugs. With the growing accounts of bedbugs in the US, the fear is warranted. Bed bugs are very difficult to control and spread very fast if not kept in check.

Even celebrities must deal with bedbugs too!

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Anthony Ball

I recently had fun compiling a playlist on Spotify of popular songs about bugs. Natural progression took me to putting together a list of my top 10 movies featuring bugs. Here’s my list counting down from 10 to 1:

10. Antz (1998)

A neurotic worker ant (Woody Allen), named “Z” helps princess Bala (Sharon Stone) escape her suffocating royal life. While doing so he meets many new friends along the way and discovers his own individuality; all while falling in love with the princess. The film give’s audiences a glimpse into the dynamics of an ant colony, and is packed with the voice-overs of many famous actors.

Cover of Antz

Starring: Woody Allen, Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Jennifer Lopez, Danny Glover, Christopher Walken, Sylvester Stallone, Dan Aykroyd

9. Them! (1954)

Them! is a cult classic and the first bug movie ever made. The film was influenced by the fears over atomic energy testing in the 1950’s. Atomic tests in New Mexico cause ants to mutate into giant man-eating bugs that wreck havoc on humanity.

Them! (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Starring: James Whitmore, Edmund Gwenn, James Arness, Joan Weldon

8. Mimic (1997)

A foolish entomologist, Dr. Susan Tyler, genetically engineers a bug to kill cockroaches in the New York subway system. The genetically engineered insect breeds, and rapidly evolves; having the ability to copy human form. Now the malevolent insects are out to destroy their only predator, by feasting on mankind!

Source: Bloodygoodhorror.com

Starring: Mira Sorvino, Jeremy Northam, Josh Brolin

7. Eight-Legged Freaks (2002)

Giant spiders attack a small Arizona town. Assortments of horrific venomous spiders get exposed to a toxic chemical that causes them to develop and grow to mammoth proportions. Really bad CGI, and blood and guts galore, make this a cult classic. Watch for spider cameos by jumping spiders, tarantulas, trap-door spiders, and orb-weaver spiders.

Starring: David Arquette, Kari Wuhrer, Scarlett Johansson

6. Bee Movie (2007)

Barry B. Benson (Jerry Seinfeld) is a new college graduate who’s excited about starting a job at the “Honex” honey factory. Barry seeks out on his own adventure when things don’t go quite as he expects at the honey factory. He makes friends with a human (Renee Zellweger) who helps him sue the human race for taking all of the bee’s honey.

Cover of Bee Movie (Full Screen Edition)

Starring: Jerry Seinfeld, Renée Zellweger, Matthew Broderick, John Goodman, Chris Rock, Kathy Bates

5. The Fly (1986)

This brilliant remake of the 1958 original, is widely regarded as a classic. An eccentric scientist, Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldbloom), is in the finishing stages of testing his teleportation machine when a house fly gets into the machine with him. He slowly transforms into a grotesque half fly, half man monster.

Starring: Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis, John Getz, Joy Boushel

4. Honey I Shrunk the Kids (1989)

A clumsy inventor unintentionally shrinks his kids, and the neighbor kids, down the size of bugs. They are thrown out with the trash, and must make their way back inside the home to get their father’s attention. The treacherous journey back across the yard involves encounters with a scorpion, a bee, and other perilous insects. This film might have one of the best titles of all time.

Starring: Rick Moranis, Marcia Strassman, Matt Frewer, Kristine Sutherland

3. A Bugs Life (1998)

A group of grasshoppers bully a colony of ants until one particular ant (Flik) gets fed up. Flik ventures out of the colony in search of help and brings back circus bugs to combat the grasshoppers.

Cover of A Bug’s Life [Blu-ray]

2. Starship Troopers (1997)

We must not forget that other planets have bugs too, right? The heroes of Starship Troopers combat arachnid like bugs on the planet Klendathu. The film was a massive hit at the box office, and spawned lots of sequels.

Starring: Casper Van Dien, Denise Richards, Dina Meyer, Neil Patrick Harris

1. Arachnophobia (1990)

A recently discovered spider from Venezuela is accidently brought to a small American town, breeding with local spiders. This creates a new race of poisonous spiders that begin killing off town residents one at a time. Jeff Daniels overcomes his fear of spiders as he battles them to their death. John Goodman makes for one heck of an exterminator.

Starring: Jeff Daniels, Julian Sands, Harley Jane Kozak, John Goodman

What Do You Think?

I had a lot of fun putting together this list of popular movies about bugs, but this is just my opinion. What are your favorite bug movies? I’d live to hear from you!

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Anthony Ball