Ava the elephant  is genius — plain and simple. The brainchild of Tiffany Krumins is a talking medicine dispenser, and she got some help from my favorite show, Shark Tank. Barbara Corcoran gave her a $50,000 investment, and Krumins went on to develop thermometer stickers. I think of the things I did to get my kids to take medicine and get their temps.

At age 30 and with a 2-year-old daughter, Krumins was a nanny to a special needs child when she came up with the idea. Now, she is a thyroid cancer survivor and was voted among the top 50 Mompreneurs of 2011 by Babble.com and has been featured on Entreprenuer.com along with Bank of America  and many other sites.

The product is now in thousands of stores throughout the country.

Pam Parker has written about real estate and home decor in the tri-state region for more than 20 years. She is the editor of Lake Erie LifeStyle, Her Times and House to Home at the Erie Times-News in Erie, Pa. She is the mom of three, stepmom to three and step-grandmom to one.  

Who doesn’t worry about bed bugs when they travel?  The idea creeps me out every time I pack a bag.

ABC-TV Shark Tank set a record in its first episode this fall when all five sharks dove in  to invest in BuggyBeds, a bed bug detection system that entrepreneurs Maria Curcio and Veronica Perlongo’s  invented. The two women asked the Sharks for a $125,000 investment and offered 7 percent ownership of the company. Buggy Beds detects, attracts and traps bed bugs.

The founders trademarked the company name, logo and have patents in multiple countries. At a production cost of $1.35 each, the company had $150,000 in sales when it aired. The sharks bit on this big time and sniped at one another, but it ended happily with all of the sharks offering $250,000 for 25 percent ownership of the company. Barbara Corcoran, Mark Cuban, Kevin O’Leary, Daymond John, and Robert Herjavec are the sharks.

BuggyBeds includes monitors with a non-toxic, pesticide free formula that lure bedbugs and other bugs into a trap for detection. The company suggests putting the traps at all four corners of a mattress or box spring. The trap lasts for up to six months. A four pack is on sale on the website for $11.99 — normal retail is $19.99. The units are available on the BuggyBeds website.

Pam Parker is the editor of Lake Erie LifeStyle, Her Times and House to Home at the Erie Times-News in Erie, Pa.