Access-a-Ride dispatchers in Long Island City say their Northern Blvd. bed bugs have been found in their office since the summer of 2008, and NYC Transit is only now taking action, The New York Daily News reports today. (Access-a-Ride is a transportation van service for the disabled.)
A bed bug sniffing dog team found bed bugs on the 7th and 8th floors of the building on Friday.
“I hope it will force some pressure for them to do something,” said John Wau, 48, who showed pinprick-sized scars along his right arm that he said came from numerous bedbug bites.”They keep telling us not to worry, that everything is okay,” said Wau, a customer service representative. “But they’re not doing anything about it.”
Since the bedbugs were detected Friday on the seventh and eighth floors of the facility – where more than 700 dispatchers work for the firm – sections have been taped off to keep employees away from the infested areas and several items were removed, workers said.
Officials from NYC Transit, which operates Access-A-Ride, said the problem is being addressed.
“One of the recommendations to be implemented within the next two days will be the steam-cleaning of carpets, cubicles and office chairs of the call centers,” said spokesman Charles Seaton.
Note: taping off specific areas will keep employees from an area, but will not keep bed bugs from coming to the employees.
The article features an interview with one worker, Idalia Perez, who says she brought bed bugs from work home to her Bronx apartment in August 2008; she says she lost thousands of dollars of furniture due to the infestation, and received no support from her employer.
When hundreds of workers may have been exposed to bed bugs over more than a year’s time, you have to wonder how many people in New York may have gotten their bed bugs from this one prolonged bed bug infestation.
The Department of Education is advertising for a killer — soliciting bids for the “identification and extermination of bedbugs within the schools citywide.”
A listing in yesterday’s City Record said a contract with a pest-control professional would last up to three years and cost the department less than $100,000.
A department spokeswoman said the listing was a contingency measure, not a response to an increase in bugs.
Though, to be honest, as bed bugs increase outside the schools, we can only assume they’re increasing inside schools as well.
And that City Record listing? (You can search here, for keywords “bed bugs):
BEDBUG IDENTIFICATION AND EXTERMINATION - Competitive Sealed Bids – PIN# Z1325040 – Due 12-7-2009 AT 5:00 PM
This is An Open Market Agreement and is intended to cover, during the period of the contract, the requirements for Identification and Extermination of bed bugs within the schools citywide under the jurisdiction of the Department of Education of the City of New York City as outlined in the OMA Document. The contract resulting from this OMA will be for the period commencing with the execution of the contract by the Department of Education and will expire on December 31, 2012 or with the expenditures of $99,999.99, whichever comes first. Provided that $99,999.99 has not been expended prior to June 30, 2011, the Department of Education, at its sole option may further extend this agreement for a final period of up to one hundred eighty (180) days.
Bid Opening: Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 at 11:00 AM.
And as every New York City pest pro will know, and this post discusses in more detail, there are limits on the kinds of pesticides which can be used in city-owned buildings, under Local Law 37 (PDF), including pyrethrins.
Yes, pyrethrins are no miracle cure for bed bugs, but they are often still an integral part of bed bug treatment plans.
FishbowlNY reports it received multiple tips that Air America New York employees were working at home today as their office gets searched for bed bugs.
. . . it’s no joke that the nasty critters have infected more than one media company in New York, including publishers, ad agencies and Fox News.
But just in case you thought the biting beasts had any political affiliation, we assure you they are equal opportunity insects, now setting their sites on progressive radio and Web news outlet Air America. We’ve heard from a few tipsters that employees from the company’s New York offices are working from home today as the space gets thoroughly checked for a possible infestation. We’re hearing that the source of the scare was one suspicious bug found in a tenant’s space that shares a floor with Air America.
You may recall that Marc Maron, an Air America personality, recounted his horror stories about a bed bug outbreak at home on his Breakroom Live show back in March. (Breakroom Live and the Marc Maron show were both cancelled in July 2009.)
In the Breakroom Live video below, from March 2009, Maron and a second Air America employee (”Dorsey the video guy” according to the YouTube description) discussed their respective bed bug infestations at home.
Bug Off Pest Center in NYC recently hosted an event called the New York Pest Expo: Bed Bug Edition. Frank Andorka notes in his PMP column that it attracted 500 pest management professionals. And we New Yorkers can be glad — that’s 500 PMPs who sat down and heard bed bug experts Dr. Dini Miller of Virginia Tech and Dr. Michael Potter of the University of Kentucky, who Andorka said spoke for a total of around six hours. (Pest Management Professional magazine was a sponsor of the event.)
Frank Andorka shared the following video highlights of the event (among others) on his blog (Thanks to Frank for making this footage available on YouTube):
Dr. Dini Miller talking about the use of Temp-Air thermal treatments at Virginia Tech University.
Dini Miller mentions the problem of bed bugs getting through some encasement teeth, and encourages PCOs to tell customers who can’t afford encasements on both the mattess and box to put a high quality encasement on the box spring:
Dr. Michael Potter talks about the challenges of treating apartment buildings for bed bugs. Potter mentions the need for periodic inspections of occupied and vacant units, and suggests 28% of tenants won’t complain about bed bugs (because they don’t react to bites, or don’t want to cause trouble, among other reasons):
Here, Potter talks about how effecive bed bug dogs can be and how much of a commitment they are for the company. He distinguishes between good bed bug dogs and bad bed bug dogs:
Mike Potter recommends PCOs issue gloves to techs working on bed bug jobs. One Chicago tech got a needle stick doing bed bug inspections:
And last but not least, listen to participants field questions in the Great American Bed Bug Challenge. If only journalists were exposed to this quiz, the treatment of bed bugs in the media might improve a bit:
The Hazleton, Pennsylvania school district went bed bug-wild on Wednesday, after a single student apparently discovered a single bed bug bite after a sleepover, according to the Standard Speaker.
The discovery of a child with a bedbug bite at the Valley Elementary Middle School on Tuesday led exterminators to search five schools on Veterans Day to make sure there was no infestation before classes resumed Thursday.
School administrators checked with the family of the student who was bitten and found that she had attended a sleepover. Her family and the family that hosted the sleepover have a total of six children who attend five schools: Valley, Hazleton Area High School, the Ninth Grade Center, the Hazleton Area Career Center and Heights-Terrace Elementary/Middle School.
Not only did the pest control company search the well-trod paths those six students normally moved along, checking their classrooms, buses, and lockers they all used, but
As a precaution, technicians sprayed a mix of five chemicals in the areas where the students traveled. Temborski said the chemicals don’t harm people and dry in two to four hours, so the closing of school for Veterans Day provided an ideal time to work.
In addition, the two families involved (the girl’s family and the sleepover host’s family) had their homes professionally treated for bed bugs by All ‘Bout Critters Pest Control, the same company contracted to do the work in the schools:
The two families hired ABC Pest Control to exterminate the bedbugs in their homes, and their children won’t return to school until the work is done. Temborski said treating bedbugs takes at least two treatments given two days apart.
There may be much more to the story than is included in this article. ABC said they “found nothing” in the school.
However, it is not clear from the article whether any evidence of bed bugs was found in the homes, or how anyone knew it was a bed bug that left a mark on the little girl in question.
On the other hand, here in NYC, it’s illegal to treat for bed bugs unless you have proof of their presence; I am not sure of the laws in Pennsylvania or the local area surrounding the Hazelton, PA School District.
Was the warning painted by the person who discarded this mattress and box spring in San Francisco, or by the person who appears to have removed the plastic covering?
The City of Chicago has been investigating sales of new and refurbished mattresses which are infested with bed bugs, and has closed one store, NBC Chicago reports.
At least five stores in the Chicago area sold new or refurbished mattresses containing bedbugs, city officials said Thursday.
The stores include Mike’s Furniture, Best Mattress Company, TC Furniture, Guadalajara Furniture and Chicago Mattress. One of the stores, Best Mattress Company, has been shut down.
City officials launched the investigation after receiving a litany of complaints from itchy and sleep-deprived customers.”This is an issue of taking advantage of consumers,” said Commissioner Norma Reyes with the city’s Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection. “Particularly the most-vulnerable consumers in the City of Chicago — seniors and people with limited income.”
At least one of the stores disputed the charge,
All but one of the mattress stores refused to comment. Chicago Mattress said it disputes the city’s findings.
“I’ve been in business for 13 years and I’ve never had a problem until now,” said owner Andy Shifrin.
Alas, that’s how it is with bed bugs: they were not a problem. And now they are spreading like wildfire.
Chicagoans, check out “Consumer Watch: Purchasing a Mattress in Chicago” (click to download the PDF flyer from Chicago’s Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection).
The Ohio Department of Agriculture has asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for an emergency exemption to allow the use of the pesticide Propoxur in residences; more than a dozen additional states are supporting this request, The Columbus Dispatch reports.
The pesticide is currently in use for crops, on flea/tick collars, and in commercial applications. This would simply be an emergency extension of its use inside residences.
Why Propoxur?
As Doug Caruso reports for The Columbus Dispatch,
In tests at the University of Kentucky, the chemical killed 100 percent of the bedbugs exposed to it within 24 hours and kept on killing after eggs hatched, Beal said. That compared with a 16 percent kill rate after 72 hours for a commonly used household insecticide against one strain found in Cincinnati, and 40 percent in another strain.
Make no mistake: while safety to humans and pets is an important factor when decisions are made about which pesticides are legal for which use, political and financial interests do factor heavily. The Columbus Dispatch notes,
Introduced in 1959, Propoxur was removed from home use in the 1990s under a law that sought to reduce people’s exposure to insecticides. When manufacturers decided which uses to allow, [Matt Beal, assistant chief at the Ohio Department of Agriculture] said, they kept the chemical for application to crops and commercial buildings because they sold more of it for those purposes.
[Emphasis mine.]
It will be interesting to see if the exemption is granted, and whether this helps us in our battle against the red menace.
Update (11/12):
Is it just me or is the New York Times trying to put a spin on this issue with their headline,
“Bed bugs are back, and we’re not ready.”
Those are the words Sean Meagher told a crowd of 100 people who gathered in Toronto today to discuss a new report on the city’s bed bug problem.
CBC has a video about this event here (though I was glad to see it, it also contained some dodgy suggestions [...]
The Los Angeles Times Show Tracker gives a rundown on this week’s “30 Rock” (”Audition Day,” Season 4 Episode 4) which featured a bed bugs sub-plot.
While everyone else was on the lookout for new talent, Jack had his own mission: A quest for acceptance. With a nasty case of bed bugs (otherwise known as [...]
