bed bug news, information, activism, and support

This is a bed bug news round-up for Toronto, Boston, and New York.

A Toronto International Film Festival venue was inspected for bed bugs Monday night after a filmgoer tweeted that she “woke with bites” four hours after viewing Scott Pilgrim vs. the World at the Scotiabank Theatre on Richmond St. W., according to The Star. Cineplex told The Star that a dog team and “secondary visual inspection” by humans found no evidence of bed bugs.

We’re glad to hear that visual inspections followed the canine’s inspections, though usually visual inspections are done only after dogs alert (if they’re done at all), so it is not clear whether the dogs thought they found anything and alerted, or not. In any case, visual evidence is needed to confirm the presence of bed bugs.

While it’s possible for a venue to have bed bugs present which are missed in such an inspection, the filmgoer should also consider the likelihood she was bitten in the place she slept after the theater, or, for that matter, in any other place she’d been recently. (And that’s assuming these were bed bug bites.)

Unfortunately, since there is often a time delay before bed bug bite reactions appear (if they appear at all), it is often difficult to pinpoint where and when the bite occurred.

I have to admit, it would be funny if all of the recent “bed bugs in movie theater” stories involved someone watching Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, which was also the movie being shown when the AMC Empire 25 incident occurred in New York City a few weeks ago.

Over in Boston, the New York Times reported that members of the Boston Inspectional Services Department and the Allston-Brighton Community Development Corporation (ABCDC) spent Wednesday placing orange bed bug warning stickers on discarded furniture left on curbs by students moving from one apartment to another (September 1st is the year’s big moving day for tenants in Boston).

Boston ISD is the city department that is called out to inspect when tenants complain about bed bugs. They have for a number of years had a fairly advanced protocol for enforcing correction of bed bugs in rental units.

bed bugs?! by grenade (kenji ross), used under a Creative Commons Attribution License.

We first told you about the orange stickers and about the ABCDC back in 2007. They were one of the first community organizations to take action on bed bugs. Boston ISD and the ABCDC have been putting out the stickers on September 1st every year since 2004.

We’ve been hoping for almost as long that other cities would adopt the idea of the stickers, which could be made available for anyone discarding used items any time of year. We’re such fans, in fact, that one of our site’s early banners featured the photo above of the bed bug warning sticker.

Lots of used and discarded items end up being resold, so it’s fitting that on Wednesday, the New York Times also explored the effects of bed bugs on flea markets and thrift stores, and their customers.

And remember New York State’s bed bug school disclosure bill, requiring schools to notify parents if bed bugs are present in school? It has now finally been signed into law, and applies to all school districts in New York State with a million or more students. See this Daily News story from Wednesday for more.

Finally, singer Lauren Hildebrandt told USA Today on Wednesday that she was recently bitten by bed bugs in an “unidentified luxury hotel” in New York City’s Union Square.

She may now be the unofficial celebrity spokesperson for inspecting hotel rooms before you settle in:

Underscoring the incredible difficulty in eliminating bed bugs, [Hildebrandt and her mother and manager, Mary Maguire] say the hotel in question told them the property had been undergoing weekly searches with specially trained dogs – and the hotel’s managers personally conduct spot checks on guestrooms. Hildebrandt says she doesn’t blame the hotel.

“The traveler has to be diligent,” Hildebrandt says. “I travel constantly, as it is a huge part of my profession. I will now always look at my hotel bed before agreeing to take the room. I will not place a suitcase on the bed, ever. I will also pack items in plastic bags. I’ll do everything I can to take precautions from now on.”

It’s a good start!

More detailed tips for travelers on precautions to take while traveling (and what to do if you encounter bed bugs away from home) can be found in our Travel FAQs.

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Fear of bed bugs: hysteria and reality

by nobugsonme on August 31, 2010 · 16 comments

in Dr. Coby Schal, Science Friday, bed bug research, bed bugs, bed bugs in the news, dr. michael potter, dr. stephen kells, humor, new york times, psychology

Let’s consider the fear of bed bugs.

Here is the transcript of a conversation between host Ira Flatow, Psychologist Dr. Kevin Ochsner (of Columbia University), and producer Flora Lichtman about psychological reactions to bed bugs, which aired in the Science Friday segment on NPR’s Talk of the Nation last week.

I first want to direct you to Flora’s Video of the Week (mentioned in the segment): “Psychological Reappraisal of Bedbugs.” The idea behind “reappraisal,” to be discussed more in a moment, is that our fears of bed bugs are irrational, and that we need to think differently about them. (I know, but please bear with me.)

The video is embedded below, or viewable here.

You can read or listen to the discussion itself on NPR’s site.

Science Friday Host Ira Flatow says of the video:

“Maybe you won’t look or feel about bedbugs the same way after you see this video.”

Hmmm. I think it would be much more fun if I did not know what bed bugs were really like.

While certainly as far-fetched, at least this Isabella Rossellini fiasco (which The Daily Show had some fun with recently) acknowledges the sheer unpleasantness of having bed bugs living in your home and feeding on you while you sleep.

I was even less taken with Science Friday’s discussion around bedbug “hysteria.”

Dr. Kevin Ochsner thinks that bed bugs are simply “a manageable pest” which is “annoying, but certainly not something worth being really afraid of.”

Ochsner seems to think that people have a fear of bed bugs which is out of proportion to the threat. We may think they’re like “land piranhas,” or in our minds, they’re enormous like Rossellini’s bed bugs.

However, those aren’t the fears of people who know about bed bugs. Or of people who’ve experienced them.

As for their manageability, while you can certainly get rid of bed bugs, many people are forced to live with them for longer than they should because they are not getting proper treatment, and can’t afford to move.

Still others sink serious amounts of money, time and energy into fighting them. And for many, it’s a very real source of anxiety, stress, and physical discomfort.

The World Health Orgaization, the Centers for Disease Control, and others have documented the fact that bed bugs cause real health problems.

And they don’t suggest sufferers simply learn to “reappraise” bed bugs (i.e. think about them in a new way), as Ochsner suggests we should.

I agree that the recent media frenzy has too often had a hysterical tone.

However, while the general public may be “hysterical” about the idea of bed bugs, the reality of bed bugs is a serious problem for far too many people. Had Ochsner, Lichtman, and Flatow spoken with entomologists, or with people who have actually had bed bugs, they might be reappraising their own ideas about bed bugs.

The seriousness of the bed bug epidemic, and the difficulty in eradicating a bed bug infestation is explored more intelligently in the Science section of Monday’s New York Times, in this article focusing on bed bug research.

This article offers a kind of response to the Science Friday crew. Of the “manageability” of this pest, Donald G. McNeil, Jr. writes,

Whatever the source [of the current epidemic], the future is grim, experts agreed.

Many pesticides don’t work, and some that do are banned — though whether people should fear the bug or the bug-killer more is open to debate.

“I’d like to take some of these groups and lock them in an apartment building full of bugs and see what they say then,” [Dr. Michael Potter] said of environmentalists.

Treatment, including dismantling furniture and ripping up rugs, is expensive. Rather than actively hunting for bugs, hotels and landlords often deny having them.

Details in the article emphasize how cautious researchers are to avoid bringing bed bugs home, and how some, including Dr. Stephen Kells (of the University of Minnesota) and Dr. Coby Schal (of North Carolina State University), have developed artificial means of feeding their own bed bug colonies, due to perceived risks of letting the bugs bite them regularly.

Although it takes us a bit off-topic, another not-to-be-missed point in the NY Times story is the section addressing the theory that bed bugs came from “overseas”:

Experts say they’ve heard blame pinned on many foreign ethnic groups and on historic events from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the Persian Gulf war to the spread of mosquito nets in Africa. Every theory has holes, and many are simply racist.

(For example, Dr. Potter said, he has heard Mexicans blamed, but Mexican pest control companies he contacted said they rarely see the bugs except in the homes of people returning from the United States, often with scavenged furniture.)

The story that bed bugs came to the US from other countries with immigrants and travelers doesn’t make a lot of sense once you talk to people from the countries mentioned, and find out bed bugs are also “reappearing” there too, after being largely unheard of.

Perhaps Dr. Schal’s research in mapping global variations in bed bug genes will soon shine some light.

I know you’ll want to read the rest of the New York Times story here.

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New York Governor Patterson signs bed bug disclosure bill; Maine quietly got there first

by nobugsonme on August 31, 2010 · 1 comment

in bed bug disclosure bill, bed bug legislation, bed bugs, landlords and tenants, maine, new york

New York’s bed bug disclosure bill (A10356b), which requires landlords to disclose incidents of bed bugs in a building within the preceding year to prospective tenants, has been signed into law by Governor David Patterson (see this CNN story for more).

You can read earlier Bedbugger posts on the bill here.

This law only applies in New York City, but as City Room noted in June , Assemblywoman Linda B. Rosenthal hopes to introduce a similar bill next year which will apply to the entire state.

As CNN notes, Maine already has a bed bug disclosure bill, and New Jersey has one under consideration.

The Maine law was approved in March and took effect July 12, 2010. It goes far beyond disclosure, outlining responsibilities of both landlords and tenants and clarifying the process for remedying problems with bed bugs in rental situations.

You can read more about the Maine bed bug laws in a Real Estate Advisory (PDF) from Bernstein Shur or at Maine Equal Justice.

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Down and out in New York, with bed bugs

by nobugsonme on August 29, 2010 · 4 comments

in Christine Quinn, George Orwell, SROs, The Vigilant Hotel, bed bug treatment, bed bugs, gale brewer, hpd, new york city, sulfur

Back in 1933, in Chapter One of Down and Out in Paris and London, George Orwell described life with bed bugs in a cheap Parisian hotel:

Near the ceiling long lines of bugs marched all day like columns of soldiers, and at night came down ravenously hungry, so that one had to get up every few hours and kill them in hecatombs. Sometimes when the bugs got too bad one used to burn sulphur and drive them into the next room; whereupon the lodger next door would retort by having his room sulphured, and drive the bugs back.*

Minus the smell of sulfur, perhaps, Orwell would be right at home in New York City in 2010.

This Epoch Times article from Wednesday shines its light on the bed bug situation at The Vigilant Hotel, a single room occupancy (SRO) building at 370 Eighth Ave. in Manhattan whose residents are largely “seniors on fixed incomes, the mentally unstable, or the drug and alcohol dependent.”

Anyone can get bed bugs, but people with limited incomes and the elderly and disabled suffer more than anyone, because their funds and mobility are limited. And sometimes, because their landlords can get away with neglecting their properties.

In The Vigilant, not only do the rooms have bed bugs, but the management appears to have no intention of fully eradicating them. This article demonstrates just how ineffective New York City’s enforcement of its codes can be in relation to bed bugs.

Mike Snell, manager of the building for 25 years, says he warns people before they rent to expect the creatures. In fact, he hands out a non-toxic bug spray to assist residents in protecting themselves.

“We seem to be the only building that gives tenants a free, complimentary, liquid bug spray,” says Snell.

Woo-hoo! Free non-toxic bed bug spray!

Treatments are carried out in different areas of the building twice a month, according to the article. However, treatment of isolated rooms or areas will not work, if other areas also have bed bugs. Every part of the building likely needs aggressive, coordinated treatment.

The treatment of bed bugs is always difficult. In this case, it’s even moreso, since the rooms do not actually have ceilings. The old “Bowery-style” rooms have only mesh for a ceiling, making it even easier for bed bugs to travel from one room to the next.

The Epoch Times spoke to Vigilant residents, including Ken Gibson. Gibson has tried to organize residents, without much luck, and he also filed an HPD complaint regarding the bed bugs, which apparently few residents have done.

According to the Epoch Times,

In response to Gibson’s complaint, HPD inspected the building and issued violations for bedbugs, mice, and roaches on May 24. A violation letter was then sent to the Vigilant.

Next, the Vigilant informed the HPD that the violations were corrected. Snell claims to have used a certified pest-control company, Superb Pest Control.

The tenant is then issued a letter from HPD reporting the violation corrections. By the time Gibson received his letter, he had just one day left to go to the Manhattan Borough Office to dispute the claim, which he did.

Gibson has not heard back from HPD with regard to his dispute, filed on July 26, and he is still living with bedbugs.

The HPD website allows you to search for HPD Complaints and Open Violations: today, there are three Open Violations listing bed bugs in this building – the one for a 4th floor room filed on 5/24/2010 is listed as “NOT COMPLIED” as of 8/24, suggesting Gibson’s dispute of the corrections has now been accepted.

Two other rooms on the fifth floor had bed bug violations open since July 2009, but both are listed as offering “no access” as of July 2010. This suggests that a year went by without any treatment of those rooms with HPD Violations.

There are additional bed bug complaints from the second floor in June 2010, from another unit on the fourth floor and one on the third floor in January 2010, and complaints about bed bugs in the “entire building” back in September and November 2009. (However, HPD Complaints do not get acted upon unless the HPD inspects and subsequently lists them as Violations.)

The Vigilant Hotel is in District 3, so residents have the good fortune to be represented by City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who had strong words for bed bugs at the New York City Council’s unveiling of the Bed Bug Advisory Board’s report (according to City Room),

“To bedbugs in the city of New York,” Ms. Quinn shouted from the steps of City Hall, “Drop dead. Your days are over, they’re numbered, we’re not going to take it anymore, we’re sick and tired.”

No one is more sick and tired than the Vigilant Hotel residents, I am sure.

Most tenants with bed bugs report bed bugs to their landlords first, and only file a complaint with HPD if the landlord does not eliminate the problem. In cases like this, residents simply must report the problem to HPD.

I hope Vigilant Hotel residents — and others in the district with unresponsive landlords — will file HPD Complaints and that they will also lobby Councilmember Quinn for her assistance with their continuing bed bug problems.

This would give Quinn a chance to stand behind her recent anti-bed bug rhetoric.

If you’re not in District 3, you can find your city councilmember via this tool.

Although it’s a bit off-topic here, I can’t resist also quoting this gem from Councilmember and persistent anti-bed bug crusader Gale Brewer:

“They [bedbugs] are in all the city agency offices,” Brewer admitted to The Epoch Times.

“All of these city workers have complained to me, because they go into these apartments and they catch bedbugs, and they go home with them. You know it is not good for anybody,” she added.

You might think that saying bed bugs were in “all” city offices is hyperbole (Brewer is also famous for telling the press that “all” the mayor’s friends have bed bugs, as noted here.)

However, the spread of bed bugs to various city agencies is being documented in recent news coverage of bed bugs in the Social Security Administration offices in Queens (which solicited treatment bids last December and this month, solicited vendors for a “bed bug heat treatment oven” here), the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and the Offices of Human Resources and Child Support Enforcement (in lower Manhattan). While they’re not city agencies, we also can’t forget the Brooklyn and Bronx District Attorney’s offices.

Finally, you may also be interested in EV Grieve’s 2008 piece about The Vigilant, where some commenters seem rather nostalgic for the NYC flophouses of their youth.

*Note: Please do not attempt to treat your bed bugs with sulfur. As this thread on The Bed Bug Resource explains, it’s highly dangerous and there are better methods today.

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Probiotics fight bed bugs? Not really

by nobugsonme on August 29, 2010 · 0 comments

in bed bugs, dust mites, misinformation, not bed bugs, yogurt

This Sify.com article got my attention:

If there’s one thing that absolutely kills off a good sleep, it’s bed bugs, but now scientists have found a new way of getting rid of them – by using yoghurt.

Probiotic yoghurt has ‘friendly’ bacteria. So now scientists say that bed bugs can be wiped out by loading these good bacteria into the mattresses.

Sounds a bit far fetched, yes?

Although not named in the article, the reference appears to be to the technology used in mattresses like these. These products have a cover that contains probiotic bacteria which kill dust mites in the bed.

Bacteriologists at Belgium’s University of Ghent showed that colonies of bugs like dust mites could be wiped out in six weeks.

Yes.

Dust mites. Which are not bed bugs.

Apparently a lot of people are still confused about that.

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Gawker’s bed bug photo FAIL; White House humor & rumors

by nobugsonme on August 28, 2010 · 3 comments

in Gawker, White House, bed bug registry, bed bugs, fumigation, Vikane, misinformation, not a bed bug, not bed bugs, rumors, spread of bed bugs, tented

Gawker joins the mainstream US media in their confusion about what bed bugs look like.

Check out their graphic for Friday’s article about the Bed Bug Registry:

(At least that’s what it looks like at 1:30 am EST on Saturday 8/28, apparently more than 24 hours after it appeared.)

I was also amused to see their prank Bed Bug Registry entry for 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C.

This recent Spoof story about bed bugs in the White House is completely fictitious. So was this one published in The Onion last February.

However, do note that in the last few weeks, the West Wing of the White House was tented with a tarp (see here, and here) while the president was traveling.

Although the official explanation was that it was tented for “maintenance work, including power washing” (as noted here), this did give rise to speculation in some quarters that the White House might have been tented for gas fumigation, perhaps even for bed bugs.

I do not know enough about the structure to even know if this is even a possibility (it’s usually necessary to tent an entire building for gas fumigation).

A more likely explanation is probably maintenance and planned renovations.

Still, the President and his family travel a lot, and have a lot of people coming in and out. I hope they’re taking precautions against bed bugs!

Thanks to Maciej Ceglowski at the Bed Bug Registry for spotting Gawker’s enigmatic silhouette bug!

Update (8/29):

Gawker has now updated the same post with a new graphic that incorporates a silhouette bed bug alongside the “not a bed bug” bug.

Even better, they’ve gotten Maciej’s input on their story. Check it out!

You may also be interested in this Daily News story about the Bed Bug Registry.

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An epidemic of bed bugs in the news

by nobugsonme on August 23, 2010 · 5 comments

in Elle, Empire State Building, New Category, bed bug paranoia, bed bugs, emotions, landlords and tenants, lawyers, psychology, spread of bed bugs, therapists

The bed bug media frenzy continues.

It’s important to remember that six months ago, there were also lots of bed bugs in public places and workplaces — people just were not hearing much about them.

The New York Times produced an interesting story Saturday on people’s reactions to bed bugs, including the stigma of being a bed bug sufferer.

First, a practical matter: tenants who are thinking of suing landlords should consider this bed bug lawsuit Catch-22:

[Brooklyn tenant Jeremy Sparig] fought his landlord in court, representing himself, and recently settled the case for a rare 100 percent rent cut for eight months of the nine that his apartment was infested, as long as he promised to move out. Not surprisingly, he is having trouble finding a new home, doubly stigmatized by having had bedbugs, which he acknowledges to prospective landlords, and by having been in court with his previous one. Now, he said, they ‘don’t even let me come over’ to see an apartment.

Is Mr. Sparig having trouble renting a new home because landlords think he will bring bed bugs with him to the new place, or because they’re afraid he’ll end up suing them?

Next, I am always intrigued by stories of people like housing lawyer Steven Smollens, who the Times says bars clients with bed bugs from meeting him in his office, but notes he is happy to meet them at the Starbucks across the street.

I understand the desire to avoid infesting one’s office (and I realize many of his clients with bed bugs are probably unaware they should be taking precautions to avoid spreading them).

However, it doesn’t make a whole lot of logical sense for Smollens to bring the same clients to a location he frequents. Is he not worried about the Starbucks becoming infested, and passing the bed bugs back to him, and many other people?

If virtual meetings are possible, this might be one way to side-step the problem of exposure.

The Times also interviewed a New York City therapist about his professional work with bed bug sufferers (or former sufferers):

Perhaps no one is more tuned into bedbug paranoia than Steven Brodsky, a Midtown psychotherapist. He treats people suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder, and, in that capacity, has attracted a number of bedbug victims.

Patients tell him they feel like they are ‘sacrificing themselves because they’re literally being eaten as they sleep,’ he said.

You don’t have to have OCD to feel like that!

People who haven’t had bed bugs seem quick to label post-bed bug vigilance as “paranoia.” (How can we forget this 2006 article from the Village Voice?)

It’s important to realize that people who’ve had bed bugs are fearful of the very real possibility of their bed bug problem either coming back via the same route they came in in the first place, or via other means. It’s a very reasonable and understandable concern, and “paranoia” doesn’t seem like the correct term for this.

Former bedbuggers, in my experience, seem to go through several stages once their bed bugs are gone. Many people seem to start out hypervigilant and progress towards a place where they’re perhaps more cautious than they were before bed bugs, but where they are nevertheless fully experiencing the world, taking precautions where necessary (like putting luggage through a Packtite after a trip, rather than avoiding hotels entirely).

That said, I am referring to people who are not suffering from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, but have simply suffered from their bed bug bouts, and are wary of having the same problem again.

It’s good to see the Times exploring these emotional and psychological areas of the bed bug experience, when most of the news lately has been about bed bugs spreading beyond the home (Elle’s offices and an Empire State Building employee changing area being the latest casualties). USA Today also had a story on bed bugs spreading in offices, and NPR also contributed on Saturday to the current epidemic of bed bugs in the media:

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BBAlert Passive and BBAlert Active bed bug monitors now available

by nobugsonme on August 22, 2010 · 4 comments

in BBAlert Active, BBAlert Passive, David Cain, bed bug monitors, bed bugs, detection

You can now purchase the BB Alert Active Bed Bug Monitor from US Bed Bugs. As of this writing, it’s priced at $24.95 for the monitor, with activator pads going for $29.99 for a box of 24.

This video explains how the BBAlert Active works:

I updated this post on passive monitors yesterday, to add up to date information on and photos of the BBAlert Passive Monitor, designed by David Cain of bed-bugs.co.uk. (The BB Alert Passive Bed Bug Monitor is also available, currently priced at $19.95).

Here’s the BBAlert Passive video again, for good measure:

Remember, monitors are designed to detect bed bugs — to let you know if you have them (or still have them). If they are present, you will need treatment. These devices will not eliminate bedbug problems.

(Disclosure: Bedbugger has an affiliate relationship with US Bed Bugs, which means that if you purchase through our links, it helps support this website at no additional cost to you. Read the Disclosure Policy for more information.)

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New photos of bed bug nymphs feeding

by nobugsonme on August 21, 2010 · 14 comments

in bed bug bites, bed bug photos, bed bugs, dr. louis sorkin

Lou Sorkin has some interesting new close-up photos of first instar bed bug nymphs feeding on his hand.

If you look closely, you can see one of the bed bugs before and after it feeds.

Before

Lou’s description of this photo:

First instar nymphs feeding. Some bugs are almost full and ready to leave. On the right is a group of 3 nymphs, the one in the center has not yet begun to feed. It is very pale colored. The light colored raised areas on the left side of the hand have resulted from bed bug feeding within the last hour. These marks will disappear and within a few hours only a red mark pinpointing the bite site will remain. Bite reactions vary from person to person. The red area below the feeding bed bugs is a nevus, a birthmark.

After

Lou’s description here reads:

On the right is a group of 3 nymphs, the one in the center has begun to feed and it is now red (blood shows through its pale skin) and partially full of blood.

Update (8/23): Lou has provided an additional photo of his bite reactions (described in the comments that follow this post):

Lou writes, describing this photo,

Bed bugs will crawl along hairs and crawl down to skin surface to feed. Hours after bed bug feeding, red marks appear at site of each bite. Welts had preceded the red marks but first disappear. Red marks severity lessens with age and in a week are gone. Microscopic brownish areas remain but are very difficult to clearly see.

It’s important to remember that people react differently to bed bug bites (and even to bites at different times or on different parts of their bodies). Your experience may be quite different from Lou’s.

Note: you can click any of the photos above to go to Lou’s flickr photo page, and view them in more detail.

Thanks to Lou Sorkin for sharing his knowledge and photos of bed bugs so generously with all of us!

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Bed bug photo FAIL, brought to you by the letters CBS, CBC, and ABC

by nobugsonme on August 21, 2010 · 11 comments

in Fail, bed bugs, bed bugs in the news, misinformation, not a bed bug, photos of bed bugs

On Friday morning, CBS published a story on its website about bed bugs, featuring an old friend of ours.

Winston tells us he’s some kind of shield bug. Check him out:

I have, personally, had it up to here with this guy:

(Photo credit: iStockphoto.)

Here he is in a CBC article from August 5th:

Ironically, this CBC article contained a poll asking if readers had experienced bed bugs. (As of this writing, with 801 votes in, 70% say no.)

That rather begs the question, “How would they even know?”

If the news media doesn’t post accurate pictures of bed bugs, you’d forgive the public for being confused about what they look like.

After three days of complaints about the photo error from readers such as myself, the CBC finally changed the photo, only after confirming the original photo was not a bedbug with The Bed Bug Resource’s Sean Rollo, a Vancouver-based bed bug expert. (Sean participates in the forums.)

Why did the CBC prolong the damage by waiting three days to consult Sean, or another pest expert?

For that matter, after multiple readers had complained, why didn’t they simply compare their photo with some bed bug photos from reputable sources, like the Toronto Public Health website? (Health Canada is stingy with the images on its bed bug page, which don’t contain a single picture of bed bugs, but their downloadable PDF is a treasure trove of bed bug photos.)

Heck, they could even have glanced at the CBC archives, which have often featured photos of bed bugs and video of this pest in the past.

The CBC case aside, you may ask why everyone is using this particular photo.

Well, it turns out, this bug is featured in the #1 spot in a search for “bed bug” at the photo service iStockphoto.

Here are the current search results for “bed bug” on that site, a popular source of images in the media:

There are actually five bed bugs (including one cartoon), out of 33 images tagged “bedbug”.

Mr. Shield Bug is #1, with an image of a bunch of dust mites partying in some clothing fiber coming in a close second:

(Photo credit: iStockphoto.)

Wow!

I really like the detail of the tiny hairs all over the dust mites’ bodies. We don’t usually see them in images of dust mites.

I note that we did not see them when ABC’s Nightline featured dust mites in a teaser article about bed bugs back in April:

Really, Nightline, dust mites?!?

Confusing dust mites with bed bugs is just so 2007.

Four months later, the dust mites are still on the ABC page under the “bed bug” headline.

While promoting the same story, Nightline also featured this cockroach:

Nice angle!

While, to ABC’s credit, the Nightline video that was being promoted itself clearly notes that this pest is a cockroach, you can imagine that anyone who happened upon the site that day may have been confused by seeing headlines about bed bugs paired with photos of roaches — twice on the same page, no less.

I have specifically refrained here from mentioning the many times Pests Which Are Not Bed Bugs have been spotted on websites of people in the bed bug product and service industry. This is a widespread problem. Let’s not name any names, but I have lost count of how many times I have discreetly pointed out to someone that their bed bug service website has a photo of a flea, a masked assassin, or a beetle on it instead of a bed bug. I often get a surprised response, but that’s a post for another day.

For all the journalists and webmasters out there, and anyone else needing a primer:

This is an adult bed bug at the edge of a picture frame:

(Photo used with permission, copyright David P. James)

Note for our regulars: this is David P. James who works in a bed bug-related industry, but has no relation to David James, inventor of the Packtite and Bed Bug Beacon, and frequenter of our forums.

Here’s an adult bed bug on the side of a mattress:

(Photo used with permission, copyright David P. James)

Here’s a quite surprising photo of a female in the process of laying a bed bug egg:

(Photo used with permission, copyright David P. James)

This is a first instar nymph:

(Photo used with permission, copyright L. Sorkin and R. Mercurio, American Museum of Natural History)

This is a first instar nymph feeding:

(Photo used with permission, copyright L. Sorkin and R. Mercurio, American Museum of Natural History)

This is how small that first instar bed bug looks while feeding on Lou Sorkin’s finger:

(Photo used with permission, copyright L. Sorkin, American Museum of Natural History)

There are many more life stages, but I wanted to convey the extremes. You can see more bed bug photos here.

Thanks to David P. James, Lou Sorkin, and Randy Mercurio for sharing their photos with us. If journalists are in need of good bed bug photos, they would do well to enquire of these or other experts.

Thanks to all of those who try to educate the rest of us about bed bugs. Let’s hope the photo stock firms and the news media catch up with a basic knowledge of bed bugs, and soon.

You can reach David P. James and Lou Sorkin via their flickr pages.

Update (8/28):

And now we have The Aiken Standard (in South Carolina) with the same shield bug, and Gawker, with a mystery silhouette.

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Cincinnati and Hamilton County libraries battling bed bugs

August 20, 2010

The Cincinnati Enquirer reports that Cincinnati and Hamilton County libraries are trying to keep their premises and books bed bug-free.
Bed bugs have turned up in the Norwood branch library, and the “hardest hit” department of the library system has been Outreach Services, which brings books to senior citizens and schools.
So how are local libraries trying [...]

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More NYC municipal offices treated for bed bugs

August 19, 2010

Besides wreaking havoc on cinema-goers at the AMC Empire 25 this week, bed bugs have also been plaguing more city offices.
Bed bug treatments went on from Monday through Wednesday this week on floors 4 through 7 of the New York City office building at 151 W. Broadway in Tribeca (including the city’s Office of Child [...]

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