http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/04/opinion/nyregionopinions/04CIfriedman.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

permalink machine here:

http://nytimes.blogspace.com/genlink

PS: Dave Winer ROCKS!

At minimum, we need a multi-pronged approach. Used mattresses should not be sold. Items on streets should have clear warning labels. Education campaigns should make sure everyone knows what those labels mean (and I mean the full nightmare of what bed bugs can do). Landlords should be held to task and forced to implement thorough treatment plans that are aggressive and cover all affected units and every adjacent unit (all units to the top, bottom, sides of infested units). Tenants and homeowners should be forced to cooperate with treatment fully, with the exception that special treatments should be provided for people with compromised immune systems or allergies that make pesticides a dangerous proposition. Thermal treatments need to be perfected and legalized in areas they can’t be used now. But thoroughness is key: treating only the complainant will not suffice. We need government assistance for landlords or homeowners who cannot afford the level of treatment needed. People will balk at that, but insurance does not cover this, and people are going to need help.

Wow, just listing all that, it sounds like an impossibility. But if we’re going to live in cities, and in the absence of a treatment that is foolproof and inexpensive, we have to do it all. And now.

Unfortunately, now matter how many people speak up, I don’t know what the solution is for the near future. We might be able to slow the spread somewhat, but bedbug infestations are increasing exponentially and spreading at such an alarming rate and through so many ways, that many of the changes that will eventually be put in place (such as laws about used mattresses) will sadly just be “too little, too late.”

You can throw out absolutely everything you own–clothes, books, furniture–and self-treat and self-treat –and yet still have bedbugs. Bedbugs just need a space in your building the width of an index card to live in and your body to feed on. The best chance, if you can afford it or if your landlord handles things properly, is repeated professional treatment, but even that cannot guarantee you won’t get bedbugs again if you live in a multi-unit building where building -wide bedbug control is not perfect at all times, forever.