Omar Fekeiki reported in the Washington Post yesterday that the historic 117-room Phillis Wheatley YWCA at 901 Rhode Island Ave. NW in the Shaw neighborhood of Washington DC is infested with bed bugs, among other problems. (It’s not affiliated with the national YWCA.) The ladies who live there are now withholding rent.
Protesting residents who picketed Tuesday were all elderly women. So it’s another case of elderly, low-income tenants having to put up with bed bugs. And they’re stuck in those rooms all the time, since their building lobby, a former hangout, has lately been used as an office storage area.
Jennifer Berger, a lawyer with AARP, is trying to help the residents improve their living standards.
“The management is completely unresponsive to the needs of the most vulnerable residents in D.C.,” she said. “The conditions in the building are exacerbating the physical conditions of the tenants.”
Local activist Alex Padro had the right idea:
Padro said, “I’m confident if we get the [YWCA] board to meet in one of the bug-infested rooms, they’ll get the inspection team fast.”
Similar Posts:
- None Found
{ 2 trackbacks }
{ 55 comments… read them below or add one }
← Previous Comments
Dear Social Worker,
Regarding the individual rooms at the apartment complex:
I forgot, you can make weather stripping for the front door with duck tape. Put it around the entire door including the base by the floor. You fold over a small wedge at the bottom so it won’t stick when opening and closing the door. It will stick a little at first but after a couple of times works ok. Make sure the bottom duck tape on the door is long so you can set something on the edge to keep the bugs from crawling in at night. The bugs are sticking on the duck tape. It works!
Thanks, Sharon,
I’ll give that stuff a try.
Sounds like you’re really going through a lot to deal with these little buggers. I wish you the best in your fight with the bugs and the people who should be helping get rid of the bugs.
Your very welcome, and it does work! Hopefully the Mayor is organizing someone to get this building bagged and debugged.
Bugged Worker,
Approach all pesticide use with caution. This is the product information on the item Sharon suggested:
http://www.pesticideinfo.org/Detail_Product.jsp?REG_NR=00968800201&DIST_NR=000478
I can’t comment on that except to say that you might not want to be constantly spraying it in your car as Sharon suggested (an enclosed space). You can do research on the safe use of this substance but I can’t advice except to say the best advice I’ve been given is to use pesticides according to labeling instructions only.
I would suggest something else: get some fresh water diatomaceous earth (DE), which is the safe and effective kind (NOT pool grade DE). You can read about it in the FAQs (see below). You don’t want to be inhaling clouds of it, but it can be put into cracks in your home and maybe the car (the seats might mean you inhale too much, though). It is a mechanical killer and bed bugs that cross it die within 10 days. Putting it around your home would mean that if you accidentally bring one or two home, you don’t start a full infestation.
I also recommend reading our FAQs on how to avoid getting or spreading bed bugs–since the principles they discuss can be applied to a person exposed regularly at work.
This has been more about you and not about your clients. Unfortunately, they need an aggressive course of PCO treatment. Thorough cleaning of bed frames with a contact killer (by the PCO preferably) and encasement of mattresses with sturdy covers (AFTER PCO treatment of mattresses with pesticides) will also be necessary. Their clothing should be washed and dried on hot and kept in sealed, airtight bags. We recommend XL ziplocs for stuff continually being opened.
Some of the useful stuff is found in the “Useful Stuff” page above.
The DE FAQ is under “Treatments”, and the clothing FAQs are under “eliminating bed bugs from clothing…” and the FAQs on not catching or spreading bed bugs are under “Travel” in the FAQs:
http://bedbugger.com/faqs
Since this is veering away from the topic of this post, if you have further questions, please go to the forums:
http://bedbugger.com/forum
I wonder how things are going over there?
← Previous Comments