Comments on: Covington, Kentucky IRS building infested with bed bugs

By: worddust

worddust — Thu, 08 May 2008 02:51:04 +0000

Any infestation in a Public School or Government Bldg is almost impossible to eliminate due to the infestation of bureaucrats that will prevent any treatment or application that may actually have a chance of working. This is probably the main reason for the resurgence of bed bugs. The government destroys our quality of life in their misguided politically correct attempts to protect us from “CHEMICALS & POLLUTANTS” I will take the chemicals and pollutants over bed bugs anyday or night but of course the bureaucrats don’t give us a choice.

By: nobugsonme

nobugsonme — Thu, 08 May 2008 01:39:42 +0000

Hi Gary!

Thanks for your comment.

What you’re doing is called spam. I deleted your other (very similar) message in the Ohio Hilton Lawsuit thread.

Professionals in the bed bug industry are welcome to participate here IF they abide by the site’s terms and conditions, which include not using the comments to advertise businessnes you are connected with. Please read the terms and conditions (there’s a link in the navigation menu at top center).

Also, the insect at top right on the website you linked to http://www.bedbugdoginspection.com/ (http://www.bedbugk9.com redirects there) appears to be a flea.

I love the main photo on that page though–the one of the handler and the yellow lab.

By: gary broberg

gary broberg — Thu, 08 May 2008 00:17:29 +0000

It nwould make sence to use a dog to truly and effectively detect the presence of bed bugs or their eggs. I would contact a a detection dog service in Ohio. http://www.bedbugk9.com

By: nobugsonme

nobugsonme — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 01:50:54 +0000

Interesting.

Yes–an illegal deduction!!!

By: hopelessnomo

hopelessnomo — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 18:38:13 +0000

Nice one, Keets! (Perhaps it’s an illegal deduction, Nobugs.)

So this is Cincinnati essentially. The Cincinnati (metro area) story gets ever more interesting. I remember where I’d heard of Covington before. The PCO who participated in Dr. Potter’s 2005 Cincinnati field trial is based in Covington.

By: nobugsonme

nobugsonme — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 01:55:04 +0000

Update: a reader pointed out that the Gateway Center appears to be in Covington, Ohio, not Covington, KY, despite WLWT’s claim otherwise, though Covington, KY is in the Cincinnati area.

By: nobugsonme

nobugsonme — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 01:45:17 +0000

Yes, Keets– OSHA is certainly good and so is educating employees (though Joy Fox’s comments in the article–about not knowing what bed bugs look like–suggest more education and information may be needed).

A deduction, hmmm… I kind of like that, except deductions mean LESS, and they’re GOOD.

By: parakeets

parakeets — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 23:06:42 +0000

I liked the fact that the facility educated employees about bedbugs, and that OSHA was involved. If bedbug infestations are somehow covered under OSHA rulings, any workplaces that have bedbugs (including hospitals, hotels, firehouses, schools) will have to comply.

As for word sparring, we can say that at the IRS facility there was a
DEDUCTION of bed bugs.

By: hopelessnomo

hopelessnomo — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 06:32:28 +0000

You must mean spattering! Haha. No, I can’t play, I can’t think of any that wouldn’t frighten the good tax people.

The appropriate ones, like murder (and shiver!) are taken.

A creep of bed bugs.

By: nobugsonme

nobugsonme — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 05:07:49 +0000

I like that, ‘nomo.

I’m told definition two, below, does not apply to bed bugs, because bed bugs are not parasites in that they do not live in or on us (though they live “off” of us).

Some people seem to grab hold of the idea that “infestation” means “a lot of,” rather than “any.”

The IRS seem to be working from the first definition below, and assuming they do not have enough bed bugs for it to be “harmful, threatening or obnoxious.”

I would argue that–given bed bugs’ ability to breed quickly and produce copious offspring, and given the fact that they live off of our blood, and given their propensity to spread within a structure and, given the chance, outside of it by “hitchhiking”–for all those reasons, if bed bugs are living in your space, it is infested.

Of course, we know that finding and catching five bed bugs means there are oh so many more.

Still, the word “infestation” is bad for morale. It’s almost tax time, no less.

What words might be more appealing?

“A smattering of bed bugs?”
“A whiff of bed bugs?”
“A bother of bed bugs?”

Suggestions?

—

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

infest

SYLLABICATION: in·fest
PRONUNCIATION: n-fst
TRANSITIVE VERB: Inflected forms: in·fest·ed, in·fest·ing, in·fests
1. To inhabit or overrun in numbers or quantities large enough to be harmful, threatening, or obnoxious: rats infesting the sewers; streets that were infested with drugs. 2. To live as a parasite in or on: livestock that were infested with tapeworms.
ETYMOLOGY: Middle English infesten, to distress, from Old French infester, from Latin nfestre, from nfestus, hostile. See gwhedh- in Appendix I.
OTHER FORMS: infes·tation —NOUN
in·fester —NOUN

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