Comments on: “The Hunt”: bed bugs in New York real estate

By: nobugsonme

nobugsonme — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 05:56:28 +0000

Thanks for catching that, Blue_Ox!

Bed bugs can, of course, infest non-upholstered items. It takes drastic steps to move with any confidence.

parakeets — Sigh… we do have a long way to go.

By: Blue_Ox

Blue_Ox — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 04:36:37 +0000

I noticed in the article that there was that sentence “when they left, they took nothing upholstered” which seems to imply that taking along non-upholstered items from an infested apartment would be ok (though it does not explicitly say that.) I wish all the Times writers who mention bedbugs in their articles would find the time to educate themselves on bedbugger!

By: parakeets

parakeets — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:01:19 +0000

Even doctors believe you can avoid bedbugs by being clean. When I was refused medical treatment at a sleep study center in Boston because I had bedbugs, I posted my story on a medical feedback website. The sleep center replied to my post claiming that bedbugs were not a problem in their center because ” Rooms and linens are professionally cleaned each day. ” These are ** medical doctors ** who think “cleanliness=no bedbugs”!!

By: nobugsonme

nobugsonme — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 21:51:43 +0000

HI Helene! Thanks for your comment. It does sound like your new landlord is a gem -- prompt response to bed bug complaints is a very good thing. I hope you don't have to deal with them again, but it's reassuring to know the landlord is on top of things. Freshwater/food grade diatomaceous earth does work (though they do not ingest it, they just need to walk across it). It's important to use it correctly and safely and our FAQ on DE may help. Oh -- and yes, the city needs to take action. New York vs. Bed Bugs is an advocacy organization which is fighting the good fight; the city will be appointing a Bed Bug Advisory Committee to decide what to do, but that appointment step is not yet complete, so as of now, we wait.

By: Helene Mattera

Helene Mattera — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 14:45:07 +0000

You’re absolutely correct. Cleanliness does not = no bed bugs. In fact someone in our very clean building is battling with bed bugs right now. The difference was the landlord’s approach. At the first sign the landlord brought in a bed bug inspector to the whole building and begun the process of extermination.

We also found out about Diatomaceous Earth which supposedly kills bugs by dehydrating their shells once ingested. Pros: you can use it as a preventative measure by lightly dusting it around your room perimeters, it is non-harmful to humans and pets(mammal pets), and it’s pretty cheap. Cons: Who knows if it actually works? We put it down when we heard about the incident in our new building. We’ll see what happens.

One last comment about cleanliness and bedbugs: make sure rodents are not running rampant in the building. Our guess about why the last building couldn’t get control over the bedbugs was that the bugs kept hitching rides around the building on the backs on mice and rats. (And the super made very little effort to stop the rodents. The owner of the building was Dawnay Day, an international slum lord who owns dozens of buildings in East Harlem generally rented through Vertical City Realty. I wouldn’t trust them AT ALL).

Thanks for keeping up with the bed bug situation. There is not enough advocacy on the issue. By now, there should be a city sponsored awareness campaign on how bed bugs spread. 311 collects data on complaint calls but more needs to be done to stop the spread. It is a huge financial burden especially on low income families living in buildings with neglectful landlords. Jon and I took a very aggressive approach washing or dry cleaning everything we owned. We considered ourselves lucky that we had the means to address the problem.