I just wanted to remind everyone how important it is to call, or write, your elected officials (city, state, and other representatives) and let them know what a tremendous hardship bed bugs can be.

I did this today, and not for the first time.  But I always feel like I am getting a load off my chest.

Those of you in New York City, please sign on with me and the other members of New York vs. Bed Bugs.  Since there’s currently a bed bug bill (Intro. 873) under consideration, it’s especially important right now.  Renee shows you how to get involved and contact your reps here. And then come back to New York vs. Bed Bugs and leave a comment on this post, letting the group know you did it.  (This is important, so New York vs. Bed Bugs can keep track of the effects it is having.)

If you’re not in New York, google the name of your city council or county elected officials.  All the local websites I’ve seen tell you who your representatives are, and how to call, write, or email them.

Do some research here and on New York vs. Bed Bugs about what’s being done by other cities like Cincinnati and Toronto, who have bed bug task forces.  And tell your elected officials what a mess bed bugs made of your health, skin, schedule, sleep patterns, living room floor (covered in plastic bags), etc.  Tell them how much money you spent on your bed bug problems.  Tell them how long you had the problem, why it was hard to get rid of, how hard it was to detect in the first place.  Tell it like it is: politicians need to hear your stories.

This does not have to be a long conversation/letter/email.  But do it, all the same.

It believe that if we all do this, it can make such a difference.Similar Posts:

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Leonina Heringer of Somerville, 55, known to many as “The Bed Bug Lady,” is making a video for Somerville’s public access cable station.

According to the Boston Globe, she’s been giving people advice on avoiding and getting rid of bed bugs since 2004.

She started her crusade in 2004 after a fellow parishioner at the Portuguese Baptist Church in Cambridge, among others, described their bed bug woes. The bugs lived in the floor, the woman told her, so she couldn’t let her 9-month-old baby crawl in her apartment.

Where others might offer sympathy, she took action. When the landlord’s response proved unsatisfactory, “I brought the case to the Health Department and started writing articles in the Brazilian Times about ‘percevejos,’ ” Portuguese for “bed bug.”

Heringer included her contact information in the articles. People started calling – some from as far away as Connecticut.

Heringer knows the importance both of support for bed bug sufferers, and the importance of activism.

… she has helped people directly, served on a city action group and the Greater Boston Bed Bug Task Force, and raised over $1,700 to pay for video services from Somerville Community Access Television.

Mike Ginieres, an environmental health officer with the Cambridge Public Health Department, is helping with the video.

And the wonder of it is, she’s never even had to deal with bed bugs in her own home. In my experience, many people don’t really understand the problem of bed bugs until they do.

It seems like one person really can make a difference.

Leonina Heringer is our first ever Bedbugger Hero/Heroine of the week!

I can’t wait to see Heringer’s video, and I hope it will go up on YouTube, so that our site and many others can share it with the world.Similar Posts:

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If you’re in Chicago, ally yourself at once with Chicago vs. Bed Bugs.

Its founder, Jessica Kevan, is working from the premise that we have to do something about the spread of bed bugs.

I will quote liberally from the group’s About page:

Our Mission (Phase One):

• We endeavor to disseminate good information to and engage Chicago tenants in conversation so that they are aware of their rights and responsibilities because we want them to protect themselves, their possessions, their neighbors, and their landlords.
• We endeavor to disseminate good information to and engage Chicago landlords and property management companies in conversation so that they are aware of their rights and responsibilities because we want them to protect themselves, their investments, and their tenants.
• We endeavor to disseminate good information about pest management protocol to and engage Chicago Pest Control Operators in conversation so that they can share information with us about procedures, studies, and policies because we want our PCOs to succeed and generate earnings.
• We endeavor to disseminate good information to and engage Chicago businesses–particularly hotels– in conversation because we want them to continue to generate revenue for our city.
• We endeavor to contact and engage our city officials– our aldermen, our representatives, our congressmen– and our city departments in conversation because we need them to help us advocate good bed bug policy before Chicago’s bed bug infestations reach epidemic levels.
• We endeavor to contact and engage our Chicago resources– entomologists, PCOs, and media– in conversation so that they can help us disseminate good information to the public because, frankly, we are all in this together.

What we hold to be true:

1. Evidence indicates that Chicago bed bug infestations are on the rise.
2. Bed bug infestations create serious quality of life concerns for Chicago residents and serious economic concerns for Chicago residents and Chicago businesses.
3. Knowledge and enforcement of good protocol is the key to preventing and/or controlling bed bug infestations.
4. No person can truly be held responsible for a bed bug infestation.  Bed bugs are like colds: you catch them.
5. No group of people is responsible for the re-emergence of bed bugs.
6. We are all in this together.

Bravo!

As one of the co-founders and members of New York vs. Bed Bugs, I could not be happier to see this idea of bed bug activism catching on.

If you live in the City of Broad Shoulders, please get involved!  If you don’t, change may not come.

If you don’t, stop by and give the group some support.

If you’re in New York, we need you over here too.

We are all in this together.Similar Posts:

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A Halifax resident going by the moniker “Bugged by Bedbugs” used the soapbox “Love the way we bitch” on Halifax website The Coast, to call fellow residents to action on the bed bug issue, in a post entitled “WTF is with the bedbugs?”:

There is a certain trio of dusky-colored high-rise apartment buildings in Halifax that are, and have always been, swarming with bedbugs.

Since these infested buildings have been gentrified and rented out to the oft-mobile university student population, what we have is a spread of bedbugs to other homes and buildings throughout Halifax.

Current legislation places the responsibility of bedbug control on the person who brought them into the building. Since extermination is expensive, tenants stay mum about it until the infestation spreads like wildfire to their neighbors.

The law regarding who pays for bed bug treatment in Nova Scotia rentals is a bit murky.

The CBC tells us, in their round-up of Canadian laws pertaining to this problem,

In Nova Scotia, Halifax doesn’t have clear-cut legislation for dealing with bedbugs. Responsibility for extermination falls upon the tenant if a landlord can prove a tenant brought the bugs in. The Halifax agency has found that landlords often foot the bill as it’s difficult to prove there were no bugs before a tenant moves in. Tenants are advised to write a letter to a landlord asking to deal with the problem within a reasonable timeframe. If the landlord refuses, a hearing can be conducted in front of the officer of residential tenancies.

Here’s my concern: “Responsibility for extermination falls upon the tenant if a landlord can prove a tenant brought the bugs in.”

What Bugged by Bedbugs highlights is that this motivates many tenants to not seek help — as long as they resist treatment, and bed bugs spread everywhere, individual tenants can no longer be assumed to be the “source.”

Of course, tenants who may be making such a choice, consciously, or by default (because they simply cannot pay for treatment) assume they are the “source” of their building’s problem.

Many Bedbugger Forum participants also assume they are the first in their building to have bed bugs. Why? Because landlords and neighboring tenants are not under any obligation to disclose their bed bug problem.

The reasoning seems to be that if I admit to having bed bugs, I will be seen as the source. Unfortunately, tenants have good reason for worrying about this — landlords and neighbors will likely assume the first person to find bed bugs is the “source,” even though it turns out, in so many cases, others have them too and either (a) don’t know about them, (b) know about them and are unsure what to do, or (c) know about them and — for whatever reason — just don’t care.

We have to remember that a great many people fall into category (a) and have no idea they have bed bugs. So your neighbor may be bitten badly and for a long time, but have no bite marks, no itching, and not see any bed bugs, until the problem becomes quite bad and they are crawling on the walls in daylight.

The bed bug blame game — in this case, blaming the “canary” who first notices and announces the presence of bed bugs in a building — isn’t fair. And it’s often not accurate that this person is the “source” of the building’s bed bugs.

And, let’s face it, the way bed bugs are spreading, I don’t think it’s fair to blame people for unknowingly bringing bed bugs into their building — even if they did so — if they did not have the awareness they were doing so. If you got bed bugs riding on a city bus or sitting in a library, who is to blame? Collectively, everyone needs to deal with the problem.

Bugged by Bedbugs suggests Halifax residents write to their Halifax Municipal Councillors:

I say anyone who has experienced the anxiety and disgust of a bedbug infestation, and anyone who does not want to live through the former, should write to your local Halifax councillor and demand legislation that places the responsibility of bedbug control on the landlord. Such a law would force landlords to keep buildings bug-free by regular maintenance, since an infestation would cost tens of thousands of dollars.

The problem with laws that force the “tenant who brought bed bugs in” to pay for treatment, is both that pinpointing such a “source” is more difficult than people think, and also that infestations quickly spread and get out of control.

On the other hand, I would not simply stop with passing the buck to landlords Here in NYC landlords are responsible in most cases, but buildings still become badly infested, tenants still fear reporting the problem will lead to blame, and negative repercussions. The inspection system (where people call 311 to report bed bugs) does not work well, since inspectors apparently will not file a violation unless tenants can show them a live bed bug scurrying around in the home, in daytime. And landlords don’t necessarily get rid of the problem even though the laws say they have to.

I think Bugged by Bedbugs has the right idea about the problem here, but I would argue for a more complex solution.

We need to remember that tenants do have some responsibility to help keep buildings bed bug-free. I am also mindful on the terrible impact bed bugs can have, financially, on landlords. Bed bugs are not good for anyone involved.

Therefore, rather than simply push for laws which place the financial obligations on landlords, we need to also push for local government assistance to help landlords get rid of bed bugs in their buildings and keep them bed bug-free. Such assistance might include guidance on the best practices for bed bug treatment and prevention, financial assistance where needed in properly eliminating bed bugs from a building, and educational programs for landlords, staff, and tenants, to prevent future outbreaks. Ideally it would probably also include city-wide programs for dealing with infested refuse, educating everyone in the city about bed bugs, and taking reports of bed bugs and keeping track of where infestations occur.

Bugged by Bedbugs also has the right idea about contacting politicians and demanding help. Wherever you live, contacting your local political representatives is a good idea. Tell them about your bed bug experience and the impact it has had on your life, and why they need to take action to help residents fight bed bugs.

Halifax residents, you can find your Councillor here, and send them an email here.Similar Posts:

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Remember the bill introduced by Michael Gianaris and passed in the NYS Assembly last May? We were happy the Assembly passed it.

But Bill A6667a later died in the NYS Senate in January of this year.

The good news is that the bill has now been amended and approved by the Assembly once again as A6667b. It has been submitted to the New York State Senate again as of 3/19, and is under consideration by their Education Committee. Click here to read the text of the bill and follow its progress through the NYS Assembly to Senate back to the Assembly, and now to the Senate again.

The bill,

Requires city school districts having a population of one million or more to
notify parents and persons in parental relation of any bedbug infestations
found in a school.

And as the bill’s text details, principals would need to notify parents right away and provide information on preventing infestations and on avoiding the spread of bed bugs from school to home (or vice versa):

1 Section 1. The education law is amended by adding a new section 920 to
2 read as follows:
3 S 920. PUBLIC SCHOOLS; INFESTATION OF BEDBUGS (CIMEX LECTULARIUS). 1.
IN A CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT HAVING A POPULATION OF ONE MILLION OR MORE INHABITANTS, THE PRINCIPAL OF EACH PUBLIC SCHOOL SHALL PROVIDE IMMEDIATE NOTIFICATION TO ALL PARENTS OR PERSONS IN PARENTAL RELATION DISCLOSING A FINDING RELATING TO THE INFESTATION OF BEDBUGS (CIMEX LECTULARIUS) IN SUCH SCHOOL. ALONG WITH THE NOTIFICATION REQUIRED PURSUANT TO SUBDIVISION ONE OF THIS SECTION, THE PRINCIPAL OF SUCH PUBLIC SCHOOL SHALL ALSO INCLUDE INFORMATION REGARDING PROPER PROCEDURES TO PREVENT FURTHER INFESTATIONS AT THE SCHOOL AND TO PREVENT THE TRANSFER OF BEDBUGS FROM THE SCHOOL TO THE RESIDENCES OF STUDENTS. SUCH INFORMATION MAY BE DEVELOPED BY THE BOARD OF EDUCATION IN CONSULTATION WITH OTHER CITY AGENCIES AND SHALL BE AVAILABLE IN VARIOUS LANGUAGES AS DEEMED NECESSARY. THE PRINCIPAL SHALL ENSURE THAT THE BEDBUG INFESTATION AT THE SCHOOL IS PROPERLY ADDRESSED IN THE MOST EFFECTIVE AND SAFE MANNER.

Yes– it’s imperfect: why “one million or more”?
But let’s not focus on that for now.

Instead, let’s consider that this is a big step forward. We need the NY Senate to approve this bill. Parents have a right to know if bed bugs are in their kids’ schools.
Let’s not let this bill die again in the Senate.

These are some education-minded NYS Assembly Members who sponsored AO6667b in the Assembly:

SPONSOR Michael N. Gianaris

Michael Gianaris, (D-Astoria, Queens):

COSPNSR Catherine Nolan, Ellen Young, Richard N. Gottfried

MLTSPNSR Peter J. Abbate, Jr., James F. Brennan, Ann Margaret Carrozza, Luis M. Diaz, Ruben Diaz, Jr., Adriano Espaillat, D. Gordon,
Rory I. Lancman, Margaret M. Markey, Audrey I. Pheffer, Bob Reilly, Darryl C. Towns, Harvey Weisenberg

You might want to write your representative, if they’re listed above, and thank them for sponsoring the bill. If you don’t know who your representatives are, you can search by zip code, by clicking here. Please have a look. It will only take a moment.

Although not involved with sponsoring A6667b, Assembly Member José R. Peralta also cares about the effects bed bugs are having on his constituents. Perhaps you’d like to talk to him too.

But right now, the legislation is under consideration by the Education Committee for the NYS Senate. And we can take action to encourage senators to pass this bill.

This is the NYS Senate Education Committee:

Chairperson:
Stephen M. Saland

Members:
Kenneth P. LaValle, Suzi Oppenheimer, James Seward, Velmanette Montgomery, Carl Marcellino, Toby Ann Stavisky, Charles J. Fuschillo, Eric T. Schneiderman, Thomas Morahan, Martin Dilan, Martin Golden, John Sabini, Elizabeth Little, José Serrano, Joseph Robach, Shirley L. Huntley, and Andrew Lanza

Are any of these senators representing you?

You can find your New York State senators by zip code or by map.

Then send your senators an email. This is an alphabetized email list of senators.

If your senators are on the Education Committee (and so listed right above), then tell them that you feel parents must be notified when bed bugs are found in school.

Tell senators on the Education Committee that the bill matters because as the information on A6667b provided by the Assembly states, “Currently, if a bed bug is discovered in a school, only the family of the affected child is notified. Additional notifications are left up to the discretion of school health officials.” Tell them that requiring principals to notify parents promptly about bed bug infestations at school and requiring them to provide information about preventing the spread of bed bugs will help keep bed bugs out of our schools, and will also prevent other New Yorkers from suffering from the cost and pain of removing them from their homes or workplaces. Minimizing the spread of bed bugs helps everyone in New York State.

If your senators are not on the Education Committee, drop them an email letting them know how affected you were by the bed bug problem, and how much you support Bill A6667b, currently being discussed by the Senate Education Committee.

The bill died the first time it was considered by the NY State Senate. Let’s make sure that does not happen again.

You can send good emails to three politicians in five minutes, using the information above. (In contrast, it took me an hour and a half to write this post and include all the links!) Please contact your state senators, Assembly people. We need to press politicians for change on the bed bug issue.

Also, don’t forget, if you live in New York City, you also need to tell your New York City Council Members that the city need a Bed Bug Task Force, now. Click here to find out how to contact them, for a sample letter, and for more pointers from New York vs. Bed Bugs.Similar Posts:

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A reader in the NY/NJ/CT tri-state area wrote tonight to tell me this story.

The reader, who has suffered much from bed bugs and was discarding a cherished piece of wooden furniture only after a long fight with bed bugs and many treatments. It was wrapped in sealed plastic and labeled as being infested with bed bugs.

A [name of large dept. store chain xxx] delivery truck just stopped at my house.

A man rang my door bell and asked if he could take the piece for it looked like garbage. I told him that I wouldn’t take it if I were him. He asked why and I told him that there is a possibility that it’s infested, hence the sign. Thank goodness they drove away.

But I just cannot believe that if they took it — and yes, I have the thing wrapped to the hilt — they would be putting it in the [xxx company] truck.

That was a delivery truck for a major and well-respected national chain, which was presumably in the course of dropping off new items in the area. I hope this reader will write a letter to that company, explaining what happened, and why it was a bad thing.

Many people in the driver’s shoes would simply take the item. Obviously, the sign was no deterrent.

Had the reader not been home, even this driver might have taken the item. It was carefully wrapped, so the company’s other customers might actually have been protected. But someone willing to ignore a bed bug warning sign might also not get why they should not peek inside. And eventually, the item would have been unwrapped somewhere.

Having heard much more of this reader’s saga, I know why this person is discarding the item. If you can avoid it, however, get furniture treated. Depending on what bed bug treatment your home is getting, such items can be dry steamed, sprayed by a PCO, or left in a home where Vikane or thermal treatments are being done. Try not to discard bed bug infested furniture. If it cannot be destroyed (as this piece of wooden furniture would have taken some work to destroy), get it sprayed to the hilt.

And since many folks are going to toss things anyway, write a letter to lobby your local officials to create a bed bug task force (New York vs. Bed Bugs gives a sample letter for New Yorkers in particular, and to implement (among other things) ways of dealing with bed bug-infested refuse. Because, let’s face it, some stuff is going to get tossed.Similar Posts:

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Remember when I said that a number of New York bedbuggers were organizing a plan to call for local officials to take action on the bed bug situation in NYC?

Well, it’s happening.

New York vs. Bed Bugs, (slogan: “NYC is the underdog!”) declares:

We believe that the city should lead the fight against bed bugs.

From Australia to Boston to Cincinnati to Toronto, local governments, public health officials and communities have already devised and implemented an impressive array of sensible solutions, policies and protocols to control the spread of bed bugs.

We believe that the city can adopt measures to combat bed bugs as a pressing quality of life issue and should utilize the tools and strategies of public health surveillance and education to achieve control of this economically important urban pest.

The city should immediately act to form a task force—with entomologists and urban pest management experts as advisers—to be charged with devising a comprehensive plan with specific attention to the following objectives:

* tracking infestations data;

* rolling out a comprehensive public education campaign;

* establishing clear bed bug control guidelines and policies;

* providing assistance to tenants, landlords and homeowners;

* facilitating and monitoring the specialized training of pest control officers and bed bug inspectors;

* implementing sensible mattress and used furniture regulations; and

* establishing trash collection protocols.

Sound sensible?

Check out newyorkvsbedbugs.org for more information.

Two new bed bug websites of note in one evening! What’s next?!? Similar Posts:

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Vancouver | Homes Not Games

Originally uploaded by ardenstreet

Graffiti from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

Remember VANDU? They’re the grassroots community group in Vancouver that got a grant and implemented a plan to help fight bed bugs in Vancouver’s beleaguered Downtown Eastside.

Well, they’re back at it, this time as one of the sponsors of this weekend’s Poverty Olympics (along with Raise the Rates, DTES Neighbourhood House, CCAP, BC PWA, and Streams of Justice).

And this is no joke. According to a press release, the organizers couldn’t be more serious about highlighting poverty and homelessness in the city that will roll out the red carpets for the Winter Olympics in 2010:

“When people visit Vancouver in 2010, they will be treated to eye-popping scenery, efficient services, and relaxed and friendly residents,” says Wendy Pedersen of Carnegie Community Action Project. “But they’ll also be treated to a city that could have more homeless people than athletes competing in the 2010 Games.”

“We want the world to know that Vancouver and BC have world class levels of poverty and homelessness,” says Jean Swanson of the Raise the Rates Coalition. “More than 2,000 people in our city are homeless today. Many are so poor they have to search through the garbage for food and things to sell.”

The Province online reports that volunteers are drawing attention to the problems faced by residents in the city. Organizers have come up with some appropriate mascots:

Itchy the Bedbug, Creepy the Cockroach and Chewy the Rat will be front and centre as the mascots at the Downtown Eastside’s Poverty Olympics at the Carnegie Centre on Sunday.

My money’s on itchy, if the rat doesn’t eat the other contestants. What’s in store on Sunday?

Ten torch carriers will run a two-block relay down East Hastings, said organizer Wendy Pedersen, before a five-metre-high “End Poverty Torch” is lit to mark the opening ceremonies.

Other events in the Poverty Olympics will include “the long jump over the bug-infested mattress,” “the poverty-line high jump” and the “welfare hurdles.”

“We have world-class poverty and homelessness in Vancouver” said Pedersen. “It’s a fun way to send a serious message.”

And perhaps fun is the best way to get their message across to more people.

I wish I had a photo of Itchy the Bed Bug.

View the Poverty Olympics poster (and find out how to attend!)

Read more about the Poverty Olympics here.Similar Posts:

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The lead story in the “News” section of today’s New York Daily News is on bed bugs. That’s good: it’s always good to see bed bugs in the news.

It’s not a particularly helpful story, however.

For starters, there are inaccuracies. Let’s start with this caption below a photo of an adult bed bug:

Unfed bugs are 1/4 to 3/4 inch long. They are brown or red-brown in color…

No!

They are never 3/4 inches long. Bed bugs, fed or unfed, range from 1/32 to 1/6 inch long. After hatching from the egg, they have 5 nymphal stages and one adult stage. Unfed bed bug nymphs (first instars that have never eaten) are clear in color. Fed bed bugs can be anywhere from red to rust to brown in color.

(Editor’s note, the error was made less egregious: by late Sunday night, it said “Unfed bugs are 1/4 to 3/8 inch long.” This is still inaccurate, however.)

This matters because people considering whether they might have bed bugs need to know the correct size, and that unfed nymphs are translucent, not red or brown.

Also, the “do’s and don’ts” suggests people “bag books, papers, most loose objects, and contents of closets so exterminators have access to all cracks and crevices in the home.”

This is not good advice in and of itself. If you bag up everything in your home, or discard it (for that matter), before a Pest Control Operator (PCO) has inspected and verified the presence of bed bugs, then it may be very difficult for them to diagnose your problem. You may end up with all your stuff in bags and PCOs telling you you don’t have bed bugs. And they may be wrong.

What’s more, simply bagging stuff that contains bed bugs or their eggs means you have bags full of bed bugs. What are you going to do with that, now?

Your PCO may advice you to carefully inspect and clean and bag items, for a time during treatment. Make sure you do so only after the problem has been identified by the PCO, and after the PCO has told you when you will be removing stuff from those bags. The answers on that seem to vary. Reading this FAQ might help you be prepared to discuss the issue with your PCO.

One interesting tidbit was an update of the previous data from HPD on bed bug complaints and violations.

The numbers are off the charts: In 2004, New Yorkers placed 537 calls to 311 about bedbugs in their homes; the city slapped 82 landlords with bedbug violations, data show.

In the fiscal year that ended in June, 6,889 infestation complaints were logged and 2,008 building owners were hit with summonses.

They must get rid of the pests within 30 days or face possible action in Housing Court, the city Department of Housing, Preservation & Development says.

This would be for fiscal year July 2006-June 2007. You’ll recall that approximately 1/3 fewer complaints were logged by 311 the prior fiscal year, and less than half as many were declared actual bed bug cases.

But these numbers are misleading because they only represent cases where those with bed bugs were tenants in city apartments and called 311 to report their bed bugs. As I have been saying for more than a year, most people do not do this. Out of a hundred tenants in NYC with bed bugs, I’d be surprised if more than one or two called 311. Most people don’t even realize this is an option–they know from past experience that pest complaints are directed at landlords. Moreover, those who do know, more often than not, choose not to call, because they’d rather work through the landlord if possible, rather than file a housing complaint and risk alientating the landlord. (This is often the last resort.)

The numbers are also misleading because they don’t include public housing, which logged, “1,708 verified bedbug cases in 277 public housing projects this year, the city Housing Authority says.”

The numbers also do not include statistics for those who own co-operative apartments, condos, or other housing.

The statistics offered on bed bugs in the schools (50 schools suffered a total of 74 bed bug “cases”) don’t line up with data the same newspaper shared back in February 2007, when the same newspaper reported that 43 schools had identified a total of 95 live bed bugs. (The story is gone, so you will have to read about it here.) Though it’s interesting to know that only an additional 7 schools have discovered bed bugs in the last ten months, it seems they must be defining “bed bug case” differently now than then, to have gone from 95 “bugs” to 74 “cases”.

Any statistics from the schools are skewered, however, since teachers have to see, catch, and mail away a bed bug for verification before the presence of a bed bug in the classroom will be registered. And while this may seem reasonable, anyone here will tell you you can be bitten badly and for a very long time before you ever see one. A lone teacher in a busy NYC classroom has slim chance of finding a bed bug on a student. Shall we assume, then, there are more?

Perhaps the most intriguing story in the article was that of Bernard Spitzer’s apartment building. We’re told,

[Bed bugs] even contaminated five or six apartments in the swanky rental tower at 220 E. 72nd St. owned by Bernard Spitzer, the governor’s 83-year-old father.

Several tenants described a persistent, if intermittent, infestation on the 15th, 16th and 17th floors.

A few infested floors, midway up a high-rise: nothing unusual there. But wait:

Spitzer’s 28-story building sits atop the six-story home of Marymount Manhattan College, which discovered seven infestations in two residence halls. The problem was under control by October, a spokeswoman said.

Marymount Manhattan has three residences for students, none of which are in this building. It does cause one to wonder whether there is any connection between the incidents on the 15th-17th floors and in the homes of some of those who spend part of their time in the first six floors.

We also get an update on the city’s “response” to bed bugs:

City officials say HPD inspectors are increasing enforcement as complaints mushroom and the Health Department is handling education and prevention efforts. It’s not more actively involved because its focus is on disease-spreading pests, officials said.

“That’s not good enough,” said City Councilman Gale Brewer (D-upper West Side.) “It’s great that we’re not smoking as much, and great that we’re not eating trans fats, but we need to focus on bedbugs in the same aggressive manner.”

Brewer wants to create a Bedbug Task Force and bar the sale of reconditioned mattresses, which the Bloomberg administration opposes because it “would adversely impact lower-income New Yorkers,” a mayoral spokesman said.

I love Brewer’s comments about smoking and trans fats, both of which are banned from local restaurants. Bed bugs are not.

Brewer first went down this Bed Bug Task Force/resales of mattresses road in the fall of 2006, but we haven’t really seen any results yet from these initiatives.

All in all, the city’s response is very ostrich-like. Let’s compare with other cities in the US: San Francisco has guidelines for dealing with bed bugs in apartment buildings, hotels, and other locations, as does the state of California. Lexington, KY and Cincinnati, Ohio health departments (yes, health departments, Mr. Bloomberg) have both declared war on bed bugs.

Lexington tells residents to call the health department if they think they have bed bugs.

Cincinnati has a hotline just for bed bug information. They also have dedicated bed bug trash pickup for discarded furniture. We think encouraging residents to throw furniture away, rather than helping them pay for treatment, is misguided. But Cincinnati is trying. They think education is key. Hear that, Mr. Bloomberg?

San Francisco City Supervisor Chris Daly got $63,000 in this year’s budget to help low-income residents pay for laundry and freezing of possessions. San Francisco politicians listened to SRO activists who told them this money was needed. Because poor people seriously can’t afford to do the necessary tenant’s part of bed bug treatment.

And let me be clear: not one of these localities is doing enough to combat bed bugs. None of them, not by a long shot. Much more help is needed, especially laws about disclosure of infestations, tracking of infestations by government agencies (so someone is actually paying attention to where bed bugs are spreading), and financial assistance to landlords, homeowners, and tenants who are having trouble paying for preparations and effective treatment. Bringing back some of the recently outlawed, more effective pesticides for targeted bed bug use would go a long way (and no, I do not mean DDT).

Meanwhile, NYC is doing none of this. The NYC Department of Education has deployed “bed bug kits” to schools. Their website claims:

Schools are not an ideal location for bed bugs to reproduce, because they are nocturnal insects that require feeding prior to reproduction; but in the event that bedbugs do show up in our schools, the DOE’s Pest Management Unit is providing a Bed Bug Kit to deal with specimens.

This is erroneous information. Bed bugs are nocturnal if food is available at night, pure and simple. Transplanted to schools, they will bite, reproduce, and thrive. This is an example of wishful thinking, which seems to be the backbone of NYC’s bed bug policy.

NYC does not even tell tenants to call 311 about bed bugs, unless they wade through the HPD website looking for this directive.

And yet bases its assessment of the severity of the problem on those calls.

Discuss.

If you have trouble with the article link at top, try this one.Similar Posts:

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New York Magazine has a new bed bug story dated November 12th (print edition of 11/19), by Melissa Kirsch.

It contains lots of solid advice about not picking up curbside furniture, being wary of Craigslist finds, and searching for fecal spots and blood stains. But it also contains some advice we don’t normally see. Especially pertinent, this comment from our friend Lou Sorkin, an entomologist at the American Museum of Natural History. (Hear him talk about bed bugs and other pests today–Tuesday–at 10:40 on 99.5 WBAI in NYC, or listen to the streaming live audio here.)

The telltale signs of their presence are itchy welts on your body, frequently in clusters of three or more. You might see tiny red or brown marks on your sheets where you’ve crushed bugs in the night. If you suspect infestation, check under carpets and in moldings, and survey mattresses, box springs, and bed frames. Look for feces and shed skins. And look for nymphs: “Ninety-nine percent of papers written on bedbugs neglect to mention that a bedbug starts as a tiny egg and hatches from it to become a [1- to 1.6-mm.] nymph that’s translucent white,” says Louis Sorkin, entomologist at the American Museum of Natural History. “If people knew to look for nymphs, they could head off the problem much sooner.” The bugs pass through six stages of development and feed at least once during each, which means you can get bites before there are full-grown adults visible. If you think you have a problem but can’t find anything, press packing tape or a lint roller underneath carpet and in the corners of beds. Nymphs and eggs will stick to it.

Lou is bringing up a really important point here: many people first see a bed bug that is a fed or unfed nymph. And neither bed bug will look much like the image of an adult bed bug typically pictured in a media story. The first five photos in our page with photos of bed bugs and signs of bed bugs convey the enormous visual difference between fed vs. unfed first instar nymphs, and between nymphs vs. adults. Since people who have not yet had bed bugs often hear of them via the two-minute segment on Fox, or an article in their local paper, it would be best if more news outlets would feature a visual comparison giving people some awareness of this range when and if they do encounter a bed bug.

The article warns people against self-treating with Raid or foggers / bombs, and talks about the importance of dealing with clothing properly, notifying neighbors, and getting a professional in.

What I found most interesting was the final paragraph, which was centered around the need for action on the part of the city:

SEE SOMETHING (DISGUSTING), SAY SOMETHING

Last week, bedbugged tenants mounted a Craigslist-based attack on their Greenpoint building, and protesters in front of the Department of Health demanded action on asthma-exacerbating roaches and rats. They’re not the only ones who think the city could do more to crush creeping menaces. “Bedbugs are a major mental-health issue. I get tired of the Department of Health saying, ‘It’s not a physical issue, so we’re not going to focus on it,’” says Upper West Side council member Gale Brewer. She (and many exterminators) advocate a campaign along the lines of the subway-safety ads to spread word about bug-suppressing preventive steps. Other strategies: certification of bedbug-specialist exterminators and bans on mattress resales. To fight other pests, exterminators would like the DOH to enforce pre-demolition extermination laws more aggressively and hire more pest-control experts to manage parks and public spaces. For its part, the DOH says it has retrained staff after the KFC/Taco Bell rat debacle and is working on plans to combat residential bedbug and rodent problems.

I am really glad that Gale Brewer, who originally proposed the ban on reselling used mattresses in NYC, is still speaking out against bed bugs and their very real negative effects on health. I hope we will get an update on the NY City Council Bed Bug Task Force that was begun over a year ago, but is yet to take action (to our knowledge).

The recommendations here–enforcement of pre-demolition extermination laws, the mattress re-sale ban, and the certification of bed bug specialist PCOs are all good ones. We’ve been talking about the need for a public education campaign (subway ads, TV ads, and so on) since Bedbugger.com started.

Finally, Kirsch said, when describing what to do when you determine you do have bed bugs,

Don’t terrify yourself with horror stories on the Internet; check informative sites like Bedbugger.com.

Informative is good: thanks, Melissa Kirsch! We’re doing our best to get information out there and help people with bed bugs stay as calm as possible, so they can fight bed bugs in an effective way.

I hope we can also have something to do with getting people involved–maybe not so calmly–in fighting for change in public policies, like the ones suggested in this article. It’s always a good time to call your city council representative, or to write to the mayor, about bed bugs. Wherever you live, whether it’s New York, Halifax, Melbourne, or Lexington, Kentucky, take a moment to tell a local politician that bed bugs had a serious impact on your life–whether it was on your family, your finances, your job, and your health.

New Yorkers:
Click here to email Mayor Bloomberg.
Click here to look up and email your city council representative.
Click here to email Gale Brewer about the Bed Bug Task Force even if you’re not in her district.

And here’s a few words from the Rolling Stones–way back in 1978–that still ring true:

Don’t you know the crime rate is going up, up, up, up, up
To live in this town you must be tough, tough, tough, tough, tough, tough, tough!
You got rats on the west side,
Bed bugs uptown!
What a mess– this town’s in tatters
I’ve been shattered
My brain’s been battered, splattered all over Manhattan

Pop this mp3 on your iPod and muse on how little things have changed. And don’t forget: email your city council representative and remind them there are, once more, “bed bugs uptown.”Similar Posts:

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