A new article from the Boston Herald warns of a difficult bed bug spring, and notes a continued yearly rise in bed bug complaints to the Boston Inspectional Services Department.

The bedbug resurgence that began in the early 21st century is creeping and crawling with a vengeance, according to national and local experts, who warn of a particularly pesky spring.

“As the weather gets warmer, we typically get more complaints,” said Boston Inspectional Services Department Assistant Commissioner Dion Irish. “The bedbugs get more active as the climate gets warmer.”

According to ISD, as of April 15, Hub bedbug complaints already had surpassed yearly totals for the two previous years: 223 complaints in 2009 versus 182 complaints in 2007 and 210 complaints in 2008.

However, there are some things Boston is doing well.  For example, as the Boston ISD website states,

Our Standard bed bug notice of violation also requires that owners inspect all units in the dwelling, and they must treat all horizontally and vertically adjacent units to the infested unit(s).

(Emphasis added.)

We hear from tenants in other cities that many (if not most) landlords will not voluntarily pay to have adjacent units inspected, let alone the entire building — even though their PCOs or entomologists may recommend this.

Having a policy that requires adjacent units to be treated means small and difficult to detect neighboring infestations may be nipped in the bud.  And having the entire building inspected means there’s more chance of detecting additional infested units.

All of this costs money, but when you think of the amount landlords in other cities pay to perpetually treat units one by one, piecemeal (a process which may never remove the problem), it does not seem like a bad idea economically.

The article notes that the city’s aggressive response to bed bugs in the Allston-Brighton neighborhood has made a difference.

Irish said the department is working to make sure there’s quality pest control available to property owners, and noted landlords are responsible for extermination costs or face housing court.

“Whenever we’re aware of an infestation, we require multiple exterminations and monitoring,” Irish said, touting the city’s get-tough policy for improvements in the Allston-Brighton area.

That neighborhood had seen a concentration of bedbug complaints dating back to 2003. Thanks to outreach efforts, a strategy of quick street-side pickups of discarded furniture by the Department of Public Works, and aggressive treatment of infested and surrounding units, “those areas are no longer troubled areas,” Irish said. The number of complaints in Allston- Brighton dropped from 38 in 2007 to 27 in 2008. There are 25 complaints there so far this year.

(Emphasis added.)

Obviously, Allston-Brighton is still troubled by bed bugs, but it appears to have been much less troubled in 2008 than in 2007.  Keeping in mind that bed bug problems will tend to get worse in time, as the problem spreads through a neighborhood, a reduction in complaints like this is good news indeed.

On the other hand, there are 25 complaints in 2009 so far — suggesting 2009 is on track to be big for bed bugs in Allston-Brighton.  Is this a factor of a less aggressive recent approach in the neighborhoods?  Or is it a sign that this is indeed “a particularly pesky spring” for bed bugs in Boston?

In any case, it looks like Boston has lots of work to do.

See Bedbugs back on attack – BostonHerald.com.Similar Posts:

• Boston Globe on the second hand furniture “industry” and bed bugs

This article was not primarily about bed bugs; it was mainly about college students, and how it’s harder than ever to furnish a student apartment from things you find on the curb.

The reasons given: more competition, including not just students, but from people who buy and sell used items, and also young professionals who are into the environmentally positive effects of used furniture.

Bed bugs were also mentioned, and rightly so. Boston has a serious bed bug problem. The Boston Globe reports,

Competition isn’t the only challenge facing students seeking freebies. There’s also the bedbug threat, particularly in the transient Allston and Brighton neighborhoods. This year the city has received 210 requests to inspect for bedbug infestations, 46 of them in “student-heavy” neighborhoods, said Dion Irish, assistant commissioner of Boston’s Inspectional Services Department.

Because bedbugs have an affinity for mattresses, the city is dispatching inspectors to the area over Labor Day weekend to slap orange warning stickers on mattresses and other cast-off items and to spray-paint wooden furniture where the bedbugs could be hidden.

The bedbug problem has had a chilling effect on students like Darius Wilsey, a Northeastern University junior. Last year his roommate brought home two mattresses from the street only to discover, too late, there was a reason they were there in the first place. “They were infested with bedbugs,” Wilsey said. “Our place became uninhabitable. We had no place to live. I had to live on people’s couches for three weeks.”

Bed bugs not only have serious negative economic, emotional, and social effects on the people who bring the used furniture or mattress home. They also easily spread to neighbors, friends, and relatives, costing them a lot in terms of money, time, and sleep.

Bed bugs also, it must be stressed, have a negative effect on the environment. The amount of plastic bags and pesticides involved in one bed bug infestation may well offset the environmental (and economic) benefits to those young professionals mentioned above, and other budding freegans.

Nevertheless, the Globe reports,

. . . none of this has put an end to Boston’s thriving underground free furniture industry.

Well, that’s kind of a shame.

Maybe, instead of “First come, first served,” the article should have been called, “First come, first bitten by bed bugs.”

Just a reminder to everyone in Boston: just because the item you find on the street does not have an orange bed bug warning sticker, does not mean it isn’t infested with bed bugs.

You can read the full article by Linda Matchan here.Similar Posts:

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Vancouver’s Radio CKNW (AM980) reports on their website Saturday:

Advocacy group fights bed bug outbreak

VANCOUVER – Community advocacy group the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users VANDU is trying to fight a massive outbreak of bedbugs in that city’s Downtown Eastside by gutting infested rooms.

The group’s Anne Livingston says residents have had six weeks notice to decide what to do with their possesions.

After the rooms are gutted, crews move in to spray with powerful chemicals to kill the bed bugs.
Livingston says residents get to bring 60 pounds of clothing out of their apartments that will be laundered and returned to them.

Anne Livingston and VANDU were mentioned here in a post in March. Last summer, they got a $51,000 government grant to provide a round of 2 PCO treatments for bed bugs in two badly infested Downtown Eastside hotels. The residents also got replacement furniture and beds.

The city commissioned a study which said 1/2 of those rooms were bed bug free two months later.

Although the funding was probably was not enough treatment to achieve a higher success rate (which would likely require more PCO visits in many cases), the VANDU activisits definitely know what they’re doing. Back in March, we quoted an article in which Livingston said,

“You really need to create a system whereby you can knock on the door, get a room prepped, get the spray guys in and come back in 10 days and do it again,” said Livingston.

“And then, the real project is to not have people pulling bedbug-infested garbage out of the alley into another place. This creates constant reinfection. So that’s why it needs to be a neighbourhood campaign.”

Livingstone said bedbugs are a growing problem everywhere in Vancouver, and trying to get rid of them in the city’s poorest neighbourhood is money well spent.

Education, as we keep saying, is key–for residents of every treated building, I might add, whether it’s an SRO hotel, an expensive NYC co-op apartment building, a tenement, or a homeless shelter. (Remember, I live in NYC, where well-to-do professionals shop at bohemian flea markets, and yuppies take used furniture off the curb.)

I applaud the work of Livingston and the other folks at VANDU. I know with more funding and support, they will be able to continue to make a huge difference in peoples’ lives.

I hate that community activists like VANDU and the Allston-Brighton Community Development Corporation in Boston have to step in, since I think we need more infrastructure and government assistance helping people get good bed bug treatment and supplies they need (from XL ziplocs to furniture). Both of these groups have had government funding, which is great. I just think they probably need a lot more.

And is anyone in NYC or San Francisco, Montreal, Toronto, or anywhere else doing similar work? We’d love to hear about it.Similar Posts:

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According to this article in TownOnline, the Allston-Brighton Community Development Corporation has announced that its grants to people with bed bugs (to help pay for treatment) have run out for this fiscal year. Their program is state-funded, and they’re hoping for more funds.

The ABCDC is the only group in Massachusetts that helps people pay for treatment. Boston, surrounding towns, and especially Allston-Brighton, has a serious bed bug epidemic.

We’ve covered the ABCDC’s bed bug prevention and treatment efforts before. We think they’re awesome. It’s just sad that more help is not available. If governments (local, state, federal) and corporations want to stop the spread of bed bugs, more help is needed for homeowners, landlords, and renters. If people can’t pay for what’s needed to get rid of bed bugs, they will eventually spread to everyone. I’d like to see the government helping people directly, but until then, I hope more community / social service agencies will step forward and build on the ABCDC model. And I hope people will fund them.

Thanks to Keets for pointing us to the article!Similar Posts:

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