Entomologist Dr. Changlu Wang will be speaking at an educational session on bed bugs in Philadelphia next week:

Bed bugs are becoming an emerging public health issue after years of relative invisibility. . . To help address this growing problem, the Philadelphia School and Community IPM Partnership will be hosting an educational session on bed bugs Wednesday 10/21/09 from 2 – 3 p.m. at the School District of Philadelphia at 440 N. Broad Street, Philadelphia with bed bug expert Changlu Wang, Rutgers University.

. . . Dr. Changlu Wang, assistant extension specialist and urban entomologist at Rutgers University, will discuss recent research findings on bed bugs, resident surveys, effectiveness of various monitoring methods, and a step-by-step approach of conducting a successful bed bug integrated pest management IPM program. An IPM approach involves tactics that are safe and environmentally compatible, including preventive measures, sanitation, and chemicals applied to targeted sites.

. . . Dr. Wang’s education session will follow the Philadelphia School and Community IPM Partnership’s sixth annual meeting taking place 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. The purpose of the meeting is to update partners on the progress of the group’s various projects, discuss pest control and pesticide issues, and brainstorm future needed activities and funding sources.  To RSVP to the meeting, education session, or both, contact Michelle Niedermeier, PSCIP coordinator, at the Philadelphia IPM office, 215 471-2200, ext. 109, or e-mail pscip@psu.edu.

. . . The Pennsylvania IPM program is a collaboration between the Pennsylvania State University and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture aimed at promoting integrated pest management in both agricultural and urban settings. For more information, contact the program at 814 865-2839, [or check out their web site].

[Emphasis mine.]

The rest of the announcement from the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments.Similar Posts:

• Interview with Jody Gangloff-Kaufmann over at New York vs. Bed bugs

Even in places where bed bugs are just starting to appear, some housing managers are fortunately being warned of their imminent arrival.  Dan Linehan writes in the Mankato Free Press:

A pair of pest control experts were in Mankato [Minnesota] Wednesday to hold a class on bed bugs. It was organized by the Minnesota Multi-Housing Association, a trade group for managers of multi-unit housing.

We’ve mentioned the MMHA before. The article continues:

They said bed bugs are making a comeback, and it’s only a matter of time before they become more common here.

“It is a train rolling down the track that nobody knows how to slow down at this time,” [Stacy] O’Reilly [president of Plunkett's Pest Control, Inc.] said.

She brought three dead bed bugs that had been plucked from a Mankato bedroom by a Plunkett employee en route to identification in the Twin Cities.

Of the two dozen or so attendees, about six raised their hands when asked if they’ve had bed bug problems. But at a similar class in Bloomington, O’Reilly said, 99 of 100 people raised their hands and the lucky one buried her face in her palms and groaned.

(Emphasis mine.)

When there’s “a train rolling down the track,” as O’Reilly puts it, the lucky ones are the ones who know it’s coming.

Mankato, Minnesota: I first heard that name as a kid, when it was the big city Laura Ingalls and her family were always riding off to in “Little House on the Prairie.”

Along with illness, the hardships of the upper midwestern winters, the annoying Olsen woman and her pesky daughter Nellie, you just know the Ingalls clan had to have suffered bed bugs at some point too.  Like everyone else.

Similar Posts:

None Found

According to the Stamford Advocate, that city’s health department expects last year’s 85 reported cases of bed bugs will be surpassed this year. (Remember, those are just the cases that get reported to the health department):

“It’s going up and it’s going to continue to go up,” said Mike Kraynak, director of health inspections.

As a New Yorker, I am intrigued to hear a public official express concern that the bed bug problem is growing, though it so obviously is.

And here’s the law in Stamford:

If a bed bug case is reported in rented housing, the city requires landlords to exterminate until the problem is resolved, Kraynak said. First, a resident must find a bed bug and take it to the city as evidence. If a lab worker confirms it is a bed bug, the city sends an extermination order. Usually, if the apartment is six units or less, the city requires the entire building be treated. In larger complexes, the city requires treating only the affected unit and those surrounding it.

I haven’t heard of other cities which invite residents to bring a sample in.

In New York, in stark contrast, we hear inspectors (if they turn up to inspect following a bed bug complaint) like to see them harboring in the “natural habitat” of your home (in daylight, of course, and in plain view). Oh, and we’re told they often expect the resident to be able to find them. As you can imagine, the wily bed bugs don’t always cooperate.

Stamford has some other things going for it, too:

Kraynak said residents must report a bed-bug problem, but a few preventive measures are in place. [City Health Inspector Amy] Lehaney works to educate neighborhood associations. And the health department provides information, including examples of the insects, at its front desk in the government center.

For those who don’t have a problem, Kraynak recommends caution.

“Don’t pick up a mattress from the sidewalk,” he said. “It’s against the law to sell used mattresses. And when you go into a hotel room, check the bedding and make sure you don’t see signs of an infestation.”

So Stamford is educating residents, helping walk-ins learn to identify bed bugs, and it’s also illegal to sell used mattresses in Stamford?

Good news!

In New York, officials turn a blind eye as the used mattress trade works overtime. There sure are a lot of mattresses on the curbside right now. I’m sure it saves New York City a lot of money in terms of garbage collection when those scavengers come and pick them up for re-sale.

I could not find anything about bed bugs by searching on the Stamford Health Inspections website at this time, but it sounds like they have some good policies in place so far. Let’s hope they do even more to fight the spread of bed bugs in Stamford.Similar Posts:

• Baltimore’s 311 Online now has a bed bug complaint option
• Gale Brewer invites bedbuggers to her annual open house
• I asked New York’s Mayor Bloomberg what he is going to do about bedbugs

This is a fascinating little news study, a Fox segment focusing on how a Chicago landlord, Barry Chernovsky, and his tenants are blaming one another for bed bugs.

Let me clear things up for you all out there in Chicagoland, and everywhere else (because this debate is going on everywhere):

Mr. Landlord: it is not okay to order your janitor to spray pesticides commercial air freshener in people’s apartments. As you saw, this made a kid have a serious asthma attack. Frankly, it looked like he had a pesticide spray can, and it seems like maybe the implication was he was treating for bed bugs. (That’s a bit strange.)

While we’re on the subject, there are lots of reasons untrained and unlicensed people should not be treating bed bugs in other peoples’ homes. They can harm themselves and others, and they can also make bed bugs worse. It’s also illegal in many places.

Also, Mr. Landlord: it is not okay to declare everything is just hunky dory even if, as you claim, your building is 95% bed bug free after one and a half years of treatment. One and a half years is a long time. I am not sure how big this building was, but there were a number of tenants in this segment. Were they the only ones who still have bed bugs?

Mr. Tenant: the landlord is right to be pissed off that you dragged bed bug-infested refuse from the dumpster back into your home. You may not suffer from bed bug bites because you may not be allergic to them. Or maybe they did not reach you yet, so you think this whole bed bug thing is just a silly notion. However, you should trust your neighbors when they tell you they are suffering, badly. If you still don’t give a hoot, I suggest you play along and avoid being tarred and feathered by an angry mob of neighbors, your fellow tenants.

As an outside observer, I note that some of these wrong ideas and bad behaviors can be chalked up to ignorance, a lack of bed bug education, if you will. This kind of ignorance about bed bugs wastes money, wastes time, and makes people physically suffer.

But besides plain ignorance, it seems like there’s a serious lack of empathy here. It’s a good thing, then, that there are laws to protect us from neighbors and landlords who are lacking in empathy for us.

As Alderman Joe Moore told Fox, the law in Chicago says the landlord has to get rid of pests in the building. Bed bugs take a lot of work and a lot of knowledge.

However, the bed bug blame game, and air freshener, do nothing to help get rid of bed bugs.

I liked the dermatologist in this segment, who understood that bed bugs could “psychologically make you go bonkers.”

The City of Chicago Department of Public Health has its own bed bug FAQs.

Not bad, but it would help to tell people that a sizeable percentage of the population appears to not react to bed bug bites. Those folks are often the key to ridding a building of bed bugs: find out who has bed bugs and has no idea they have them, and you’re on your way. Letting people know that being bitten without reacting is a possibility is essential.
Similar Posts:

• Miranda’s story: a visit from the PCO for bed bugs, part 2
• Johnson City’s John Sevier Apartments tenants get new mattresses
• Mark Sheperdigian on the limits of bed bug inspections
• Towels under the door: when cities abandon tenants with bed bugs
• 160-unit Richmond, California complex evacuated for tent fumigation of bed bugs

Lots of news items are appearing, as the plan we heard of on Tuesday was officially announced yesterday.

NY1’s Cindi Avila quoted Gale Brewer as to the reason New York is taking action:

Last year, the city’s 311 hotline got 7,000 bedbug related calls, almost four times more than just three years earlier. Now the city is taking action, educating the public about the painful problem.

“The bottom line is bed bugs must be dealt with. And they are a mental health issue if they are not a physical health issue,” said City Councilwoman Gale Brewer. “New Yorkers really need to know their government is behind them in trying to get rid of bedbugs.”

We look forward to knowing more about what’s happening in these educational events:

Wednesday the city announced plans to hold three seminars aimed at educating the public about the blood-sucking parasites.

“To ensure they know when they have bedbugs, to ensure they know how to exterminate the bedbugs, and to ensure that they identify if a neighbor may also have bedbugs that could spread into their homes,” said City Councilman Miguel Martinez of the purpose of the meetings.

These three goals are far more difficult than perhaps even Councilman Martinez understands. Bed bugs can be hard to locate. Perhaps the most important thing New Yorkers need to know is that entomologist Michael Potter estimates as many as 50% of people don’t react to bed bug bites. So you can have them and have no idea.

And tipping your mattress over often does not lead to enlightenment, as many bedbuggers have found–it’s not that easy to detect bed bugs.

Meanwhile, AP reporter Deepti Hajela wrote an article that was picked up all over, including Newsday.

Hajela spoke with officials about the reason for the campaign:

“It’s about quality of life,” Luiz Aragon, deputy commissioner in the Department of Housing and Preservation, said. “We know that people are sometimes attempting to deal with this problem but they don’t know how to.”

In my experience, knowledge is crucial, but only part of the battle.

For tenants, getting landlords to treat properly, using licensed Pest Control Operators and treating until a problem is fully gone, is the real struggle.

I am sure many landlords, PCOs, and bedbugged neighbors, would also complain about some tenants not cooperating with preparations, or not reporting the problem, or trying to self-treat.

Meanwhile, most people in co-ops have to figure out how to get their association on board with inspections and treatment.

Education helps with all that, but the city needs knowledge–of who’s infested, and muscle–to force action.

And the city will surely eventually have to help landlords and homeowners who can’t afford proper treatment, and tenants who may need help with preparations for treatment, not only to eliminate bed bugs but to keep the problem from spreading.

You can read Deepti Hajela’s AP story in Newsday here.

You can read Cindi Avila’s NY1 story here. Similar Posts:

None Found

TheStar.com | Joe Fiorito updates us on prior bed bug story

“… when bedbugs spread to her apartment, and when the Toronto Community Housing Corporation could not respond to her complaints…, she booked a fumigator on her own and paid… to take care of the problem. She has now been reimbursed by TCHC.” This public housing agency in Toronto seems to be taking bed bugs seriously.

Bed Bugs Force Orlando Family To Throw Out Furniture – Central Florida News 13

Tenants in Orlando “throw out mattresses and wash all of their clothes, but the bugs are still there.” This video reminds us that tenants, landlords, and journalists need to be better educated about bed bugs. Tossing furniture out is not the way to get rid of bed bugs.

And, finally, the first ever Bedbugger.com “Aim Higher” award goes to this shelter resident, who declares living in a shelter with bed bugs “beats sleeping outdoors:”

Billings Gazette (letter to the editor): Staying in Mission beats sleeping outdoors

“As a resident of the Montana Rescue Mission, I have experience with bedbugs. They aren’t fun, but no worse than a few mosquito bites at a barbecue. Anyone who says they prefer to sleep on the streets isn’t credible.”

Absolutely, sleeping on the streets is almost always worse than bed bugs. But I disagree that they are no worse than mosquitoes. For many of us, much worse. Bed bug bite reactions vary from not noticeable to extremely uncomfortable. Some are so allergic they end up in the hospital, while others on the “itchy” end of the spectrum lose sleep and experience discomfort.

In any case, I believe strongly that people living in shelters should be entitled to accommodation that’s a darn sight better than sleeping rough. Isn’t that the point?Similar Posts:

None Found