According to a corrections officer, the problem is so bad in staff controlled areas, there was even talk of closing down one of the modules at the facility.The officer, who wanted to remain anonymous, said this is a safety and health issue. [His] employees have filed complaints but little has been done. “I observed one of the staff chairs being taken down to be disposed of in the industrial area — which was infested with mites or bed bugs,” he said.The long-time corrections officer said employees alerted prison officials when the bugs first surfaced last fall. “They came in and had people spray the staff area and obviously it hadn’t worked,” he said.      

Sounds like a “spray and pray.” For pesticides to work, you must first remove bed bugs and thoroughly clean bed bug-infested items, identifying harborages for treatment.

You can’t just spray one area where bed bugs were seen and hope for the best. Adjacent rooms on the same and other floors must be carefully inspected, at the very least.

The spokeswoman from the Department of Public Safety says officials have received four reports of bed bugs in staff controlled areas since last September, and each time the administration immediately contacted a professional exterminating company to address the problem area.      

Well, that does not sound so good. You can’t simply respond to individual bed bug complaints with targeted spraying in the “problem area”. If bed bugs have been found four separate times in the last six months, then pest control operators are going to need to carefully search and probably treat a much larger area, if not the whole facility. For every bed bug you see, many more are likely present. And they are biting, whether or not anyone notices.

Furthermore, you can’t just treat once.  Treatments need to be repeated at approximately 2-week intervals until bed bugs and their signs are all gone (and this typically takes three or more careful, thorough treatments of the entire infested area–often an entire home or workplace).  

Employees and inmates need to be alerted about the problem so that those noticing insects or skin problems will come forward. Of the administration’s response so far, in treating each time someone complains, 

The officer says that’s not enough. “If it affected inmates the state would be looking at legal issues. A few officers from what I was told have filed for worker’s comp.”      

I found this interesting, since we haven’t heard of anyone filing for worker’s compensation based on bed bugs in the workplace.

I also would not be at all surprised if inmates also had bed bugs in their cells or other areas.

The officer says employees fear they have become carriers of the bugs.”Concerns are raised from employees that are afraid to taking them home to their families — their homes.” he said. “It’s kind of like being swept under the rug and not taken seriously.”      

While you can’t be a “carrier” of bed bugs per se, you can certainly transport them from work to home and vice versa, in clothing or in your bag. Anyone who suspects bed bugs at work should talk to their employers, who should then take serious action and get good, professional help.

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Above the Law claims,

1. An email was sent around Cravath last week about the presence of bed bugs at the firm.
2. A few bedbugs were found on two floors, the 21st floor and the 41st floor, which are being fumigated.
3. Two employees had bedbugs in their apartments and told the firm, which caused the firm to investigate.
4. The 21st floor is a paralegal / administration floor, but the 41st floor is a litigation floor — which means that one of the two employees may be a lawyer.
6. Both of the employees are still with the firm (i.e., they have not been fired, like the poor soul at Cadwalader who, rumor has it, got canned after self-reporting).
7. The email about the bed bug problem was protected against forwarding or copying.

Apparently ATL did not do so well at math, as they left out #5. (I bet they billed for it anyway!)

But we’ll forgive them, since this is pretty juicy stuff they’re dishing.

Anyway, I would not blame those in the NYC legal profession for getting a bit nervous, seeing two of their bright stars come down with bed bugs. But let’s face it: any type of workplace or residence can become home to bed bugs.

Educating employees on what to watch out for, at home and at work, would be a good idea.

Here’s a hint: developing a workplace policy that says people who tell you they have bed bugs at home won’t get sacked might mean employees are more forthcoming.

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Then, a year later, in November 2007, someone else claimed there were bed bugs in the Fox newsroom. This second rumor was circulated by mediabistro blogger TVNewser.

Now a Fox executive has told the New York Times that they just recently discovered they had bed bugs in their newsroom, that they have been treated and are gone:

In an interview on Monday, Warren Vandeveer, senior vice president for operations and engineering at Fox News, said the cable channel had realized it had a problem a few weeks ago, when an employee “caught a bug and showed it to us.” An exterminator determined that the incursion was limited to a “very small area in the newsroom.”

The NYTimes claims Vanderveer told them that the problem was discovered “a few weeks ago,” the exterminator’s treatment ended “about a week ago,” and the bed bugs are now “totally eradicated.” If that timeline of detection and treatment is accurate, many experts might say it is too soon to say for sure that the problem is “totally eradicated.”

As for how long ago Fox has had a bed bug problem, is it true that bed bugs only first appeared in the Fox newsroom “a few weeks ago”? Or were they only first verified then?  Were they also there in November 2007 as per TVNewer’s tip? (TVNewser claimed the newsroom was getting pest control treatment last November.) Did TVNewser get faulty information? And were any bed bugs in Fox News in November 2006 as Claudia’s source claimed?

If the 2006 and/or 2007 rumors of bed bugs at Fox were incorrect, it’s a pretty big coincidence that the only station that we’ve heard rumored to be infested with bed bugs — twice — later became infested with bed bugs.

Vanderveer also apparently told the New York Times that

. . . the source of the bugs was not determined until the exterminator inspected the homes of about 20 employees. Mr. Vandeveer said the exterminator later described one employee’s home as having “the worst infestation he had seen in 25 years in the business.”

This raised all kinds of questions in my mind, but foremost in my mind is this one: did Fox insist all newsroom employees had their homes searched, or did they volunteer?

Finding that one employee has a serious, serious bed bug infestation may seem like a smoking gun to Fox, but it actually doesn’t in itself prove the employee brought them in to work (rather than someone else doing so).  I grant that it is highly likely.

But still: what if the home where bed bugs was found was not the worst case PCOs had found in 25 years? In that hypothetical case, would it be fair to link bed bugs to an employee whose home was found to have them? What kind of evidence is needed to verify such a connection? Even if every company employee’s home was searched, which does not seem to be the case here, could such a connection be proven?

Gawker claims to have gotten a tip alleging that the person who brought the bed bugs in was subsequently fired. (Gothamist asks, “Is that even legal?”)

This is the second time we’ve heard an employee was allegedly fired for bringing bed bugs to work. The first we heard of was at Cadwalader.

I am very glad for those who work at Fox that the bed bug infestation was detected and treated. I hope that the treatment which began only a few weeks ago continues until everyone really is certain.

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“All we wanted was someone to tell whether the holding cells in the Central Judicial Processing Court are infested with bed bugs,” said Meyers, a Hudson County Maintenance Department employee. “But instead of giving me an answer, my supervisor screamed ‘I hate you! I hate you!’ and refused to tell us anything about the situation.”

The cells were indeed treated for bed bugs back in December (prior to this conversation of 12/28), so perhaps it is a sensitive area for the management?

The women claim they were split up and given more work after asking about bed bugs.

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The article implies that treatments have occurred at four-week intervals:

Gateway Center officials said that after the first bug was found on the third floor in October, all floors were chemically treated.

Those treatments are scheduled on a monthly basis, officials said.

On the one hand, employees were said to have been educated on what bed bugs look like, and as many as five bugs have been found in the last few weeks (despite several PCO treatments):

The IRS building employs 5,000 workers at its Covington offices, and it told employees for what to look when they find a bug.

An IRS representative said that employees have found as many as five bugs in the past couple weeks, but the representative said that the company has been working with OSHA and an exterminator to keep things in check for the past two months.

“In check” is not enough. And monthly treatments may not be–many PCOs tell us they treat at about 2-week intervals. We know bed bug eggs can hatch within that timeframe, and leaving things longer can mean more hatch, feed, and begin growing to where they can breed.

And apparently, other employees claim they don’t know what to look for:

“I don’t even really know what they look like,” Gateway Center employee Joy Fox said.

Maybe the memo was not enough.

It sounds like the building needs to employ the most knowledgeable PCO firm they can, enlist their help in educating all employees not just on what bed bugs look like, but how they travel from here to there. Every single employee should (in my opinion) have their home inspected for bed bugs. People could be bringing them from home repeatedly. However, since it sounds like the sightings are not isolated to one person or department, it is “people,” rather than one person.

And wherever the bed bugs came from, they can now be going home with just about anyone.

Those employees need to know how to identify bed bugs, and they also need to know that Dr. Michael Potter estimates as many as 50% of people may be bitten and have no itchy bites (source linked here). Everyone should realize that seeing five bed bugs in broad daylight means there will probably be many more present.

One also wonders what’s being done besides spraying and (some kind of) an education campaign? If people getting treatment in their homes and dorms have to have posessions carefully inspected, possibly bagged for some part of treatment, and carefully exposed, then surely a place of business would have some kind of “prep” on its hands as well?

You can read the rest of the article from WLWT online here.

Update 1/12/2008:  Although WLWT says the Gateway Center is in Covington, Ohio, a reader pointed out that it appears to be in Covington, KY.

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Having heard nothing since then, I was glad to see that yesterday the New York Observer (in their 10/23 online and 10/29 print edition) re-told the bed bugs at Cadwalader story, that the Wall Street Journal’s WSJ.com law blog (housed in the same building as Cadwalader!) covered the Observer’s coverage. After all, the more people realize you can have bed bugs at work–even in very classy workplaces–the better.

The Observer’s David Lat also edits the online legal tabloid AbovetheLaw.com, where we picked up the original leaked-memo bed bug story. We missed this, but on October 3rd, Above the Law also covered a second report of bed bugs in the same offices, this time on the 20th floor:

It is believed that said bedbug infiltrated the premises through a delivery or box shipment. Perhaps it was hidden in a document production from opposing counsel?

While this is entirely possible, since bed bugs had previously been found in the same building, I would not be surprised if other locations in the building were infested. Maybe (gasp!) the blamed employee was fired for nothing. It is very difficult to locate blame for a bed bug infestation.

And remember, the original memo made this claim:

“A single treatment by an exterminator usually controls bed bugs and prevents reinfestation for several months.”

Perhaps one treatment was not enough.

In October, management was more careful to avoid the leaked-memo scenario:

Attorneys were notified of this breach in CWT’s bed bug security via email. We haven’t seen the email message, which we understand was protected against forwarding, printing, or copying.

Too bad. The first memo was fascinating.

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APilot writes:

This is from a letter I’m writing for my union publication. Any feedback?

What do wheals and papules have to do with my career in Aviation? “Nothing,” I thought until I came for from a trip with an overnight in my “home away from home” layover hotel in Orlando with three strange red spots on my body. The next day I went to the doctor. My computer savvy husband headed off to the Internet.

My doctor (in Colorado) identified them a “some kind of insect” bites. Puzzled as to why I was bitten more than once, he subscribed an antibiotic and wished me luck. My husband had a more successful afternoon. He discovered that there is a pandemic of bed bugs in hotels in NY and most Border States. My marks resembled the bites and later two of those became aggravated into very worse form- an infected papule.
A wheal is simply a term for a raised up mark on the sick, a papule is described as “a small inflamed elevation of skin that is nonsuppurative as in chicken pox.” Nonsuppurative means not filled with fluid (i.e. pus). This development occurs to those who are allergic-, allergies that can develop if a person is bitten on a regular basis.

One of the first sets of bites, which were treated with only antibiotics, grew to the size of a half dollar and was about a half an inch thick. The center turned dark black and grew to the size of a match head; finally it oozed a little clear pus before starting to heal. It was three full weeks before the swelling was gone and a large scar remains.

One month later I was back in the Orlando hotel (management had “assured” me the problem was handled and my room was clean). Unfortunately I had not really searched a hotel room thoroughly before. Unsure whither the 12 or so specks of black and brown stuff I picked out of the mattress pad and box spring were normal, I slept there again. This time I wore full pajamas, tucked in at my socks and waist. I was rewarded for my experimentation with a bite just under my armpit that showed up the very next day. (The bugs probably crawled in through the neck hole.)

For those who are squeamish- skip on ahead, because the following paragraph may contain more than you really want to read. Over the next two weeks, ten much smaller bites could be identified. The prominent bite swelled up painfully. In spite of treatment with ice and over the counter pain medicine, it grew to the point were I couldn’t sleep and needed to call off a trip to see the doctor. This time I took with me an Internet recommended treatment- the steroid cream Mizaondoec, which purportedly helps by constricting capillaries and reducing the spreading of the toxins. The cream on the papule caused it to flow about teaspoons of yellow puss, beginning its recovery. However its effect on the lesser bites was to seal off the bites from the surface of the skin. A week later, two of these had swollen to a very painful half dollar size. Ultimately they had to be treated with both antibiotics and lancing. Surgical scissors were needed to break up the congealed areas for drainage. Then they were packed with sterile tape to keep them from closing off before the infection could be healed.

But my nightmare didn’t end there. A ten-day stretch of time off confirmed my worse fears. I was now getting bitten on a regular basis in my own bed. These bites were small and not very numerous but consistent, leading me to suspect may a lone hitch hiking egg had hatched. The eggs of a bed bug are the size of a dust mote, white and sticky, and the female lays about three a night. Although it would be possible to inadvertently trap a beg in some early show predawn packing, it is more likely end up carrying an egg

To get rid of our new houseguest we laundered all the bedding in hot water. We sealed the box spring and mattress in covers. And purchased a new comforter and pillows. We put bed bug powder poison on the frame and around the foot of the bed. This took two tries but finally the nibbling stopped.

During this time my husband never noticed any bites. Although the Internet said that bed bugs are equal opportunity bitters, our personal experience didn’t reflex this. Even if you believe you are not allergic or at risk there are few simple things you can do to protect your family. I now shut my suitcase at night never put any of my things between the hotel walls and the beds. Also I wash my layover clothing separately, and store my flight bag in the laundry when not in use.

On the road I check the bed by lifting up the bottom sheet and any box spring cover. I collect any black specks found on white paper. Thanks to another bed bug experience in the Tampa, if there are more than four specks, a new room is requested. The majority of the beds will not have a single speck. Lately, if there are more than two specks I use Off insecticide on my clothes and exposed skin, which seems to be working.

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