Bed bugs will feature on the Dr. Oz show this Friday.

The promo below suggests a sensational tone. (Those audience reactions — do they seem a bit rehearsed to you?)

On the other hand, we hear Drs. Dini Miller, Richard Cooper, and Lou Sorkin will be featured, and that is a good thing.

(You can check local showtimes on Dr. Oz’s website.)

Similar Posts:

None Found

The Los Angeles Times Show Tracker gives a rundown on this week’s “30 Rock” (”Audition Day,” Season 4 Episode 4) which featured a bed bugs sub-plot.

While everyone else was on the lookout for new talent, Jack had his own mission: A quest for acceptance. With a nasty case of bed bugs (otherwise known as “chew daddies” or “Mugabe’s concubines”), Jack is rejected by everyone at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. He’s even banned from riding his company car, and must resort to taking the subway. We see him on board the subway (a real one, I might add), begging for mercy from strangers. I only wish I had been on the F train that day. Sigh. By the end of the episode, he’s feeling so dejected that when a robot mime reaches out and shakes his hand, making him feel like a human again, Jack insists that Liz hire him for the show. (Broadway nerds, help me out: Was the robot just Cheyenne Jackson in silver makeup?) It was Jack’s very own version of “A Christmas Carol,” and dare I say it, it was almost touching. On “30 Rock,” it’s all relative.

You can watch this on hulu.com. There’s also a discussion on the forums on this one.

Meanwhile, in the last few weeks, there was an episode of FX’s “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” (Season 5 Episode 6, entitled “The World Series Defense”) which also featured bed bugs in the storyline.  You can also watch this episode on hulu.com.

Thanks to the two anonymous tipsters who mentioned these to me.

Once you’ve had a chance to watch one, or both, what do you think about how bed bugs were presented?

Leave a comment below!Similar Posts:

None Found

It was not the worst segment we’ve seen, not by a long shot.

It was great to see that Rachael Ray spent the first fourteen minutes of her show on this important topic. It is crucial that everyone learns about bed bugs, and I am glad to see the focus on them here. No doubt many people will know more about bed bugs because of this segment.

I was also glad to see the range of information provided – the emphasis on how bed bugs will hide in the smallest cracks, how they can live in your home (not just in your bed), and the detailed footage of Nathalie’s bed bug prep (including 15 loads of laundry being dried on hot by each of the two bedbugged roommates). Nathalie also drives home the point that a bed bug experience is expensive (she estimated $1000 for materials and treatment).

That said, there were some points which were erroneous or not quite right:

First, as the partial recap on the Rachael Ray site notes,

Dr. Ian Smith reassures [bed bug sufferer Nathalie] that bed bugs may be disgusting, but there are no real health consequences,

The World Health Organization would probably reject that statement. They recently produced a publication stating that noted,

Besides the effects of direct bites, airborne common bedbug allergens that are always released during infestations may produce bronchial asthma. Within a group of 54 asthmatic Egyptian patients, 37.1% reacted positively to a common bedbug head and thorax extract, and 50.1% reacted positively to an abdominal common bedbug extract (Abou Gamra et al., 1991). Numerous routine bedbug bites can contribute to anaemia and may even make a person more susceptible to common diseases (Usinger, 1966; Snetsinger, 1997). Some people can develop a general malaise from numerous bedbug bites; that, along with the loss of sleep and extreme itching of bug bites, can lower a person’s vitality
and make individuals listless and almost constantly uncomfortable.

PDF download: The Public Health Significance of Urban Pests, 2008: 138-139.

Bed bugs are not currently known to spread infectious diseases. But bed bugs can lead to health problems ranging from the very common itchy skin rashes, anxiety and lack of sleep, to (in rare cases) anaphylaxis, a life-threatening reaction.

Viewers were also told about treatment:

Bed bugs won’t go away on their own, but if you catch them early you can avoid an infestation.

That’s true, but, then the program then went on to suggest self-treatment as a first option:

Start with inexpensive sprays and dusts from the hardware store to treat the affected areas. “Some work, some don’t work; it’s really trial and error,” Dr. Ian says. “When you use a spray at home, you also have to use the dust [spray] because the dust will get into the cracks and crevasses where the spray doesn’t get into and the dust will last longer. So it’s a combo deal!”

I don’t agree that people should start by self-treating in most cases, and I don’t think people should be encouraged to rush out and apply sprays and dusts; if someone is going to do their own bed bug treatment, they need to research the methodoloy and health precautions. People commonly misapply the dust diatomaceous earth, a potentially useful tool which can be a health risk if inhaled into your lungs and which may not be effective at killing bed bugs if misapplied.

And on the question of “catching the infestation early,” let’s face it — most people with bed bugs think they have a small infestation and that they caught it early. We hear from people who assume this because they have not seen bed bugs, or have seen only one or a few, even we know though you can have a good number of bed bugs before ever seeing one or a few. Other people may assume they have not been bitten or just started being bitten by bed bugs. I so wish Dr. Ian Smith had pointed out that many people do not react at all to bed bug bites. You can be bitten quite a lot without ever reacting, and we have heard other people go on being bitten for a while with no reaction, before eventually reacting quite a bit (in some cases, seemingly reacting all-at-once to multiple bites).

In other words, many people are in a poor position to judge how small or new their infestation is. And it’s a common story for people claiming small, early infestations to need multiple careful treatments from a professional who knows how to get rid of bed bugs, before the problem is finally gone.

The Rachel Ray show did show a sample of live bed bugs, and noted the difference between “babies” and adults. Not a perfect explanation of the life stages, but better than most media reports, which only show an adult bed bug. Unfortunately, Dr. Ian Smith said bed bugs were “brown-black” and “about the the size of a pencil eraser,” which may throw off many people, before he later showed some younger, smaller nymphs.

Much more should be done by those in the media to demonstrate the relative life stages of bed bugs, and the appearance of the smallest first instar nymphs before and after feeding. Lou Sorkin’s photos of bed bug life stages, including the comparative photos of fed and unfed nymphs shown on our Bed Bug Photos page,) are a great place to start.

The show talked about tools including encasements (which Dr. Smith called “sealants”), the Packtite, and the Bed Bug Registry, though Dr. Ian Smith was a bit misleading in presenting the website in the following way:

“The EPA just had it’s first-ever bed bug conference because it’s such a problem, and they now have a website bedbugregistry.com where you can find out whether or not there’s an issue in your city.”

First, it sounds like the EPA runs the Bed Bug Registry, which of course, it doesn’t.

Secondly, it implies that if “there’s an issue in your city,” you can find out on the registry.

That’s not necessarily true, and this is an important point – we have heard people who were surprised to have bed bugs in a new home or hotel because it had received no listing on the Bed Bug Registry. In fact, you will only see bed bug reports for your city, town, hotel, or building if someone reported them there; registry users are a self-selecting group, and though the site continues to grow and thrive, most people probably do not know it exists, or don’t add their listings for other reasons.

Another annoyance: when the show displayed an image of a heavily-stained mattress (far and away the most bed bug feces I’ve seen on a mattress, ever), Dr. Ian Smith said, “now that’s an infestation,” as if a much less serious case of bed bugs was not “an infestation.” Smith is right that it is an obvious case of neglect, where someone really is not paying attention, but I don’t agree the term “bed bug infestation” should only be applied in the most severe cases.

If the term “infestation” is to be so-used, then give us a new word for a bed bug issue (which may be as small as one bed bug, ten, or fifty). Some suggestions in this comment thread, where we deal with the “infestation” terminology.

And did you play bed bug bingo as you watched, like some forum participants?

All in all, I have to stress I am impressed with the length of this segment and the value of much information presented. I appreciated the human segment which was fairly well-presented. (Incidentally, Nathalie, one of the two bedbugged roommates, said she worked as a bed bug researcher and writer for M&M Environmental, a NYC firm that treats for bed bugs!)

But I can’t help wishing that the news media would take more advantage of bed bug experts, including the more relevant “doctors,” — Dr. Michael Potter, Dr. Louis Sorkin, Dr. Jody Gangloff-Kaufmann, and others — entomologists who study bed bugs and who are much more qualified to help the public understand the key issues surrounding bed bugs.

Update 10/31:

We knew Nathalie worked for M&M. However, you may have seen her face before; she did a series of youtube videos for M&M about various pest control issues, including bed bugs, some of which are included in this forum post.Similar Posts:

• Rachael Ray to feature bed bug segment on Friday
• New York Mayor Bloomberg signs Bed Bug Advisory Board legislation
• Colleges react to bed bugs: Loyola (Chicago), Boston University, Brigham Young (Hawaii)
• Bed bugs in the media: David Cain on British radio, Dr. Susan Jones in the Plain Dealer
• Johnson City’s John Sevier Apartments tenants get new mattresses

The New York Observer reports that a second New York publishing company has been treated for bed bugs in one week.

Scholastic became the second New York publishing house in a week to suffer a bedbug scare this past Friday afternoon, as employees were told to put whatever belongings they needed over the weekend into plastic bags and asked to go home. As was widely reported at the time, a similar scene had taken place at Penguin’s offices in Hudson Square just days earlier.

The inspection happened after an employee reported having bed bugs at home.

A Scholastic spokesperson told the Observer that a bed bug sniffing dog was brought in (and barked, “which meant there was a possibility that bed bugs were in the building”).  No actual evidence of bed bugs was found.  They had a spray treatment for bed bugs anyway, and will retreat in 14 days.

What is the purpose of those plastic bags?  I am always intrigued by these kinds of instructions.  You can put infested items in plastic bags and seal them away.  You can put uninfested items in plastic bags and seal them while in an infested environment.

But the purpose of placing your items from a possibly infested workplace into a plastic bag before taking them to a probably uninfested home (presumably only to open the bags up and use the items, since these are “belongings [employees] needed”) is — what, exactly?

Meanwhile, Penguin is playing down their recent bed bug scare.  The Observer reports,

Marilyn Ducksworth, the corporate spokeswoman for Penguin, said today that the sweep carried out two weekends ago was “a preventative measure.”

“There was never an infestation,” she said. “Not one bug was found in either building.”

However, the memo staffers at Penguin received was said to have told staffers of an “insect issue in certain areas” on several floors (see the Galleycat post and the Observer’s report).

It would be interesting to hear more about what was discovered in each of these cases that led to the evacuation of staffers and pest control being called in.Similar Posts:

• Atlantic City public housing: 1/3 of 800 units in four buildings infested with bed bugs
• Penguin offices infested with bed bugs. Are non-Bedbuggers worried yet?
• Depot Square in St. Johnsbury, VT: 39 of 47 units infested
• Saatchi and Saatchi New York offices infested with Bed Bugs
• Bill Clinton’s offices have bed bugs, according to New York Daily News

Bed bug specialists David Cain (of Bed-bugs.co.uk and active in our Bedbugger Forums) and Dr. Susan C. Jones (of Ohio State University) have been in the press this week, spreading good information about bed bugs.

David Cain was interviewed by BBC Derby’s Aleena Naylor on her morning show today. The approximately ten-minute interview starts at 1:42:35, so you can scroll through to it once the player loads.

It’s basically “bed bugs for beginners,” covering the basics, including these facts:

• bed bugs are not spread by lack of hygiene,
• they’re visible but you might not see them,
• they bite, but you may not react to bed bug bites,
• bed bug problems “can and should be controlled,” and
• people need to learn to inspect for bed bugs and their signs.

Have a listen before it disappears!

Also, last week, entomologist Dr. Susan C. Jones warned readers of Cleveland’s Plain Dealer about the spread of bed bugs.

Jones’s article focuses on the spread of bed bugs via people traveling and college students returning home.  It gives extensive advice about avoiding bed bugs while traveling, how to search a hotel room for bed bugs, what to do if you spot them in a hotel room, and key treatment advice:

If you suspect an infestation in your home, immediately contact a pest control company with experience in dealing with bed bugs. Don’t wait, because the problem will just get worse. And don’t use bug bombs. They rarely kill bed bugs but instead cause the bugs to scatter into areas you wouldn’t usually find them, such as your bathroom or kitchen.

Dr. Jones also recommends against boric acid, which we know does not work against bed bugs, and stresses that people should have their pest professional inspect a sample to ensure it is a bed bug (bat bugs and other creatures need different or additional kinds of treatment and action).  Dr. Jones also gives this excellent advice:

Always report bed bugs, although it may be difficult to know where to report such infestations. Start with your local health department, and if that’s not the right agency, ask who is responsible.

Not knowing who to report to is confusing and exhausting, readers tell me, but we have seen many instances reported in the media where health departments or other authorities took action and monitored situations, improving and speeding treatment to heavily infested properties.  It certainly cannot hurt, and it can definitely help.

Making these phone calls also reminds health department officials (and others they may pass you on to) that bed bugs are a problem where you live.  Your local officials need to understand this.

Thanks to David and to Dr. Jones for their tireless and valuable work in educating the public about bed bugs, their behavior, and how to spot and react to their presence.  The first battle in the fight against bed bugs is the battle against ignorance.Similar Posts:

• More bed bug treatments in Lexington’s Ballard Griffith senior apartments
• Room for Debate on bed bugs: a must-read!
• Towels under the door: when cities abandon tenants with bed bugs
• Bed bugs at Spring Valley, NY apartment complex
• Bed bug education event on Mississippi’s Gulf Coast Tuesday focused on prevention and IPM

Bed bug blogger Unlucky in Bugs tells us that Law & Order: Criminal Intent will feature bed bugs tonight (April 26, 2009).

Interestingly, UiB tells us,

The entomologist is played by the husband of a good friend of my sister’s, who is one of the first people I heard of to get bed bugs way back in 2005… so there’s some nice bed bug karma for you. It’s his television debut!

Sounds good!  We always like to hear about bed bugs on television.

Friend to Bedbugger Dr. Lou Sorkin is a forensic entomologist who has been consulted about New York City crime scenes.

Because bed bugs contain the blood of their recent hosts, they could potentially produce evidence relevant to a crime.

This episode of Law & Order could be a very interesting show!

Update (4/28): Did anyone else catch this? I was excited to see bed bugs on television, but the bedbugged aspects of the plot left me with some questions. I preface this by saying, I am not an entomologist.

The episode is called “Rock Star.” It’s about the death of two hipster musicians in an East Williamsburg loft (an open-plan one, with nooks rather than apartments, no one seems to have four walls and a closed door).

The detective played by Jeff Goldblum places his portfolio on a bed his partner earlier identified as having bed bugs — she saw one crawling around. (The loft owner’s response “I have a fumigation certificate right here!” Fumigation certificate?!? Huh?)

Later, Goldblum’s character casually bends over to collect about 5-6 bed bugs off the floor (they look like pre-adult stages) which are ostensibly just hanging out near his feet in broad daylight. And he does so without the occupant he’s chatting with noticing that he’s collecting them — and produces them later dead in a tissue.

That was easy!

From these squished samples, a forensic entomologist (who rightly declares NYC to be in the middle of a bed bug epidemic) extracts blood that’s up to two months old, and suggests that the current occupant and past occupant had the same female lover.

The problem with all this, is we’re talking about the floor of a converted sausage factory with something like 27 young tenants all sharing the larger space, with doorless rooms rather than separate units (Goldblum’s character uses the phrase “rabbit warren”).

How could you be sure that blood from two months ago, extracted from a bed bug, represented someone bitten in the same room in a high-turnover open-plan loft, where the occupants come and go and hang out on the same sofas?

And then, how would you determine they were having a relationship, as the detectives do? You can’t of course. (To be fair, it isn’t a lynchpin for the plot.) Sue could have simply been bitten when she came to give Teeter back his copy of On the Road. (Yes, I am embellishing; no actual books were spotted in the loft.)

Moreover, those did look like some awfully young bed bugs… if they were living in a loft full of hipsters, feeding regularly for two months, would they not have reached adulthood?

I hope some of our entomologist friends will weigh in on the science behind “Rock Star.”

If you missed this show on USA, you can TIVO it when it repeats at 9 am Sunday (EST). Or look for it in the schedule of repeats on the Criminal Intent site.

Update #2 (4/28/2009):

I suspected this artists’ loft was modeled on the McKibben Lofts, and it appears Curbed blogger Lockhart thought so too.

McKibben Lofts have allegedly been no stranger to the bed bug.Similar Posts:

None Found

I think the news media should cover bed bugs more, not less.

However, sometimes I am frustrated by the information readers are given.

For example, a new article from KVAL in Eugene, Oregon states,

A key place to look in your home is the edge of your mattress.

“This will be the first place you check when you peel this back,” Lamm said. “This will be loaded with eggs.” Lamm said.

Really?!?  It that always so? It wasn’t in my case, nor in many others. (”Lamm,” by the way, is Joseph Lamm from Mr. Bug Pest Control in Eugene.)

It’s not that you necessarily won’t have “loads” of eggs underneath your mattress.

But if I had a dollar for every person who flipped their mattress back to find absolutely nothing obvious — no live bed bugs, no obvious fecal stains, no bed bug eggs — well, I would be a very rich gal right now.

The danger is that –having flipped the mattress back and seen no bed bug eggs — Eugene residents may simply say, “Well, I guess I don’t have bed bugs.”

When, in fact, they certainly might.

The amount of bed bug evidence you find is going to depend on how long you have had bed bugs.  It can be a little, or a lot.

It may even be very difficult to detect, especially for someone with no experience.

And where you find this evidence may vary.  The bed is a good place to start, to be sure, but there may be other harborages.

The article is not a bad one, but contains other statements which may mislead those who do not know if they have bed bugs or not.

Take, as a second example, the title of the article, another quote from Mr. Lamm:

Well, um, maybe.

But bed bug bites can cause a variety of reactions, from nothing, to small pink bite marks, to large red welts, to scabby bites that look like scratches. Bites may be in lines, or rows, or triangles, or they may be single, isolated bite marks.

Readers may rule themselves out as not having bed bugs if they don’t see the signs this PCO is implying are the usual.

See: ‘You will actually have lines down your side like a feeding trough’ | KVAL CBS 13 – News, Weather and Sports – Eugene, OR – Eugene, Oregon | Health.Similar Posts:

• Article on Lou Sorkin’s work in forensic entomology
• Animal Planet’s “Monsters Inside Me” episode on bed bugs
• Apartment Therapy on bed bugs, bed bug sniffing dogs
• Building with bed bugs hosts polling station this week
• Steven Kells: bed bugs “could almost be considered like a disease themselves”

We look forward to hearing more about what happened in Arlington, Virginia these last two days, at the EPA National Bed Bug Summit.

This video from the Associated Press has some nice snippets from Dini Miller, Harold Harlan, and others, speaking at the conference.

Pete Grasso of the PMP blog liveblogged the bed bug summit.

Here are some tidbits from Grasso’s blog:

Tom Neltner, from the National Center for Healthy Housing said (4th update, 10 am):

“People who are the least able to afford extermination are at the highest risk for poor health outcomes as a result,” Neltner said. “This is a good time for Federal agencies to take a leadership role on this issue.”

Of Michael Potter, University of Kentucky entomologist (6th update, 10:37 am), Grasso says:

He questioned why bed bugs are not considered a public health concern, because they once were.

You know a few years back, I started the first unofficial Dr. Michael Potter fan club, don’t you?

I know you’ll want to read the rest of Pete Grasso’s account, which begins here. He also talks about the breakout brainstorming sessions here. Perhaps most exciting, the list of recommendations the brainstorming produced, which is in part three, here.

Many thanks to Pete Grasso of PMP for blogging the summit!

The popular media was going crazy the last few days, but most articles were just reprints of one from the Associated Press. Here’s the Today Show, which showed footage of Connor’s Pest in Virginia doing a thermal treatment and searching with a bed bug sniffing dog.

I am so glad this event happened, and I so wish I could have been there. (My job kept me away.)

Were you there? Tell us all about it, please!Similar Posts:

• WNYC on the EPA National Bed Bug Summit, which starts tomorrow
• 18-story Dayton apartment building infested with bed bugs to be treated with Vikane gas
• Bed bugs bite in Edmonton sleep disorder clinic
• Bed bugs — and bed bug legislation — in the news
• Room for Debate on bed bugs: a must-read!

In an article in Newsday last week, Dave Mejias (D-Farmingdale) was cited as saying bed bugs were migrating to Nassau County, Long Island from eastern Queens.

On Long Island, infestations are increasing in Nassau County, officials said. The exact number of complaints logged by the county’s Health Department was unavailable. Bedbug calls are listed in a category called “commensal pests” and aren’t separated or tracked, an agency spokesman said.

Legis. Dave Mejias (D-Farmingdale) believes the reddish, six-legged bloodsuckers are migrating from eastern Queens into Nassau, although experts have said the problem already existed on Long Island.

In the city, many complaints come from Brooklyn. However, it’s a citywide problem, said Seth Donlin, spokesman for the housing, preservation and development department. “It’s not only one part of the city that’s really seeing an increase,” he said.

(Emphasis mine.)

Bed bugs are a citywide problem.  They’re also a state-wide, region-wide and country-wide problem.

We have heard the claim made before that Queens may have been one of the places bed bugs first took root in New York City.  Entomologist Gil Bloom told the Queens Tribune in December 2006 that

“We started to notice [bed bugs] in 1999 or so. I will say that Queens is one the early epicenters. Astoria is probably one of the early epicenters in this area,” he said.

(Emphasis mine.)

Saying Astoria was one of the epicenters is not the same as saying Queens was “ground zero” for bed bugs (as the same article’s title alleged).

Saying Long Island is getting bed bugs from eastern Queens seems like a stretch: as the article notes, people in Long Island have had bed bugs for a long time.  Bed bugs are not being tracked there, so no records really exist.

I am wondering if there is some study out there that Mejia is privy to — one that tracks bed bugs as they hitchhike (march?) from Jackson Heights or Jamaica, Queens to Nassau County.

I am visualizing little bed bug ankle tags, and entomologists hunched over microscopes, reading little tiny numbers off their ankles.

(Oh, I just know I am going to get commenters telling me bed bugs do not have ankles.)

Bed bugs aren’t squirrels or monarch butterflies (sadly).  Sure, they can walk, but they don’t have to migrate by their own steam, walking or flying from county to county.

They can easily hitchhike, catching a ride on people and their possessions: from Manhattan to Old Westbury, from Orlando to Hicksville, from London to Garden City.

And in the other direction.

They can travel with you on purses and in backpacks and suitcases, even in a pocket or trouser cuff, from fine restaurants, movie theaters, ivy league colleges, hotels, resorts, and clothing stores, that clean-looking commuter train you rode home on this morning.

The key word there is you. They can hitch a ride with you, oh people who travel to and from Long Island.

They probably came to Nassau County like they came to eastern Queens, Chicago, Vancouver, Prince Edward Island; like they came to Maya Rudolph’s former loft, to Ralph Lauren’s design studio, to the most prestigious law firms in New York City, Stanford University, the finest hotels in London, the trains of Thailand and France.

They came with people.

I fear that the Nassau County Legislator is associating bed bugs with the big, dirty city.  Make no mistake: bed bugs can and will come home with you from anywhere.Similar Posts:

None Found

How could we have missed Air America Host Marc Maron’s bed bug saga?

These Breakroom Live videos are tagged on YouTube as “humor,” but Maron sounds exactly like someone with bed bugs, so I guess that part is all-too-real.

Here, he talks about the fear that bed bugs aren’t gone, and the feeling of creepy-crawliness that bedbuggers know all too well — the itchy heebie-jeebies you get when a hair or item of clothing brushes against your skin.

And then here’s Marc Maron at the Container Store, buying airtight containers, to keep bed bugs out after treatment. Sorry to say it, but that black lidded tub is so not airtight…

And here, he’s talking about sealing his floor boards to keep bed bugs from coming back.

Marc Maron, have you been on our forums?!?

Perhaps some Air America listeners could tell us if Maron has been talking about bed bugs on his radio segments as well?

I really hope his bed bugs are gone for good. And even though I know he’s letting off steam and using his life as material, I totally love that he’s helping raise people’s awareness about this problem.
Similar Posts:

None Found