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Bed bugs infest multiple areas of New York’s John Jay College (CUNY)

nobugsonme — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 06:55:09 +0000

Colleges are bracing themselves for H1N1 this fall, but students and staff should remember that bed bugs are always a problem in colleges. Yes, even in commuter colleges with no student housing!

CBS2 in New York reports that students at the City University of New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice found out in an email Wednesday night that the first floor of the college’s North Hall has been infested with bed bugs:

The word came in a mass e-mail identifying several offices, including admissions, financial aid, health, student government, the registrar and a conference room as among those that have — not an infestation — but rather in the words of the email, a bed bug condition.

Unfortunately, having a “bed bug condition” in at least five offices and a conference room does indeed amount to a bed bug infestation.

Bed bug treatment is going to be carried out on Saturday to avoid disrupting classes.

Some students in the CBS report claimed to have been bitten already; of course, in New York, bed bugs are now so commonplace that this might also happen on a bus, in a subway seat, in a cafe or someone’s home.

We can only hope students, staff and faculty at John Jay are also getting a briefing on how to detect, identify — and respond to — bed bug infestations at home.

Watch the video and see the story: John Jay College Overrun By Bed Bugs – wcbstv.com.

Update (9/24):

As Buggedinsomerville notes in the comments below, The New York Times City Room blog now has a story on this.

City Room reports that North Hall has been closed until Tuesday for treatment, and there’s a Q&A with the college president and a pest firm in the College Theater at 2 today.

In it, Jim Grossman, a John Jay spokesman, explains the whole “bed bug condition” thing:

John Jay is calling it a bedbug “condition.” Mr. Grossman said, “Infestation is when you can see them swarming.”

[Emphasis mine.]

Oh dear!

This is terribly inaccurate and just shows an ignorance of how bed bugs act normally — they hide and they do so very well.

If you can see bed bugs swarming, you have an extremely serious bed bug infestation.

This level of infestation is very rare, though we’ve heard of a few cases.

It’s possible to have a considerable bed bug infestation and see few, if any, bed bugs.

City Room says that

Bedbugs were found on the first three floors of the four-story building, though they were concentrated mainly on the first.

[Emphasis mine.]

Three quarters of the building? That, my friends, sounds like a sizeable bed bug infestation.

Update #2 (9/24):

Don’t look now, John Jay PR folks, but NBC called this a “bed bug infestation” no less than five times in this article alone.

The New York Times did not dip into that pesky conundrum.

And Running Scared (Village Voice) blogger Chez Pazienza had a bit of fun:

We don’t need to tell you that the past few years has seen near-epidemic bedbug “conditions” in New York City…

Yes, indeed.

By any other name, a bed bug problem smells just as nasty.*

In deference to our friend Winston, I will surrender the “i” word for now.

Here’s the thing, though: you have bed bugs (plural) in multiple offices and 3/4 floors of a building?

You have a bed bug problem. A serious one.

One which appears to have been going on since at least mid-August, according to the New York Times.

(I’m not discounting the importance of getting rid of even one single male bed bug, honestly, but am trying

And remember: there’s no shame in having a bed bug problem. What matters is how swiftly, carefully, and fully you respond to it.

———————–

*Yes: bed bug infestations can smell, but no: most people don’t report noticing this most of the time. Just taking a bit of poetic license.Similar Posts:

Newport News motel with bed bugs story shows need for greater awareness about bed bugs among police, reporters

nobugsonme — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 14:04:15 +0000

Residents and an employee of he Midtown Motel in Newport News, Virginia claim the motel has bed bugs in a story from News 10 by Mary Kay Mallonee.

It’s a typical “bed bugs in motel” expose, with motel guests complaining of and displaying what they say are bed bug bites, and the maintenance man describing bed bugs crawling on mattresses. (They also complain about missing smoke detectors, black mold in rooms, and so on.)

However, there are two interesting things in this video:

First, police were called in as well as the news team. After investigating the rooms, police took some items away in paper bags.

Note to Newport News Police: items which may contain bed bugs (i.e. anything sampled from a room with bed bugs) should be treated carefully and carried off only in plastic bags with airtight seals (garbage bags tied with the right kind of knot, XL Ziploc bags, etc.)

We don’t want the next story out of Newport News to be about an infested police station!

Second, the reporter tells the owner, in reference to the bed bug problem, “You’ve got to change that tonight. They can’t sleep like that!”

It’s true that bed bugs do need to be addressed right away, and motel guests should probably be assisted in carefully relocating without bringing bed bugs, while the motel is treated for bed bugs.

However, viewers need to know that bed bug problems treated with conventional methods cannot be eliminated overnight.

These are small points, but important, since many news viewers will not know a lot about bed bugs, and education — spreading good information — is key.

See: Motel guests covered with bed bug bites.Similar Posts:

North Carolina shelter with bed bugs: outlook grim

nobugsonme — Sat, 23 May 2009 23:25:36 +0000

Guests of a Salvation Army shelter in Wilmington, North Carolina, are suffering from bed bug bites. And the shelter managers are having trouble getting rid of the problem.

Eleven-year-old Edwin Benitez is covered with bites. Bed bug bites from staying at the Salvation Army. They first appeared a week ago. “It feels humiliating and frightening,” said Edwin.

What an awful thing to have to deal with, on top of everything else.

The article notes that Edwin’s mother Christine Powell says staff told her they’ve been dealing with a bed bug problem for five years. However,

The Salvation Army officials said the problem started two and a half months ago. In that time, exterminators have sprayed, residents clothes have been washed, and beds sanitized. “We’re doing everything that we possibly can do. We’ve even shut down for a week so we can take out all the mattresses bought all new mattresses,” said Salvation Army’s Maj. Butch Mallard.

Mallard said $10,000 has been spent on getting rid of the bugs, but the problem is the shelter has wooden beds and the bugs live in the frames. The solution would be new metal frames, but there’s no funding.

Mallard says $12,000 is needed for new metal bed frames.

Even if frames and mattresses are replaced, it may not be enough to get rid of the bed bug problem there.

I hope that the shelter is getting good advice from knowledgeable entomologists who know bed bugs well, and good pest control treatment.

I am also concerned about the larger impact of an ongoing bed bug infestation like this. If the shelter has been battling bed bugs for five years as Powell stated, bed bugs are likely to have been spread to many other locations via guests and staff.

Guests and staff must take specific precautions to avoid spreading bed bugs elsewhere. There are links to FAQs which may be helpful here.

See the full article here: Unwelcome visitors invade Salvation Army | WWAY NewsChannel 3 | Wilmington NC News, or click here to watch the video from WWAY news.Similar Posts:

A tale of two bed bug-troubled cities: Cincinnati, Columbus

nobugsonme — Sat, 23 May 2009 05:12:56 +0000

My report about the Hillrise Apartments in Cincinnati the other day highlighted what can happen when local officials stop inspecting rental units based on bed bug complaints.

As you’ll recall, funding was cut at the end of 2008 for the Cincinnati Health Department’s bed bug inspection program.

Here’s another story with bedbugged tenants, this time in Columbus, Ohio, where the Franklin County Board of Health is able to inspect homes based on tenant complaints.

NBC4i reports that some residents of The Pointe Apartments on Harrisburg Pike, fed up with bed bug bites, have evacuated their homes for hotel rooms:

[Tenant Chris White] called officials after an exterminator hired by the property managers didn’t show up May 6.

The property manager wasn’t immediately available for comment.

Neighbors are helping each other look for bed bugs in their cushions and mattresses.

“It’s not my responsibility to do this. It’s the apartment complex. I’m helping friends out,“ he said.

Residents received a letter from the complex officials saying that exterminators would arrive on May 6, but residents said the exterminator never showed up.

Franklin County health officials went door-to-door inspecting apartments.

For the second time since last fall, health officials are issuing orders for pest control as soon as possible.

[Emphasis added.]

Obviously, if there are inspectors who can come in and issue pest control orders, this does not mean bed bugs will necessarily be eradicated quickly and fully.

However, tenants who can call upon such services stand a much better chance than those who can’t. And of course, they are able to call again, if the problem persists, as it did in this case, and the inspectors can become involved again.

Note: the Franklin County Board of Health (this is their bed bugs page) is part of the Central Ohio Bed Bug Task Force, a group that stepped up, according to this article in the Columbus Dispatch last September, when local officials started to become aware of the problem and its effects in Cincinnati.Similar Posts:

The edge of your mattress will be loaded with bed bug eggs, or not

nobugsonme — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 22:03:58 +0000

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:

If you sleep on your back, you will actually have lines down your side like a feeding trough.

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:

Bed bugs in Davenport, Iowa? Abilene, Texas? Be sure and call the Health Department…

nobugsonme — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 00:43:18 +0000

In the television news spot below from WQAD.com in the Quad Cities of Iowa and Illinois, it is noted that

Environmental Health Specialist Jackie Hall of the Scott County Health Department [where Davenport, Iowa is located] says cases of bed bugs have been very rare in the county. Their most recent report of these was in October of last year.

Because the Scott County Health Department has not had a call about bed bugs since October, 2008, and they are assuming that this means that there have been no bed bug cases in the county since then.

We suspect they are probably wrong. After all, people of Davenport, did anyone tell you, that you should notify the Scott County Health Department, should you find bed bugs in your home? I suspect they did not.

Davenport, Iowa is part of the Quad Cities of Iowa/Illinois (which actually now includes five cities: Davenport and Bettendorf, Iowa; and Moline, East Moline, and Rock Island, Illinois).

Reporters in the story below from Davenport imply that locals only need to worry about encountering bed bugs when they travel. Not so — two large local complexes — Joseph Fulton Homes East Moline, and Warren Tower in Rock Island County — suffered from publicized bed bug infestations in 2007.

So if you suffer from bed bugs in Davenport, at home or in a public place, please, call your local Health Department and let them know!

Update 4/20: According to the Reporter News Online, public health officials in Abilene, Texas also claim to not have a local bed bug problem.

Bedbugs may be biting in some parts of the country, but so far, Abilene does not seem to be plagued by the pesky little insects.

“I am not aware of any problems we are having with bedbugs in our area,” said Kay Durilla, nursing program manager for the Abilene-Taylor County Public Health District. “However, it seems it is a recurring problem along the East Coast.”

Not just the East Coast. Bed bugs are in all 50 states, according to national pest control companies.

Again, people of Abilene, TX: if you have bed bugs, be sure and let the Abilene-Taylor County Public Health District know that bed bugs are a problem in your area.

The truth is that unless Abilene is inside a sealed airtight bubble, and no people or goods are allowed in and out, there are or will soon be bed bugs in Abilene.

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Claridge Towers residents get help with their bed bugs from DC Housing Authority

nobugsonme — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 06:29:10 +0000

Claridge Towers, a DC Housing building on M Street has been treated for bed bugs off and on in the last two years, Fox News reports.

Clearly, the problem was not being entirely eliminated by the treatments done.

Part of the problem also seems to be that some tenants were self-treating because PCO treatments did not seem to be working. And not everyone was reporting their bed bug problems.

. . . Carl Payton and Tina Durrington-El said they’ve had their apartment treated before but the bugs keep coming back. So they gave up and began using over the counter products to keep the bugs at bay.

“I get frustrated and I get tired of calling back so I bought my own stuff,” Payton said.

That’s the problem. The Housing Authority says people need to call their maintenance hotline. At Claridge, officials said they had only three complaints that were being addressed until Brown turned to FOX 5. Now the building has five complaints.

Perhaps this outlines a need for the Housing Authority to search all units carefully, regardless of whether people notify them or not. It’s not just the tenants who don’t report known bed bug problems. There will always be additional tenants who are infested and do not have any idea.

Thankfully, finally, Fox News reports all 342 units are now being searched.

The building across the street, Horizon House, also has had recent bed bug problems some residents claim are persisting.

You can watch the story below. Warning, some graphic shots of bed bugs!

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Soundbites from the EPA National Bed Bug Summit

nobugsonme — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 05:58:02 +0000

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.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

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:

New York Times Health article on bed bugs: bed bugs bite

nobugsonme — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 22:06:09 +0000

Jane Brody reports in the New York Times Health section today about the spread of bed bugs, and their effects on health. Of course, she mentions the recent JAMA report, and the fact that bed bugs are not yet known to spread contagious diseases.

Brody outlines the varying effects of bed bug bites:

Most people who are bitten by bed bugs do not react. Of the 30 percent or so who do, many mistake the small, pink, itchy bumps for mosquito bites, although people may become more suspicious and more sensitive with repeated bites.

People who are highly sensitive react with intense itching that prompts scratching and can lead to infections. One Brooklyn family did not know they were sharing quarters with bed bugs until a sensitive relative visited and woke in the morning with very itchy bites.

Still others may experience more extreme reactions, including asthma, generalized hives, and even a life-threatening allergy (anaphylaxis) that requires emergency treatment with epinephrine.

But most bed bug lesions can be treated with an anti-itch product like calamine lotion or a topical or oral corticosteroid and antihistamine. If bites become infected, a topical or oral antibiotic may be needed.

Brody also mentions that a “family living in a $3 million private house in Brooklyn discarded rooms’ worth of furniture” due to bed bugs.

The percentage of people reacting to bites is often cited as being anywhere from 50-70%.

Regardless, all bitten by bed bugs are hit financially, if not physically. (And I’ve said time and again, if you are short of money, this can have a clear and definite negative impact on your health.)

And anxiety? Stress? Lack of sleep?

More or less ubiquitous among bed bug sufferers, along with the hole bed bugs bite through your wallet.

via Personal Health – Keeping Those Bed Bugs From Biting – NYTimes.com.Similar Posts:

More bed bug coverage in New York — but not enough, considering

nobugsonme — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 14:00:29 +0000

We are getting more press on bed bugs this week, presumably due to the excellent City Council Hearing held on three bed bug bills on Tuesday. I personally don’t feel I am seeing enough coverage of the event itself.

The Daily News weighed in today with “Boro with the most bedbug calls: B’klyn 42% jump in complaints to 311.”

Newsday is working the same AMNY story I posted about Tuesday.

And the New York Times has what is mostly a standard-issue article about a bed bug dog team. No offense to Bedbug Finders in Connecticut, but the Times should be dealing with the bills covered in the Hearing and the related issues in more depth, this week.

When the last hearing on Intro. 57 happened in 2006, there were news stories on NY1 and another channel, including interviews with people who testified, people who had had bed bugs, as well as Council Member Gale Brewer.

Even though Brewer held a press conference Tuesday before the Hearing, I have not personally seen any footage in the television news. Have you?

(Stay tuned for more from me on the hearing.)
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