Blogger 5chw4r7z in Cincinnati snapped this photo of a sign hawking coffee with this come-on:

“Got Bed Bugs? Get *Pronto* / Folgers Classic Roast Coffee $1.99.”

No, the sign is not telling you to buy Folgers right away to help you stay up late at night washing, drying, and bagging. “Pronto” is a spray.

This is Pronto:

Active Ingredients: 3-Phenoxybenzyl-(1RS, 3RS, 1RS, 2 SR)-2,2-Dimethyl-3-(2-Methylprop-1-Enyl) Cyclopropane Carboxylate 0.4%; N-Octyl Bicycloheptene Dicarboxamide 1.6%.

People of Cincinnati, this spray is not going to wipe out your bed bug problems. Bed bugs are seriously difficult to treat. If they were this easy, that would be the end of the blog, and we could all buy a bottle and spray it out and call it a day. We’re here because even with experienced help, it can take weeks and months to eliminate bed bugs from your home–even a small infestation. And if you start treating it yourself, you can even make things worse.

The Cincinnati Bed Bug Remediation Commission seems to be pushing furniture removals (when, in fact, tossing your furniture is often not necessary). Are they getting word out to residents that they need professional help in fighting their bed bugs? This applies to homeowners, and renters as well. It is hard enough eliminating bed bugs from a single-family home. But if you are in a multi-unit building, your neighbors are likely infested too. Those units above, below, or on all sides of your apartment must be professionally inspected and treated if necessary. (Just because someone has not noticed bed bugs does not mean they do not have them.) In some cases, entire buildings will need treatment. Landlords or building management must be involved and they must get a professional who knows bed bugs in to deal with the problem.

And Cincinnati also advises its citizens not to hop down to the convenience store, but to get professional help for bed bugs. According to a Q&A on the Fox News website,

Q: Who do I call if I think my home or apartment has bedbugs?

A: You may choose to contact a licensed pest control to determine if you have an infestation and to provide bug control services. The Cincinnati Health Department does not conduct inspections for bed bugs, but can provide information.

Q: What number do I call for information about bed bugs?

A: Call 591-6000 and press option 1 for Health Information and option 2 for Trash Collection Information.

Notice there is no option to “Ask for help paying for treatment.” In Boston, the Allston-Brighton Community Development Corporation did provide such assistance to homeowners, with corporate grants as well as state funding. And they’re doing it again this year. I believe that bed bugs are going to continue to spread if they aren’t properly treated, and so the government must step in and provide help for those who cannot afford treatment.

If you are a landlord, or homeowner, and you are forced to forego treatment, under-treat, or self-treat because you cannot afford professional pest control services, you need to call the city’s bed bug hotline, local politicians, and local news media, and spread the word. You need to agitate until the city does more than cart away bed bug-infested furniture.

Bed bugs are not roaches or ants.
Bed bugs are not roaches or ants.
Bed bugs are not roaches or ants.

They are much harder to eradicate.

So do not walk into a convenience store. Get real help. Do your homework: start here.

• Saskatoon professional development conference apparently bedbugged
• Pray and Spray
• Bed Bug Success Stories: Collette and a professional steamer
• Spraying is just the beginning…

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Sorry– the post is gone: removed at the request of the young person who wants to forget the whole thing ever happened. Traditional steps are being taken to eradicate bed bugs, and we wish this individual well.

Sorry to delete your comments which were so well-conceived, but we were all young once– Nobugs too!

• Share your tales of Bed Bug Woe
• Disabled NJ man who reported bed bugs is evicted for not doing prep & (allegedly) not reporting bed bugs promptly
• letter from Bedbugger reader Adam Voiland
• Son of “Share your tales of Bed Bug Woe”

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• bed bug news for 2007-11-09
• bed bugs clear Port Jervis, NY Hospital’s mental health unit
• Bed bugs taking over Wales too; hospitals and bed bugs
• More bed bug research: Stephen Kells at the University of Minnesota

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Two months ago, as you may recall, loyal Bedbugger S. wrote to Maxwell to correct some misinformation in the Apartment Therapy: The Eight Step Home Cure book, which suggested something to the effect that keeping a clean home would prevent bed bugs. (I have the book, but not handy, so I can’t quote right now.) Maxwell graciously posted a long message from S. which detailed both the causes of bed bugs (i.e. you don’t get them because your home is not clean) and the total nightmare involved in getting rid of them, especially in multi-unit buildings. We appreciated Maxwell devoting a post to S.’s letter, and we also appreciated that he linked back to us.

So imagine our surprise when the following appeared on the Apartment Therapy NY blog yesterday:

Bedbugs Take Manhattan!

This is breaking news. Within one of the homes previously toured on AT (don’t even try guessing), a bedbug has been found (see above) within the past 24 hours, after more than a week of reported bites…

Apparently the news is sobering. Nighttime bites were growing within an apartment that is chic, beautiful and CLEAN. The owner has not been traveling lately. No besotted overnights with traveling salesmen had been happening (lately). The building has no other reported sightings. This bug was found by leaving the lights out all evening and then snapping them on to catch this nocturnal creature.

Pulling the bed away from the wall helped to avoid any bites last night.

The apartment is getting bombed tomorrow.

We’ll be there.

Okay, if you snap the lights on and find a bed bug, then odds are, you have a lot of bed bugs. Why? Because bed bugs feed for 3-10 minutes. You don’t feel them doing so. So the odds of turning the light on at precisely the right time are slim.

Also, moving the bed from the wall (and keeping the lights on, for that matter) will do little to help you avoid bites. (Moving the bed from the wall is good if you have protected your bed per our FAQs).

I was struck by Maxwell’s reluctance, still, to understand that clean spaces are not immune to bed bugs. Period. Yes, chic or drab, clean or dirty, zen master or pack rat, you can get bed bugs.

That said, I am glad that Maxwell posted this entry. Very glad, because people obviously are not getting this message: bed bugs do not discriminate!

I am not sure if the AT tour home was really “bombed” or not, but if so, unless the entire structure of the building was completely evacuated of all living creatures, and then tented and treated with Vikane gas by professionals, then the “bombing” probably did not work, and may well have made the problem much worse, by spreading the bed bugs.

I am also glad Maxwell promises to “be there” for treatment, since further coverage will be a good thing. I look forward to all follow-ups.

I invite AT readers to check out our FAQs, especially those in Bed Bugs 101, especially, “Think You Have Bed Bugs? Some Do’s and Don’ts.” Perhaps we should change the title to something like, “If you ever get bed bugs, this is the information you need to know in advance.”

Because once people see a bed bug, freak out, and run for the DIY bug bombs, the horse is seriously out of the gate.

Update (6/15): On Thursday, a day later, AT gave an update on “Amanda’s” situation:

The drama unfolds. Where to begin? Let’s see, Amanda (the one with the bedbugs - not her real name) informed us today that she was both grateful and worried by all the comments on the thread yesterday.

Last night she went to bed with all the lights on, fully clothed, with a sleep mask and bug repellent applied liberally (now that’s a picture we want). She received no new bites, and now she has a question for all of you…

The original pest guy quits: Your comments were excellent and she felt that it was a good point that bombing MIGHT make the problem worse. So she asked they pest guy who was coming tonight. He was so offended that she doubted his prowess, that he quit over the phone, sight unseen. Then she had to find someone else.

Amanda takes your advice: Left empty handed, Amanda took YOUR advice and called up Stern Environmental (210-319-9620) and arranged for them to come over on Tuesday. They recommend that she wash all of her clothing and fabrics first.

Second thoughts arise as the price goes up: The pest people charge $650 for their services and now she faces the prospect of spending the entire weekend washing all of her belongings, which is going to cost at least $600 (she has a lot of clothes).

Now the folks in her office are arguing that perhaps she should WAIT and SEE if there’s really another bedbug before going through with all this and paying over $1000.

So tonight, she wants to ask all of you whether she should go to bed regularly tonight and see if any new bites appear OR sleep fully protected with lights on again and go through with washing all her belongings and treating her apartment on Tuesday???

There’s even a scary “Choose Your Own Ending” poll, where readers can vote for Amanda waiting-and-seeing while sleeping un-armored, or Amanda springing for full treatment and doing all the hot wash / hot dry stuff. You know where my vote ended up. But readers are (as of this writing) split on that.

I encourage you to go to the site and read the comments, which demonstrate not only how much misinformation still abounds, but also, how much wisdom. I was really glad AT readers convinced her not to have the place “bombed” and to get someone in who knows more about bed bugs. I look forward to following the drama as it continues to unfold.Check it out.

Another update (6/15): a third bed bug post today from ATNY:+ no progress, but Amanda now thinks her neighbors who travel a lot may be the source. They’re on vacation till next week.

She has not sprung for the exterminator, but asked her landlord about the neighbors. Ding! Ding! Ding! (That’s the sound of bells going off!) She is renting, people. She does not have to pay $650 for the PCO. Her landlord does. She still does not know this. Hopefully she will see my comments clarifying that fact which I’ve now left for two days running.

We provide the FAQs, folks, but people have to read them.

• ApartmentTherapy’s fourth post on the Amanda bed bug case, since Wednesday
• Amanda at Apartmenttherapy.com, part 5
• Apartmenttherapy.com: Amanda update (#7)
• craigslist: An Open Letter to my Bedbugs

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This article in the Quad-Cities Online reported yesterday on bed bug infestations in a public housing complex in East Moline, Illinois. The reporter quotes one resident who has been battling bed bugs since fall.

“I work too. My tax dollars are going to support places like this (government run low-income housing). If people knew how disgusting this is, I’m sure they’d be upset,” said a resident of the Joseph Fulton Homes. The woman asked to remain anonymous.

Interestingly, a number of comments to the article also note that low-income folks should not have to live like that. At least one commenter (going by the name “some anonymous person”) mentions that “only the poor have to live like this.”

Well, not exactly. While it’s true that in this case, it’s a low-income residence, sadly, people of every social class and walk of life are having to deal with bed bugs. Many, many people we hear from at bedbugger.com — low-income, moderate-income and middle-class– have a problem getting their landlords to treat the problem promptly and effectively. The rich are perhaps in the best situation, since they have more possibility of moving, but this problem is not easy for anyone, and everyone who suffers from bed bugs suffers and takes a hit. And it can afflict anyone at any time.

We need better government support for fighting bed bugs, because nobody should have to suffer this problem for long (and a week is too long).

A second local public housing complex, a senior apartment building called Warren Towers, also has units with bed bug infestations, a story which was covered by the Quad-Cities Online on May 30th.

In other news, even though I have a google alert which tells me when people mention bed bugs in the news or in their blogs, I don’t usually mention non-bed-bug-blogs in our news round-ups. There are just too many people blogging their infestations on a daily basis to keep up.

But today, one caught my eye: this professional blog at LibraryJournal.com, suggests that folks are starting to talk about their bed bug infestations not just amongst their nearest and dearest, or in the workplace, but amongst colleagues they may not know well. That’s good news: talking about bed bugs means more people learn about the problem, how to spot it, and its likelihood of appearing in their lives, too.

Bravo to Heather McCormack at Library Journal, and Heather–we hope your Brooklyn bed bugs are on their way out!

Meanwhile, Lisa Hoffman’s Scripps News article on bed bugs (the one also published in the Knoxville News) continues to make the rounds of syndication, now in the Albuquerque Tribune.

Next, for anyone in Boston who does not have to work next Wednesday, the Allston Brighton Community Development Corporation is having a Bed Bug Conference.

2nd Greater Boston Bed Bug Conference: Extermination and Legislation
Wednesday, June 13, 2007, 8:30AM - 3:00PM

There is still time to register! Registraton is $25.00 and includes lunch and refreshments. (Click the link above to get to the ABCDC site and download the registration form.)

Sponsored by the Greater Boston Bedbug Task Force, this event will provide updated information about the bed bug outbreak to more than 200 exterminators, inspectors, health providers, property managers/landlords, tenants and housing advocates, as well as members of the general public.

There’s also information at the same link for local residents to apply for a grant from the ABCDC to fight bed bugs in your home. Allston Brighton residents take note! We’re big fans of the ABCDC’s bed bug-fighting attempts (some of which are mentioned here), and we’d be glad to hear about other community organizations that are trying to help people with bed bugs, or help people avoid getting bed bugs in the first place.

And finally, today some tenants in a Jamaica, Queens apartment set off a roach bomb which exploded, harming them and damaging their apartment and belongings.

Authorities say the explosion shattered the windows of Apartment 4E at 164-30 Hillside Avenue just after 12:30 p.m. Thursday.

Some residents inside the apartment were overcome, and at least two were taken to the hospital.

The force of the explosion reportedly blew pieces of the fourth-floor window onto a construction shed and the street.

Fire officials said the roach bomb explosion may have been sparked by a pilot light or a refrigerator compressor.

In case the fact that bug bombs do not work to rid your apartment of bed bugs did not dissuade you from using one, they’re also apparently potentially dangerous.
ABC 7’s photo shows what looks to be much of the apartment’s contents pushed up against the (blown-out) window.

I realize the news reports this as a roach bomb, but since there are (for good reason) no over-the-counter bed bug bombs, since we know people attempt to use bombs made for other pests to eradicate bed bugs, and since Queens is experiencing a lot of bed bug infestations, I do have to wonder if that might have been the case here.

Don’t try that at home, kids!

• craigslist: An Open Letter to my Bedbugs
• Toronto Star: Within five years, bedbugs “will be more common than mice, roaches, carpenter ants”
• Surrey, B.C. public housing infested with bed bugs
• More bad news about Denver’s bed bug-infested Halcyon House

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I feel pretty strongly about this. We just heard from Nero, an intelligent and enthusiastic Bedbugger in NYC, in the “Son of Share your tales of bed bug woe” thread, and it sounds like Nero’s planning to do the family’s pest control. I posted about this in the comments there, but I am writing a new FAQ about it because I think people need to see this.

I would not want people coming here to think that we’re encouraging anyone to do their own pest control as the primary treatment plan for bed bugs. A few people have talked about doing so here (including BuggedinBrooklyn– who is working with a company that cleans for bed bugs, but is basically the only one applying pesticides) but I don’t think I know of anyone doing so as their primary option who is not experienced with pesticides (usually from a work-related experience).

Others here have supplemented the work of a professional, and many feel this is a good idea (some PCOs like Pest Away in NYC apparently give you a bottle of something you need to spray as part of the treatment plan). One or two Bedbuggers have frankly had to supplement the work of professionals who did not know what they were doing. You might say “get another PCO.” Well, yeah! But tenants are often at the mercy of landlord’s PCO choices. One person here lives near Yellowstone Park and none of the PCOs there apparently have seen a bed bug, and did not know anything about them. But these are exceptions, not the rule.

Everyone here should start with a licensed PCO who can detail their extensive experience with bed bugs. If the bed bugs are not gone in two weeks, you insist the PCO comes back. (And usually they are not gone in two weeks: the eggs hatch within 10-14 days of spraying, and you are suddenly running a bed bug baby nursery!) You repeat this process every two weeks until they are gone. In most case, at least a few follow ups within a certain time frame should be included in the original price– if they’re not, try to choose someone else from the start. But don’t assume the PCO is bad f you’re itching 2 weeks after treatment; this is not unusual and is not a sign that you’ve got a bad PCO. I can’t emphasize that enough. But they should come back in 2 weeks (not longer). And things should be improving from day one.

You should also ask your experienced PCO what you should do as far as preparing for treatment and supporting it (with vacuuming or not, spraying something or not). If you are working with someone good, and until you have had 2-3 treatments and still have bed bugs, or don’t see a significant reduction in them, I’d still assume it was someone good, do what they say.

Don’t freestyle with supplmental treatment: if you hear someone else on Bedbugger is vacuuming every day, don’t jump in and do that. Why? Your PCO may be using something that needs to stay down on the ground, for example. You may be sabotaging your PCO’s work! Similarly, don’t start spraying stuff you hear others use; your PCO may be using something that counterindicates it. You may even be using something with repellent properties, for example, when your PCO is using something to kill bugs when they’re drawn towards you. It won’t work, right?

I know there are bad PCOs (as PCO Sean will remind us, more often there are bad employees at good PCOs) out there, and you will hear complaints from some Bedbuggers about same. But please do not assume you can or should do this yourself. Most of us will be much better served with a professional. And a good PCO will be thrilled you’re willing to go the extra mile of de-cluttering, washing and bagging all clothes, and other steps. They may want you to spray something between visits. But do not assume you know more than a professional– even someone who’s not a bed bug-killing star probably knows a lot and has seen a lot more than you.

If you have a really good reason to do your own pest control (see above), and do decide to take matters into your own hands, please do a ton of research, ask people a lot of questions, buy a respirator (not goggles or a face mask, but a respirator mask). Read and follow directions diligently.

But I feel quite strongly that nobody should start this way. Nero, our young friend, living in NYC, absolutely should not.

• You can harm yourself, others, and pets.
• You can spread bugs to others in your building — and then they will come back, rendering your work pointless. (Never, ever use a bug bomb to treat bed bugs!)
• You can spend a lot of money but the problem can get bigger and harder to get rid of. Meaning, in the end, you saved nothing, and are suffering much longer.
• If you’re a renter, in most places your landlord is required to pay for and obtain a PCO.

If hiring a licensed, experienced PCO is a barrier because of money, remember:

• If you’re a tenant, your landlord probably is liable to pay for a PCO. They may deny that. Find out your local laws (start with our FAQ on that, and remember to let us know if you discover your local laws on this!)
• If you own your home, or rent in some locality where you’re sure the landlord is not liable for this (and you should get this verified by a city official, not from the landlord’s mouth or a friend), then this will be expensive. Make no mistake. However, it will be more expensive if you do not get rid of it fast: you will lose more stuff. You can spread it around your home or to neighboring units (in a condo building). This will make it infinitely more expensive.
• If you’re liable to pay, you may balk at putting a $400 or more for a PCO visit (or even 3 or four of same) on a credit card you can’t afford, but trust me, if they get into all your furniture, your car, your workplace and so on, you will pay much more both financially (in PCOs and in lost objects) and emotionally. I realize I am assuming that if you have a home, you have a credit card, but in most cases this is true. If not, maybe you have a close friend or relative who can step in and help. This is akin to getting help with a health-related expense, because this can wreck your mental health, affect your job and relationships. You can even become physically ill from allergies to bites or from lack of sleep and stress.
• Cutting corners with PCOs is as dangerous as going it alone (maybe worse). If the PCO wants $60-100 a visit, especially in NYC, you should guess they are not licensed and are definitely not going to get rid of bed bugs. (We heard one case like this on the yahoo group.) Choose someone with a reputation for killing bed bugs. (If your landlord hires someone unlicensed to do pest control, in NYC at least, they’re breaking the law.)

As always, I welcome discussion, and dissent!

But I feel pretty strongly about this, and I definitely don’t want people to stumble in here and think we’re encouaging them to do their own pest control as a sole tactic against bed bugs. In most cases, it’s not a great idea. In some, it’s a terrible plan. Even as a supplement, know what you’re doing: make sure what you’re doing does not conflict with your PCO’s strategy.

• Reader question: if I don’t react to bites, how do I know they’re gone?
• FAQ: Think you have bed bugs? Some dos and don’ts
• Update: bed bug resources in Spanish: PCO assistance needed!
• Bed bugs in Ventura County (Thousand Oaks, California)

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