Got bed bugs? Bedbugger.com » dr. louis sorkin

Bed bugs on Dr. Oz this Friday

nobugsonme — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:13:21 +0000

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

Room for Debate on bed bugs: a must-read!

nobugsonme — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 16:50:02 +0000

Today’s Room for Debate, entitled Bedbugs (Itch, Itch, Scratch, Scratch)! (hosted by the New York Times) has an excellent virtual roundtable, including posts by fabulous entomologists Lou Sorkin, Michael Potter, and Susan C. Jones.

Although Bonnie Friedman’s contribution waxes nostalgically for DDT (which isn’t going to happen, for all kinds of good reasons), we did also appreciate the presence of a former bed bug sufferer among the respondents.

As Renee said on New York vs. Bed Bugs today, the posts by Sorkin, Potter and Jones in particular would be a great resource for people anywhere trying to educate others about bed bugs.

Bookmark and share them with your skeptical, under-responsive or unresponsive landlord, health department, or legislator!Similar Posts:

Animal Planet’s “Monsters Inside Me” episode on bed bugs

nobugsonme — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 20:48:26 +0000

The Animal Planet show “Monsters Inside Me” recently featured an episode on bed bugs. Though the series title is misleading (since bed bugs do not live inside people), it is a show about human parasites.

I strongly caution you that the images linked below can be quite disturbing to someone who is experiencing, has experienced, or suspects a bed bug infestation.

The first clip provides an introduction and shows entomologist (and friend-to-Bedbugger) Dr. Louis Sorkin (of the American Museum of Natural History) feeding his bed bug colony and Lou and a bed bug sufferer talking about her bed bug infestation. The second goes into more detail on bed bug bites (with images of bed bugs feeding), and the third talks mostly about traumatic insemination (the bed bugs’ mode of reproduction, which is as nasty as it sounds). There are live and computer graphic animations of bed bugs feeding, having sex, and laying eggs.

Update (7/17):

Unfortunately, as Lou pointed out to me in an email, the digital graphic of the bed bug feeding, their narrator’s description of the feeding process, as well as the description of the mating process given by their biologist are all incorrect!

Lou points out that the announcer describes the stylet system as a syringe and straw, which is inaccurate; it is also figured only as a large proboscis.

Their biologist also “incorrectly describes the mating by referring to the male jabbing the female’s back (rather than her venter, and also not into a specific place on the abdominal venter).”

Thanks to Lou for his ceaseless efforts to learn about bed bugs and to spread good, accurate information about bed bugs, and for sharing these clips with us.Similar Posts:

New bed bug photo from Lou Sorkin

nobugsonme — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 15:27:14 +0000

Amazing new image from Lou Sorkin of the American Museum of Natural History:

Lou writes, in the photo description:

After feeding hundreds of bed bugs for around 10 minutes and watching many plump nymphs and adults crawl away from the top of the jar along the cardboard (inverted on my arm), I set the jar on the table and unscrewed the cover to see what happens to the rest of them.

They stay clumped like this for at least 10 minutes, and do not disperse even though I am not on the other side of the screen any longer. Some crawl over one another and appear to look for a better feeding position. Maybe there is a pheromone produced or maybe just a feeding frenzy behavior?

Thanks, once again, to Lou for sharing his knowledge and his amazing photos of bed bugs. And, of course, for his tireless efforts to educate the world about bed bugs, as evidenced in the comments here and here.

You can see Lou’s flickr photostream here.Similar Posts:

Law & Order to feature bed bugs tonight! (updated)

nobugsonme — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 13:58:26 +0000

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

Tuesday’s New York City Council hearing on three bed bug bills

nobugsonme — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 09:03:01 +0000

The press is starting to appear about the hearing yesterday.

Frank Lombardi in the Daily News said,

Prodded by rising complaints and pressure from some elected officials, activists and the media, the Bloomberg administration gave limited support Tuesday to launching a war on bedbugs.

Testifying at a City Council hearing, representatives of the health, housing and sanitation departments announced their support for Council legislation to establish a task force to study the city’s widening bedbug problem and recommend remedies.

Although it is true that some of the experts and departmental officials who testified rejected some or other of the bills or provisions (more on that in a later post), I am not sure how limited the support was. Among those who testified, support for the Bed Bug Task Force was unanimous, and I suspect this had a profound effect on the City Council Members.

Done properly, and quickly, and peopled with the right individuals, a bed bug task force can really make things happen.

City Room blog (NYTimes.com) quoted Gale Brewer, the City Council Member who has so long been trying to pass legislation on this issue that her City Hall peers call her “The Bed Bug Lady:”

Ms. Brewer is optimistic about the formation of a task force, though there is considerable debate over the specifics, such as the mattress legislation.

“I was glad that all the questions are all out there,” she said in an interview during the hearings. It is a multifaceted problem involving the city’s health department, public housing agencies, the Police Department (since prisons are infested), the Sanitation Department (since it involves disposal of furniture), and Department of Consumer Affairs. “You have to do it as a collaborative effort,” she said.

AMNY covered the event too, and gave a taste of what people with bed bugs go through:

Those who have lived with the pests say it often takes multiple exterminations – and sometimes thousands of dollars – to get rid of them.

“I threw away everything,” said Sirajul Laskar, 42, of Jackson Heights, who added that 22 of the 52 apartments in his building have had bed bugs. “They sprayed three times and still bedbugs.”

Overall, I had a positive impression of the event. The City Council members took the testimony very seriously, and do seem to grasp the importance of the bed bug problem — especially the wonderful Council Member Robert Jackson, who himself lived with bed bugs as a child, and who mentioned having seen bed bugs recently, in New York city, in public places.

It’s nice to have someone on the City Council with this sort of first hand experience and awareness of the problem, though of course we don’t wish bed bugs on anyone.

I also want to say how grateful I am to everyone who testified, especially Renee Corea who represented New York vs. Bed Bugs, and a second of my fellow New York vs. Bed Bugs co-founders who represented herself in testimony, entomologists Lou Sorkin and Jody Gangloff-Kauffmann (both also Advisors to New York vs. Bed Bugs), Rick Cooper and Gil Bloom, and the many citizens who had battled bed bugs themselves and testified about their experiences. The witnesses did a wonderful job of conveying the problems of bed bugs, which are complex indeed.

I am also grateful to everyone who showed up to support the speakers and the cause.

I will be posting more of my impressions and notes later today…

Similar Posts:

None Found

Lou Sorkin, “The man who lets the bed bugs bite”

nobugsonme — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 01:14:02 +0000

The New York Times had a slightly more personal story on our friend Dr. Louis Sorkin yesterday, “The man who lets the bed bugs bite.”

In it, Lou talks about how people have always brought bugs to him at the American Museum of Natural History, asking for identifications. And ten years ago, they started bringing bed bugs.

Around 1989, someone brought in our first bed bug. Most entomologists had never seen a live infestation before. Now, infestations may be approaching the levels of 50 years ago, before DDT was used.

Some of the chemicals used now appear to have similarities to DDT, but bed bugs have developed ways of bypassing the toxicity. Some bugs were recently collected here in New York, and a journal article reported that they were 300 times more resistant than other bed bugs to one of the common insecticides.

That’s why pest control companies do all sorts of things besides using chemicals: heating, freezing, steaming, vacuuming. The hardest part of controlling bed bugs is finding them. Most of the literature out there talks about a quarter-inch-long reddish-brown insect, but a bed bug is a millimeter long when it’s born, about the thickness of a credit card.

That lack of information about the appearance of nymphs is indeed a big problem, and Lou persistently mentions this to journalists when he talks to them. It’s a good thing he does, since news articles seem to almost always only describe the appearance, size, and color of adult bed bugs.

Lou also talks about his bed bug colonies, and how he got interested in the crawly world of entomology as a child.

Check out the rest of the article; I know you’re very glad, as I am, that we have Lou as an active voice, trying to educate the world about bed bugs.

And see my earlier post from today with amazingly detailed photos courtesy of Lou, of bed bugs harboring in a bed frame, headboard, and box springs.
Similar Posts:

Photos by Dr. Louis Sorkin: bed bugs in a wooden bed frame, head board, and box spring

nobugsonme — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 01:01:24 +0000

The following photos come from Lou Sorkin — pictures of bed bugs and eggs harboring in a bed (headboard, frame, mattress, etc.).

(All descriptions follow the photo they describe.)

Bed frame, headboard & box spring. See close up pictures [below] of headboard, side of bed frame, box spring, and canvas strap handles.

Close up on wood support behind head board. Close up of top of wooden support to reveal bed bug adults, nymphs, exuviae, feces deposited on vertical wood headboard, and accumulation of dust.

Close up of headboard groove. Bed bug nymphs, shed skins, feces near to and in the groove.

Groove in bed frame side panel. Machine cut in bed frame bed bugs infested. Shed skins on surface and bugs in groove.

Bed frame with horizontal slat. See close ups [below] of slat and close up of area under this slat. Also bugs can be seen in another picture [above] of a machine cut in wood frame.

Close up area on bed frame under slat. Horizontal slat removed from bed frame to reveal bed bug refugia including adults, nymphs, eggs (some unhatched), exuviae, and feces.

Bed frame edge of horizontal slat. Bed bug feces, shed skins, eggs (some entire, some hatched) on underneath side of slat.

At head, old box spring turned over. See bed bugs, nymphs, eggs, feces.

Old box spring canvas strap 1. Canvas strap is folded down to expose refugia of bed bugs. Note bed bug adults (also squished one), nymphs, eggs, feces.

Old box spring canvas strap 2, lower. Another canvas strap that has been folded up out of the way to expose bugs, exuviae, feces, eggs on box spring covering.

Old box spring canvas strap 2, upper. Another canvas strap that has been folded up out of the way to expose bugs, exuviae, feces, eggs, on strap.

To see more of Lou’s photos, or to see these photos in a larger size, go to Lou’s flickr photostream.
Similar Posts:

New York Daily News: NYC bed bug complaints up 34% in one year

nobugsonme — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 18:50:29 +0000

The New York Daily News has a good article today on the 34% increase in bed bug complaints in the last fiscal year, compared with the previous one.

The data for this came from the amazing Renee Corea, who filed a Freedom of Information Act request on behalf of New York vs. Bed Bugs.

Adam Linsberg reports,

“There are lots and lots of people who are having a devastating experience with bedbugs,” said Renee Corea, who helped start the coalition New York vs. Bed Bugs after being bitten. “We are already regarded as the most highly infested city in the United States.”

New Yorkers called 311 with 9,213 bedbug complaints in the last fiscal year, up 33.7% from the year before, according to records that Corea’s group obtained through a Freedom of Information request.

That probably understates the problem, Corea said, because uncounted numbers of New Yorkers call exterminators instead of phoning 311.

Thanks to Renee for communicating this crucial fact — one we bedbuggers know too well, but one which the powers that be — and the media — almost always overlook.

The article also mentions the crucial bed bug hearing next Tuesday at City Hall (1 pm, 2/24). Our good friend Lou Sorkin of the American Museum of Natural History is also quoted,

“If you look at other cities, their local governments have taken a big step to try to educate people and deal with the problem.”

Yes indeed.

Other important information conveyed in the article:

The city Health Department doesn’t consider bedbugs a health issue, but at least three other city agencies track bedbug infestations separately in Housing Authority projects and school buildings.

Not all exterminators know how to spot and treat bedbugs, and critics say the city doesn’t do enough to stop infected mattresses from being reused. Some victims may be too embarrassed to seek help, and some small landlords may not be able to afford a competent exterminator, advocates say.

It would seem obvious that the city needs a more unified fight against the red menace, and that the current advice the city gives — when it is heavily prodded — to tell your landlord, to call 311: these are not always sufficient.

Want to know what happens when entire buildings become infested and landlords react after the fact by continually treating the entire building for bed bugs?

This happens. Here’s a bed bug registry complaint about a building on Lawrence Avenue East in Toronto, but it could be anywhere bed bugs were allowed to take over a building.

The Landlord here has told me that she is battling bed bugs on EVERY SINGLE FLOOR.

Every Monday the pest control guy comes and makes his rounds to spray for bed bugs.(For people that have prepared their unit, and are on ‘the list’ to be sprayed)

I’ve had my unit sprayed so so many times this past 12 months, and I still have bed bugs!

As if the idea of people living indefinitely with bed bugs is not enough, the poster goes on to claim a man in the building killed himself due to the ongoing infestation.

This report (brought to my attention by Death2BBs in the Bedbugger forums) was from a building in Toronto, but it could have been anywhere.

Thanks to Renee and Lou for getting the important facts about bed bugs out there, to Adam Linsberg for the excellent story, and to Roy Edroso in the Village Voice blog Running Scared for spreading the word.

And check out New York vs. Bed Bugs for details on how to testify in person at next week’s City Council Hearing (and on how to testify in writing if you cannot be present).

Update 2/17:

More from ABC 7 online, New York 1 andStaten Island Live (quite a turn-around for bed bug news in Staten Island.)

And then there’s WCBSTV.com, which says we got a bed bug task force in New York City in January 2008…

Update 2/28:

NBC News and The Staten Island Advance, the NYPress blog and Gothamist.Similar Posts:

Lou Sorkin and Bill Schutt: feeding Lou’s bed bug colony

nobugsonme — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 23:06:32 +0000

An excellent youtube video from Bill Schutt (the author of Dark Banquet) featuring Lou Sorkin feeding his “pets.” We’re big fans of Lou Sorkin, and we can’t thank him (and all the other entomologists who do this) enough for enduring bed bug bites in the sake of research.

As Lou quips, “Without me, what are they gonna do?”
Indeed!

This is Bill Schutt’s book, Dark Banquet:

New paperback out 10/2009:

Many thanks to Lou and Bill Schutt for the informative video below!

Similar Posts: