WKOW in Madison reports that the Wisconsin Department of Corrections helps newly-released prisoners get back on their feet by putting them up in motel rooms known to have bed bugs.

Some of the ex-prisoners had been to local hospitals with evidence of bed bug bites.   WKOW notes,

We found out former prisoners have been complaining about bed bugs at the Capitol Motel to the Corrections Dept. since December 2008.

Corrections Dept. spokesman John Dipko says the agency knew about the infestation in some rooms and has been working with motel staff to spray and disinfect rooms.

Unfortunately, piecemeal treatment of individual rooms, in a property with multiple infestations, doesn’t work well.  As WKOW notes,

It’s kind of like a game of musical chairs.

“We’ve moved offenders out of the rooms where we know there are bed bugs,” said Dipko. “There are additional inspections occurring.”

The state’s health department has also inspected the motel. Its inspector found bed bugs — alive.

Dipko says the Corrections Dept. is still paying for former prisoners to stay at the motel and has no plans to cancel its relationship with Capitol Motel.

Bed bugs can happen anywhere.  The key is that once they’re discovered, management must take drastic steps to deal with the problem.

I have a hard time believing that — as paying customers — the Corrections Dept. cannot do more than shift former prisoners from one room to another in a motel that is not getting sufficient treatment for bed bugs.

In cases like this, entire properties often must be treated.

Note to bedbuggers: this story broke after some of the former prisoners’ relatives visited the WKOW television studio with a bag of bed bugs collected in the Capitol Motel.

If you’re having trouble getting your bed bug story heard, that’s one way to get journalists’ attention.

See WKOW’s  Call for Action: Bed Bugs at Madison motel for the rest of the story.Similar Posts:

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• 160-unit Richmond, California complex evacuated for tent fumigation of bed bugs

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:

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• Animal Planet’s “Monsters Inside Me” episode on bed bugs
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• Building with bed bugs hosts polling station this week
• Steven Kells: bed bugs “could almost be considered like a disease themselves”

You might see evidence of bed bugs which looks like this, when searching a hotel room.

Bed bug fecal traces on a headboard and mattress:

Photo credit for all three photos goes to David James of Packtite.
Thanks, David, for sharing them! (Copyright All Rights Reserved by David James.)Similar Posts:

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