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:

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A news story from WBNS in Columbus demonstrates why that city needs better bed bug policies.

First, consider how bed bugs spread amongst neighbors at Bollinger Towers, 750 N. High Street:

Charlotte Hyajneh-Simpson thought she was lucky when her neighbor gave her his new carpet sweeper to keep.

“I started using the sweeper and then I started feeling these bites on me,” Hyajneh-Simpson said.

She told her neighbor, John Rand, about the bites, who said that his neighbor just had his apartment exterminated for bed bugs.

“They went next door and said, ‘Oh my God,’ and they ran out of there because there were so many (bed bugs) in there,” Rand said.  “It was terrible.  When the guy moved his furniture around, you could just pick it up with your hands.”

Hyajneh-Simpson said she was bitten on her arm and leg.

Neighbors sometimes share their homes, their possessions, as well as walls.  Bed bugs can spread in any of those ways.

The Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority could help reduce this “sharing” of bed bugs.  But its current policies prevent this:

[Hyajneh-Simpson] said that she was upset the Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority never told her there was a problem, but CMHA said that it only notifies the tenants who are affected to protect their privacy.

Meanwhile, bed bugs spread.

Maybe building managers (whether they are single-building landlords, or a city housing authority) could warn other tenants about the presence of bed bugs in the building, and in attached units, without necessarily declaring which units are affected.

Or maybe we could all get past the idea that having bed bugs is shameful.  The only shame, in my mind, is not telling others that they are being exposed, and not treating infestations thoroughly and promptly.

Another article claimed Columbus apartment building owners are spending $1.5 million a year on bed bugs.

This story demonstrates how better bed bug policies could help reduce the costs of bed bugs to landlords and tenants.  The bottom line is bed bugs spread in buildings.  Neighbors need to know about the risks.  What would happen if schools did not notify parents that a child in class had head lice?   Just as parents need to be notified about head lice, neighbors need to be notified about bed bugs, a much more troublesome and costly problem, to landlords and tenants alike.Similar Posts:

None Found

Why?

Because she’s one of those entomologists who’s telling it like it is, to public officials who want to ignore the bed bug problem. The Columbus Dispatch quoted Jones Tuesday as saying,

“If you bury your head in the sand, you’re going to get bitten, and it’s just going to get worse and worse,” said Susan Jones, an entomology professor at Ohio State University.

And because she’s trying to convince public health officials that bed bugs are a health problem, something many health officials don’t seem to get:

“The question is: Is it a public-health issue or not?” Columbus Health Department spokesman Jose Rodriguez said. “Bedbugs are really looked upon as a nuisance issue.”

OSU’s Jones, however, said scabbing, secondary infections and the anxiety caused by fearing your own bed are serious health concerns.

Amen. It’s not just about the bed bug bites, for crying out loud.

Those alone are often more than a nuisance, but the loss of sleep, anxiety, and loss of money due to treatment or preparations for treatment (which can mean people do not get the food, health care, or other resources they need) can have even more serious health consequences for many.

Susan Jones is involved with the Cincinnati/Hamilton County Joint Bed Bug Task Force.

Code enforcement handles individual complaints, but Jones recommends a centralized master plan.

She suggested a task force that combines the expertise of pest-control, health, code-enforcement and housing agencies. Trends would be easier to spot with all the complaints and treatment numbers in one place, and a task force also could coordinate a publicity campaign to tell people how to stop the spread of bedbugs.

People should seal infested furniture in plastic before disposing of it; travelers ought to check hotel beds for pests; and exterminators need to know that bedbugs are harder to kill than most insects, experts said.

Jones works with a similar task force in Hamilton County. The group was launched after the Cincinnati Health Department received 737 bedbug complaints in 2007 – the same number as for mice, rats and roaches combined.

I wonder how New York City’s bed bug complaints stack up against our complaints for mice /rats / roaches?

The article’s basic focus is on how Columbus / Franklin County, Ohio need to step up their own response to bed bugs.

Well, you know what they say: admitting your city or county has a bed bug problem is the first step towards solving it.
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