She wants the health department to investigate whether they’re a health hazard:

Toronto Councillor Paula Fletcher (Ward 30, Toronto-Danforth) has received so many calls from constituents she’s asked the health department to declare them a health hazard. Last month, Fletcher met with Toronto’s Medical Officer of Health. It was decided the Board of Health would issue a report in February on what should be done about bedbugs in the city and whether they should be declared a health hazard.

Here’s a hint, Toronto: stress, anxiety, loss of sleep, are all health issues. You need look no further. Something more sinister is clearly a possibility, but these other concerns are not to be taken lightly.

Next, Fletcher wants people to talk about how to get rid of bed bugs, and prevent their spread:

In the meantime, says Fletcher, “We will have a bedbug summit with all the people who are interested in and involved in this issue.” Fletcher is advocating the city address the problem with education, not enforcement.

“Some people said they were living beside a house and the bugs were travelling from the house or apartment next door,” she said. “I’d like to see a focus on what needs to change in terms of behaviours; what do you need to do to stop bringing them in and what do you need to do to get rid of the bedbugs.”

This is all familiar ground for us.

Fletcher seems a bit distracted by the idea that bed bugs primarily affect a certain region of Toronto:

The bedbug problem seems to be concentrated in areas south of Bloor Street, says Fletcher.

“They might be north of Bloor, but the infestations and pockets are definitely south of Bloor. Right now tracking them is not a requirement but that’s one thing we’re looking at is how are we going to track and where are we finding them?”

While they may be more common in certain neighborhoods (and certainly spread more easily to those next door than to those across town), they will spread anywhere, and are certainly moving in all directions. And not just from neighbor to neighbor, but to workplaces, co-workers, people who frequent the same gyms, doctors, schools, and shops. Public transportation is likely to be affected. (David Cain tells stories of encountering this situation in London.)
Fletcher mentions the concern of people bringing in used furniture, and getting them to not do so is a public education issue. But her ideas about eradication methods are quite progressive:

“Sometimes people are bringing bedbugs into a whole building inadvertently and they are travelling unit-to-unit. I’d like to see a model where there are teams of people who go into a building to assist and not simply spraying, but cleaning, washing, getting rid of them and then when the spraying happens, you have a better chance to eradicate them.”

The article also quotes PCO and bed bug dog handler Michael Goldman of Purity Pest Control, who claims that “most hotels” have bed bugs, at least in one room. This is a far cry from the claims made by other companies.

The article also concerns itself with the need for notification of other tenants when bed bugs are found in a building.

Unlike schools that send home letters when lice are found in a school, superintendents rarely post a notice saying bedbugs were a problem in a unit, says Fletcher.

Finally, there’s a nod to Vancouver, which has some of the more progressive bed bug-fighting protocols in place (though we rarely get details of them).

Vancouver has launched one of the best pilot projects in its downtown east side as the city prepares for the 2010 Winter Olympics. “They’re vigorously trying to figure out what to do with bedbugs and they have a program set up but it’s very labour-intensive.”

The Vancouver pilot included tenant and landlord education, public education workshops, pest control and development of a health and safety protocol.

I hope politicians in New York City and other US cities with bed bugs (from Boston to Cincinnati) will take note, and that they’ll trade notes with their counterparts in other cities, from San Francisco to Toronto and Vancouver.

The number one complaint I’ve heard now from professionals (entomologists and PCOs) in several cities is that their local politicians will not listen to those with bed bug experience. This is a grave mistake.

Though it is not explicitly mentioned here, it’s clear Paula Fletcher is listening.

However, there was one small problem. This:

“The chemical approach isn’t necessarily the only way or best way to go. It’s one piece of a bigger puzzle,” says Fletcher, who would like the city to help people control bedbugs. “What people have to learn is that to control bedbugs they must become good at cleaning their bedding. People have to be taught how to do that.”

People do not get bed bugs, nor do bed bugs persist, because people do not know how to clean their bedding.

Reminds me of  when the chief medical health officer in Vancouver, John Blatherwick, implied bed bugs were spreading in Vancouver due to hanky panky in downtown eastside hotels.  Doing or not doing “naughty things” had no bearing on the spread of bed bugs.  What is it with politicians and their weird ideas?

Read the rest of the article here.

• bed bug news for 2007-11-16
• Reg Ayre of Toronto Public Health: bed bugs a “health concern,” not a “health hazard”
• Toronto Board of Health gearing up to fight bed bugs
• Toronto Bed Bug Project Update coming Monday, forecast looking good

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But this is also a complicated story: George Bibik, owner of the 30-unit building, was advised to evict the woman by the health department.

He did evict the woman. He did so on the advice of the health department which, acting on a complaint from other tenants, found her one-bedroom apartment infested with bedbugs. Officials ordered the apartment sealed, the contents destroyed and the entire block fumigated.

The problem, Bibik said, is that the woman has a mental illness that causes her to “dumpster dive” — that is to scour trash bins for anything of interest — and to stockpile her findings in her home.

After she received her eviction notice, Bibik said, the woman removed scores of boxes from the apartment. It still took him 13 trips to the dump to clean out the 600-square-foot, one-bedroom suite.

“The health inspector said it was one of the worst things she’d ever seen,” Bibik said. “Bed bugs usually only come out at night. They were crawling all over everything during the day. It was awful.”

When the floor-to-ceiling boxes were removed from the bedroom, the building’s owner discovered the walls were coated with mould. “I had to wash everything down with Javex,” Bibik said. “Now I have to paint the entire suite.”

Every unit had to be treated, at $80 a pop. The article says “fumigated,” but the price tells me it was traditional spraying. I sincerely hope Bibik understands this must be repeated several more times at two-week intervals. Ideally, all adjacent units would be inspected–anyone with a known infestation has to do more than just get sprayed, they need to deal with clothing and possessions properly.

Despite all this, Bibik, rightly in my opinion, does not blame the tenant. As Reynolds says:

He’s angry too, but not with his former tenant.

He’s angry that the social services system does such a poor job of helping people with mental illness to find safe housing where they’ll be looked after.

He’s angry there was no one making sure the woman wasn’t in trouble.

“I can only go into an apartment so often,” he said, “and I can only go in if the tenant has a problem. Why isn’t there someone taking care of her? She’s ill. Her social worker knows she’s ill. We have to have housing in this city where people get proper care.”

This is the second time Bibik has had a tenant with a noticeable mental illness, one that led to compulsive behaviour. That time, he spent ages on the phone trying to find help for the woman.

I have no doubts that this is a common problem. While bed bugs do not develop simply because you have a cluttered home, activities like dumpster diving (and bringing in used furniture or other items from the curb) can introduce the problem. Hoarding behaviors in and of themselves may mask a bed bug problem, or may prevent the tenant from seeking help, if they are concerned about others seeing their posessions.

There are multiple victims here: the mentally-ill person whose behavior is introducing or harboring bed bugs, the neighbors who may become infested, the landlord who has to pay to deal with it. It is a complex situation, to be sure. The one thing we can be sure of is that if such conditions are allowed to continue, those bed bugs will spread throughout the building.

Simply evicting such a tenant is not enough–social service agencies must step in. Or those bed bugs are simply going to travel to a new location with this tenant, infesting another motel, homeless shelter, apartment building.

And I want to be really clear here–we’ve heard other cases of tenants being evicted by landlords simply because they were the first to notice or to report bed bugs in the building. That is a completely different situation. Landlords who engage in that kind of retaliation don’t understand the problem, and aren’t likely to eradicate it from their buildings until they do.

It’s also really important to note that you can have engaged in dumpster diving in the past, or be a hoarder, or have a clutter problem, and not be the source of your building’s bed bugs. There is no definite relationship there. We have to reserve a nugget of skepticism whenever someone declares one unit to be “the epicenter” of a building’s bed bugs. In this case, it does sound like the unit was particularly bad, however.

You can read the article here.

• Bedbug evictions: Edmonton tenants evicted because they did not prepare for spraying
• Bed bug notice: East Village, NYC, January 2008
• Nashua, NH Health Officers on prowl for bed bugs
• Disabled NJ man who reported bed bugs is evicted for not doing prep & (allegedly) not reporting bed bugs promptly

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And a special shout out to mangycur whose bed bugs unfortunately popped out on the 53rd day after they were last sighted, reminding us of the “55-day rule.” (If you remember, 55 days is the period of time Rich Cooper suggests you need to be free of bites and bug sightings in order to consider yourself bed bug-free; the relevant article is no longer online, but we quoted it here).

mangycur wrote om the forums:

I have had 53 days with no signs of bugs, no bites, no nothing. I am very allergic to their bites so I felt confident that if there were any around, I would know. Last night at a party, I actually told my best friend, “They’re gone. It’s over. If there were any left I would know.”

I started leaving my purse and shoes out, and tossing my coat on a table. I was ready to move on.

Last night a full grown, unfed bed bug crawled out of my couch. Merry F*cking Christmas! LOL

It actually suggests 55 days may not suffice–I note with some horror that mangycur does react to bites. Or did in the past, anyway. What if it took three or ten or twenty days more to see that bed bug?

mangycur’s story comes only the next day after a reader asked how a non-allergic person can be sure bed bugs are gone.

mangycur, May your New Year be better than this one.

Although we celebrate Thanksgiving in November here in the US, I feel every holiday is a time to give thanks. And I’m truly thankful for all of you.

• Let’s get into that holiday spirit
• Tales of bed bug woe: Allergicgirl’s questions
• Bed Bugs and Christmas
• Ventura County motel closure makes many families homeless at Christmas

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And all over Craigslist.

Craigslist reader BOB warned fellow Craigslisters (namely residents of Oakville and the Waterbury area) to beware:

re oakville

Reply to: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@craigslist.org
Date: 2007-12-20, 11:07PM EST

Watch out for bed bugs. THey are spreading fast. They are all over waterbury and the reactions are too slow. Check out http://www.bedbugger.com Don’t pick up stray furniture or people. It spreads fast takes up to a year before people realize they have a problem then if they are a tenant it takes another 2 months to start treatments then people throw thier furniture on the street. ITs a spreading nightmare and of course nobody is talking but the exterminators are making a fortune. WHy because they are impossible to get rid of. THey crawl in holes. survive or even if they get them all you probably infected someone familiar to you who reinfects you. Oh and how many family things have you gone too when they take you jacket and throw it on a bed…with everone elses Merry christmas from waterbury….and happy itching f—ing new year….BOB

it’s NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

PostingID: 515776675

I cleaned up a word. You can see the glorious original by clicking on the screenshot above (then choose “All Sizes” and then “Large”). The original was here and may still be.

We don’t know BOB, but we know why he’s angry.

• Bed Bugs and Christmas
• Merry Christmas; gratitude; the blasted 55-day rule
• If this couch could talk…
• only in Greenpoint: m. with bed bugs, 4 w. with “herpes”

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Still, I was skeptical (you can’t believe everything you read, especially on the internets, etc.), but then Claudia followed up with the comment on my post, with:

That’s what my producer friend there says. I believe him.

And, Dear Reader, at that point I believed her.

But we heard no more news of bed bugs at Fox News (NYC) until today, when this came down the pipeline. Another “rumor” passed on by another person working in the media, this time Chris Ariens at The Huffington Post, who wrote yesterday:

TVNewser has learned that a small area of the Fox News Channel newsroom has evidence of insects believed to be bed bugs. What is not known is how the insects got into the basement-level newsroom of the News Corp. headquarters. Most likely, an employee or guest unknowingly transported the poppy seed-sized bugs on their clothing, which then made their way into the fabric or carpeting.

Or, possibly even more likely: since another part of what I assume is the same building was allegedly battling bed bugs a year ago, they were not entirely eradicated and have come back. They can spread from one part of a building to another, as may have happened at Cadwalader’s office building.

Since this kind of resurgence happens all the time with individuals in their homes, even when people go to extreme lengths to avoid it, I do not doubt it can happen in an office, where it’s less likely items will have been quarantined and searched as carefully as can be.

Or maybe the “source(s)” of the bed bugs keep coming back and reinfesting the place.

Hint to FoxNews: if “a small area” has evidence of bed bugs, a larger area may indeed be affected. I’d keep looking.

Update 11/19:

This is the original TVNewser post. It says an exterminator was brought in late last week and “those who sit near there have been alerted to take precautionary measures including sending their clothes to the dry cleaner.” Hmmmm.

• Fox NY claims it became infested with bed bugs “a few weeks ago”; tipster tells Gawker they fired employee who brought them in
• Fox employee suing building management, maintenance over bed bug bites
• Bed bugs at Hawai’i’s Halawa Correctional Facility
• Case study: bed bugs survived dry cleaning… and resurfaced 6 months later (update)

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Liberty Pest Control, one of the larger local firms — with sales of $4 million and a full-time staff of 56 – gets 25% of its revenues from battling bedbugs. That is up from literally nothing three years ago.

Those gains are not driven just by fate. Liberty has aggressively seized its opportunity. In March, Liberty launched an online ad campaign. The company is currently spending $16,000 a month on bedbug ads, up from no expenditures as recently as a year ago.

Other exterminators are starting to follow suit. Brooklyn’s Absolute Death, a two-man firm with only $100,000 in revenues, is spending $5,000 a month on advertising. Bedbugs now account for 20% of its revenues.

Think about that: Absolute Death makes $100K in revenues, and they’re committing $60K a year to advertising. They’re expecting huge growth. It’s frightening, but not surprising to us Bedbuggers.

Many PCOs in NYC are seeing so much business from bed bugs, in fact, that they can’t always keep up:

Standard pest management in Queens, for example, has had to turn away some desperate bedbug customers as it struggles to keep up with the burgeoning demand from longtime clients. Broadway Exterminating in Manhattan temporarily yanked some of its online advertising this summer after seeing a 50% increase in calls between July and August.

Those are two large PCOs, from what I understand. I applaud these companies for knowing what volume of business they could handle. I have heard a few stories about poor service from PCOs with good reputations, and I have to think that sometimes steep growth in a short period of time (which, let’s face it, all PCOs who treat bed bugs must be facing no matter their size) can lead to quality control problems. Think about it: new hires may not be as carefully chosen or carefully trained in periods of booming business. I expect most reputable firms take care of their reputations, but some mistakes will be made. So when I hear the above firms decided to halt their growth, I am glad to hear it. PCOs who do a good job of fighting bed bugs should grow and those who don’t should not treat them! But good service providers know their limits.

The article states that the profit margin on bed bug extermination is 50%, that treating a 1-BR apt. costs on average $275 to $800, and that companies are starting to insure themselves against lawsuits, because they’re often guaranteeing work that is hard to guarantee.

I would venture that the profit margin on a thorough bed bug treatment is probably 50%; PCOs who do a cursory job, and we have heard of some, are the ones who are really making a killing, and probably killing too few bed bugs in the process.

The article said that due to the tenacity of the bed bugs, which usually do not respond to one treatment,

. . . some companies are changing their [guarantee] policies to adapt to the bugs. Standard Pest Management, for example, recently decided to treat all bedbug-infested apartments twice. Other companies now insist on three treatments.

I am glad that PCOs are learning that “once is enough” doesn’t necessarily work for bed bugs, and I hope they’re also learning how long to leave between those two visits (I’d venture 10-14 days). When PCOs have such an automatic policy on second visits, customers have a better idea what to expect.

When they don’t have such a policy, we often hear from Bedbuggers who think their PCO did a bad job, because they’re being bitten within 10 days of the first treatment. But you will be bitten– some bugs take a little time to die. Depending on the methods used, the bed bugs may have to be attracted to you (the bait) in order to walk through the poison; some may well bite during this time, but they will die. Eggs will hatch within 10-14 days, hence the need for a follow-up. In any case, you should be bitten less after treatment. And you should call your PCO to ask questions if you aren’t sure.

Crain’s bottom line:

“Most bugs don’t stand a chance against exterminators,” says Gene Miller, operating officer at Broadway Exterminating. “Bedbugs stand a chance.”

Now I am waiting for Crain’s to report on how hotels are taking the threat of bed bugs and lost revenue seriously, and what they’re going to do.

Note: If you’re new, read the FAQs — especially the one about how to choose a PCO, and the one that asks “Should I do my own pest control?”

• Chicago: time to take action on bed bugs
• Another top NYC lawfirm gets bed bugs
• How bad are bed bugs in Toronto? Nobody knows for sure.
• How accurate are human bed bug inspectors, k9s?

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First, we’re glad you commented. We encourage all our readers to click on the word “Comments” above any post and write back to us. It’s a small little link, but we have a free blog and we can’t fix that at this time.

Buggles commented:
Thank you for putting this resource together. Unfortunately, much of the literature on the Web is contradictory– bedbug size, color, habitats, etc. Even worse, some information simply doesn’t exist. Hence, my questions:

1. Clothing: The one aspect of this problem about which everyone seems to agree is that treatment begins with washing and bagging clothes (though I fail to see how you can seal a garbage bag vis-a-vis a tiny insect).

You can seal bags. The key is the seal must be airtight: if you squeeze the bag, can the air escape, or does it just make a balloon shape? The latter is your aim.

XL and XXL ziplocs are easily vacuum sealed (with the zipper you know from your freezer bags). They’re expensive but recloseable and there’s no doubt whether you sealed them correctly (though it is easy to make a mistake and you will have to ensure you always seal thoroughly).

Garbage bags are trickier. I twist the ends into one long rope and knot it in one motion. This makes a bag that air can’t escape from. Bed bugs are small, but not smaller than air!

Deblynn believes in contractor ties (cable ties) from Home Depot which, I note, do produce a pretty tight seal.

The normal twist ties on garbage bags and the garbage bags whose ends tie together are not going to produce a tight seal. Do not rely on them.

Here’s some music from AceNoFace for “putting it all in bags” to.

But no one has addressed what exactly happens if bedbugs do find their way into your clothes and you put them on and go to work — especially the nymphs that are probably too small to see on the clothing (and possibly your skin if you’re a guy). Can you feel them crawling and biting? Are they truly nocturnal?

Bed bugs are mostly nocturnal, but will bite in the daytime. Some of us believe those hungry kids and teenagers (nymphs) are especially uunlikely to pay attention to the time of day or darkness factor.

If they’re on your clothes, they may crawl off and onto your carseat, subway seat, another person, office chair, and so on. They can spread to any other location outside your home by simply walking away if one of the following is true: (a) you have a pregnant female, or (b) you have a male and female of any age.

You may or may not see or feel them even if they are biting you (sometimes bites are felt much later; sometimes not at all). Bed bugs can spread to others without being noticed. And preventing this doesn’t just help others. It helps you. Because when you finally get rid of the little monsters at home, you don’t want to find out they’ve followed you home again from work, the diner, or your car. You don’t want to give them to your lover, your elderly parent, or your friends. If you do, they will come right back to you, over and over again. And your co-workers, boss, friends, and family will be mad, and it can really mess up your life even more than a simple infestation.

2. Discovery: Has anyone tried using time-lapse photography to determine if a problem exists? Will it work or are they too small to be picked up by the camera (you’ll need a body-length shot since they can bite anywhere).

Interesting idea! There is footage online of people being bitten by adult bed bugs in bed. I am afraid I can’t remember which video online that I saw it in (some newsclip; maybe someone else will remember it). I am not sure time-lapse photography was used, or if they simply ran video and played it back.

3. Bedlam: Some people are touting this new pesticide. Does it work?

According to Pest Control Technology magazine online, Bedlam has a quick knockdown and up to 5 weeks of residual killing (the residual action is what you need).  I have not used it and can’t confirm its efficacy.We’re still working on the pesticide FAQs but if you can’t wait, come to the Bedbugger Group on Yahoo, where you can get lots of free and good advice from fellow sufferers, people who have experience in pest control, and even an entomologist or two.

Thank you.

You’re welcome! We at Bedbugger are just like you (though perhaps we get a bit less sleep!)

We’re sharing the knowledge we picked up on bedbugs because we are dealing with all this, and learning the hard way how to do it. And because we did not find a site like this when we first met evil, nasty little Mr. Cimex Lectularius.

PS: I was also going to ask about buying new clothing, but you answered that today. Here’s a related tip — at Bloomingdale’s you can tell which clothes have been returned – look for the small return bar code sticker on the original tag.

I hate to say it, but while this seems at first to be a useful tip, think about the fact that even if the shirt you bought was not a return, the item next to it, or ten feet away from it, could have been. Bed bugs can walk 20 feet to get a blood meal. They will not stay on an item forever, but can move around, laying eggs everywhere they go (including the seams of a jacket or the sole of a shoe). Stores get infested just like homes and workplaces, and anything in the place can be infested. Just to be clear, I am not saying Bloomie’s is one of them, but it can happen anywhere.

• FAQ: how do I deal with clothing during treatment for bed bugs (and for a while later)?
• FAQ: How do I prepare for pest control treatment? Should I put everything in bags?
• Queries from Bed Bug Helloise: hanging clothes storage?
• FAQ: dry cleaners and bed bugs

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