Yumi Suh says she and several friends spent just over an hour at the veranda room at the Halekulani Hotel and returned home with much more than they arrived with.

But what really interested me was what Suh reports as the hotel’s insurance company’s perplexing response to her complaint.

Suh claims they did not deny there were bed bugs in the room Suh and her friends were socializing in. They simply did not define it as a bed bug “infestation.”

After discovering she brought bed bugs home,

Suh immediately informed the hotel and was eventually referred to its insurance company.

“When they called me they said although they did found bed bugs because the place was not infested yet — that they’re not liable,” she said.

What is an infestation?

Houghton Mifflin defines “to infest” as:

1. To inhabit or overrun in numbers or quantities large enough to be harmful, threatening, or obnoxious: rats infesting the sewers; streets that were infested with drugs.
2. To live as a parasite in or on: livestock that were infested with tapeworms.

Since even one bed bug can be “threatening, or obnoxious,” and even one will feed off of you, then by these definitions even a few bed bugs could be considered an infestation, in my opinion.

It stands to reason that the word might need to be defined differently whether one is talking about roaches, bed bugs, or flies.

Halekulani officials declined to comment because the case is still under investigation. But in a letter to Suh, an insurance investigator wrote:

An exterminator was called in the following day to inspect, based upon your report, who then did find a small scattering of bed bugs at only one table, to the lower section of the chair.

It went on to say:

After the treatment, several other chairs at this table were then found to have a very small amount of bugs at the lower section.

“One female can lay up to 500 eggs — and up to five a day — so you only need one to infest your whole house,” said Suh.

Several chairs each had “small scatterings” and “small amounts” of bed bugs.

Can some of our bed bug professionals tell us how they define “infestation”?

Suh allegedly brought bed bugs home from the hotel:

In the days that followed, more bites surfaced and more bedbugs.
“So when the Terminix guy came and we inspect the bed we found two of the bed bugs hiding in this corner,” said Suh. “It’s right there, there’s two of them. We’re going to I think just throw it away.”

Suh spent 600 dollars to treat one bedroom. She says as an acknowledgement for her notice the hotel made a “Good Will” offer of $250 dollars to her. The offer is a thank you and is not intended to be a claim payment. “They did not apologize for the inconveniences,” she said.

“Thank you” for taking our bed bugs?!

Bed bugs were allegedly found on the undersides of what sounds like at least three different chairs, so in my understanding, it would be hard to argue they just wandered out of a guest’s purse.

We definitely don’t have all the information here, but that sounds like an infestation to me.

• upholstered lounge chair
• scaring British children; bed bugs and renter’s insurance; bed bug reality show
• Hints from Bed Bug Helloise: a quick, cheap side table!
• Surrey, B.C. public housing infested with bed bugs

ShareThis

In a ruling of first impression, a Manhattan judge has scratched a request for punitive damages in a bedbug case.

But the judge, Acting Supreme Court Justice Judith J. Gische, let go forward the negligence claims of two Maryland tourists for bites they sustained during a two-night stay at the theater district’s Milford Plaza.

The tourists, Debra Grogan and her adult daughter, Dana, are seeking $2 million in compensatory damages and an unspecified amount of punitive damages.

In rejecting their request for punitive damages, Justice Gische referred to a New York City Department of Health pamphlet in ruling that the two women had failed “to raise a triable issue of fact whether bedbugs are anything more than a nuisance.”

It’s important to understand that the plantiffs are still able to proceed with their claims for $2 million in compensatory damages for negligence. Only the request for punitive damages has been rejected.

What is interesting here is that in making this decision, the judge apparently cited the NYCDOMHH Bed Bug Fact Sheet, which asks and answers questions about bed bugs, and says:

ARE BED BUGS DANGEROUS?

Although bed bugs are a nuisance, they are not known to spread disease.

The plaintiff is suing the Milford Plaza and the Pest Control Operator with whom the Milford had a contract (PAC Extermination Services). The Grogans stayed in a room infested with bed bugs that was near two rooms treated for bed bugs less than a month earlier, but which was itself not treated:

Evidence in the case showed that three weeks before the Grogans’ stay, the hotel had asked PAC to exterminate bedbugs in two rooms near the room reserved by the Grogans. Work orders had been issued for rooms 1511 and 1512 on Dec. 22, 2002. The Grogans stayed in room 1540 from Jan. 17 to Jan. 19, 2003.

The Grogans’ argument is backed up by an entomologist’s testimony that bed bugs travel from room to room:

In support of their claims, the Grogans presented the affidavit of an expert in insects who teaches epidemiology and other courses at the University of Alabama School of Medicine.

(It’s worth noting that although bed bugs are not currently known to spread disease, they are still the subject of study by an entomologist who teaches epidemiology in a medical school.)

The entomologist, Robert J. Novak, reported that bedbugs can “easily” migrate from one room to another and that “proper eradication techniques” require inspection of “adjacent or contiguous rooms, or even rooms on several floors above and below” the floor where the pests had been spotted.

With the defendants having offered no affidavit to counter Dr. Novak’s assertions, Gische wrote, the Grogans had presented enough evidence that the hotel had “constructive notice” of the need to fumigate room 1540 to deny the defendants’ motion for summary judgment.

The case must go to trial, Gische ruled, because Novak’s affidavit “set forth genuine issues of fact about the life span of bedbugs, how they migrate and whether these factors should have been (or were) taken into consideration by the defendants in how rooms were treated following bedbug complaints by other guests.”

Even more interesting, this case may have ramifications for the ways PCOs treat for bed bugs.

PAC Extermination Services had argued that it should be released from the case because its obligations were limited to completing work in specifics rooms the hotel had asked to be fumigate.

But Gische said a jury must decide whether the exterminator’s duties were so “comprehensive and exclusive” that it had assumed a duty to keep rooms, other than those for which it received work orders, in “a reasonably safe condition.”

We often hear from PCOs who treat buildings that landlords will ask them to treat just the infested room or rooms, and will often refuse to have other adjacent units on the same or other floors inspected. I can only assume that many hotel managers will make the same request.

In such a case, it’s my understanding that PCOs have two choices: refuse the job (knowing some other PCO will be happy to do as the landlord asks), or do the job, knowing it is likely not enough. This is not an easy choice to make, by any means.

Depending on the court’s findings in this case, we may see a change in this. It may mean more PCOs refuse to treat under such circumstances, insisting instead that adjacent and nearby units are inspected and/or treated.

It could also have ramifications for the price of treatment, since it will doubtless lead to more litigation along the same lines.

• Mathias v. Accor: an oldie but goodie
• Gaston County, N.C. health officials to hotel: bed bugs not a serious violation
• FAQ: Where can I read about bed bug lawsuits? Can you help me find a lawyer?
• Virginia Beach hotel sued over alleged bed bug attack

ShareThis

Originally uploaded by crazy cat collector
This photo by crazy cat collector has the caption:

Some of the bed bug bites I got while staying at the Las Vegas Hilton.

• Reader Angie’s bed bug photos
• bed bug-infested trash on flickr
• (Bed bug) service included
• new Ohio Hilton bed bug lawsuit

ShareThis

First, an entire apartment building is being treated for bed bugs in the Fairhaven area of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan after “a couple isolated incidents” of bed bugs. This appears to be a fairly proactive move, if it is true that the incidents were isolated and few in number.

The StarPhoenix says the building is being “fumigated,” but don’t let the word fool you, since residents are only required to evacuate for 6 hours, we can assume traditional spraying is being done. This article from the StarPhoenix focuses on one couple–Richard Pain and his wife have respiratory problems and must evacuate for a week with nowhere to go.

This highlights a common problem–the hidden costs tenants face while dealing with bed bugs.

And the article also gives a sense (albeit based on anecdotal evidence) of the recent rise of bed bugs in Saskatoon:

Lesley Willfong of Poulin Pest Control in Saskatoon said the number of reported cases of bed bugs is way up from last year.

“It seems like every other call we get is for bed bugs,” said Willfong. “Before last year, it was only a couple times a week.”

The first sign of a bed bug infestation is the appearance of small brown or red spots on bed linens or a noticeable swelling or itching where someone has been bitten.

Willfong said her colleagues in Winnipeg were talking about bed-bug problems a few months before the problem escalated in Saskatoon.

Read the full story: Bed bugs biting at Fairhaven apartment complex from The StarPhoenix.

Another article from the Deseret Morning News in Utah is a basic introduction to bed bugs–but with some iffy advice.

For example, this article suggests you might get rid of bed bugs by vacuuming. While vacuuming certainly has a place in a bed bug control and avoidance program, I don’t think enthusiastic vacuuming is an alternative to professional help, especially if bed bugs are spotted. But these quotations from Diane Keay, environmental health area supervisor in the Salt Lake Valley Health Department, suggest otherwise:

She recommends vacuuming a lot. Although they’re not associated with poor housekeeping, as some people have suggested, “none of us vacuum around the bed every day.” You must, if you want to eradicate them without chemicals. And they’re not just in the bed. They can be in carpets and wall baseboards and other places nearby. Be aware, as well, that they may settle in or around a favorite chair or hitch a ride in the fold of the backpack that’s so often on you.

There are ways to eradicate bed bugs “without chemicals,” but they involve steam, or gas, or heat. Possibly cold, or ozone. But not simply vacuuming.

Later, again,

You don’t usually need to toss things, Keay says. Just trap the bugs and vacuum, vacuum, vacuum or have a professional deal with serious infestations.

I agree “tossing things” is usually not necessary and often just spreads bed bugs to your neighbors. However, the advice to “vacuum, vacuum, vacuum,” grates, as does the newspaper’s graphic of the happy blonde brandishing her canister vac.

Near the end of the article, we’re told that

People don’t feel the introductory bites. The reaction, sometimes quite severe, develops over time. In the meantime, the little creatures reproduce.

This statement that “People don’t feel the introductory bite,” is inaccurate. Bed bugs are designed to bite us without our knowing until after the fact. If we ever have a clue, that is.

Some people never react to the bites. (Up to 50%, Michael Potter says, do not react to bed bug bites.) Others get reactions from the start, but almost nobody feels them as they occur.

Other advice in the article is good–keeping luggage away from hotel beds, using pesticides only as labeled–but overall, the Deseret Morning News needs to do more research on bed bugs.

You can read the Deseret Morning News article Bugged? Bed bugs making a comeback, even in Utah here.

• NPR’s Morning Edition: not blasting any preconceptions about bed bugs
• Bed bugs spread in Ottawa
• FAQ: Bed bugs are crawling on me all the time. I am being bitten all day long, no matter where I go!
• My Bedbugs

ShareThis

The article conveys the scope of the problem and the speed at which it seems to be spreading:

To get a full sense of the bedbug boom, ask any pest control expert. [Carlo] Panacci, for one, used to have a 1-800 number for his company, Cain Pest Control, but cancelled it because he was getting overwhelmed by cries for help from people in B.C., Newfoundland and everywhere in between. He now averages about eight to 10 bedbug inquiries a day. “I got so busy with bedbugs I gave up on raccoons and squirrels,” he says. Doug Wadlow, who runs Orkin Pest Control in Edmonton, says bedbug calls are up 300 per cent from 2004. Meanwhile, John Mitten, branch manager of Poulin’s Pest Control in Vancouver, says bedbugs will total 25 per cent of his firm’s work this year. That’s up from 13 per cent in ‘06. Some U.S. companies are getting as many as 50 bedbug calls a day. “You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to see which way this is headed,” says Michael Potter, an entomology professor at the University of Kentucky and one of the world’s top bedbug researchers. Potter describes the spread of bedbugs as “a bit like a communicable disease.”

Although he acknowledges that bed bugs “don’t transmit disease,” the author nevertheless seems to get that bed bugs do have an adverse effect on mental health. Anecdotes convey the strain of a bed bug infestation, as well as the anxiety people feel even after the bed bugs are apparently gone–the fear they might still be there, the nervousness.

One study of pest control professionals found that 60 per cent of clients are more upset by the discovery of bedbugs than ro­­dents, termites or roaches. It’s no wonder bedbug support groups and message boards have popped up on­­line.

Indeed.

Intini also conveys the anxiety of professionals who fear bringing their work home:

Even pest control ex­­­­perts suffer the occasional anxiety attack. “A couple of times, I’ve woken up in the middle of the night, felt some­­thing crawl on me, and just freaked out,” says Goldman. “It turned out to be my wife’s hair.”

Intini notes that “If anyone should be frightened of bedbugs, it’s those in the hotel business,” and describes some of the steps hotels are taking to avoid bed bugs, and to get rid of them.

A new statistic from Dr. Potter on bed bug-reactive people (ie those with itchy bite marks):

“I’ve been in places where the wife is getting slaughtered and the husband, who is sleeping in the same bed, doesn’t react at all,” says Potter. As much as half the population, he says, won’t show any signs.

We’ve seen statistics as high as 70% bandied about, but I’m willing to go with Potter’s 50%. (Of course, it’s hard to know: some who are non-reactive may not be bitten.)

And finally, somber words from Dr. Potter:

And, says Potter, “it doesn’t look like there is a silver-bullet bedbug eliminator coming down the pipe any time soon.”

We have heard this before, but wait, there’s more:

Even if one did, he says, the liability of spraying beds and couches with it would restrict its use. “Bedbugs live in all the places that we’ve been training the pest control industry in the last 20 years not to spray,” says Potter. “Back in the days of DDT, it was recommended practice to spray the pillows, the entire mattress. Nothing wasn’t dripping when you walked out.” Before then, bedbugs were a whole lot more common. “I’ve read diaries from the ’30s where they wrote about springtime bedbug cleaning,” says Potter. “They’d throw boiling water on the walls, pour oil into the crevices of the wood floors, sleep for two weeks and then start the process again. It was part of life.”

I found this helpful in elucidating why it isn’t just about bringing back a banned pesticide or creating a new one; the whole culture on pesticides has changed since we last had to deal with bed bugs in North America (on a large scale, anyway).

All in all, nothing terribly new, but lots of good soundbites, and all in all, a good consciousness-raising piece.

Nice work John Intini and Maclean’s!

Read the article here.

• FAQ: Are bedbugs a health issue?
• Bed bug dog Joni: fighting bed bugs in New Zealand and Australia
• Toronto Councillor Paula Fletcher has some progressive ideas about bed bugs
• I asked New York’s Mayor Bloomberg what he is going to do about bedbugs

ShareThis

In the 3 1/2 years it’s been open, Jurys Boston Hotel has never found bedbugs on its premises, nor have its guests complained about being bitten. Still, the luxury hotel in the Back Bay began dispatching a bedbug-sniffing dog to each of its 225 guest rooms last year. And when the canine detective barked, after detecting the suspicious scent of the itch-inducing insects or their eggs, the hotel fumigated two rooms and burned the mattresses.

“At the first sign or suggestion of a problem, our reaction would be to treat the room with chemicals, no questions asked,” said general manager Stephen Johnston, who calls the dog in every three months.

Every three months hardly means you won’t be bitten by bed bugs in the hotel, but it is definitely a start, and would prompt many of us to choose such a hotel over another that has no strategies to detect or prevent bed bugs.

Jurys isn’t the only hotel to take a proactive approach to bedbugs. The Omni Parker House brings in an insect-sniffing mixed Labrador from Advanced K9 Detectives LLC, the same Milford, Conn., firm that Jurys and about 10 other Boston-area hotels use. The Omni’s general manager, John Murtha, is also considering buying special encasements for mattresses and box springs to prevent bedbugs from building homes on them.

My advice to hotels is not to think too long about mattress encasements–just get them. They won’t prevent customers from being bitten but make it hard for bed bugs to hide on the actual mattress, and can mean you don’t have to destroy mattresses or spend considerable time and expense sanitizing them if an infestation does occur.

In addition, I hope all hotels and motels will educate staff about how to prevent spreading and detect bed bug infestations. Stephen Doggett’s article for Executive Housekeeping (an Australian hotel industry journal) is a must-read for industry professionals. Click here to load a PDF.

How many hotels are infested?

Judith Black, technical director at Steritech Group Inc., a pest-control company that serves the hospitality industry, found only 0.6 percent of the almost 76,000 rooms the company inspected between November 2002 and April 2006 needed to be treated for bedbugs, but those infestations were spread across 24.4 percent of the nearly 700 US hotels it studied.

I’d take those numbers with a grain of salt, and consider them in juxtaposition with another statistic the article offered:

Scientists are trying to find ways to fight the bugs, too. The Entomological Society of America’s annual conference, held in San Diego last month, featured three half-day symposiums on the insects, with nearly 30 scientific presentations on topics like “How bedbugs survive long xeric periods between blood meals” and “The effect of sex-ratio on dispersal and aggregation behavior of the common bedbug.”

Three years ago, no one at the conference presented any bedbug research.

So in 2004, bed bugs were not considered important enough to merit one single panel presentation at the ESA annual conference, and this year the topic merited thirty presentations.  To me, this obvious growth in bed bugs signals that perhaps Steritech’s data from 2002-6 is largely outdated.  (Steritech’s data also seems to be based on hotels who hired their services, in which case it is already biased towards hotels which are more proactive against bed bugs.)

Assume many more than 24% of hotels are affected, but try to keep this in perspective: remember that “a hotel with bed bugs” may have them in only a room or two.

In my opinion, with the requisite precautions, it is still safe to travel. Click here to download the CBC video for a good lesson in searching a room for bed bugs, and read our travel FAQs. Seeing the world is too good to miss. Let’s hope all hotels, motels, and hostels soon see having a sound bed bug protocol as being as important as changing the sheets.

Read the rest of the Boston Globe article here.

• Second Greater Boston Bed Bug Conference
• “Disproportionate Horror”: Vancouver Hoteliers Get Schooled
• Bed bug dog Joni: fighting bed bugs in New Zealand and Australia
• Consumers, before you hire one, find out what that bed bug dog can do!

ShareThis

• Spring break bed bug warnings!
• Stanford still fighting bed bugs
• FAQ: How can I avoid bedbugs while traveling?
• Thanksgiving Bed Bug Float

ShareThis

Here she tells the story, and asks a few questions of attorney Steven De Castro (who’s been involved with bed bug lawsuits) and local entomologist/ Bedbugger hero Lou Sorkin. She talks about the signs and symptoms of bed bugs, but not really any suggestions about what to do to avoid taking them home.

If you recall, in September 2006, NY1 covered the city council hearing in New York (on bed bugs and the reselling of mattresses). They illustrated the opening with a nice, big photo of a dust mite. The segment below occurred within six months of that incident (I don’t know exactly when, but it was uploaded to YouTube in February). Suffice it to say, they’ve come a long way in those six months.

(I am not sure how we missed this when it aired, but it’s new to us, and maybe to you too!)

If the embedded video won’t work for you, click here.

• Bed bugs. Are. Not. Dust Mites.
• 48th Street between 3rd and Lex, last night
• Arctic Monkeys bitten by bed bugs
• bed bugs, news at 11

ShareThis

First, Donna Freydkin published twin articles in USA Today on Tuesday: one about her personal experiences with bed bugs, and one about others’ experiences. There was also a sidebar alerting people to the dangers of curbside mattresses, the problems of foggers, and other important stuff. Especially interesting, since USA Today is distributed free in hotels around the USA, is this warning to travelers:

Be careful where you put your suitcase when you travel. “These guys are fantastic hitchhikers,” says the University of Maryland’s Michael Raupp. “If you have a luggage rack with metal racks, put your suitcase on that.”

Check behind a hotel headboard. That’s one of their favorite spots, Raupp says. Pull back the comforter and sheets and look for the fecal stains on the mattress seams and ticking. Shine a penlight behind the headboard and look for dark fecal stains.

There are some points in the article that are not fully explained and might mislead people (for example, drying for ten minutes on hot will not be enough if the item being dried is wet, an important bit of information if anyone is actually going to treat their clothing based on such a recommendation). Also, many pros recommend not getting rid of your mattress or box springs. Doing so when unnecessary is a good way to give your neighbors bed bugs; a good mattress encasement will usually be enough. However, despite these details, Ms. Freydkin did speak with Dr. Michael Potter, whose unofficial fan club is right here. And bed bug news in such a popular paper is always good.

Meanwhile, in other news, the Minnesota Star Tribune asks, “How safe are your kids at college?” and among the many other concerns addressed, bed bugs:

Look for evidence of bedbugs — fecal staining that resembles an accumulation or a scattering of pepper — around baseboards, along cracks and crevices and furniture in rooms where people rest, such as bedrooms or TV rooms.

Prevent infestation: Resist the temptation to scavenge mattresses, sofas or other furniture set out by curbs or behind stores, said [University of Minnesota Assistant Professor of Entomology Stephen Kells]. They can harbor bedbugs. Don’t encourage cockroaches. Keep counters clean and remove garbage regularly. Wipe surfaces and sweep floors frequently. Pick up papers, boxes and other clutter that gives cockroaches places to hide.

Ask about infestation: Ask the landlord the last time the place was evaluated for infestations and if the building is on a regular control and prevention program, said Kells. Remember, treating just one apartment for infestation is ineffective. The whole building needs treatment, combined with prevention tactics.

Good advice.

Finally, from the good-blog capital of Brooklyn, Greenpointers has posted an image of an ad that appeared on Craigslist Monday, in which current or former tenants of the Astral put up a bed bug warning to potential tenants.

The ad (NYC ad #469469878) reads:

This is a warning: two former tenants of the astral (the large beautiful building in greenpoint on the corner of java and franklin) have moved out due to a BEDBUG infestation, and it is rumored that the entire floor is moving out because of the same problem.

Make sure that you discuss this with your realtor/potential roomate before moving in!

This is a serious posting, not a prank–I thought it was something people should know before moving in, to protect themselves! I would want to know.

You can go to Greenpointers to see an image of the actual ad. (Clever bloggers: Craigslist usually removes these kinds of ads tout de suite.)

We’re not breaking the news on the Astral-bed bugs allegation. But Curbed, NewYorkShitty, and the BedBugBlog commenters have that covered. The building also has two entries on the Bed Bug Registry. Rumor has it Mae West once lived in the Astral.

• Bed bugs in homeless shelters, casinos, hotels, apartments: Waynesboro, Atlantic City, Greenpoint, Toronto
• Sunday, Buggy Sunday
• When I say the title of the blog, it makes me feel like Sean Connery
• Forget black mattress stains, bed bugs, shells, and eggs: NMPA press release tells consumers to look for “blood spots”

ShareThis

Some Souvenirs Have Legs

Hotels are a haven for bedbugs. Pest-control companies say hotels account for more than 37 percent of their bedbug business, according to Pest Control Technology magazine.

I don’t think I’ve seen that statistic before.

The solution: Search for your hotel on bedbugregistry.com. Scan mattress and couch creases for the reddish brown bloodsuckers and their black droppings, says Jason Rasgon, Ph.D., a public-health professor at Johns Hopkins. At home, dry your clothes on high for 45 minutes to kill stowaways.

Note: many dryers would take longer than 45 minutes to get wet clothes really hot and dry (I’d say “bone dry plus 20 minutes, on hot”. Dry clothes, on the other hand, can do with much less time.

More tips on avoiding bed bugs when you travel here.

It’s always good to see bed bugs in the media. Especially when it’s a warning, and not someone’s Tale of Bed Bug Woe.

• FAQ: How can I avoid spreading bedbugs to others when I visit their homes?
• Allegations of bed bugs affect tourism, according to travel agent
• FAQ: How can I avoid bedbugs while traveling?
• Lavender oil won’t do it: do any “natural remedies” work for bed bugs?

ShareThis