One of the biggest frustrations with bed bugs is that it is hard to know if you have them. You can be bitten quite badly for a long time before ever finding a bed bug. Bed bugs, bed bug cast skins, fecal spots and fecal specks can all be hard to find.

The best thing to do if you suspect bed bugs is to have a qualified pest control operator (PCO) search your home for them, carefully. You may have a PCO who searches and finds nothing. I assume you have already had a doctor rule out scabies, folliculitis, and other medical causes) and that your PCO has ruled out fleas and other biting pests.

While I do not recommend self-treatment for bed bugs, I do recommend trying to locate a sample yourself, especially if a pest control operator has looked but has not yet found evidence, or if the PCO wants to treat without evidence (this may seem great to you at the time, but you really should find out if bed bugs are the cause of your troubles before sinking in your money and time into getting rid of them).

We now have some ideas for bed bug traps to detect a problem. A few caveats:

• These methods are not foolproof. They could take time and having more traps out more frequently increases your odds of catching a culprit.
• This does not significantly reduce your problem, not by a long shot, and is not in itself a treatment option. But detection is the first step in solving your bed bug problem.
• This is not about capturing a live bed bug, but one for identification purposes. Live bed bug sampling can be done with what the British call a pooter, but you have to find a bed bug first. To read about these methods, see this forum thread.

The following are some do-it-yourself methods for getting a bed bug sample.

First, many Pest Control Operators will suggest or use glue traps, designed for mice, to catch bed bugs. Yes, bed bugs will be caught if they walk across them. But getting them to walk across such a trap is tricky. They could walk around it. And you may have no idea what routes they travel.

In a forum thread, PCO/Entomologist Sean, of the Bed Bug Resource, suggested adding an activated hand warmer to the center of the trap:

Take a mouse glue board (sold by pest professionals) and place an activated hot shot (hand warmer) in the centre. There are several brands of hot shots out there and to my knowledge they all should work. These give off both heat and carbon dioxide.

These are NOT 100% effective in every case.

I have never had it not work in a badly infested area, but surely there is the possibility that it may not work in a light infestation.

Keep in mind that bed bugs feed about once per week. Hot shots last about 12 hours. This means that you may have to put one out every night for a week before catching anything. Obviously multiple locations increases your odds.

Putting these traps in the room you think you’re being bitten in, at night, when you’re not (yet) there sleeping, might be good. Doing it when you are away for some reason might be even better (though we don’t recommend you sleep elsewhere in another room or building, as a general rule, since it can spread bed bugs). Remember to put them where pets can’t go, or to keep pets out of the room–they really are very, very sticky.

Hand warmers are sold under many brand names and used by outdoorspeople and people with medical problems (which should give you some idea where to find them). Glue traps are in the pest control section of a home store or available online. These are examples of glue traps and air activated hand warmers:

air-activated hand warmers:

Fourt, in another forum thread, described a rigged-up trap that worked:

I am setting up a crazy little trap up tonight. It’s really not a trap but rather a thing to lure them from returning to their hiding spaces. I have 2 pieces of old wood, not very large, I have drilled several shallow holes on one. Then Im going to cover the holes with the other piece of wood. Placing it close to the head of the bed. My theroy is they will check it out on their way back to where ever they are living. And decide this looks like a nice place to hang out and lay eggs. Then when they least expect it, I will lift off the top peice of wood and get them with my handy dandy garment steamer. My husband thinks I’m crazy, but I tell him to catch a bed bug you need to think like one. I will let you guys know how this works. I know I will not get rid of a infestation this way. But it may work as a monitoring tool.

And here’s the follow-up:

Well, my little wood trap worked. Found an almost mature bug bed in one of the holes. I steamed it with my garment steamer. It died in a instant. I steamed all of the wood incase there were eggs on it. I have set it up again and will wait and see what else happens.

And some tips:

The bed bug trap worked very well to catch them if they were around. If I was to do the trap all over again I would have used a slightly larger drill bit. One last thing regarding the trap. You must use real wood not plywood or MDF. Place the wood near the bed and see what happens. Make sure you have a way to catch them when checking the wood for BB. They can trot at a good clip.

Fourt’s trap reminded me of this trap idea hopelessnomo found. I was impressed by Fourt’s ingenuity, and happy it worked, though I have to stress that I think that luck plays more of a role in this method than Sean’s. There’s nothing to attract the bed bug in this case, except that it’s a form of wooden clutter with holes for hiding out, and it’s in the bed (no doubt to some degree appealing to bed bugs).

The bottom line is that Sean also has experience with his trap working again and again, and if I had to rig up a trap, I would try his glue trap/hand warmer method (and try it a number of times).

Another method of detecting (but not trapping per se) gets around the fact that bed bugs may be less likely to come towards you in bed with the lights on, and involves using red LED light to see bed bugs at night. NotSoSnug, resident “Cimex Hunter,” had great results with this. You can read about his methods here. They are effective, though their effectiveness depends on your ability to stay up (possibly most of the night) as well as your level of infestation. If you are not being bitten by lots of bed bugs, or being bitten elsewhere than the bed, or you simply would like to sleep, this is not such a great method. Since NotSoSnug was not able to sleep during this period, and did appear to have lots of bed bugs, it was very effective for him.

A red LED light was part of NotSoSnug’s toolkit for detecting bed bugs at night in bed.  They can be quite useful. Here’s a thread about this (including advice about obtaining useful red LED lights).

I welcome reports in the comments below from those who use one of these methods and find it successful.

Future prospects for bed bug traps?

My understanding is that a glue trap involving bed bug aggregate pheromones is in the works, but has been for years, and we should not hold our breath.

Simple glue traps are beginning to be marketed as bed bug traps. Don’t get excited at the simple mention of a bed bug trap for sale.

John F. Anderson at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven is working with a rigged-together bed bug trap that is not commercially available. You can see glimpses of it near the end of this WTNH News 8 video Paula shared in the forums. We can hope something like it–or the plans for how to make one– is soon available to all of us.

Remember, too, that bed bug dogs are an option as an aid to finding a bed bug or detecting their presence. Dogs and their handlers cannot always help you find an actual sample, so if you do go this route, discuss with your landlord/PCO the necessity of a visible bed bug sample (and whether they will take the word of the bed bug dog handler), and discuss with your bed bug dog handler before hiring him/her the possibility of locating one if needed.

• Good news: bed bug aggregate pheromones
• University of Florida tests bed bug dogs
• NotSoSnug: killing bed bugs one by one
• Consumers, before you hire one, find out what that bed bug dog can do!

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Good:

• Building management admitting problem publicly, posting notice.
• Notice asking for bed bug reports.
• Notice reminding tenants secondhand mattresses are a no-no.
• Notice is building-wide even though only one unit has apparently identified a bed bug problem.
• Even guests can see the note. This seems like fair warning to them.

Bad:

• Secondhand everything is a no-no, and building management seems unaware.
• Is management having a PCO carefully and regularly inspect every unit? 50% of people bitten by bed bugs do not react (with itching or bite marks) and may have no idea. It is really hard to find bed bugs.
• Tenants with no obvious signs may not know how to look. Having a bed bug dog traipse through every room might be best idea.
• No one should live with bed bugs for one year, as the scrawled note implies. Bed bugs can be treated, but not usually when you take people’s word as to whether they have them or not. They may not know, or may know and not care.
• Bed bugs that cannot be eliminated in one year from one unit implies they are not just in the one unit.
• Bottom line: if you have had bed bugs in your building for a year, I do not think it is true that management is doing everything they can to eliminate the problem and prevent it spreading. I do not mean that tenants are not also responsible; they are, and must fully cooperate with inspections and treatment. But from what I understand, the problem of tenants not disclosing or not cooperating with treatment is something management can deal with through legal channels.

Note: Please understand: I think the existence of this note is very good: very, very good. I just think that management and tenants may not be doing enough. But now I am interested in knowing: how many of you in bed bug infested buildings received a notice in the mail, or have one posted in your building?

• FAQ: Do I have to tell my landlord / co-op board / condo association / residents of attached house next door?
• Still more from Nashua, New Hampshire: fewer bed bugs at 23-25 Temple St.
• Bed bugs in Ventura County (Thousand Oaks, California)
• Bed bugs & tenant organizing: don’t take this lying down

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The inspection was prompted by tenants’ complaints to the health department. However, Ortega expected to–and found–that many more units were infested than the number of people who complained.

Complaints about bugs at 23-25 Temple St. prompted the inspection, Ortega said.

Given the tenant complaints his office received, Ortega said he expected the infestation to be even more widespread than what inspectors found.

“Sixteen is still a significant number,” Ortega said. “If they don’t hurry up and deal with it, it’s going to keep growing.”

He added, “the minute we left, they should be calling the pest companies.”

The building’s owner, 23-25 Temple Street Realty LLC, is expected to have exterminators come in as soon as possible, Ortega said. They’re required to spray not only the infected rooms, but also the adjacent rooms and the rooms directly above and below, he said.

Because the 16 rooms were scattered throughout, most of the building will have to be treated, Ortega said.

The owners also have 35 days to correct general maintenance violations, which range from the illegal use of extension cords and hotplates to unsanitary toilets and covers missing on wall outlets, Ortega said.

Health officials will do a follow-up inspection after the building owner has had time to spray for pests and correct the violations, he said.

I wish that all health officials were as wise to bed bugs, and as proactive as these.

I also wish every building owner (whether it’s a hotel, apartment building, rooming house, or whatever) would read this. All too often, people try to get away with treating only the units of people who notice and complain about bed bugs. And in such cases, they will often find bed bugs popping up again and again.

I am also glad to see this because it shows a case where people with bed bugs called a health department and got some action. Readers often tell us their landlords are not dealing with bed bugs, and they don’t know what to do. Or if their landlord is helping them, the problem is still hard to treat.

Well, even though your city health officer may not be as clued in about bed bugs as Nelson Ortega is, why not give them a call?

Cities and counties do not realize how many people have bed bugs unless you tell them. So please, consider googling your city or county health department and giving them a buzz.

And a reminder to tenants, landlords, and government officials alike, anywhere: take a hint from Nashua Deputy Health Officer Heidi Peek, who is quoted in the article as saying:

“The reason I really wanted to get in there, I had a hunch there were people who weren’t reporting (bedbugs) – which we found to be true.”

At least 50% of people bitten by bed bugs do not react to the bites, according to Michael Potter.

Many of these will have no idea they have them.

Many more will know they have them but fear being blamed and not report it.

Still others will simply put up with the situation (unbelieveable, yes, but we hear it time and again).

Do not assume people are bed bug-free simply because they say they are.

And certainly do not assume they are bed bug-free simply because they do not call a city information hotline.

Especially if calling a city information hotline is the least intuitive thing for them to do, as in the case of NYC tenants with bed bugs. Do you hear that, New York City HPD? If you want people in NYC to call a number to tell you they have bed bugs. You have to tell them to do it.

• More bed bugs in Nashua, NH: rooming-house tenant goes to court
• Nashua, N.H. laws may change in part based on recent bed bug cases there
• Still more from Nashua, New Hampshire: fewer bed bugs at 23-25 Temple St.
• Lexington, KY vs. New York, NY: a tale of two bedbugged cities

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I hope you don’t mind me asking for some advice here…after spending some time on the bedbugger site. I don’t know yet if I have bedbugs and have not seen any in my apartment on the upper westside, but have discovered bites on my upper body five times now in the past month. The most recent bite I saw was on my arm last night, which I noticed shortly after I got into bed.…this was after ten peaceful days of having no bites.

I thought I was through with this problem, but evidently not and I’m not sure what next steps to take.

Early on, I paid $300 to have an inspection from a top exterminator, but he saw nothing and doesn’t want to treat the problem unless I have more evidence. I spoke to another company on the phone who took a similar position. I have been vacuuming a lot and yesterday put my mattress and box spring in high quality encasements. I’ve laundered all bedding. I have been inspecting sheets and blankets, but not seeing anything.

I’m worried that if I keep waiting to see a bedbug, the problem will worsen. What are my options here?

Bedbuggers and Pest Control Professionals, what should “In the Dark” do?

(This comes up a lot and it seems like a good time to compose a FAQ, so let’s collaborate on this, shall we?)

Update 3/08: we do now have a FAQ on catching a bed bug sample.

• Tales of bed bug woe: Allergicgirl’s questions
• National Allergy mattress encasement test results
• More on bed bugs at the Montana Rescue Mission in Billings
• Reader Question: is it a bed bug? If so, what to do?

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Bedbugger was not on the scene, unfortunately, but we did get some eyewitness reports.

Our source noted that there was useful information shared, but questioned whether the audience wouldn’t be better served if the presenters had a more intimate and extensive knowledge of bed bugs. (The program was scheduled to be led by Elise Shin and Henny Calle. We understand Calle has done previous presentations on lead and other building safety issues.)

This is New York, home to many bed bug experts–people I’ve found to be very helpful and approachable. Why were none of them involved in these proceedings? From what I can gather, they weren’t asked.

It sounds like there could have been more scientific data in evidence, particularly in regard to what was said about pesticides.

Apparently they also showed slides of bites and tried to advise people on identifying them–something that is not possible. Was this made clear? Perhaps someone can report on that.

Rather than lasting the scheduled two hours from 6-8pm, our source said it started at 6:40 and ended by 7:30–thus using 50 out of a scheduled 120 minutes. Perhaps if some experts with more bed bug knowledge were involved, the program would be richer. People expected to come for two hours, so why not use the time well?

A second report came via crawledon, a Bedbugger on the forums. crawledon reports:

I was extremely disappointed with the meeting last night. During the first part, the “educator” basically read information that had been handed out and added a tiny bit of commentary making it quite clear that she never lived through an infestation and also didn’t really know much about the subject. I think I remember her stating that bb’s can live for almost a year without a blood meal. Someone called out, “18 months!” Our educator quipped, “let’s be optimistic.” First she was inaccurate, then joked about it without correcting herself. The Q&A portion was even more ridiculous because she couldn’t really answer the questions. It was frustrating because I recognized many experts in the audience and frankly, they should have been running the show. At the very least, I wished they would have answered the questions.

The main focus was on being able to identify a [bed bug] and where to look for them. Then she talked about integrated pest management where she went on to read that tenants need to declutter, should use a stiff brush to scrape eggs off of mattresses, etc., and how we can caulk holes in walls and floors. The literature that had been passed out said the tenants can find these supplies in the hardware store. This made me very, very angry because quite frankly, it is not our job to go and buy supplies so that we, the tenants can seal up harborages, although we often wind up doing it so it gets done.

crawledon reports that at its close, the event became commercial: “like a convention hall:”

There were many businesses represented, PCOs, PCOs with dogs, salespeople from PCO companies, people wanting to come and ozone your home. . . they all descended upon the tenants, handing out business cards trying to sell their wares. We need these people and appreciate their presence but I wish more [landlords] had been present. They’re the ones that should buy these wares, not the tenants.

Finally, Channel 4 covered the seminar. They stated on their newscast that although it’s not recommended, one can do their own pest control, and listed some of the things our “educator” listed in the “integrated pest control” portion of her talk. If NBC came away thinking we can do this, what did the public come away with?

Finally, crawledon suggests that

The only good this seminar provided was now tenants can better identify a [bed bug]. But ultimately, this seminar and the newscast that followed it might have done more harm than good.

You can read the rest of crawledon’s comments here.

Thanks to our anonymous witness and crawledon for their reports. This is, unfortunately, kind of what I expected, knowing that local experts were not involved in the presentation.

The city needs to smarten up before their next bed bug seminar. Many of the people attending are people with bed bugs, or with neighbors who have them. Others are landlords or social workers or others whose jobs involve getting rid of bed bugs. They may (in many cases) know more about bed bugs than the presenters, and they need more than an introduction to the problem, they need help.

The city needs to do much more than offer a few 50-minute beginner’s bed bug identification classes. We should recall the words of Michael Potter, one of the foremost bed bug experts, at a Pest Control Technology event last August, a true “bed bug seminar”:

“If there is a classic example of why you don’t eliminate entire classes of pesticides,” Potter said, “bed bugs are it. We’re in a heap of trouble in terms of the products we have available to fight this pest,” citing several classes of chemistry that are no longer available (e.g., organophosphates, carbamates, etc.) and the growing threat of pyrethroid resistance. As a result, he said, “I don’t see how this problem is going to get better. I think it’s going to get chaotic. This is the most challenging pest I’ve encountered in my career. We’re in big trouble.”

If this pest has presented the biggest challenge of his career, to a leading entomologist, then perhaps the City of New York needs to consider going further than the albeit important step of showing a few New Yorkers what bed bugs look like.

Bed bug experts have told us that some of those classes of pesticides might be used, cautiously and with restrictions, to more efficiently eradicate a bed bug infestation, and city officials should be lobbying for this.

The city does need an education campaign, but it should be designed with the assistance of the best bed bug experts available to us. And it should be disseminated through television specials, newspaper ads, and bus shelter and subway ads. Not through a 50-minute program you have to RSVP for.

And any education campaign is just the beginning.

If you attended the seminar, or have feedback on the above, please comment below!

• PCTOnline on its bed bug seminar last week
• “We have to have a bed bug state of mind,” says Michael Potter at Bed Bug Control Seminar yesterday
• Bed bugs in NYC: if we could just get Bill Murray on the case
• HPD expands bed bug seminars

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Following are some important tidbits covered at the conference submitted for your information and action agendas.

More work is being done on field strains of bed bugs, as opposed to much early work which utilized sheltered strains, as they were the only ones available in quantity. This should result in better operational information and perhaps a greater understanding of distribution and patterns.

Pyrethrin barriers do not seem to be successfully repellent as an isolation tool. On the other hand it means that bed bugs are less likely to avoid some treated surfaces.

One bed bug may cause a multitude of welts or what seem to be bites.

Bed bug eggs and feces seem to fluoresce although they are often obscured by background material.

Work continues to be done in regard to effective detection. Dogs, although a good detection tool, are not beyond errors, false positives and dogs playing their handlers. Again a generalization of a work in progress which needs supervision, and accreditation.

Current studies indicate that bed bugs feed once a week.

Number one spot in hotels – headboard.

Number one spot in homes – box spring.

It is recommended that all bedrooms be treated as well as all sofas and sleeping areas even if bed bugs have not been noted in these areas.

Bed bugs will deposit eggs all over sleeping areas, oftentimes in areas adjacent to fecal focal points.

According to one study, bed bugs were found in adjacent apartments 28% of the time.

Unfortunately clutter will undermine any treatment, so total cooperation is essential.

One major danger area is in the discarding of infested items such as mattresses.

1. Because they are dispersed by disposal, bag it before you move it.

2. Items are often picked up by others sometimes even in the same building.

3. Encase before you replace to protect incoming mattresses and box springs.

And when using encasements, consider covering corners of metal frames with felt to avoid rips.

More funding, more research, and more product development are all needed. Unfortunately when compared to agricultural needs bed bugs are not a number
one priority. In addition, the over-regulation of entire classes of insecticides is not helping in stemming the tide of bed bug infestation.

• Consumers, before you hire one, find out what that bed bug dog can do!
• University of Florida tests bed bug dogs
• Bed bug dog Joni: fighting bed bugs in New Zealand and Australia
• Abbey the Bed Bug Dog: news report

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A couple selling a New York City apartment had bed bugs six months ago. They have not noticed any problem since. So the question is, do they need to disclose that the property they’re selling had bed bugs recently?

Jay Romano answers that the Property Condition Disclosure Act–requiring a seller to fill out a detailed disclosure statement–doesn’t apply to co-op or condo sales.  (Romano consulted Edward I. Sumber, a White Plains lawyer.)

What does apply to apartment owners, however, is common law, which has been established through judicial rulings over the centuries. “Under the doctrine of caveat emptor — let the buyer beware — the seller has no affirmative obligation to reveal circumstances about the apartment to the buyer,” Mr. Sumber said.

But he added that if a prospective buyer asks a specific question about whether the apartment has had bedbugs, the seller has an obligation to answer honestly.

The lesson is if you are buying a NYC condo or co-op, ask if it has or ever had bed bugs.

And, your broker may also be liable:

In addition, if the real estate broker knows about the bedbug problem, he or she has an obligation to reveal it to a prospective buyer. “The broker is under an affirmative duty to be diligent,” Mr. Sumber said. “But the seller is not required to tell the broker, either.”

House buyers are afforded more protection. Sellers of houses have to answer a 48-question disclosure statement and give it to the buyer.

One of the questions asks whether there has been any pest infestation in the house.

But non-scrupulous house sellers need only take a $500 hit to avoid this kind of disclosure:

The penalty for failing to provide the form is a $500 credit to the buyer.

Sellers, apparently, can simply take the loss and skip disclosure. That’s bad news.

All in all, it appears that people can get around disclosing they have had bed bugs in their home (even, apparently, if the infestation is more recent or active) whether it’s an apartment or house. This is very bad news.

Bedbugger hopes that everyone selling a home will be responsible and make sure they are bed bug-free before selling. We also hope apartment and house buyers will have homes professionally inspected, perhaps with the aid of both a PCO and a bed bug dog, before purchase.

You can read Romano’s full article in the New York Times (1/20/08) here. 

• Bedbugs called “a new kind of roach”; building managment lies
• Bed bugs and marketing (again)
• The bed bug droppings hit the fan
• FAQ: what is Vikane gas fumigation?

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The first seminar is scheduled to take place on Monday, January 28 from 6PM to 8PM at the Russ Berrie Medical Science Pavilion, 1^st floor conference room, Columbia University Medical Center, 1150 St. Nicholas Avenue (at 168^th Street) in Manhattan.

The second seminar is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, February 5 from 8PM to 9PM at Ricardo’s Catering Hall, 21-01 24^th Avenue in Astoria, Queens.

The final seminar is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, March 12 from 6PM to 8PM at the Hope Gardens Senior Center, 195 Linden Street in Bushwick, Brooklyn.

Anyone interested in attending any of these seminars is encouraged to call (212) 863-8830 to reserve a space. Translation services will be provided for Spanish-speaking members of the public.

New York Times blogger Jennifer 8. Lee also reported on the seminars. She also gave a helpful insight into what happens after you call 311:

Bedbug complaints are listed as an “emergency,” which means they go to the top of the priority list. The department sends out inspectors at night, when bedbugs tend to be more active. Typically, bedbugs are listed as a Class B violation, which gives the owner 30 days to correct the problem. The least severe violations, Class A, have to be fixed within 90 days. Class C violations, for emergency conditions like no electricity or hot water, must be corrected within 24 hours and completely dwarf the bedbug complaints.

Although we knew something about what happens when bedbuggers call 311, we had not previously heard that inspections were made at night. (I’m not sure how big a help this is, since I assume inspectors aren’t coming to call at 2 am, but still, it can’t hurt.) Lee also provided an interesting quotation from a City Councilperson who had had bed bugs:

Robert Jackson, a city councilman who represents parts of northern Manhattan, said at a news conference that his family had been plagued by bedbugs when he was young.

“They used to bite us all,” he said.”We used to wake up trying to kill them at night.”

Incidentally, Jackson was born and raised in Manhattan, according to the City Council’s biography, linked from his name above. I suspect someone in the New York City Council will soon have a contemporary story of bed bugs. I hope that when they do, they will speak out.

Lee continued,

Awareness has made people paranoid of bedbugs, which is why calls to 311 have skyrocketed, though only a part of those have ended up with violation notices.

“I think a lot of people are convinced they have bedbugs when they don’t,” Mr. Aragon said.

That is another reason they are holding the seminars, he said, so that people with skin rashes know when not to call 311.

This is certainly important– people should not panic, and should rule out other causes of itching. Knowing what different stages of bed bugs look like is key.

However, I have to admit that– having heard some 311 stories myself, and knowing how difficult it can be to find bed bug samples– I would suspect at least some of the 5000 people who called 311 last year and who were told they did not have bed bugs, did have them. Although some of the 7000 calls were doubtless panic reactions, I would not be surprised if more than 2000 were actual bed bug cases. I would like to know what constitutes evidence of bed bugs for the inspectors, and how they are trained to detect infestations. We’re told some PCOs do not visually inspect for bed bugs, finding this too difficult, time-consuming, or pointless.

Hopefully anyone who did have bed bugs, but whose HPD inspection turned up nothing, eventually found evidence and called again. However, we know that when people call for help and don’t get it, they often try other means the next time–like paying for their own treatment, or self-treating. (If neighbors are infested, both methods can fail miserably.)

The Times Ledger community newspapers also reported this week on the planned seminars.

The meetings, one of which will take place on Feb. 5 in Astoria, are a response to the rise in complaints that city residents have filed against the insects, according to City Council Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Astoria).

“It’s a problem that until recently even I wasn’t aware of. You expect something like this in a third world country but not in the capital of the world,” he said.

They cited incorrect statistics on the number of complaints citywide:

In 2005, there were only 62 bedbug complaints, which soared to 366 last year, according to the city. Astoria had the third highest number of complaints, Vallone said. Although bedbugs do not transmit any diseases, they are still pose a health crisis for city residents according to the councilman.

“Other cities don’t consider bed bugs a crisis but when people aren’t sleeping they can develop physical and mental problems,” he said.

Perhaps the paper meant to cite statistics for Astoria? The city reported much higher numbers of complaints in 2007 city-wide. The press release about the seminars says,

In Fiscal Year 2007 alone, the City’s 311 hotline received nearly 7,000 bedbug related complaints and HPD housing inspectors issued over 2,000 violations to building owners all across the City. By comparison, Fiscal Year 2004 saw only 1,800 complaints and less than 400 violations issued.

We should remember these are only the people who called 311 to complain about bed bugs, which it appears most tenants and no coop or condo owners do. The numbers also leave out the NYC housing authority residents who had bed bugs last year. Douglas Feiden’s December report in The Daily News reported that there were

… 1,708 verified bedbug cases in 277 public housing projects this year [2007], the city Housing Authority says.

The city and the media leave us to do the math: New York City knows of approximately 3700 tenants who had bed bugs last year. They have no data on non-NYCHA tenants who reported bed bugs to their landlords directly, nor those who called pest control operators themselves, nor on co-op, condo or other homeowners.

From where I sit, hearing the stories of New York bedbuggers daily–and knowing only a small percentage call 311 about their bed bug problem–this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Vallone is also wrong that other cities don’t consider bed bugs a crisis. Lexington, Kentucky, Cincinnati, Ohio, and San Francisco, California, are all US cities that are taking bed bugs seriously. Though responses have been limited so far, some of these cities have expended more money and energy per capita on bed bugs than New York has, by far.

And outside the US, Vancouver is also taking bed bugs seriously with a number of responses. Toronto is currently figuring out what to do.

Also this week, the New York Press blogged about the bed bug “education campaign”, and used one of Bedbugger mangy_cur’s excellent bed bug photos. Congratulations, mangy_cur!

They also linked to a thread in our forums, which we do appreciate (thanks, Emily Meredith of nypress.com!) though it’s always a little embarrassing when people arrive first via a forums thread, like a new guest coming to visit for the first time off the fire escape and through the kitchen window. But we welcome them nonetheless.

Update 1/21: CBS on the bed bug seminars; includes interview with Lou Sorkin who stresses that people need to look for the tiny, translucent nymphs which will be more common than rust-colored adults.

• Lexington, KY vs. New York, NY: a tale of two bedbugged cities
• Tomorrow’s bed bug seminar in New York (Tuesday 2/5/2008)
• Roger Smith Hotel on Lexington in NYC: latest bed bug lawsuit
• Columbia Spectator on bed bugs, again with the HPD statistic soup

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The article is a pretty standard “bed bugs are spreading in our area” story. However, the section entitled “The Facts” gives a hint of how far the news media has come as far as understanding bed bugs.

For example, this anticipates the “Oh, we all have bugs in our bed” response:

Although all of us will be living with dust mites, they are not a patch on ever-multiplying bed bugs.

And this gets people beyond the “bed bugs live in your mattress” fixation:

Their daytime home will be in the cracks of walls, the fibre of mattresses, behind pictures and in wallpaper and headboards.

And this gets people beyond just looking for visible itchy bites, which do not afflict all with bed bugs:

Tell-tale signs of infestation, apart from bites on the skin, include small blood spots on bed sheets and tiny black marks by mattress seams, caused by the bugs squeezing out excess blood to crawl back into their hiding spaces after they feed.

While the media are still making errors, and the comments to this article give a sense of how much the public still needs to be educated, I am glad that journalists are now giving much more information about bed bugs and their signs.

Remember when we were told to flip mattresses to look for bed bugs, as if it were always so easy? Or that tossing out mattresses was a solution to one’s bed bug problems? We have a way to go, but we are making progress.

The to those in Scotland: other areas of the country are also experiencing the same. Click to see a map of Bedbugger readers in Scotland and the rest of the UK and Ireland. (Hint: the incidence of Bedbugger readers appears to correspond to the population density of a given area.) Dundee, Glasgow and Clydeside, Aberdeen, Fife, and other regions also have bed bugs.

At this point, I think it’s safe to say that bed bugs are everywhere.

• Forget black mattress stains, bed bugs, shells, and eggs: NMPA press release tells consumers to look for “blood spots”
• Queries from Bed Bug Helloise: hanging clothes storage?
• Tampa Bay and Southwest Florida residents: do not use the DE from your pool
• Bed bugs spreading in Finland too

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