His lease was terminated Sept. 27, about a month after he said he posted fliers alleging that bedbugs had invaded 11 apartments, including his own. A hearing on the eviction notice will take place Oct. 26 at Superior Court in Morristown.

Rutgers Village, in an Oct. 2 court filing, placed the bedbug blame squarely on Veghte.

The apartment complex alleged that Veghte, on or before Sept. 17, “either intentionally or through gross negligence, created an infestation condition within his apartment” that he initially failed to report. The landlord also alleged that Veghte refused to cooperate with extermination efforts.

How could Veghte have “intentionally” caused a bed bug infestation within his apartment? Does this mean he sought out bed bugs, brought them in, and infested his home?!?

How could he have “created” the infestation through “gross negligence”? While it is true that someone might have bed bugs for a time and not report them, thus allowing the problem to escalate, we know that different people react to bites in different ways, and bed bugs can be hard to find. Unless they are crawling over the walls all day, it seems like it would be nearly impossible to prove how long someone had them and known about it.

Failing to report the infestation promptly is another matter, and we really do not know what went on there.

Parsippany housing coordinator Rena Plaxe said she was contacted by Veghte several times but did not intervene in the dispute. Plaxe said it appeared that the landlord had acted reasonably.

“From what I understand, he found a bedbug. He put it in a Ziploc bag. He took it to the management office. They set up an extermination process for his apartment, but he’s been unable or unwilling to properly prepare the apartment. Therein lies the problem,” said Plaxe, adding that the landlord was able to do only “a cursory treatment” as a result.

It does sound as if “unable” to prepare is more likely than “unwilling” to prepare. Read on:

Veghte, a former truck driver who said he had not worked since 2002 due to three herniated disks and osteoarthritis in his neck and back, said he was unable to remove items from cabinets and closets as requested by the landlord to aid in extermination.

“I’m disabled. I asked them for help,” Veghte said.

What should disabled people do, if they ask landlords for help with prep and do not get it? Who can they, or the landlord, call?

And why would a landlord evict a disabled person who could not do their prep? Veghte claims there’s more to the story.

Rob Jennings reports for the Daily Record that Veghte feels he is being evicted because he told neighbors about the bed bugs via a flyer he distributed on August 25th. He received the eviction order on Sept. 27, and the building sent tenants a letter about bed bugs on October 10th. Regardless of anything else that happened, the building clearly did not warn Veghte’s fellow tenants about the possibility they were infested until six and a half weeks after Veghte distributed the flyers. They had to have known of this possibility since at least late September, at least two weeks before October 11, since the man was evicted then.

Assuming Veghte did distribute the flyers without notifying the landlord of his infestation directly, which was not a good idea, several weeks at most could be proven to have passed between his knowing about the infestation and his notifying the office as per Plaxe’s description.

His lease was terminated Sept. 27, about a month after he said he posted fliers alleging that bedbugs had invaded 11 apartments, including his own. A hearing on the eviction notice will take place Oct. 26 at Superior Court in Morristown.

Veghte’s being represented by Legal Aid.

This is not the first time someone has been evicted for not doing the prep required for treatment. Last December, multiple families (including one with a disabled son) were evicted from an Edmonton, Alberta building for not properly preparing for bed bug treatment. Read more about that here. In that case and this one, the evicted individuals claimed to be unable to complete all the steps of required preparation. These can vary depending on the PCO. In the Edmonton building, the tenants complained of not being able to move furniture and other items, and not having anywhere to move them to. As the article implies, they may not have fully understood the reasons for prep, or how to go about it.

In the current New Jersey case, Veghte is disabled. Although I understand that landlords do not feel they can do tenants’ prep, it simply is not acceptable that disabled persons, or for that matter, elderly people, busy single parents, or anyone else who has difficulty doing required preparations, should be evicted. Preparations can be time-consuming and demanding on one’s energy and physical abilities. If people need help, then there must be government agencies who will provide assistance in cases where people simply cannot do the physical labor, or do it quickly enough.

Make no mistake: tenants must report bed bugs promptly if they are aware of them (and whether Veghte did or not is uncertain), and prep needs to be completed properly before treatment. Not doing so puts neighbors as well as the property in jeopardy, and I am not supporting anyone who fails to do those things. However, people who need help with prep must get this help. We cannot expect disabled or elderly people, or those with other legitimate limitations, to simply find help somehow. As a society that does not evict people for being physically challenged, we simply have to provide help.

If this man is really being evicted for not doing prep, his eviction amounts to discrimination, and it’s just plain wrong.

Let this story be a warning to tenants: notify your landlord promptly, and in writing, the minute you suspect a bed bug infestation. People whose first instinct is to simply self-treat could conceivably be accused of not reporting an infestation. In NYC, landlords are often happy to try and evict you, since they can raise the rent for the next guy. Don’t give them any excuse for doing so.

And a warning to landlords: make sure your tenants understand how and why they need to prepare. Many good PCOs will give a talk at the building for tenants about the hows, the whys, and the wherefores. Education is key here. However, you have a responsibility too–to let tenants know of neighbors’ infestations. If you don’t, you may be sued, like this Chicago landlord. All’s fair in love and torts.

And a warning to the rest of the world: we must find ways to help people who cannot prepare for treatment.

Or there are soon going to be a lot more disabled people, elderly people, and parents of young children on the streets. What a shame.

• More from Edmonton bed bug evictions case
• Bedbug evictions: Edmonton tenants evicted because they did not prepare for spraying
• Still more from Nashua, New Hampshire: fewer bed bugs at 23-25 Temple St.
• Bed bugs & tenant organizing: don’t take this lying down

ShareThis

They’ve started a bed bug hotline for “tips and information,” and people are asked to completely encase infested items in plastic before disposing of them. Residents can call to have infested items picked up curbside by a dedicated sanitation crew that knows what they’re picking up.

Dale Grigsby, Cincinnati Health Department: “Get the stuff as clean as you can, cracks and crevices of the mattresses and box springs, the best thing you can do is wrap them, completely encase them in some sort of a plastic, zippered liner, bed bugs can’t feed if they can’t get out, and that’s where they harbor.”

I note that even though Cincinnati officials remind us that bed bugs do not spread disease, the Cincinnati Health Department is a key player in this campaign.

Residents are also being warned about the dangers of used and rented furniture.

And one woman’s story reminds us how easily bed bugs may travel home with us. Pamela Mackey believes she got them from a hospital where she spent two days at her husband’s bedside; apparently, it came home in a sealed envelope:

After staying by her husbands bedside for a few days at University Hospital recently, Pamela Mackey says she returned home, and opened the admissions packet to find something she didn’t want to see.

Pamela Mackey, Bond Hill: “Took out a letter and unbeknownst to me there was a little critter…and my dismay I crushed this little critter and blood everywhere.”

Mackey says the critter was a bedbug, and while she contacted the hospital to tell them she’s still…

“Angry because I had brought something into my home that previously had not occupied my space.”

Click to view the video. For anyone in Cincinnati who’s reading this, you probably know more than we do! But just in case, the bed bug hotline for Cincinnati residents only is (513) 591-6000. (If you’re not in Cincinnati, please don’t use that number. Seek the services of a qualified PCO, read our FAQs, and come to the forum if you have questions!)

I am very impressed with the way the government in Cincinnati is trying to work on this. I seriously hope that the news reports will focus on treatment options, as well as furniture disposal, which seems to be a major focus. It is essential to get a hold on bed bug refuse in order to halt the spread. However, good bed bug treatment, from experienced PCOs who know bed bugs, is also essential. It’s important that people know how to find a good PCO, and also know about the dangers of self-treating this difficult pest situation. Other tips might also help Cincinnati residents solve their bed bug issues more swiftly.

Cincinnati is still the only city in the US that is taking action on such a large scale. And there is still so much more that can be done. Mayor Bloomberg, are you listening? I’ll bet you a bucket of diatomaceous earth that New York City’s got more bed bugs per capita than Cincinnati. It’s a bet I hate to win, but I think my odds are good. Why are we waiting, New Yorkers?

• Bed bugs taking over Wales too; hospitals and bed bugs
• Cincinnati Establishes Bed Bug Furniture Pick-Up Procedures and Hotline
• Cincinnati: awareness spreading, funds needed to fight bed bugs
• More from Cincinnati: senior housing complex

ShareThis

Erica Shaw, Orkin customer service representative, said the problem should not be taken lightly.

“It’s a serious problem,” Shaw said. “They are not the easiest to get rid of. If one tenant has it in their apartment, they risk the chance of wasting their money because they come back again. They should fumigate the apartment complex. It can get worse if not treated.”

Bed bugs are increasingly becoming a problem, she said, adding that they are everywhere, from hotels to cruise ships, dormitories, shelters and apartments.

[Tenants] The Langlaises say they have spent thousands of dollars on three sprayings through Orkin. The apartment complex didn’t offer to pay, they said.
The Langlaises have been posting fliers on the doors of other tenants of the complex to notify them of problem. On Thursday, as the Langlaises put up the fliers, the maintenance man tore them down, denying the infestation exists.

“Some people might not even know, the only way they would know is if they get really a bad infestation,” Gerald Langlais said.
Shaw agrees.
“Even if you spray one apartment, [bed bugs] could travel through the walls and go into another apartment and come back,” Shaw said.

The Langlaises have the right idea about trying to organize fellow tenants, something we often suggest here at Bedbugger, in cases where others in the building are (or are likely) infested, and landlords are not taking care of things.

As we suggest in the FAQ on organizing tenants, the Langlaises should put notices under the doors of neighbors, if possible, since landlords who don’t care enough about their tenants to get rid of bed bugs properly, are probably also not going to enjoy seeing them organize themselvs and inform one another.

• Bedbugs called “a new kind of roach”; building managment lies
• ABC 7 Eyewitness News: Edison, NJ infestation
• Bridgeport, Connecticut tenants have had bed bugs more than a year
• Dumpster-diving tenant evicted after Winnipeg apartment seriously infested with bed bugs

ShareThis

If you’ve looked at the FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) page recently, you probably had to strain your eyes to find what you were looking for. It was a bit of a mess. I am proud to say we now have way too many FAQs for one page, and have for some time.

So I have finally gotten around to creating seven sub-pages. The main FAQs page is still at http://bedbugger.com/faqs/ and it looks exactly like this:

Bed Bugs 101: the following two FAQs should be read by everyone:

Think you have bed bugs? Some do’s and don’ts

What do bed bugs look like? How do I know I have them? What else could be causing similar symptoms?

The remainder of our FAQs are grouped by topic as follows:

pest control, treatment, pesticides, natural remedies, etc.

who pays for bed bug treatment, and other legal issues

getting bed bugs out of your bed (and keeping them out)

eliminating bed bugs from clothes, shoes, and other stuff

bed bugs, skin, and bites

travel: how to avoid getting bed bugs or giving them to others

questions about Bedbugger.com and how to use it

The same issues come up with so many of us that I really believe most people should read most of the FAQs (saving some of the more esoteric ones like, “Is there an insect that will eat bed bugs?”)

I also want to note that I only cross-posted two of the FAQs–all the rest are only under one category. If you take part in the forums and send people to the FAQs (thank you!), you might want to familiarise yourself with how they are grouped.

But I do hope that the new structure helps people find what they’re looking for more quickly–and that it helps us send them there more quickly.

Please comment below if you have any feedback or suggestions (since commenting on this on the FAQs pages will get kind of messy).

• Update: bed bug resources in Spanish: PCO assistance needed!
• updated FAQ
• Welcome Bedbuggers!
• Update: bed bug resources in Spanish: PCO assistance needed!

ShareThis

If you need bed bug advice, have a bed bug horror story, want to update us on an ongoing issue, or have a great idea, post a comment below. We’ll respond.

(And when the forums are back, we’ll go back there.)

Thanks for your patience, and don’t be shy. We’re still here to help, despite the capricious whims of the technogods.trolls.

• Son of “Share your tales of Bed Bug Woe”
• Share your tales of Bed Bug Woe
• Your Bed Bug Questions, Tales of Bed Bug Woe, etc.
• Tales of Bed Bug Woe: ask questions, share advice and stories about bed bugs

ShareThis

This is pretty clearly a photo of a bed bug.

My question is: is there anything I can do in the meantime to help
protect myself in case this guy is a portent of things to come?

I should mention that I read the “bedbug dos-and-don’ts” and am clear
about not moving sleeping locations, etc. I also already have plastic
and allergenic covers on my mattress, bed frame and pillows, due to dust
allergies. I haven’t seen any bites, or evidence that bedbugs have been
anywhere near my bed–no blood trails, no black dots on the sheets,
etc.

I don’t want to freak out unnecessarily if this is a false alarm–but
I’d also hate to worsen the situation while I wait for a diagnosis.

First, Waiting, we’re sorry you are the latest person to read our “Do’s and Don’ts.” I mean, you definitely came to the right place, but I do wish the website could be closed down due to lack of relevance. (Or perhaps retained as a historical artefact of the internet?) Someday soon, I hope.

Anyway, you mention (in a part of your email not quoted) that your building is massive, and that the management reports bed bug complaints to be extremely rare. It sounds like your building management, like others all over the place, is going to find they become more and more frequent. A very large building such as yours will require education of the residents about spotting bed bugs and their signs (for example, many people do not react to bites, and will have to be on the lookout for other signals), and constant vigilance from everyone living there.

The bad news is, bed bugs walking around in daylight is a bad sign. Seeing even one bug is a bad sign.

The good news is that if you have inspected carefully and found no black fecal spots or specks (which can resemble magic marker on the bed, but can also resemble little black flecks of pepper), no blood spots (which can be bedbug-sized, or very small red or rust-colored pinpricks on the sheets), and no other bed bugs, eggs, or cast skins of any size (remember the nymphs can be 1/32 inch large and white, tan, red, or brown, the adults 1/6 inch), then perhaps the one you saw was a new arrival.

However, to be safe, you should assume that you have them somewhere, and have a Pest Control Operator (PCO) inspect carefully, and have the PCO treat your home.

Have the PCO inspect the apartment and furniture, including your mattress and pillow encasings, your bed frame, and other furniture in the room. If the bed/pillow encasings do not cover the entire mattress or pillow, or there are even small tears or holes, bed bugs could be living inside and going in and out. You say you have a covered frame, though any exposed parts of the frame may be harboring bed bugs. They like to hide in the tiniest spaces and they are very stealthy. One Bedbugger was told by her PCO that they could even hide in the veneer on the surface of the wood furniture. Hiding in the joints of table legs or within bed frames is entirely possible.

They can live in the floorboards, light fixtures, behind electrical plates, and in sofas, chairs, computer chairs, and other soft furniture. None of this is reason to panic! I am only going through all this because it really is essential that the space is checked carefully. You may not see any more bed bugs and may still have them–lots of us never find one–some are bitten badly for six months and do not find an actual bug, egg, or cast skin. (On that count, you’re lucky–because now you can take action!)

Do take it seriously, and have the PCO come and treat the whole apartment. It should not be the person who does preventative roach spraying for the building, but someone who really knows how to get rid of bed bugs. The PCO will give you extensive instructions for preparing for treatment (moving the furniture, washing and drying all clothes on hot and bagging in sealed plastic bags (e.g. XL Ziplocs). It may take you some time to do all that, but it is necessary. It also may seem like a lot in case you do just have “one bug” but the odds are you have more than one, or your neighbor(s) are sending more.

S/he will also treat your bed (encasements removed). After treatment, just to be safe, you may want to re-encase the mattress, pillow and box springs with fresh encasements designed to stop bed bugs, and you may want to “isolate your bed” as per our FAQs on protecting the bed. There are encasements that are vinyl on the inside and cloth outside, and others which are just vinyl, but it’s essential there are no small gaps, since the 1 mm first instar nymphs can go through the tiniest cracks.

If this one bug just wandered in from a neighbor on any side, as is likely, then they will keep coming. So your building should have the PCO inspect, and treat if necessary, every adjacent unit in a clover pattern (top, bottom, and on every side).

If you do have more than one bug living there, then the PCO will likely have to come back 2 or three times at two week-intervals (because the eggs do not get killed, and hatch in 10-14 days.

Other FAQs should be useful as you ensure your home is made bed bug free. The best thing I can say is if you can get your building to take this seriously, with as many units as it has, they would be wise to be aggressive in trying to locate and treat all infestations.

Hope that helps, but feel free to get in touch via the comments below (or the forums) if you have more questions.

• Old mattresses given out as charity: will cause more harm than good
• FAQ: How do I protect my bed from bed bugs?
• how stealthy bed bugs can be
• Saskatoon professional development conference apparently bedbugged

ShareThis

There was much content and these few paragraphs I write here can cover only some things that struck me. This post unfortunately cannot serve as a comprehensive overview of the many topics that were raised or speakers who addressed us, not all of which I could comment on below. It was an excellent program and I’m sorry it wasn’t pod-casted for everyone here to participate and benefit.

The conference gave out a one-page resource guide and our blog was listed 4 times. Not only bedbugger.com, but also three specific URLs for FAQ’s. (think-you-have-bed-bugs, advice-on-getting treatment, how-do-I-protect my bed).

The overall tone was set by the first speaker, a Senior Health Inspector/toxicologist, with the first slides “Got bedbugs? Act immediately. No time for blame.” There were leaders from the Allston Brighton Community Development group that is so pro-active about bedbugs, and someone from Somerville who was also a great community activist. These were caring, sharp people who are out in the municipal trenches!

One presentation at the conference was a live demonstration of a home inspection. They had a mattress and box spring right there on the stage and inspected it. They felt an inspection should take a minimum of an hour and that the inspector should look at the underside of your box spring. Though they felt that with current practices, mattresses could be bagged and furniture treated, but they said that box springs frequently had to be discarded.

There was a lively one-hour question period with a panel of savvy inspectors and local PCOs (which I learned can also be called PMPs now). They knew their stuff. They were very much into people not moving when they had bedbugs. They said they had a case where a unit was so infested the two tenants were moved into a hotel. The tenants moved with only their medications and the clothes they had on. In three days there was evidence these tenants had taken bedbugs with them to the hotel! So they said unless you shower, put new clothes on, and take absolutely **nothing** with you, there is a chance you can take bedbugs with you. (My note: I wonder if bedbugs were transported in shoes or a wallet or the cuff of a pant leg or something?)

The PCOs were fan of using hair dryers when one inspects. Not to kill bedbugs, though they did agree you might be able to kill a bedbug if you a hair dryer up close to it on very high for 5 minutes or more — they used hair dryers as “an inspectional tool” to test to see where bedbugs were when they went into an apartment. They said bedbugs were frequently in clock radios by the bed, and you could aim a hot hair dryer at something like a clock radio and the heat would make the bedbugs come out of the unit.

Though they showed various pesticides, including SteriFab, which they said was 90% alcohol and a contact killer. They said pretty much anything could kill bedbugs on contact, but the problem was you rarely saw bedbugs and you wanted something that would kill the ones you didn’t see.

They were against preventive spraying and said it did nothing. They said preventive inspections were what you should do, and stressed education of everyone, e.g., how hotels had trained housekeeping to look for bedbugs.

In the afternoon there was a panel of three lawyers. The lawyers stressed cooperation and not having an adversarial relationship with the landlord. They said bedbug cases the victims were usually awarded punitive damages of 3 to 7 times the cost incurred, plus legal fees which can be high. They talked of a case where the punitive damages were $26,000 and the legal fees were $25,000, so the landlord had to pay a lot.

In Massachusetts, a landlord who has more than a certain number of tenants (not a small landlord who is living in a 3-family house with the tenants) is considered as running a business and you can go against the landlord as a business using the Consumer Protection Act. They refer to it as 93A, and you have to start with a “93A demand letter.” There were many grey areas, such as who paid if tenants needed to have furniture replaced or if they had to have alternative housing. The panel of lawyers thought the landlord should not only pay for the extermination, repeated ones, but also for the cleaning of the clothes. They said a landlord could not refuse to rent to you if you had bedbugs because it would be discriminatory.

All in all, I really enjoyed the day. There was a lot of other information conveyed that I already knew so I didn’t refer to it here. I realized how I had learned so much from this blog already, but, even so, it was amazing to go to a day-long bedbug conference and learn even more. I particularly liked being surrounded by people who clearly know how serious the bedbug problem is and are educated and committed to addressing it. Great job.

Any errors in my interpretation of what was said at the conference are my own. They were the experts. I was just gratefully taking notes as I learned more at a day at “The College of Bedbug Knowledge.”

PS: There was some discussion of how pets can have bedbugs. They even showed a slide with a parakeet. I know my parakeets were bitten by bedbugs, and it brought a tear to my eye and I was touched, not just because of my screen name here.

• Saskatoon professional development conference apparently bedbugged
• Bed bugs in Lincoln, Nebraska
• Boston and bed bugs: Mayor Bloomberg in NYC could learn a thing or two
• bed bugs in 1920s NYC orphanages; San Francisco building dep., health dept. bed bug inspectors

ShareThis

First, WLNS of Lansing, Michigan warns that bed bugs are the pest of the 21st century, that they “wreak havoc on your skin and your life,” their incidence has increased 75% n five years (oh, I’d say much more than that), and fighting an infestation is costly, upwards of $300 per room. After scaring the living bejaysus out of the good (Lansonians? Lansineers?), what one, tiny pithy nugget of practical advice do they give?

When returning from a trip, experts say it’s a good idea to vacuum out your suitcase.

Well, it’s not bad advice, but is that the only thing you’ve got for us WLNS? Looks like your readers might need them a few Bedbugger FAQs.

WVLT in Tennessee also seems to have latched on to the phrase “bug of the 21st century.” (All right, which entomologist let that one out of the bag? Well, if it replaces that nursery-rhyme mumbo-jumbo, then we’re on to a good thing, I guess.)

More suggestions here, including suitcase-vacuuming (again, I’m sensing a pattern here), and the warning to those who are thinking it’s a bedsheet issue,

If you’re leaving for a trip, don’t think taking your own bedding will help. They live in the mattress.

Just make sure and check the bed before bringing your stuff to the room.

Well, sorta, but not quite: they also live in the baseboards, bed frame, electrical sockets, light fixtures, ceiling, floor, and sofa, among other places. The information is more plentiful for Tennessee than for Lansing, Michigan, but the quality is a bit hit-or-miss. They’re obsessed with bed bugs being “in the mattress,” but they also warn people not to toss vacuum bags in the trash, and so on. (Tennesee is also playing a bit fast and loose with the rules of punctuation, spelling, and grammar, so compulsive proofreaders and your high school English teacher should steer clear!)

OSU’s student paper The Lantern reports that an infested grad student dorm at Ohio State University is getting some serious “fumigation” in response to bed bugs. The collection of all students’ non-washable belongings—isolated, bagged, placed in red carts—sounds promising. It’s a bit mysterious what will happen to that stuff (in the red carts, they have to be red carts!), but hopefully it will be picked through with a fine-toothed comb by PCOs with bed bug knowledge, and returned.

If this is so, and if OSU also follows up at 10-14 day intervals (follow-up was not mentioned at all in the article), this would not be unlike the Stanford bed bug protocol, which we believe to be the best reported in any response to college dorm bed bugs. (You can scroll down this list to see past coverage on Bedbugger of Stanford bed bug cases, and gawk at the love fest I’ve put on for Stanford upon hearing the descriptions of how San Francisco’s Crane PCO and the Stanford admin dealt with those cases. It’s beautiful, really.) I only note this because reports have also come from many other colleges of poor bed bug procedures.

Update 5/25: 100 rooms on 3 floors are being treated. Bed bugs were found on the 9th and 11th floors, and they’re treating the 10th as well. (What about the 8th?)

Finally, Australians appear to have been battling bed bugs a wee bit longer than those of us in the US. (Canada, too, a bit ahead in the Bed Bug Olympics.) So no surprise that they’re at the forefront of innovation: this dry steamer does the bed bug killing job, without getting your stuff all wet (that’s dry steam, i.e. no mold!) Their website says,

Duplex Cleaning Machines has a variety of industrial and commercial strength steam products to tackle bed bug epidemic including the Jet Steam, Tosca and JetVac range.

The JetVac Professional Plus is an ideal solution to the bed bug problem as it delivers 160°+ Dry Steam with a tool which applies the steam evenly without blowing the bugs away and then also vacuums away the dead bugs and their eggs.

Wait, they have a steamer named Tosca? Puccini must be tossing in his grave.

But the question on everyone’s mind: when will my PCO have one? I can just see it now, integrated pest management: first, they bring in the bed bug dog. Then the dry steaming and caulking. And finally, the chemical and mechanical onslaught begins. Well, the bug of the 21st century needs the PCO of the 21st century, no?

• Stanford bed bugs: university fights back
• Stanford still fighting bed bugs
• Stanford U bed bugs: being fought with enthusiasm and wisdom
• bedbugs at Stanford University dorms (again)

ShareThis

Laundry

This FAQ started out with the title: “Heat and bed bugs: 5 minutes in a dryer– really? Say it’s so!” The first part outlines my reaction to a brief article, and the second answers many of my questions with a more detailed article. I realize this is kind of roundabout, but I did not want to delete the original post entirely.

I started out by considering a fascinating brief article in PCT Online (Dec 2006) that rounds up information provided by bed bug researchers in a panel at the 2006 National Pest Management Association Conference. What’s interesting is that the researchers cover a wide variety of topics (from the efficacy of various pesticides to the usefulness (or not) of vacuuming, steaming, and hot dryers.

Personally, I was intrigued by University of Kentucky entomologist Michael Potter’s assertion that a normal machine wash would kill bed bugs (”normal” as in, not hot ?), and five minutes in a hot dryer would kill bed bugs and eggs. I said I’d like to see more data on this–I did not doubt it at all, but is it really so? Since a wash won’t kill eggs, this must be why the hot wash / hot dry combo are always recommended in university fact sheets. We’re told the dryer is what kills the eggs. But I think I’ve only seen Dr. Potter being quoted as saying five minutes drying was enough.

A hot dryer apparently runs at about 180 F. I doubt this temperature is achieved after five minutes, though. Can five minutes on a temperature somewhere below 194 F be enough, when companies providing thermal treatments do so at a core temperature of 140 F for four hours? (Winston clarifies this in the comments.)

But this is the only source I’ve seen on “five minutes being enough” (though it has been quoted in newspaper articles). Personally, habit and skepticism have had me recommending drying for over an hour. I always say, “dry on hot till it’s bone dry, then add 20 minutes.”

But then, dear Reader, I confess, I dotted my bed with lavender oil for months, hoping its reputed repellent properties would keep bed bugs away. I figured it probably wouldn’t, and it didn’t. But it was hard to give up this habit, since I believed it might be helping. That is kind of irrational, but I guess that’s what sleeping 4 hours a night does for you.

Since washing and drying and storing clothing properly can make such a difference to bed bug treatment, I emphasized that we want to be sure we’re doing it right. It would be such a blessing for people to only have to dry things on hot for five minutes. It would save not only time, but lots of clothing items that simply can’t handle washing on hot and drying for an hour on hot. For those reasons, I hoped we could get more information on the research that was done.

So then, I remembered one motto here at Bedbugger Ask, and ye shall receive. (Information, people, only ask for information. If you need $500, it ain’t gonna happen.)

And lo and behold, Hopelessnomo pointed me to more information that is available from Michael Potter (and colleagues) in another PCT article, this one from January 2007. SO I have re-titled and re-written this post, since it now is a whole lot more useful and contains a whole lot more tidbits.

I’ll quote the section on laundry in full:

Bed bugs often infest bedding, clothing and other personal belongings which cannot be treated with insecticides. An oft-mentioned way to de-bug such items is laundering — yet to our knowledge, no testing has been done to verify effectiveness. A simple experiment was conducted to study this question. Three groups of live bed bug adults, nymphs and eggs were placed in small nylon mesh pouches which were then placed inside cotton socks. The bed bug-provisioned socks (along with a full load of clothing) were then run through a standard wash cycle using hot water. A second trial was run with similarly infested socks placed only in a clothes dryer. The bed bug-laden socks were accompanied by a load of unwashed clothing and subjected to high heat (greater than 175° F) for five minutes. No bed bugs or eggs survived the washing or drying cycles, suggesting that either regimen, alone or in combination, is effective.

Clothing, footwear, area rugs, toys, stuffed animals, backpacks and other non-launderable items can conveniently be de-infested by heating them for a period of time in a dryer at most settings. For reference, a typical clothes dryer run for five minutes at low, medium or high heat produced temperatures of about 140, 150 and 180°F, respectively, amongst a bundle of dry clothing– plenty hot to kill bed bugs. While certain items may require professional dry-cleaning, utilizing conventional washers and dryers may help limit the spread of bed bugs to these establishments.

This information suggests that either a hot machine wash, or a hot dryer running for five minutes with already dry clothing, will kill bed bugs and eggs. As Nomo suggests in the comments below (written before I added this update) “five minutes with dry items” is not so different from what we’ve been recommending at Bedbugger all along: “bone dry plus 20 minutes.” Well, make that “bone dry plus five.” I don’t blame if you if, like me, you’re a bit skeptical and want to stick to “twenty minutes past dry”– we won’t call you neurotic.

As John sang, “Whatever gets you through the night, it’s alright, it’s alright.” For Bedbuggers, that’s another motto around here. The promise of a good night’s sleep is the grail.

The rest of the information from the January article is also more detailed and informative than the summary from December. Let me give you the highlights from what Dr. Potter et. al. recommend:

Discarding infested stuff: yes, but only if necessary. Seek a qualified PCO’s advice (qualified = knows the enemy well). If you are tossing it, wrap it well (and mark it!) and realize that if your neighbors or surrounding community pick up the item, they may come back via a crack in your shared wall, a visit to a dry cleaner’s, or the local diner. That should make anyone think twice and thrice.

Encasement: use high quality encasings that won’t tear.

Vacuums: harder to pick up bed bugs and eggs than you think; doesn’t really help unless you hit their harborage areas in a targeted way. Discard bags carefully (bed bugs can survive the trip down the hose), and do not use vacuum brushes, since they can lodge in the bristles. The dirty little so-and-so’s.

Steam

Steaming: it works, but commercial steamers only. Must be deadly hot and applied carefully (read the article!)

Collette, a reader, shared her success story here: she used steam to get bed bugs out of her home.

Readers and PCOs have recommended the following dry steamers for home use:

This is the White Wing steamer that S mentioned in this thread.

This is the Reliable T730a that reader pleasehelp had seen recommended by a PCO:

Seasonal temperatures (”putting stuff outside”)

Regarding seasonal temperatures, backpackers take note: We get a lot of questions at Bedbugger about whether “leaving stuff outside” works–and occasionally hear from people who tried it and failed. I think it comes down to the temperature, the length of time, and what you provided the bed bugs to nestle in. (The last complaint I heard was someone whose down comforter had bed bugs surviving the cold — well, perhaps it was a very warm down comforter, and maybe it just was not cold enough outside to freeze them within it.) The article says:

Lethal outdoor temperatures have long been employed in the battle against bed bugs. In the tropics, infested bedding is often left out in the sun and such methods can also be used during warm seasons in this country. It’s risky, however, to rely on ambient heating to achieve lethal temperatures in all harborage locations. Wrapping items in plastic before placing them outdoors in a sunny location (preferably on pavement), produces higher internal temperatures. It also pays not to over pack — more trash bags with fewer items make it harder for bed bugs to find cooler places to hide. Monitoring with a thermometer is also prudent, with a target internal temperature of at least 120° F.

In colder climates, freezing might be a way to de-infest furniture and other belongings. Bed bugs and their eggs can be killed by very low temperatures, but it is difficult to achieve them without using a deep freezer. Temperatures below 0°F for one to two weeks are generally believed to be needed to reliably kill all life stages. Fluctuating winter temperatures which often extend above this level are probably less effective and are currently being studied by Dr. Steven Kells at the University of Minnesota. Overall and throughout much of the country, heating tends to be a faster, more reliable option than chilling.

Well, that’s all for now. I greatly appreciated reading this research. Thanks to Dr. Potter and his team.

And special thanks to Hopelessnomo, who mentioned the article in the forums, and directed me to further sources.

Update (7/19/2007):

Additional information on thermal, cold, steam, etc. is included in Stephen L. Doggett’s Bed Bug Code of practice. See the table of contents.

Frank, at the War on Bed Bugs, also did an interesting post on hot and cold treatments. Check it out.

Update (10/4/2007):

Some people have recommended something like this for drying shoes in the dryer:

Update 12/07:

If you are thinking of using a dry cleaner for some or all of your clothing, read this FAQ first!

Update 1/08:

NotSoSnug points us to a library protocol for getting bugs out of books:

I should add that there is a librarian protocol to heat paperwork at 130degF for 3hrs to kill insects (remember to include a pan of water to keep some humidity). Any longer will melt binding glue (I know I forgot one night and it did). Also, till tape receipts are heat sensitive so they will turn dark. Annoying if you need the receipts for business!

See the ‘Bookworm’ section, Paragraph #7:

http://www.unesco.org/webworld/ramp/html/r8820e/r8820e07.htm

Thanks, NotSoSnug!

• FAQ: dry cleaners and bed bugs
• FAQ: Leaving stuff out to freeze, walk-in freezers, etc: how cold and how long?
• Tales of bed bug woe: Allergicgirl’s questions
• FAQ: I stayed somewhere that had bed bugs. What do I do to keep from taking them home?

ShareThis

Information on how to spot bed bugs, the need to follow prep instructions to a T, and the need to report bed bugs promptly — and perhaps a reminder, if it’s relevant, that the landlord is responsible for payment — would all be useful in many cases.

Thanks to Bedbugger Kurt for alerting us to this photo.

• Bed bugs in Ventura County (Thousand Oaks, California)
• Marty Markowitz’s building has bed bugs
• New York City: Who’s responsible for paying for bed bug treatment? Complicated, in some cases.
• bed bugs in the media: the Today Show, Tuesday morning

ShareThis