Well, that’s amazing, right? Thank Goodness.

Interestingly, there’s more to this article.

Kelly’s living with bed bugs. Her husband is staying in the Gateway Shelter to get away from them, but Kelly is staying in their bedbugged apartment, because she is afraid she’ll lose her home otherwise.

[Husband Randy] Isenberg is staying at Gateway Shelter because their building is infested with bedbugs. He’s got the bite marks on his arms to prove it.

The Toronto Community Housing Corp. building where they live in the Eglinton Ave. and Allen Rd. area was part of a television exposé on the shabby state of public housing in Toronto. His wife remains in the building.

“She doesn’t want to move out because she’ll lose her unit,” he said.

Though she doesn’t sleep at night, Isenberg doesn’t believe fatigue played a part, he said. But existing health issues with her leg have not been helped by the stress.

I suppose if anything will put bed bugs in perspective, it’s escaping death by only seconds.

Despite what she says, I would not be surprised if fatigue did play a part. She is not sleeping because of the bed bugs. Many of us have been there, and know what a toll lack of sleep can mean to our health, productivity, and mental and emotional wellbeing.

I am so glad that Theresa Kelly’s story of tripping and falling onto the subway tracks has a happy ending. I just hope she doesn’t have to go home to bed bugs — and without her husband — for much longer.

• Toronto Community Housing does good; Orlando, Florida tenants and Billings, Montana shelter guest demonstrate why more bed bug education is needed
• Bed bugs in another women’s shelter in Charlotte, North Carolina
• After a fire, bed bugs “rain down from ceilings” into other apartments
• Bed bugs and the elderly: a story from St. Paul

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“By the time we found out what they were, they had totally coated the seams of the mattresses,” said Rempe.

She now finds bed bugs in the baseboards, closets and in cracks in the ceiling of her apartment.

The article mentions the fact that the landlord and tenant are at odds as to who is responsible for paying to get rid of the bed bugs.

Although the landlord and tenant in this case are working together, it’s a reminder that we need clearer laws in many places. Landlords may not want to foot the cost of bed bug treatment, but leaving it up to tenants (as is the case some places) means the problem may spread to others, and surely bring the property’s value down while it persists.

Rempe and her exterminator got advice from Barb Ogg of the University of Nebraska - Lincoln Extension Office:

Ogg said licensed exterminators must use insecticide every few weeks until inspections no longer reveal evidence of living bugs.

Tiny brown spots in patches on the wall indicate bed bug droppings, a tell-tale sign of a possible infestation.”You can’t just come in and spray the baseboards and leave,” Ogg said.Ogg instructed property managers of Rempe’s apartment to have exterminators drill holes in the ceiling to insert the pesticide, and then caulk the holes and plug up any cracks and crevices where the bugs might live.Rempe said exterminators have completed two treatments in recent weeks and she isn’t seeing as much bug activity as she had in the past. She said exterminators also treated the vacant apartments that share walls with her unit.

One lesson here is that if you live somewhere where bed bugs are less common at this time, contacting local authorities (like health or housing inspectors) and university experts (accessible via extension offices at universities) can help. Even if they have not seen bed bugs before, they should be able to network with colleagues elsewhere who have.

Bed Bugs Biting in Increasing Numbers, KETV Omaha

We’re expecting video on this story, but it’s not up as of yet.

The video is here. Search for bed bugs and choose the video from 1-28.  (I am on Firefox and using a Mac, and I do have both Flip4Mac and Windows Media Player but sadly, this is not working for me, but hopefully others will have more luck.)  Let me know if someone rips it to YouTube!

• Halifax tenants angry about bed bugs? Time for action.
• New York City: Who’s responsible for paying for bed bug treatment? Complicated, in some cases.
• Bowling Green Towers: residents organize to demand proper bed bug treatment in low-income building
• bed bugs in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and at Cornell University dorms

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In this installment, we learn that bed bugs are taking a significant toll on Brown’s self-identity and social life:

Despite my anger, even our bug-laden living situation is finally normalizing. This process started first as a change in identity: I now think of myself as ‘the guy with bedbugs.’ It’s how I introduce myself. Maybe it’s not the first thing I say, but it will come up in the first five minutes of a conversation. I am taking an acting class and in the first session I said “hey, I am Nick and I have bedbugs,” as if I was in some particularly gross AA session. When I hear someone mention bedbugs in a conversation at a table next to me, I feel obliged to chime in.

They’re also making home very disorganized and uncomfortable, no small problem for someone whose office is at home. Things are not where they used to be; instead, they’re in bags all over the place:

While I am tempted to reassemble my room and my office (which are the same place), I realize there is every chance that the bugs will be back again so I have stopped trying to create a livable space and now just settle for someplace with interior heating.

We also learn that Brown still has bed bugs, well past the 30-day window landlords are given to eliminate bed bugs, under local housing laws. It is not unusual for landlords to need more time, though. Turns out, there are other reasons to be angry at the landlord:

Day 39

Our landlord, we discovered today, knew this apartment had bugs. The previous tenants moved out because of the bedbugs. The whole building - minus our apartment - was sprayed for bedbugs in the months after we moved in. No one mentioned this to us.

Isn’t this illegal? As I commented on the paragraph above, on Nicholas Brown’s blog, this should be illegal. Landlords should not be able to rent out an apartment that is known to be infested with bed bugs, to an unsuspecting tenant. I have a suspicion, however, that it already violates the housing laws. If any NYC rental housing experts are reading this, perhaps they could clarify.

Moreover, if the entire building except one apartment was being treated, any experienced PCO and even the landlord should realize that this might drive even more bed bugs into this unit.

What strikes me most about Brown’s saga, through these six installments, is how very typical it is. We at bedbugger.com have heard it all many times. While I am horrified to hear Brown’s tale, I thank him for sharing it in such a public medium.

By doing so, he may just convey the mess that bed bugs create in one’s life, as well as how easy it is to get them, and how very difficult it is to get rid of them, to those not yet in the know. And that recognition, my friends, is the first step in getting everyone else to help us fight the problem.

• Brown student wants to provide free bed bug treatment to those who can’t pay
• landlords talking about bed bugs
• Brooklyn tenant not warned of bed bugs before moving in
• New York City: Who’s responsible for paying for bed bug treatment? Complicated, in some cases.

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As the clocks fall back, smoke detector batteries get changed, and the multi-colored leaves gracefully fall in their autumnal farewell, it means that a great American traditional holiday is almost upon us. So with pilgrim’s pride we search for that Alice’s Restaurant album or video and e-vite Thanksgiving guests, or work on better excuses than last year.

T’is the season of turkeys, tofurkeys and pumpkin pie but unfortunately it also has become a time for a seasonal redistribution of bed bugs. Whether it’s coming home from school, staying at a motel on the road or that quaint little cottage by the in-laws (if you’re lucky), you may not be traveling home alone. As a professional bed bug slayer, I as well as others have noticed an increase in nocturnal activity in the weeks following Thanksgiving. Now, with some time ahead of us, is the time to prepare to either sally forth or give some thought on how to protect your castle.

If you are traveling, try to avoid a late night stop at the only vacancy along the highway. Either plan not to stop, or select a place to stay and get there with enough time and energy to inspect your room and change it if necessary. Try to bring a minimum of things into the room, but remember not to leave too much in plain sight, or other things may get redistributed, like your luggage. If you do stay over consider keeping your suitcases in large plastic bags, and your clothes as well, and if you are traveling with a loved one, enjoy! If you are traveling with some else’s loved one, you may want to consider pajamas, but put them in a plastic bag when finished and put them in the dryer ASAP. Hey– what the heck? Wash ‘em too, it’s Thanksgiving!

If you are hosting folks who may have a bed bug issue the dryer is your best friend. Be diplomatic and polite with your guest because they are going through hell. But don’t let them infest your home.

If you are planning to visit and you have bed bugs, now is the time to plan ahead. Start by putting your clothes in the dryer to kill any bed bugs on them and then isolate them in a plastic ziploc bag or at a friend’s home. Get a new suitcase and isolate it as well. If you suspect something may contain bed bugs, don’t bring it. When you are ready to travel, shower, put on your prepared and protected clothes, and go pick up your stuff from your friend’s house. All this may sound a bit extreme or paranoid but you don’t want to be remembered for infesting the family.

Obviously a bunch of suggestions and comments will follow this post, and that’s the point of it: read the positive ones and give yourself enough time to plan and prepare for a Happy Thanksgiving.

And while we are giving thanks let’s give some to nobugs for working hard to help others sleep well.

Winston O’Buggy (not his real name) is a Pest Control Operator and Entomologist.

Editor’s note:

Thanks, Winston! Readers may also be interested in these travel-related FAQs:

How can I avoid spreading bed bugs to others when I visit their homes?

How can I avoid bed bugs while traveling?

How to report and check up on hotel bed bug infestations

• FAQ: How can I avoid spreading bedbugs to others when I visit their homes?
• Spring break bed bug warnings!
• Charlotte, NC Salvation Army Women’s Shelter has bed bugs again
• Salt Lake City Tribune on bed bugs: they don’t quite get it yet

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He posted volume 3 last week, which chronicles the “laundry and first treatment” phase. Somewhat unconventionally, Brown as his roommates Katherine and Jihad had not done much prep before their PCO showed up. He was kind enough to come back a few hours later, and so the team flew into motion. Brown’s style is engaging and the laundromat saga, in which the pushy ladies of the laundromat are put in their places, is fairly fun reading:

Our neighborhood has relatively few Laundromats and almost no one has a washer and dryer in-building, resulting in an atmosphere of intense and sometimes uncomfortably physical competition for the few available dryers. The already charged atmosphere is made particularly dangerous at our local Laundromat by a series of heavyset neighborhood Grand dames who are willing to throw their weight around. When I walked into the Laundromat, Katherine was facing down one such woman who had taken her clothes out of a washer and thrown them on the floor.

“What, you want to use all the dryers here at once!” the woman said

“Actually, yes.”

“Your clothes are dry.”

“They have bugs,” Katherine said.

Apparently she hadn’t mentioned this earlier. The effect was satisfying. Most people took at least a small step back and the grand dame who had been facing us down retreated completely. One woman, who had been rummaging through our clothes in an attempt to clear a dryer for herself, jerked her hands back so rapidly and with so much revulsion that it looked like the beginnings of an epileptic fit.

Volume 3 concludes with the “wait and be bait” period following the first treatment.

Volume 4 details various “crackpot” ideas for fighting bed bugs. My only critique would be that he nixes the idea of freezing books (when, in fact, freezing is a legit method for killing bed bugs), and freezes his VCR instead (note: I would not do this with electronics).

What Brown describes well is the experimental nature of so many solutions bed bug victims concoct. The last time people in New York City commonly had to deal with bed bugs was before World War II. Some of the folk remedies of that time worked and were dangerous, others probably did not work. In 2007, we are luckier than our ancestors; we have resealable bags, washing and drying machines, zipped encasements. Information travels faster now, but so does misinformation. Caveat bedbugger.

Brown also captures well the stress of life during bed bug wartime. By day 24 he says,

Our nerves are on edge. While it’s true that bedbugs generally fall into the category of ‘pests,’ it is underreported that they are also life-changing experiences. It is said that the three most stressful times in life surround divorces, moves, and new children. Bedbugs are surely a close fourth.

If I forget to take out the garbage one morning, I come home to find an angry Katherine. If I Jihad or Katherine move my things, I become irrationally angry. We lurk about the apartment during the day waiting to explode at one another. We are all angry at the creatures, but it is very hard to take out fury on an insect so we target snide remarks and well-timed sighs at one another instead. The emotionally traumatizing effects of these creatures are probably foreign to anyone who has not had them, but bystanders beware: bedbug victims are emotional landmines. Do not misstep near us.

Wise words. I hope Brown and Company have gotten a follow-up treatment 10-14 days after their first treatment. Judging from his description of the bed frame, they had a lot of bed bugs. From what we hear, one treatment is rarely enough, even in lighter cases.

Like the saga of Amanda’s bed bugs over at Apartment Therapy, Brown’s story is compelling reading. Like Amanda, he also introduces an unsuspecting new audience to the horrors of dealing with bed bugs, that we here at Bedbugger.com are all too familiar with. Some of the comments on the earlier installments are a healthy reminder that the vast majority of folks still are blissfully ignorant about bed bugs (a double-edged sword if ever there was one).

I don’t think we ever got the final update on Amanda, unless I missed it? Last entry I saw was #8, in which after two treatments, her bed bugs were “back.” (By back, I mean, they “never entirely left.”)

• Nicholas Brown’s Bedbug Chronicles, Part 7
• Nicholas Brown’s “The Bedbug Chronicles: Part 6″ sounds pretty familiar
• Apartmenttherapy.com: Amanda update (#7)
• Charlotte, NC Salvation Army Women’s Shelter has bed bugs again

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