Go to this link.

Find “The Breakfast Show with JoAnne Good” in the list of programs and select the “Fri” button underneath the show title to select Friday’s program. You need a RealAudio plugin to hear it, so if it does not load automatically at this point, then click the button for assistance. I did, I installed it, it worked.

The show is 3 hours long and though David is only on at approximately an hour and a half into the program, there are some really interesting yet brief discussions of bed bugs leading up to that point.

So you don’t have to listen to the whole thing, consider scrolling through and finding at least some of these tidbits:

(Times are approximate minutes into the show, and may depend on the machinery with which you tune in.)

4:14 The topic of bed bugs is introduced: program host JoAnne talks about bed bugs as if they are dust mites

16:05 She mentions bed bugs again, and abandoned mattresses

17:45 Dean from Camden calls in about his real-life experience with bed bugs. He describes what clearly sounds like a bed bug infestation (he has spotted bed bugs in all the expected colors and sizes, and suffered many bites)

And then, unfortunately, “David” (not David Cain, mind you, but someone at the station), who thinks he knows more than the caller who actually had this horrific bed bug experience, attempts to correct Dean’s story, saying that this must have been fleas, not bed bugs, because “bed bugs eat dead skin.”

Actually, no, David-of-the-BBC (who JoAnne points out “was brought up with livestock”): you’re thinking about dust mites.

I can see David Cain will have his work cut out for him here, as far as spreading correct bed bug information.

Then, Dean goes on to explain what was involved in eradicating his bed bug infestation, and that they were indeed identified as bed bugs by pest control operators, and yet the radio folks nevertheless completely disregard his information and experience.

(I was throwing my hands up at this point.)

At some point, JoAnne starts to argue that since “this generation” has homes that are so warm, this is the source of the problem.

While it’s certainly true that central heating came very recently to Britain, it is also true that bed bugs survived quite well in the UK in the cold, dark days prior to World War II, not to mention the medieval period: and what could be colder or darker than the Dark Ages?

39:07 Again, more than 20 minutes later and a propos of nothing, announcer JoAnne declares she’s sure Dean had fleas, not bed bugs

46:00 John Kettley, the famous BBC weatherman, is asked by the host if he has ever encountered bed bugs while traveling, and he too appears to be thinking about dust mites when he replies that, of course, “everyone has bed bugs”

No! No! No! No! No!

They don’t.

1:08 JoAnne stops the presses to announce that, in fact, one of the show’s producers (Kate) had them (bed bugs, actual bed bugs, mind you) and confirms they are not the same as fleas (nor dust mites). She confirms she had to move out, get her place “fumigated,” “burn mattresses,” etc.

The JoAnne, once again, argues it’s the heating in British homes that is to blame.

At 1:27 David Cain comes on for about 10 minutes.

He brings a jar of bed bugs to show the hosts. He clarifies that bed bugs have not only risen by 250% in London, as JoAnne suggested, but in some areas of London, by as much as 1200% in the last three years. He also sets JoAnne Good straight about her “overheated homes” theory of the resurgence of bed bugs.

“Absolutely incorrect.”

Cain instead warns listeners about the fact that bed bugs can hitchhike from place to place and are spread by people moving them around. He clarifies the bed bug vs. dust mite difference for host Max, who still thinks “we all have them.” Cain also clues the audience in on the global nature of this resurgence in the last five years (a problem which has grown in that time, he says, from “an absolute rarity” to “a major problem”).

Astonishingly, and again, as if she did not listen to a word Dean said when he called in, JoAnne mentions his case to David Cain as that of someone describing flea bites. But the caller had bed bugs and his pest control operator knew it!

The topic of identifying what is biting one gave David Cain a chance to discuss signs of bed bugs, and how and where they can be detected.

Then Mohammed calls in to the show and describes the slow process of detecting the infestation in his flat. He woke up with swollen bites but did not understand the source. He thought they were mosquito bites. He then saw bugs he thought were ladybirds (ladybugs).

Only after he found black marks and blood stains in the bed did Mohammed approach his landlady, who ordered a solution off the internet “which didn’t work out.” Only then was David Cain called in. (It gets a little unclear at this point, sound quality-wise, but I think he said he eventually found out eight units in his building had been infested, for about 7-8 months.)

Of course, we knew David Cain would have much useful information to share. But by the time he came on the air, I was completely exhausted from the idiocy and misinformation that appeared to take up so much of the program to this point.

It’s a sign of how badly informed the general public is about bed bugs, I guess.

What makes me angry, though, is that anyone tuning in before David spoke would have been given so much useless misinformation about “bed bugs.” If they were not able to stick around for his appearance, the misinformation might stick with them.

We can imagine that many of those listeners who did not get the correct story on bed bugs would then not have bothered to tune in to the BBC television program Inside Out, which aired later that night, and which also featured David Cain talking about bed bugs.

After all, they’re in everyone’s bed, right? No big deal.

If you don’t trust my recap (which of course could not be entirely accurate since I kept throwing my arms up to the heavens and exclaiming with absolute horror), and you want to hear for yourself the train wreck that was the Breakfast Show (prior to David’s appearance, of course), you have one more day. The “Friday” program will be replaced Friday morning.

Enjoy.

• Bed bugs. Are. Not. Dust Mites.
• In London? Got bed bugs (or think you do)?
• New Yorkers: Lou Sorkin on the radio Tuesday at 10:40 am
• Bed bugs also causing havoc in England & Northern Ireland: university residence, hospital staff residence, possibly a school, infested

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

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

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

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

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

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

This is all familiar ground for us.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

However, there was one small problem. This:

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

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

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

Read the rest of the article here.

• bed bug news for 2007-11-16
• Reg Ayre of Toronto Public Health: bed bugs a “health concern,” not a “health hazard”
• Toronto Board of Health gearing up to fight bed bugs
• Vancouver official blames hanky-panky for bed bugs in nice areas

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He writes on our forums,

I have been asked by a TV company in London to offer a free bed bug treatment in exchange for being able to film the inspection and analysis work that we do. The location will be kept confidential and the work will be carried out by myself personally.

This will hopefully help in the education of others in regards to the bed bug problem so that we can get public awareness up.

(snip)

Regards,

David Cain
Managing Director
Bed Bugs Limited
London

If you’d like to be the lucky recipient of this service (London only), please click here to read his message in the forums. You can register/login there and click “PM this user” under his message in order to send him a private message. This is a great opportunity and I hope someone will benefit from it. If you have questions or concerns, or don’t want to register here, I can pass messages on to David. Email nobugs at bedbugger d ot c om–and be sure to make sure your email gives me explicit permission to forward it to David.

• Bed Bug Beware: new website from David Cain
• What is it going to take to convince these people that bed bugs are not dust mites, or fleas?!?
• Are you in the UK? Got bed bugs? Or have you had bed bugs?
• The Times (UK) on bed bug epidemic in the USA

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“This is an all-embracing examination of our need to sleep. . . . The very practical logistics of sleeping are also tackled: bedbugs and the luxury of a bed to oneself.” Bed bugs figure in exhibit on sleep at medical-themed-art centre in London.

Cincinnati YWCA Women’s Emergency Shelter has bed bugs, according to Porkopolis

“Now only new clothing can be accepted for donation, and all personal belongings of residents must be stored in large plastic bins. They’re also looking at replacing the sturdy, familiar wooden bunk beds with metal ones to help reduce infestations.”

RealTravel - Hotel Paradiso! | Bargara Travel Blog | Bargara Travel Reviews

Travel blogger claims Bargara, Queensland hostel was bedbugged, and more: “There were rats, mice, possums, bed-bugs, and one morning a kitchen full of maggots. gross. there were curious looking stains on the carpets, especially in our bedroom and there was possum s–t on our floor.”

Bed bugs, or incontinent possums: which is worse?  I’ll take the possums any day, mate.

• Bed bug Helloise: a nice, reasonably-priced white metal bed frame with no wooden slats
• More on bed bugs at the Montana Rescue Mission in Billings
• Spring break bed bug warnings!
• Bed bug news round-up: South Jersey apartment complex; Charlotte, North Carolina Salvation Army shelter

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A BU junior said during her first night in the BU dorm Crofton in late May, she received small, red marks, each a centimeter wide, around her feet, legs and ankles. When she spoke with the associate director of British Programmes a month later after repeated unsuccessful attempts to meet, she was accused of making the marks herself, said the student, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of not being allowed to study abroad again.

The junior said she noticed the bites became larger and puffier and had spread over her entire body, but she and her roommate, Newbury College junior Michelle Beaton, did not complain until the second week. After their complaints, housekeepers sprayed the room using an aerosol insecticide and changed bed linens.

The aerosol insecticide worked briefly, but of course, the bed bugs came back with a vengeance:

Housekeeping and exterminators did not find evidence of a bedbug infestation in the students’ room, said Joe Finkhouse, international programs director of institutional relations, in an email to BU spokesman Colin Riley, to whom comments about the issue were directed.

“They wouldn’t admit we had bedbugs,” Beaton said. “We had all the symptoms of bedbugs.”

The students said the aerosol insecticide worked briefly, but eventually they began to notice more marks. Bedbugs do not spread diseases, nor are their bites particularly harmful to people.

“I was using makeup on my legs,” the BU junior said. “It was all over me. It was horrible.”

After the first spraying, the bugs got out of control, and she began seeing them, she said.

The junior said she tried contacting British Programmes Associate Director Alison Campbell after her room was first sprayed, but Campbell did not hear her case until about a month after. When they spoke, the BU junior said Campbell accused her of making the marks herself and said she “wasn’t allowed to tell anyone” about the situation.

BU’s Joe Finkhouse, international programs director of institutional relations, had this to say:

“Pests are not an ongoing problem in the London program or any other program site,” Finkhouse said in an email. “In fact, this was the first incident of its kind in London in over nine years. Over 4,000 students have participated in the London programs during that time. There have been no further reports since June.”

Well, it’s no great surprise, if students suffering from bites are threatened with retaliation for speaking about their experiences, as these students claim they were.

Students eventually got assistance with clothing cleaning bills and were moved to faculty housing at Lexam Gardens. (Hmmm… I wonder what happens to faculty who complain about bed bugs in their housing?)

Finkhouse had more to say:

“Fortunately, pest problems are extremely uncommon in our programs abroad,” he said. “We’re satisfied that the situation was handled well and quickly under the circumstances.”

What college administrators need to realize is that bed bugs are increasingly common everywhere. There’s no shame in contracting bed bugs; you will be judged not on the basis of having them, but on how you react to them, once a problem is identified.

I hope that BU’s study abroad program, and all international and domestic providers of student services, develop a proactive plan for preventing bed bugs, and dealing with them should they arise. Any complaints need to be met with a prompt, thorough inspection by a PCO and treatment by a PCO of the affected units. In this case, students claimed housekeeping staff coming in twice with an aerosol bottle represented the only treatment. It is extremely difficult to treat bed bugs, and professional, experienced pest control operators are the way to go. Unless more has been done since then, it is likely this dorm is still infested with bed bugs.

• Bed bug hotel claim in Isle of Wight; study/travel abroad and bed bugs
• Stanford bed bugs: university fights back
• bedbugs at Stanford University dorms (again)
• 80% of Single Room Occupancy units in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside are infested with bed bugs; also Rensselaer Polytechnic’s dorms

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First, the journalist Judith Woods says of some bed bug victims:

The lawyer got rid of her bed, both mattress and frame, which ideally anyone with an infestation should do.

Wrong! Tossing such items out is unnecessary, since a Pest Control Operator (PCO) can treat them. Moreover, throwing them away (even labeled and sealed) makes it very likely someone else will pick them up and use them. You’d be surprised how eager others are to bring them home, or sell them secondhand (beware the Car Boot Sales, my British friends). In so many cases, you cannot tell from looking at the items that they are infested. If you’re in a multi-unit building or an attached house, your neighbors may even take them, meaning they can later come back to you.

Similarly, Woods suggests,

Bed linen can be washed at the highest possible temperature – but [PCO Ben Knorton of Rentokil] advises throwing it out.
“I’ve seen sheets literally moving with the sheer number of bedbugs under them,” he says. “In that situation you really need to take drastic action.”

Well, if the bed is moving under the weight of bed bugs, perhaps that’s right. But washing on hot and drying on hot are a better idea in most cases. The above statement implies otherwise. I would only throw out sheets, or a bed and frame, if the PCO advised it. And then I would get them to help (with the mattress and frame) to ensure it was carefully done.

We’re also told of the same afflicted lawyer’s case,

Her room was then sealed and sprayed with insecticide three times over as many weeks.

Does this mean the room was sealed and left for three weeks, meaning no one was sleeping there? If so, the insecticide is not likely to work. Bed bugs need to be lured out to cross the poison and die.

Thanks to reader Fedupandparanoid, in the UK, who wrote me an email to alert me to this article and the issues mentioned above.

She also had this to say:

The article was nearly a full page on the Health on Monday page, and headlined ‘Don’t let the bedbugs bite,’ but I was very dissapointed at the tone of the article and take issue with some of the information contained in it. For some reason the journalist writing had called in Rentokil to check her house because she was so worried about the general rise in bedbugs. She didn’t appear to have any reason for suspecting bedbugs other than that there is a 500-fold increase in cases in London. Rentokil, who she called in, are at the very expensive end of the pest control market and they will be rubbing their hands in glee if they can charge good money to go in and inspect middle class people’s homes for no reason other than there is a general increase.

In fairness, the article did mention signs you can look for, like blood spots and fecal stains, bites in a row and did mention what a bedbug looks like, also the problems with hotels, but they seemed to miss an opportunity of really educating people. The journalist to her ‘great relief received a clean bill of health’ for her beds and although I wouldn’t wish bedbugs on anyone it would have carried more weight if she had actually had them or knew someone who had. There was nothing really about the terrible trauma and life disruption that people go through just a few jokey comments about what the neighbours would think.

Fedupandparanoid also said,

I just feel so annoyed that a paper like the Daily Telegraph - respected for it’s journalism - can make such a hash of a good opportunity. I realise journalists have to write articles that people want to read but there seemed no research and no substance to the article at all.

Yes. I agree with Fedup that we have come to expect more. At least the British press are covering the issue–getting people to talk about bed bugs is the first step.

In other news, in one of the few places that has gone beyond talking about bed bugs, Cincinnati emergency personnel are concerned about catching bed bugs when they go to help the city’s residents, ABC9 (WCPO.com) reports.

Firefighters, police, and health workers are encountering bed bugs in their work. And in the circumstances, where people are in danger, personnel don’t generally have time to worry about whether a place is infested before they go in.

Cincinnati Fire District Chief Ronald J. Texter says they’re working on a plan so crews won’t bring them back to the firehouse.

“The difficulty for us is that we can’t go into a house, survey it first, find out whether or not there’s bedbugs and then take precautions by putting on a Tyvex suit or something like that, like an exterminator would do.”

Texter said the department is concerned about the growing bedbug problem. The bugs are so small, sometimes you can’t see them.

“We’ve also had hospitals call and tell us that the patient, when they started treating them, they found bedbugs and they call us and let us know as a precaution that the patient had bedbugs,” Texter said.

This is good news: hospital staff are tuned in to the problem and the dangers of personnel exposed to it. The bad news is if patients are carrying bed bugs on their person, they must be suffering from very bad infestations.

If a firefighter walks into a home with bedbugs, they’re being encouraged to clean their equipment as soon as they return to the station.

Chief Texter admits that’s easier said than done.

“When you make 15 to 20 runs a day and you can’t stop everytime and take everything out, clean it, and put it all back and make sure there’s no bedbugs.”

The Cincinnati Fraternal Order of Police says officers have similar concerns.

Both departments are working on a plan to deal with the problem.

The fire department is educating personnel in addition to hiring an exterminator.

“If we do have a problem with bedbugs, we already have a pest control operator under contract to treat the infestation.”

Cincinnati emergency personnel, like the Cincinnati health department, are being very proactive about bed bugs. That the police and fire departments are talking to pest control operators in advance of detecting an infestation, is a very good thing. Lots can be done–not only in terms of educating personnel about signs of bed bugs and what to do if one is exposed, but also in terms of developing a protocol for searching the firehouse, for example, or where to store clothing that may be exposed.

And make no mistake: bed bugs are spreading via the same routes everywhere else. The difference is, people in Cincinnati are not afraid to talk about it. It’s the first step to making things better.

Click to read or watch the ABC9 video from Cincinnati.

Click here to read the Daily Telegraph article.

• Cincinnati: awareness spreading, funds needed to fight bed bugs
• Urgent: if you’re in Cincinnati…
• Cincinnati Establishes Bed Bug Furniture Pick-Up Procedures and Hotline
• Cincinnati: “best weapon against bed bugs is … education”

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This week, they’ve gone a step further, with Michele Kirsch’s three-page story on how Britain is “Infested” (not just with bed bugs, mind you). The author herself is added to the illustrious roster of journalists who have had bed bugs.

And while, yes, it does appear so that women are more apt to be allergic to bed bugs than men are (and I admit my evidence is purely anecdotal and based on our site’s hundreds of thousands of visitors), I balked after reading the story (which was otherwise pretty good) to discover it was in the “Women” section, which is a subset of the “Life & Style” section.

Hmmm. Still more work to be done, Times editors.

• bed bug news for 2007-11-13
• bed bug registries
• Gender, race, and being bitten by bed bugs
• Son of “Share your tales of Bed Bug Woe”

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Times reporter Chris Ayres writes from Los Angeles,

Five decades after being declared officially dead, the most toe-curling of all America’s critters has returned, with a spate of bloodsucking attacks on unsuspecting victims as they sleep. The culprit is Cimex lectularius - otherwise known as the common bedbug.

“The most toe-curling of America’s critters?” As I understand it, bed bugs came to North America with the early European settlers.

Until recently it was known happily to Americans only from nursery rhymes. Not any more. Up to 5mm in length, wingless, nocturnal and covered in microscopic hairs, the bedbug was supposed to have been eliminated from the US by the pesticide DDT, which was later banned by the US Environmental Protection Agency in 1972 because of the damage it caused to fish, birds and other wildlife.

But now the insect is back, and its sudden return has been proclaimed “one of the great mysteries of entomology”. Over recent months bedbugs have been turning up in hospitals, nursing homes, cinemas, dry cleaners, schools, public housing and even some well-to-do residential homes.

The article goes on to refer to Michael Potter’s words at the recent bed bug seminar in New York, Potter’s YouTube video, and Maya Rudolph’s lawsuit.

What about the lawsuit filed against the exclusive Mandarin Oriental in London, by a visiting businessman who was allegedly bitten extensively by bed bugs there?

Comments to the article from two Londoners and one London Pest Control Operator (David Cain, who is a participant in our forums) attest to the fact that bed bugs are indeed a serious problem in the UK. While the article does not claim bed bugs are not a problem in the UK, it also does not mention that they are.

Bedbugger.com’s cluster map (click here) shows the location of our readers in the UK, since June 2nd. We can assume our readers are people concerned about or seeking information about bed bugs. From what I can gather, most of our readers have, or recently had, bed bugs. As do the cluster maps of readers in the US, Canada, Europe and Australia (other places where people with bed bugs are most likely to log on to the internet and seek out our site about bed bugs that is primarily in English), our cluster map of the UK and Ireland shows bed bugs concentrated most heavily around cities. If you’re good at geography, you can imagine the city markers in these maps.

As I said in a comment which hasn’t appeared yet on the article’s site, London PCO David Cain is the only PCO I know of who specializes only in bed bugs. We hear from folks in the UK often. Rather than focusing on an exotic story of Americans being bitten by bed bugs and suing each other left and right (cue eye rolling and comments about silly Yanks), the Times should be paying more attention to its own bed bug epidemic which, while not reported on very often, seems to be significant and causing much genuine local distress.

There has been some coverage by the Oxford Mail, Norwich Evening News (original article no longer available), the BBC, the BBC again, thisislondon.co.uk, and this one about lorry [truck] drivers allegedly catching bed bugs on ferries between Scotland and Northern Ireland.

And, from the “Misguided Attempts to Solve Problem” file, let’s not forget this favorite from South London News online: “Bedbugs forced me to kip [sleep] in a cardboard box.”

It is not surprising that many of those articles on bed bugs in the UK talk about bed bugs as a “foreign” problem–something you might bring home from your summer holidays in (as in this example from an earlier Times column) Australia. Well, they are–in the UK as well as the US. But it is also very likely you got them from your neighbo(u)rs, and that they were born and bred close to your home.

Domestic or imported, bed bugs suck.

It seems to be a trusim about bed bug journalism: everyone thinks the bed bug problem is really bad somewhere else.

• The NYTimes is back on the bed bugs story
• Are you in the UK? Got bed bugs? Or have you had bed bugs?
• In London? Got bed bugs (or think you do)?
• the hotel industry lies: bed bugs in hotels as rare as Asian flu (i.e. Bird flu)

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One Of The World’s Premier Luxury Hotels, Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park in London, Rented Bed Bug-Infested Room To Prominent Licensing / Intellectual Property Attorney And Wife; Bites From the Parasites Located In Bug-Ridden Headboard Caused Hundreds Of Painful, Itchy, Swollen, Red Lesions In Their Faces, Eyelids, Backs, Shoulders, Necks, Arms And Hands; Parasites Embedded Themselves In Luggage, Which Caused New Infestation In Victims’ NYC Apartment, Federal Lawsuit Claims; Mandarin Oriental Admitted A Bed Bug Infestation Existed at the Hotel

NEW YORK CITY — Prominent licensing and intellectual property attorney Sidney Bluming, Esq., whose clients have included Elizabeth Taylor, Claudia Schiffer and Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue models, is suing one of the world’s most exclusive hotels, London’s Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, for failing to prevent May 2006 bed bug attacks that seriously injured him and his wife and ruined the business trip for which they traveled to the U.K., according to Attorney Michael S. Weinstein.

Bluming and his wife then unknowingly transported the parasites with them back to New York. As a result, they had to discard furniture and personal items from their recently renovated Manhattan apartment and to their added embarrassment have the property fumigated, according to a federal Complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The press release claims that

The hotel took no precautions nor trained staff to prevent, or correct, bed bug infestation. During check-in the Blumings were initially advised that the room to which they were assigned was unavailable. Ultimately, they were assigned to the infested room for which they paid the conference rate of close to $500 USD per night. On the second night of their five-night stay, the Blumings noticed what first appeared as simple insect bites throughout their bodies. The bites multiplied each night of their stay, according to the Complaint.

Upon returning to New York the couple immediately sought medical attention and advised the hotel’s general manager of the bites they suffered during their stay. Bluming’s physician took a biopsy, while his wife’s physician and oncologist were consulted. As the Blumings worried about the cause of the lesions, the hotel withheld from them for nearly a week the knowledge that bed bug infestation was toblame, the Complaint states.

Defendant entities based in Hong Kong, London, and the U.S. were served in late December with the five-count Complaint. Fraud, Deceptive Trade Practice, Negligence, Recklessness, Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress, and Nuisance are alleged in the Complaint which seeks compensatory and punitive damages.

The final statement makes it clear that no one is immune to the anxiety bed bugs can produce:

“Sidney and Cynthia Bluming have great difficulty sleeping through the night. They wake up fitfully to check their bed for infestation or see if they’ve been bitten by bed bugs. They fear staying in a hotel. And they worry that the lab report which Mandarin Oriental is withholding could reveal additional health concerns originating from the bed bug infestation.” Weinstein said. “One of the most exclusive hotel chains in the world is turning a cold shoulder to customers it failed to protect. The Mandarin Oriental’s lack of responsibility, absence of compassion and refusal to provide additional information are shocking.”

To load a PDF of the full press release, click here.
To load a PDF of the complaint of Bluming v. Mandarin, click here.

• FAQ: Where can I read about bed bug lawsuits? Can you help me find a lawyer?
• new Ohio Hilton bed bug lawsuit
• Virginia Beach hotel sued over alleged bed bug attack
• New eco-thriller starring Val Kilmer has bed bug connection

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Also footage of Lawrence Pong of the San Francisco Health Department calling a hotel to tell them they have an infestation. The resident of the hotel room apparently was unaware of the infestation, even though the building inspector called the infestation “heavy.” It was reported by someone who visited the resident.

A heavy infestation, Pong says, is a couple thousand bedbugs. He says San Francisco has as many as 12,000 current infestations, “and we know about a couple of them.”

A hotel resident (”James”) with an infestation is given help by San Francisco Public Health and pest control services; this help includes a new mattress, which immediately becomes infested, because no one thinks to cover the new mattress. Or maybe it wasn’t really “new.” Cut rate mattresses often aren’t. Anyway, it is far from new now. I guess Public Health Dept. in San Francisco did not know that their cleaning process and mattress replacement is useless if they do not provide James with strong vinyl mattress covers. (Some cloth ones are alright too, but they have to be designed to keep bedbugs out). Instead, his new mattress is immediately infested, because they did not protect it. Why doesn’t anyone say this in the video?! This is a teaching moment, people!

Since I gave out grades yesterday, National Geographic would nab an A for what is included (new footage and an inside-the-lair look at what public health departments do–not nearly enough, apparently), but I have to subtract serious points for not saying anything about the need for mattress covers, and then committing what I consider to be the cardinal sin of bedbug reportage: quoting that darned nursery rhyme. How many times a day do we have to hear that? C+.

The accompanying article is slightly better, but makes its own guffaws, including advice that travelers leave their suitcases outside for a day upon returning home (which is not likely to send bedbugs packing), and drying non-washables in a dryer for five minutes (which is hardly long enough to kill them). This advice comes from the U of K’s esteemed entomologist Michael Potter, who we’re fans of, so perhaps he’s done studies we are not aware of. But I would not rely on either of these methods to work, and have not heard them recommended anywhere else. And NG committed the cardinal sin again in the print article. Sheesh!

A second article from thisislondon.co.uk contains some interesting information, such as this:

In the 1880s it was estimated that over 75 per cent of Britain’s homes were infested. By the outbreak of World War II the level had diminished to around one in four houses, due to a combination of better housekeeping procedures, methods of eradication and an extensive programme of building and housing improvements during the 1930s.

And this amusing anecdote bound to send shivers to the spines of PETA members:

During the 19th century, gentlemen going on their Grand Tour would typically take a pig with them while staying at hotels - sending the animal up into the bed so it could be bitten, before getting in themselves.

Doesn’t seem like it would be very effective, since we’re told that bedbugs won’t bite a pet in the home if there’s a human living there. Go away for a weekend without your cat, however, and Fluffy might get some bites in your absence.

However, this article had one inaccuracy:

Nowadays specialist sprays by pest control companies are used to eradicate them. ‘People get really worried about this sort of thing but it can be treated easily,’ said Ms Kidman.

Elizabeth Kidman, a Cambridge Medical Entomologist, is a bit off: bedbugs may be treated easily, but they are not eradicated easily. Most homes need repeated professional treatments: eradicating bedbugs in one treatment is something we don’t hear about. And people living in multi-unit buildings may never eradicate their bedbugs, unless other adjacent units in the building are also treated. Kidman is cited as comparing them to lice, but I think all of us bedbuggers would agree, lice are much easier to get rid of. As are scabies, crabs, and other creepy crawlies that stay more-or-less on your person.

Bedbugs don’t; they’re off partying and having nasty bedbug sex and laying pinhead-sized in the crevices and cracks around your bedroom. Where you can’t see them.

• Watch out - DDT article below
• New bed bug legislation: House Bill 565 from Ohio on bed bug treatment
• new, good Bed bug videos
• bed bugs in the media: the Today Show, Tuesday morning

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