New Haven (WTNH) — People living in one Elm City apartment complex say they have unwanted guests: bed bugs. And, they’re saying there’s not enough being done to get rid of them.

Residents say exterminators only do one apartment at a time and only when someone complains.

This piecemeal approach is entirely the wrong one where bed bugs are concerned. Pest Control Operators who know bed bugs tell us you need to inspect carefully, find bed bug harborages, and treat them aggressively.

All adjoining units (vertically and horizontally) — if not the entire building — must be inspected professionally by a PCO that knows bed bugs. And it’s an even better idea to treat those adjoining units even if bed bugs cannot be found.

News 8 spoke with a resident on the 7th floor of the Bella Vista:

“I had bites all over my arms, I was sitting on the sofa and one crawled on my leg and one crawled on my back,” Joanne Buccetti, of New Haven, said.

She got an inspection and treatment after she complained. Meanwhile,

Down on the 5th floor, the tenant’s place is so bad News Channel 8 was not allowed inside, even though the exterminator’s come repeatedly.

“Three times and three times they’re right back again,” Sal DeFelice, of New Haven, said.

Treating single apartments, only after residents complain about bed bugs, simply does not work. Units must be treated simultaneously, and repeat treatments must come in 10-14 days, until the problem is entirely cleared up.

You cannot wait for tenants to see bed bugs, since they can be hard to spot, and you can’t rely on reports of bed bug bites, since many people do not react to them. By the time the tenants realize they still have bed bugs, the number of bed bugs can have increased greatly. If treatment occurs every 10-14 days, you have a chance to nip hatching nymphs and other survivors in the bud.

Apartment building managers simply need to become educated about bed bugs. And pest control operators need to insist that proper protocols be used (including — at the bare minimum — inspections of all adjoining units before treatment begins).

Many PCOs who value their reputations already do insist on this, because the piecemeal treatment plan simply does not work to rid a building of bed bugs.

And many reputable PCOs will recommend even more is done. In a building like this, where tenants have been discarding infested furniture, searching horizontally and vertically adjacent units isn’t enough: you really need to have a pro search the entire building.

Why? Because some of that bedbug-infested refuse has no doubt been judged to look “just fine” and has been carried back from the curb or dumpster into other units as yet not known to be infested. It’s a pattern so common in multi-unit buildings that if I were a betting woman, I’d put money on the fact it was happening in the Bella Vista.

But don’t take my word for it: so would the Boston Inspectional Services Division. When they hand out a bed bug violation, they require landlords to inspect the entire building, and to treat all vertically and horizontally adjacent units; as their website states:

Our Standard bed bug notice of violation also requires that owners inspect all units in the dwelling, and they must treat all horizontally and vertically adjacent units to the infested unit(s).

That’s how you start to stop the spread of bed bugs in a multi-unit dwelling. That’s the start. Follow-up inspections and treatments will also be needed.

This is what a building like the Bella Vista needs: an aggressive bed bug treatment protocol. (That and education for tenants about how to avoid spreading the problem further.)

The Bella Vista is primarily a senior citizens’ building; how many of us want to think of our elderly relatives, or ourselves, with regular bed bug bites and no relief in sight?

You can read the full article from News 8 here.

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Housing Authority director Jimmy Miller quipped,

“It’s not something that would go unnoticed. You do get bites from them,” he said.

Well, actually, Jimmy, if your PCO knew his stuff, he’d tell you that many, many people (some professionals even claim it’s most) are not allergic, and so do not react to bed bug bites. I would bet actual cash that more than 15 of your units are infested– for in addition to the non-allergic, there are always also the non-reporters. And who’d blame them, after all, since your office rushed to blame the poor cat lady, with no explanation of how you can prove which unit was ground zero?

Angela Carter of the New Haven Register updated readers on the saga on Friday. residents of 13 of the infested 15 units are back home, after their hotel stay. The other two units’ occupants have been moved to new units and still have bed bugs.

The housing authority has provided Witherspoon and the other affected tenants with new beds and bed linens, pillows and lamps. “They’re supposed to give us sofas, too,” she said.

Housing Authority Executive Director Jimmy Miller said about $15,000 has been spend fighting off the stubborn pests. “These little critters are hiding in the chases,” he said. “We did a second application this week of a pesticide. There will be one more application later on.”

I am glad treatment is persisting and that Miller knows the bed bugs may be hidden in the building itself. However, people fighting bed bugs should not say things like “there will be one more treatment.” Those who know bed bugs know that you must treat every two weeks until all bed bugs and signs of bed bugs are gone. That means never assuming how many treatments will be required, and never letting residents off their guard. Those not highly allergic might not notice a bed bug or two remaining, and then in time, they will have a full-blown infestation again.

I hope the new mattresses and pillows were encased with bed bug-proof coverings, so that bed bugs would not easily hide in them.

Meanwhile, Carter updated us on the other New Haven public housing bed bugs case at the Essex Houses.

The housing authority also had to exterminate two units at Essex Townhouses off Quinnipiac Avenue in Fair Haven three times.

Officials were unsure why the infestations were occurring repeatedly at Essex Townhouses but Chief Operations Officer Karen DuBois-Walton said units would be treated until the problem clears.

DuBois-Walton has exactly the right idea about persistent treatment. (Every two weeks, mind you!)

But why are bed bug infestations occurring repeatedly? It’s likely that:

a) Some tenants have bed bugs and either are not allergic and so do not notice bed bugs, or (in rare cases) notice but do not care or fear the consequences of reporting them. If some units harbor bed bugs, the problem will continue; and / or

b) The bed bugs are hiding out in walls or pipe chases or other parts of the building, and coming back; and / or

c) Wherever your tenants or employees got bed bugs, and tracked them in, they are still getting them and bringing them in. This is a real problem for all kinds of people. You need to really examine your life and the patterns of when bed bugs are (re)introduced. It’s hard to pinpoint.

Does anyone in your life have a bed bug problem? (They –and you– may have no idea. You can still catch them.)

Could they be at work? Exclusive designers’ offices, law firms, hospitals, social service agencies, homeless shelters, have all been infested. No line of work is “above” this. Again, you may have no idea if you are not highly allergic. If you are allergic, and now have them at home, you may not realize work is the source.

Are local stores now infested? (When people purchase and return things, this is possible.)

The questions are frightening, and the answers lead us back to the need for a larger approach than each building trying to stamp out bed bugs that tenants report.

Instead, we need to think big. That means we need public education, we need standards of treatment to be established, we need government to track locations and duration of infestations, and we need financial assistance to individuals and to landlords to help get rid of bed bugs.

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“I lost my 2-beds, lost most of my clothes, lost my shoes,” said Kathyrn.

The New Haven Housing Authority exterminated her apartment over the weekend after an entire wing of the Essex Townhouses on Quinnipiac Avenue became infested with the creepy critters.

The City has replaced Kathyrn’s beds and 2-sofas, but she says it is the second time in 2-years that she’s had some unwelcome house guests.

“It makes me nervous and I can’t take this stress,” said Kathyrn.

The 73-year old escaped this infestation without getting bit, but her daughter was not so lucky.

“It was bad, very bad. It was red,” said Kathyrn Yukness.

Yukness says last week her arms were unrecognizable before she sought treatment at the hospital.

It’s worth noting that Abreu may well have been bit, since the infestation spanned an entire wing of townhouses, and so it was not likely localized in Yukness’s room. You can be bit and not react to the bites with marks or itching.

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• more on bed bugs in New Haven: they’re only using steam cleaning?!?

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According to News Channel 8 (WTNH) in New Haven, University of Bridgeport’s North Hall has bed bugs.

Graduate student Li-Wen Chen had so many bites she sought treatment at St. Vincent’s Medical Center.

The school has fumigated the building, but students say another problem occurred when it came to their clothing. Clothes inside the dorms were sent to the cleaners courtesy of the school, but the students say when the clothes were returned, they were dumped onto tables in the lobby, damp, damaged or ruined.

Students also claim that their rooms were left in disarray following the fumigation. Georgia Chiang, a student from Taiwan, says the poor treatment from the University may stem from their ethnic backgrounds.

“It’s very disturbing. We feel insulted and discriminated against. I do not believe Americans live like this. We do not live like this back home,” said Chiang.

School officials were not available for comment.

Obviously, we don’t know what the full story is here. But it’s a helpful reminder that residents (of dorms, co-ops, apartments, hospitals, etc.) need to be fully informed about treatment and required preparations, and that universities and other management bodies need to make sure their residents’ posessions are treated with care. If residents feel this is not happening, it might make them hesitant to seek treatment if bed bugs persist or return later.

It’s also disturbing to note that bed bugs are making their way around New Haven.

• Ryerson University: a study in unenthusiastic bed bug control practices
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• bedbugs at Stanford University dorms (again)
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A more recent article from News 8 in New Haven suggests that the

The infestation started in one unit and moved to 14 other apartments. The city paid for hotel rooms so the professionals could come in and steam clean room by room, bed by bed.

“We’re steaming it, the steam will kill the eggs and a lot of the bugs it contacts,” said Jim Miller of Yale Pest Elimination Corporation.

The bugs are not just in the beds, they could be in clothes.

Steaming, especially dry steaming (which avoids problems with mold and mildew) is a good way of killing bed bugs and eggs. But as PCO Miller’s words imply, it will only kill bed bugs that are steamed directly. The same is true of eggs (though the quotation implies otherwise). Although I am glad to see PCOs using this method, I do think it needs to be used in concert with pesticides and/or dusts. Killing “a lot of the bugs,” after all, is not the goal here. Steaming needs to be followed-up by other methods. If it is, I don’t doubt more bed bugs can be killed more swiftly than without the steaming step.

I do note, however, that this article is misleading. If the PCO is using other methods, this isn’t mentioned. The article therefore might give readers the idea that steaming alone is a good way to beat bed bugs. While professional steaming equipment will probably do a better job than home steamers, it is not a comprehensive plan to eradicate bed bugs, which hide well, and are likely to be hiding in places the steam cannot reach.

“They steamed my mattress and my box spring yesterday and removed all my clothes out of my clothes closet,” said Witherspoon.

“We provided them with new clothing because obviously we are concerned about them taking their own clothing with them because the clothing may be contaminated,” said Jimmy Miller, Director of the New Haven Housing Authority.

“They’re making sure all the clothes get washed they’re doing what they have to do, they stepped up to the plate,” said Maria Ayala, resident.

The housing authority is promising prevention at all its complexes.

“We’re going be increasing our house keeping efforts,” said Jimmy Miller.

It’s great that they’re aware of the clothing issue, though laundry would have been sufficient and probably saved them a lot of money as well as making tenants happy.
I note that my prior concern–expressed in the previous post about New Haven– has not been addressed: that is the question of whether precautions were taking to prevent bed bugs being spread to the hotel.

In addition, authorities need to realize, prevention is not simply a matter of housekeeping (as housing official Miller suggests; I am, by the way, fascinated that the PCO’s name is Jim Miller and the Housing Authority official’s name is Jimmy Miller, and I wonder if they’re related).

Prevention requires education–for all tenants and employees–about where bed bugs come from and how to avoid getting them. (Note: they don’t come from women who carry bags and have cats.)

Prevention requires supplies (such as good mattress and pillow encasements that may help keep bed bugs from infesting beds) and services (regular inspections–either manual, or by a good bed bug dog) will help new infestations be caught earlier so they can be treated quickly.

The bottom line is that New Haven housing officials — like all landlords in multi-unit dwellings — need to accept the inevitability of more bed bugs being brought into the building. It’s a matter not of if, but when. And knowing that, they need to have wide awareness among tenants and employees of how to recognize the signs. Preventive treatments, such as food grade diatomaceous earth (DE) might be a way the city can help the building stay bed bug-free longer.

• New Haven housing officials confused: why can’t they get rid of these bed bugs?
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• New Haven: another housing complex has bed bugs
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Unfortunately, as Geralda Miller of the Reno Gazette Journal reports, the advice being given to tenants is not great:

“They’re an indoor critter,” [Jeff Knight, Nevada State Entomologist] said. “Get rid of the mattress. Get rid of the infested bed frame and thoroughly treat everything else. Bedding has to get a hot wash and dry.”

Those were the instructions [Building Manager Rhonda] Mathews said she gave her tenants.

“Get rid of them or they’re not living here,” she said.

Mathews said she has spent more than $100 to treat each infested unit and the 10 surrounding ones.

Knight said it is important that pest control companies do a thorough job to get rid of the bugs.

The Washoe County Health Department gets “one or two” valid complaints of bed bugs a month. PCO treatment for bed bugs cost the building manager $100 per unit. I know the cost of living in Reno is lower than in NYC, Boston, or San Francisco, but this seems very low. I hope the PCO is trained to treat bed bugs specifically, which may not be the case in a place with very few cases.

If the state entomologist is really telling folks to simply throw away mattresses and frames, and wash bedding (what about all the other clothing and linens in the home?) then they may be seeing a lot more cases soon. Because others will pick up those discarded items. And because clothing and other items can harbor bed bugs, allowing them to continue breeding and spread further.

Across the country, in New Haven, Channel 3 reports that residents of 15 Housing Authority apartments have been relocated to a hotel while their apartments are “fumigated” and “decontaminated.” The terminology there may well relate more to common ideas about pest control practices (killing bugs = “fumigation”) rather than the actual techniques used.

I was very excited to read the following words:

[Channel 3 Eyewitness News Reporter Erika] Arias reported that the Housing Authority is taking the outbreak seriously. [Resident Alberta] Silverspoon said that as soon as she alerted the authority, immediate action was taken.

Quick and drastic action on the HA’s part seems good. But they need to be cautious now: there’s significant danger residents will have moved the bed bugs to the hotel, and they can certainly reinfest their homes when they move back in, so I hope the Housing Authority knows what it’s doing and takes some time to educate and provide necessary supplies (XL ziplocs, mattress and pillow covers, even laundry services for evacuated items) to make sure this doesn’t happen.

It makes me wonder, are hotels going to start asking if prospective customers are bed bug refugees?

The New Haven Register also covered this story. Here, we learn the building is called Crawford Manor, is on Park Avenue, and has 109 units (only 15 identified as infested).

However, this second article was more disturbing. It suggested housing officials were rushing to blame the infestation on one tenant:

Housing Authority Executive Director Jimmy Miller said Wednesday the problem began in a unit of a female tenant who is known to carry her belongings around in bags and owns a few cats. He did not identify the tenant. The city’s anti-blight Livable City Initiative Bureau is being asked to condemn the unit, he said.

“It’s a very serious thing and it’s quite an undertaking,” Miller said.

Miller, who has been running the agency for about 18 months, said this is the first occurrence during his tenure. He did not know of any others in recent history.

“It’s not something that would go unnoticed. You do get bites from them,” he said.

Actually, some claim that most people are not allergic and so do not react (in other words, they neither see bite marks nor experience any itching). Even if “most” is inaccurate, it’s certainly true of “many.” There’s a wide range of reactions from serious allergic reactions that land people in hospital, to dime-sized welts and severe itching, to what looks like mosquito bites, to tiny red dots, to nothing.

So if HA officials are basing their ideas of how bed bugs spread from one unit to another, or which units are infested, on whether people experience bites, their data is liable to be inaccurate. There will doubtless be bed bugs in other units, not reported, maybe not even noticed.

The housing authority was alerted when tenants from another unit detected the bugs and reported the problem.

Miller said the authority has not identified the cause of the outbreak, but officials believe the infestation spread as the female tenant moved bags around common areas or as visitors entered and left.

“They don’t usually travel person-to-person and they don’t normally travel more than 100 feet,” he said.

The housing authority first had to have the female tenant’s unit cleaned and her furniture will be destroyed.

Thirteen other tenants were housed temporarily in area hotels Tuesday night and about half were able to return to Crawford Manor Wednesday. Authority staff gave them meals and made sure everyone on medication stayed on their regimens.

Crawford Manor is a mixed-population development. Miller said it is going to cost the authority approximately $80 per unit to decontaminate the entire building. It was unclear Wednesday how much alternate lodging, meals and staff overtime would cost.

The tenant in the unit that set off the infestation was relocated from Brookside, one of several housing complexes on West Rock targeted for revitalization.

Miller said the authority will be implementing a policy for sterilizing tenant belongings before relocations occur.

“We’re on top of it,” he said.

Good to know they’re on top of it. (I’m impressed by the $80 per unit cost. But the city probably has a contract of some kind.)

I hope they also educate themselves and tenants about how bed bugs are picked up and spread. Because although bed bugs may not walk more than 100 feet, they will hitchhike on anyone: any tenant, visitor, or employee could have brought them in.

I am troubled by the way in which New Haven housing authorities want to pin the blame on an easy target: a woman who has cats and carries her stuff around in bags.

First, the fact the woman has “a few cats” is irrelevant: we can get bed bugs from the abandoned nests of bats, birds, and even rats, but they do not come from cats. If a human is present, they don’t even want to bite the cats. So I am not sure why people are obsessed with the woman’s cats, as if they were a factor. Presumably the cats living in a high-rise do not go out, so they did not pick up hitchhiking bed bugs and bring them in.

Second, it is clear that if someone did have bed bugs and carried their stuff around in bags, they’d have more chance of carrying bed bugs to more locations than a person who, for example, traveled light. But it really does not matter whether the “bags” are laptop cases, Prada bags, messenger bags, or shopping bags.

It is true that clutter allows bed bugs to easily hide and breed. But it does not cause them to appear.

This sounds to me like a witch hunt: “15 units are infested, one is the home of a woman who has a few cats and carries stuff around, therefore, let’s blame her.” It’s easy, but it’s not necessarily scientific. Even if her unit now has more bugs than any other unit, I am not sure it could be proven she brought bed bugs in, or that she was “bed bug ground zero.”

She may be the source in this building, she may not. But the real problem with pinning the blame on someone is that it makes others feel they’re off the hook. The truth is, whoever brought them into the building, caught them somewhere. It’s an epidemic. Maybe they caught them in New Haven, maybe they brought them in from a vacation, school, workplace, or hospital. The person who brings them into the building is not the cause. Moving them out does not prevent reinfestation. And they also implied that “tenant zero” was relocated there from another (presumably infested) HA building.

More to the point, did 15 people from this building just infest a local hotel? I’d like to know what precautions were taken to avoid that situation. This is the problem with the blame game: everyone who has bed bugs got them from someone else (unless they got them from a bat, a bird, or a rat). Who are you gonna blame?

We need public education, assistance for people in low-income housing (with supplies and treatment costs–besides the PCO), and prompt PCO treatment.
We need government awareness, better policies, funding, and willingness to act (New Haven got a lot of that right).
We need bed bug aggregate pheromone traps, more and better pesticides and other treatment methods (thermal, cryonite, etc.).
But we don’t need the pointless and inaccurate blame game.

• more on bed bugs in New Haven: they’re only using steam cleaning?!?
• New Haven housing officials confused: why can’t they get rid of these bed bugs?
• Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Housing Authority vs. Bed Bugs
• Bed bugs bite in White Plains, NY public housing

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