I say “thought to be” because apparently neither the pest control professional brought in to identify them, nor the city’s director of public health, was able to identify the bug conclusively:

Director of Public Health Vincent Rivelli described the bugs as “very tiny.” Originally, the bugs were thought to be bedbugs, but an exterminator from Hudson Exterminating Co. said the creatures are more likely booklice because of their size.

Uh, time to order bed bug identification training for pest control professionals and directors of public health!

Booklice are commonly mistaken for bed bug nymphs by people encountering both for the first time, but it does not take a lot of experience to tell the difference. You simply need to look at them close-up. But size alone is not the deciding factor!

The samples were sent to Rutgers to be identified by an entomologist.

This post compares a book louse photo from Bedbugger ltdan to a first instar nymph photo by Lou Sorkin and R. Mercurio. The shape of the bodies, not their size, is the obvious distinction between these two.

The article concludes,

While bedbugs, which can grow up to quarter-inch long, like to snuggle in mattresses and dark crevices and live off human blood, the smaller booklice like moist environments and favor a vegetarian diet of fungi and mold.

Of course booklice are a definite possibility, but actually, we hear courtrooms provide a very nice environment for bed bugs, with lots of stationary humans to feed on, and doubtless plenty of dark crevices.

• I can’t find a bed bug, but think I am being bitten. What do I do?
• FAQ: Is this a bed bug? (photos of creatures mistaken for bed bugs)
• Watch out - DDT article below
• New NYC DOHMH factsheets on bed bugs

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Some Hudson County Sheriff’s officers were answering a domestic violence call in Jersey City, and encountered bed bugs in the home. (The article claims the officers were bitten by bed bugs upon entering the home.)

What happens next is quite astonishing:

Ten residents of the building - at Wilkinson and Ocean avenues - as well as five sheriff’s officers were quarantined in the two-and-a-half story building while fire officials brought people out to scrub them down in a special shower set up at the scene.

Two men were taken out of the building in handcuffs shortly before noon, even as officers dressed in full hazmat gear with oxygen masks went into the home.

Bed bugs will bite people who enter the home, and may hitch rides out. Donning protective clothing is not a bad idea for avoiding bed bug bites and hitchhiking bugs, if officers are entering a home with an infestation.

Bed bugs do spread.

However, I really do not understand why a “special shower” was necessary, or why the photo accompanying this article show a fully-clothed woman and child being sprayed by something. (Click here to see the photo enlarged.) They are obviously in distress. And I do not see how this is necessary.

If it is necessary to ensure someone’s body is bed bug-free, they could be asked to remove clothing and take a shower– a simple shower with soap and water, and a clean change of clothing, is all that should be needed. (It will, of course, last only until the person re-enters the infested home.)

But spraying them down like they’ve been exposed to toxic chemicals is extreme and inhumane. And probably pointless.

If someone has a bed bug inside his or her pants, I don’t think spraying someone with their clothes on is the best way to kill it.

So the whole experience was pointlessly humiliating. There’s no need to up the stigma of having bed bugs.

I hope officials in Jersey City will do everything they can to make sure people don’t have to live with bed bugs.

Although the officers may have been spared the trouble of bringing bed bugs home, the families in this building were presumably sent back home to live with bed bugs that night. I really hope they’re getting the help they need to get rid of this problem.

• Reader Question: how easy is it to spread bed bugs?
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• Another Jersey building goes whole hog for Vikane; but will they follow up with the necessary preventative education?

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The real problem with this is that it means some folks may not get the bed bug treatment they need, when they need it. And if your neighbor passes up bed bug treatment, it can mean you get bed bugs.

A recent infestation at the Grandview Terrace, a moderate-income building for seniors and those with disabilities in Jersey City, drove this point home: when tenants are asked to pay the costs of bed bug treatment, and can’t afford it, or feel they can’t afford it, they go without. And the bed bugs continue to multiply and spread. And that isn’t good for tenants or landlords.

Some Grandview Terrace residents have had bed bugs for three years. Imagine if that was your grandmother, your disabled brother, or you yourself suffering from bed bug bites for three years straight.

According to the Jersey Journal, some local legislators are determined to change this legal loophole:

Hudson County Democratic Assembly members Joan Quigley and L. Harvey Smith, along with state Sens. Brian Stack and L. Grace Spencer, D-Newark, announced last week that they are preparing legislation for the fall that would make the bedbug buck stop with landlords.

Apparently, at least one Grandview Terrace resident was lobbying lawmakers for such a change:

“I can’t tell you how happy I am,” said Grandview Terrace resident William Dorrity, who began lobbying state and local officials for the legislation after paying $300 for an exterminator. “The only reason (landlords) are getting away with it is because they’re exploiting a loophole in the law.”

On the other hand, I am also sympathetic to landlords who feel they also cannot afford to pay for bed bug treatment. This epidemic hits landlords hard, as well as tenants and homeowners.

The Jersey Journal suggests landlords just want those who are “responsible” for the introduction of bed bugs, or for not cooperating with treatment, to be charged:

Building owners would like to retain the right to charge tenants in certain cases, such as those who reintroduce an infestation or are uncooperative during the extermination process, he said.

This may not sound entirely unreasonable to those who don’t know bed bugs well, but it is extremely difficult to pinpoint the exact cause of a building’s infestation. (It’s part of what we call “the bed bug blame game”.) It isn’t easy to say who introduced or reintroduced bed bugs. But one thing’s for certain: blaming (and charging) the first person to complain about bed bugs means that tenants simply won’t mention the problem, for fear of being the one blamed.

The bottom line is that prompt, thorough treatment is going to cost less than delayed treatment, or treatment which misses some units. Everyone with bed bugs must get swift treatment. Ultimately, if those legally burdened with paying for treatment are unable to pay (whether they’re tenants, landlords, or homeowners), they may need to lobby the government for assistance.

That statement will send our libertarian friends up in arms! However, if as many were afflicted with floods or tornadoes causing costly damage as are currently hit by the bed bug “natural disaster,” surely we’d see some government assistance flooding in.

The Grandview’s William Dorrity and New York vs. Bed Bugs have the right idea: if you need help, tell your elected officials.

If you’re in the States, find your US Senator, US Representatives, Governor, State Senators, and State Representatives with one single click here! Google your mayor and city council. Wherever you are, chances are you can google your way to an email form or phone number for your city, state or provincial, and national lawmakers.

• New Jersey’s laws designed to spread bed bugs in rental housing
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• Halifax tenants angry about bed bugs? Time for action.

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The accident occurred as [Isias Vidal] Maceda was spraying for pests in his kitchen. Somehow the bug spray ignited a blast that blew out the apartment’s front windows and triggered a fire that quickly spread, the newspaper said.

Eighty percent of the apartment was destroyed and the neighboring apartment suffered smoke damage.

There’s no indication of whether the problem was bed bugs, though it would not surprise me, as this is one pest people often try and self treat, rather than admit to their landlords that they need help.

I think this is more true with bed bugs than with other pests because people often feel embarrassed about having bed bugs, especially if they normally keep their homes pest-free. Since this is one pest that is not attracted to messy or dirty homes, it’s impossible to prevent.

Bedbugger doesn’t recommend self-treatment of bed bugs for a variety of reasons, one of which is that they can be dangerous if misused.

An even more tragic story featuring an attempt at self-treating for bed bugs is here.

If you’re still tempted to do it yourself, read this, and remember: if you must use pesticides, always use them carefully and as labeled.

• British NHS hospitals have frequent pest infestations, including bed bugs
• Bedbugger readers: multiplying faster than bedbugs?
• bite photos
• Potter’s Studies on Suspend, Kicker, Phantom, Bedlam, Sterifab; new information about bed bug behavior

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Today a jury awarded the Pennsauken, N.J. couple $49,000 finding that the bedroom furniture they purchased at J.C. Penney in Cherry Hill was infested with bed bugs. “For months, they didn’t know what was causing all their problems and the itching. When they found out that it was the bed bugs, it’s kind of like, it freaks you out a little bit,” said Kevin Siegel, an attorney for the family.

The family bought the furniture back in May of 2006. It was delivered 3 months later in June. It included a chest, dresser and bed-frame with a headboard, costing about $1600.

The family says they were given no choice but to sue after the company agreed to pay to remove the furniture, and to exterminate their room.

But that apparently never happened.

Their lawyer was Kevin Siegel.

You can read the full article or watch the video of Jessica Borg’s news report from WPVI Philadelphia here.

• Aaron Rents: furniture rental firm sued over bed bugs
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• FAQ: Where can I read about bed bug lawsuits? Can you help me find a lawyer?
• Family of five “run out of their home” by bed bugs in Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia

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As noted on our FAQ about who pays for treatment, the New Jersey Warranty of Habitability says landlords have to keep rental apartments pest-free.

However, things can be a bit more complicated than that.

Although the law says NJ landlords have to pay to eliminate bed bugs from rental units, they don’t say landlords can’t then turn around and charge tenants to cover the costs.

This Journal article details an example of this in action: seniors living in low-income housing, the 240-unit Grandview Terrace in Jersey City, are suffering badly from bed bugs, and have been for three years. Fifty units are now known to have them:

The state holds landlords responsible for extermination in “multi-unit” buildings of three or more apartments - if the bugs are found in two or more units or in common areas. But the state doesn’t take a stance as to whether landlord can then turn around and charge the tenants, said Jennifer Monaghan of the state Department of Community Affairs.

One-and two-family buildings are regulated by a different set of laws that can be superseded by municipal law, but in general the rules are the same: the owner is responsible, but has the right to include a provision in the lease charging the costs back to the tenants.

But despite the law most Jersey City landlords are shouldering the costs, said Charles Odei, director for Jersey City’s Division of Tenant Landlord Relations. “With all the other cases (but Grandview Terrace) we’ve been successful in getting the landlord to pay so far,” he said.

The 284-unit Grandview Terrace has had nearly 50 cases of bedbugs in the past three years, said Steve Lesko, president of Norman Ostrow Inc., which manages the building. He said the building’s tenant board voted in 2006 to charge tenants individually.

“Why should people who don’t have a problem pay for people who do?” he said, adding that the policy tends to prevent false alarms.

That kind of policy, decided by a tenant board or not, just shows an ignorance of bed bugs and how they work. They probably made this decision ignorant of the fact that a large percentage of people do not react to bed bug bites, and so have to have a pretty serious infestation before they notice it. They must also have been ignorant about just how easily bed bugs travel within a building.

And clearly, Grandview Terrace’s management is ignorant about how bed bugs travel:

Lesko said most infestations at Grandview come from tenants bringing the bugs into the building through used furniture or their clothes, not from the bugs moving from one apartment to another.

But tenants disagree, saying they’ve seen the bugs in common areas, and that the critters can easily jump from one tenant to another in elevators.

And charging tenants individually has the down side that many won’t report the problem, causing the infestation to continue to spread.

“Everyone that lives in Grandview Terrace is on a fixed income,” said Robert High, who has tried to deal with the bugs on his own. “We can’t afford it.”

Bed bugs don’t jump, but they do walk, and run.

I am not sure how the building management determined that those 50 cases were mostly caused by bed bugs being brought in from outside.

(Perhaps Lesko has little tracking devices planted on them?)

But I do know this: forcing elderly people on limited incomes to pay for their own bed bug treatment is a good way to ensure the entire building is eventually infested. And that’s not good for owners or tenants.

New Jersey needs to update its housing laws. If tenants are going to be forced to pay for bed bug treatment, then there must be a provision of financial assistance to help them do so. And of course, if landlords are suffering hardship, the government can certainly pass laws to help them pay for treatment too. But skipping or skimping on bed bug treatment is not a good idea.

People need to be encouraged to report bed bug problems, and they need immediate treatment, regardless of ability to pay. It’s in everyone’s best interest that everyone gets good, swift treatment for bed bugs.

Update:

This article, also from the Journal, reports on how seniors in a Bayonne Housing Authority building, Back Bay Gardens, at 535 Avenue A, are suffering with bed bugs, despite treatment.

One tenant there had 10-12 PCO treatments, and has now been free of bed bug bites for three weeks (much too soon to declare victory).

The problem there seems to be that tenants are only treated if they complain about bed bugs — there do not seem to be any routine inspections going on. And when they are treated, the article implies there is a one-month gap between treatments and follow-ups only occur if tenants ask for them:

[John Mahon of the Bayonne Housing Authority] said the Housing Authority provides an extermination service once a month and sends the exterminator when a tenant calls with a problem.

A tenant who had treatment several weeks ago reports continuing to see bed bugs. Why aren’t all the units in this building being inspected, and why aren’t treatments recurring at approximately 2-week intervals, which most PCOs who know bed bugs seem to recommend? Almost no one gets rid of bed bugs after one treatment, since traditional treatments do not kill bed bug eggs, which hatch in approximately 10 days.

This article is disturbing, and a good reminder that simply providing bed bug treatment to residents is not enough; buildings and housing authorities need good bed bug treatment protocols; they need to provide aggressive treatment with follow-ups, and to inspect units adjoining those with infestations even when tenants have not yet detected a bed bug problem.

More on bed bugs in Grandview Terrace, and on the spread of bed bugs in Hoboken, Atlantic City, and the rest of the Garden State here.

• New Jersey legislators pushing to make landlords pay for bed bug treatment
• New York City: Who’s responsible for paying for bed bug treatment? Complicated, in some cases.
• landlords talking about bed bugs
• landlord’s duty to tell prospective tenants about bed bugs?

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“All we wanted was someone to tell whether the holding cells in the Central Judicial Processing Court are infested with bed bugs,” said Meyers, a Hudson County Maintenance Department employee. “But instead of giving me an answer, my supervisor screamed ‘I hate you! I hate you!’ and refused to tell us anything about the situation.”

The cells were indeed treated for bed bugs back in December (prior to this conversation of 12/28), so perhaps it is a sensitive area for the management?

The women claim they were split up and given more work after asking about bed bugs.

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• Disney guests paid off to keep quiet about bed bugs
• Tampa Bay mental health facility closed for bed bug treatment

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Creepy crawly creatures have always been a predictable, if dreaded, part of multi-housing life because of the ease with which they move from unit to unit along shared pipes, wires and cable lines.

Landlords and buildings managers typically address these concerns with monthly inspections and treatments while urging tenants to adopt neater lifestyles and garbage disposal methods.

Now, say area pest control companies, bedbugs have replaced cockroaches and mice at the top of the creature list, and none of these treatments help.

“In New Jersey we’re seeing bedbugs in epidemic proportions,” says Tony Yochum, commercial sales manager for Viking Pest Control with offices in Saddle Brook and throughout northern New Jersey. “They are the cockroach of the new millennium.”

It seems obvious to us Bedbuggers that the problem is spreading rapidly and also that it can be difficult to get rid of bed bugs. But sometimes news articles are more reserved about saying so outright. Sometimes they even seem to state the opposite.

They also often do not mention how easily bed bugs can be transported from place to place:

“You can pick them up at college, a movie theater, in furniture,” [Abarb Pest Service's George] Forst said. “They spread like wildfire.”

For the general public, it is helpful to consider that bed bugs can come from a wide variety of sources, and travel in all directions.

That kind of talk can make some people paranoid, of course. It is not true that you will encounter bed bugs everywhere you go, nor is it true–having had bed bugs–that you will likely reinfest yourself again and again from random locations once your bed bugs are gone.

It is worth taking precautions against spreading them if you have them, and it’s worth being alert wherever you go, since picking up bed bugs is always a possibility.

Jim McCale, owner of J.P. McCale Pest Management in Boonton is quoted as saying

We also recommend inspecting the units above, below and diagonal to the infected unit, but this can be hard. Residents don’t want other tenants to know.

What I hear from Bedbugger readers is most often that the landlord does not want to inspect all adjacent units (because, after all, they may then have to pay to treat them). Another common complaint is that the landlord will inspect, but some tenants will refuse either inspection or treatment.

We almost never hear of tenants who themselves do not want the landlord to have neighbors’ units inspected. (And anyway, if all adjacent units are being inspected, why would the other tenants need to know which tenant made the original complaint, if the landlord is the one calling for inspections?)

It is true, however, that our readers are self-selecting–they’re the information-seekers and proactive ones. Often this comes of necessity–when people have a bad allergic response to bed bugs, they not only come looking for solutions, they also are willing to do almost anything to get rid of the problem. So I guess many of us Bedbuggers might not be typical clients.

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• Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Housing Authority vs. Bed Bugs

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• Bed bugs in casino and senior apartments in New Jersey, Binghamton University (again) and another dust mite photo in the news
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• Hotel housekeeping staff offered $25 bounty per head on bed bugs
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• bed bugs in Toronto; Vancouver; Billings, MT,
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• bed bug news for 2007-11-11: Lexington, KY and Toronto, ON
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