The Press of Atlantic City reports that there was a four month delay in treating bed bugs in four public housing buildings, even after bed bugs were detected in a third of the 800 units in Altman Terrace, Inlet Tower, Shore Park Hi-Rise and Charles P. Jeffries Tower, back in March.

Treatment did not begin until July.

And to think, we were shocked that Walt Whitman Houses residents in Brooklyn were made to wait a month for treatment by the NYCHA.

Four months seems like forever.

Emily Previti reports:

The bed bugs were quite bad, as far as the infestation levels, and nobody wants to wait a day, but it takes a few days just to get a dog out let alone take care of pest control. There’s just so much activity, [Michael Russell, vice president of marketing for Action Pest Control] said. “We were impressed by speed with which they moved. Amongst all other groups we’ve dealt with, the authority has been among the most pro-active.”

Shore Park resident Conchetta Caputo, 49, said building managers should have told residents upon confirming the presence of the pests and that eradication should have happened faster. In the interim, she suffered constant biting from bed bugs that she initially thought were mosquitoes that sneaked in the window in her living room, which lacks air conditioning.

[Jelani Garrett, acting director of the Atlantic City Housing Authority] attributed the delay to soliciting quotes from companies after Action conducted its initial sweep in late March and then finding the money to pay for the work.

(Emphasis mine.)

Why weren’t residents notified that their buildings were infested?

Garrett also admitted officials kept the information from residents to avoid sparking panic , but said the current round of extermination marks the beginning of regular checks and, if needed, treatments. The authority has not formally adopted a policy establishing that procedure, but doing so would be “a good idea,” Garrett said.

Action will be retreating in ten days, and subsequently if bed bugs are detected; they’ll also be bringing bed bug k9s in again in March for follow-up inspections.

See Bed bug eradication continues in Atlantic City public housing.

Related legislation:

NJ Senate Bill 2520 (introduced 2/2009) would require landlords of multi-unit buildings to eliminate bed bugs and to inspect buildings for bed bugs yearly (both at their expense).  NJ Senate Bill 2774 (introduced 5/2009) would require PCOs to provide a 30-day warranty on bed bug service to residential premises, which would require retreatment free of charge if landlord or tenant finds evidence of continued bed bug infestation.Similar Posts:

• Bed bugs bite in Richmond, California public housing development
• New York City Housing Authority: “bed bugs = emergency” + “wait a month” do not compute
• Lexington, Kentucky public housing infested with bed bugs
• Scholastic Headquarters treated for bed bugs; update on Penguin
• Bed bugs in Grand Forks, North Dakota public housing

The New Jersey Assembly considered the “bed bug bill” A-3203 on Thursday, and it passed 74-3!

You can read more about it in the Press of Atlantic City, which writes,

Under the bill approved by a 74-3 vote in the Assembly, landlords of multiple-dwelling units must have bed-bug infestations removed as soon as they learn about them. Landlords must also give tenants pamphlets, which will be developed by the state Department of Health and Senior Services, warning them about bed bugs. It also establishes deadlines by which landlords must deal with bed bug infestations.

Landlords who don’t take appropriate actions face fines of $300 for each infested bedroom and $1,000 for each infested common area.

“Renters should not have to live silently with bedbug infestations,” said Assemblywoman Joan Quigley, D-Hudson, a bill sponsor. “Tenants who want to live in a clean and safe environment need the piece of mind that their landlord will work with them to ensure the sanctity of their home.”

You can read previous Bedbugger stories on A3203 here.

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PolicickerNJ reports A-3203 is coming up for consideration Thursday.

Also to be considered is legislation (A-3203) Assembly members Joan M. Quigley (D-Hudson), L. Grace Spencer (D-Essex), L. Harvey Smith (D-Hudson), Cleopatra Tucker (D-Essex) and Nilsa Cruz-Perez (D-Camden) sponsored to hold landlords responsible for keeping multi-unit apartment complexes free of bedbug infestations.

The sponsors crafted the legislation after news reports detailed severe outbreaks of bedbugs in apartment complexes across Hudson County. In these instances, the tenants, some of whom had nothing to do with the initial infestation, were being charged for extermination.

“It is disgusting to think that there are places in New Jersey where renters are being forced to cohabitate with vermin, simply because they cannot afford a proper extermination,” Quigley said. “Tenants should not have to pay extra simply to live in a clean and safe environment.”

New Jerseyites, email or call your Assembly members!

More on A-3203 here.Similar Posts:

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Fox 29 Philadelphia reports Gail Edmond claims she suffered from bed bug bites on her arm, wrist, finger, and stomach, while staying at Bally’s Resort and Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Edmond says she isn’t seeking a payout:

“Want money? I’m not hurting. I don’t want money from Bally’s. My main concern here was, I wanted to see exterminators go in the room. I wanted to see them correct the problem,” says Edmond.

The woman went to an emergency room and doctors diagnosed the bites as being from bed bugs.  (We’re told that it is not possible to do this with any certainty, though it’s understandable they might come to this conclusion since the bites apparently appeared while she was staying in the hotel.)  She was given a prescription for something also.

While Fox 29 viewers are probably horrified by the idea of being bitten by bed bugs while staying in a hotel room, the real horror begins if you actually bring bed bugs home.  We really hope that did not happen in this case.

You can watch the video or read the story on Fox 29’s website.Similar Posts:

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The web is buzzing about a new pyrethroid-resistance study of New York City bed bugs by researchers at the University of Massachusetts and Seoul National University. Pyrethroid-resistance is just one reason it is often so hard to get rid of bed bugs.

Two of the many articles picking up on the study’s results included this item in the U.S. News and World Report Health Blog today, and this article from Monday’s LiveScience.

As the U.S. News Health blogger reported,

Bed bugs in New York City, where infestations have grown in recent years, appear to have developed nerve cell mutations that weaken the effect of the pyrethroid toxins, such as deltamethrin, commonly used against them, according to a report in the current issue of the Journal of Medical Entomology. Such nervous system poisons normally would paralyze and kill the nocturnal blood suckers.

Toxicologists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Korea’s Seoul National University found that the New York City bed bugs are now as much as 264 times more resistant to deltamethrin than an easier-to-kill type of bed bug found in Florida.

Pyrethroid-resistance is no surprise to us, since it has been found elsewhere.

Unfortunately, the current round of press coverage of the U Mass-Amherst / Seoul National U study may give those not in the know about pyrethroid-resistance the sense that this is a “New York City” problem, which it isn’t.

This 2007 article in PCT Online from Alvero Romero, Michael Potter and Kenneth F. Haynes outlines a study comparing pyrethroid-resistance found in populations from around the US:

Further testing of third-to-fifth instar nymphs from 16 different field populations indicated that pyrethroid resistance in bed bugs, while not universal, may be widespread (see accompanying map and table on pages 44 and 48). Using a “discriminating” dose equivalent to 10 times the labeled rate of deltamethrin (0.6 percent), 14 of 16 populations collected in Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, New York, Massachusetts, Virginia, Florida and California were resistant (0 percent mortality), one field population from New Jersey was deemed “intermediate” (45 percent mortality), and one of the two populations collected from the same building in California was relatively susceptible (100 percent mortality).

(Information on getting a copy of this study follows at the bottom of the post.)

The Livescience article helps put the new pyrethroid-resistance data in perspective, with the help of Dr. Lou Sorkin, a friend to Bedbuggers everywhere:

Unless the researchers sampled every population of bed bugs in New York, it is unlikely that all NYC bed bugs are resistant to the insecticide, said Louis Sorkin, an entomologist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Also, most pest control companies rely on more than one insecticide to combat bed bugs, he said. The ideal is to use a combination of chemicals that have different modes of action — perhaps one is good at killing the adults and nymphal stages immediately while another is better at lingering and killing bugs days later — and come from different chemical families, not just pyrethroids, Sorkin said.

Exterminators also have different ways to administer insecticides, which can make a difference — foams, powders, aerosols. However, over-the-counter aerosol bombs are not recommended. They just cause the bugs to scatter, Sorkin said, and fail to get inside cracks where bugs can hide.

“Some people don’t like to say they have bed bugs. They try to take care of it themselves,” Sorkin said. But amateur attempts often just push the bugs away for a while and spread them into neighboring properties.

Lou reminds us not to take an infestation lightly. If you’re using traditional treatments for bed bugs, a multi-pronged approach is best. The article notes that Integrated Pest Management (IPM) solutions go beyond sprays and dusts:

Techniques include caulking, spackling and using other sealants to fill cracks and crevices, refinishing and sealing floors, injecting frozen carbon dioxide “snow” into electronics to freeze pests, re-painting walls and other surfaces, using low-moisture steam and clothes dryer heat to kill bugs, and injecting bug-killing dust into electrical outlets and switches.

Commodity fumigation (usually done by sulfuryl fluoride gas, including Vikane TM) is also mentioned by Lou in the article. (The home itself obviously must be treated thoroughly if items are to be gassed and returned to it.)

Thermal heat is not specifically mentioned, but is now an option which can be effective.

If done properly, no bed bug is resistant to sulfuryl fluoride (Vikane TM) or thermal heat. However, these options can be more expensive, and are not available everywhere.

Pyrethroid-resistance is a good reason for the pest control industry to keep seeking alternative solutions to bed bugs and for all pest professionals, landlords, tenants, and property owners to get serious about an aggrerssive, multi-pronged approach to fighting bed bugs.

The new research study referred to in these articles is:

Yoon, K. S., Kown, D. H., Strycharz, J. P., Hollingsworth, C. S., Lee, S. H., and Clark, J. M. 2008. Biochemical and Molecular Analysis of Deltamethrin Resistance in the Common Bed Bug (Hemiptera: Cimicidae). J. Med. Entomol. 45(6): 1092-1101.

(Use accession number 185379 to get a PDF of this item from the Armed Forces Pest Management Board Literature Retrieval System! Accession numbers for items below are also noted where available.)

Also see the study referenced in the PCT Online article above:

Romero, A., M.F. Potter, D.A. Potter and K.F. Haynes. 2007. Insecticide resistance in the bed bug: a factor in the pest’s sudden resurgence? J. Med. Entomol. 44 (2):175-178. Accession number 183531.

The PCT Online article linked to above also suggests the following articles:

Myamba, J, C.A. Maxwell, A. Asidi and C.F. Curtis. 2002. Pyrethroid resistance in tropical bed bugs, Cimex hemipterus, associated with use of treated bednets. Med. and Vet. Entomol. 16, 448-451. Accession number 175921.

Boase, C.J., G. Small, and R. Naylor. 2006. Interim report on insecticide susceptibility status of UK bedbugs. Professional Pest Controller. Summer 2006:6-7.

Karunaratne, S.H.P.P., B.T. Damayanthi, M.H.J. Fareena, V. Imbuldeniya, and J. Hemingway. 2007. Insecticide resistance in the tropical bed bug Cimex hemipterus. Pestic. Bochem. Physiol. 88, 102-107. Abstract.

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We now have a status update on the bill in the New Jersey Assembly which would make landlords entirely responsible for eradicating bed bugs in rental properties.

According to PolitickerNJ.com,

The Assembly Housing and Local Government Committee released the measure 5- 0 with one abstention. It now heads to the Assembly Speaker, who decides if and when to post it for a floor vote.

A3203, sponsored by Assembly Members Quigley, Spencer, and Smith, would change the situation in New Jersey. State Laws currently require landlords to pay for treatment, but they can — and often do — turn around and pass those costs on to tenants.

Jersey City recently passed an ordinance which (in my opinion) does not improve matters: it requires landlords to pay for two, and only two, bed bug treatments. If the bed bug infestation persists, tenants have to pay to get rid of the problem.  This is unfair because the problem may persist for various reasons besides the tenants’ negligence (inadequate treatment, bed bugs coming from other units, etc.)

Requiring tenants to pay for bed bug treatment — either initially, or after the second treatment — does not work on a practical level.   First, many tenants may not notice they have a bed bug problem, since many (if not most) do not react to bed bug bites.  Secondly, those who do notice a problem may not be able to pay for treatment.  They may ignore the problem or move out. These actions can cause other tenants to become infested, and they may make similar choices. In the end, the landlord may be left with a severely infested property.

When landlords are only required to treat twice, as in Jersey City, there’s no incentive to find a pest control operator who can eliminate the problem in two visits. Doing so can be difficult at the best of times, and is even more difficult if tenants are uncooperative or if multiple units are infested.

In short, the current New Jersey laws are lousy for tenants and landlords, who may end up with chronically infested buildings. Homeowners suffer as well: if more people in your area have bed bugs, your chances of picking them up somewhere increase too.

The legislation (A-3203) would make building owners entirely responsible for maintaining dwellings that are free of bedbug infestations. Under the bill, if and when a bedbug outbreak occurs, landlords would be required to exterminate the pests at their own expense.

Landlords who do not take action when an infestation is reported would face fines of $300 per infested apartment and $1,000 per infested common area. Moreover, local boards of health would be empowered to conduct exterminations and bill unresponsive landlords.

I recognize that paying for bed bug treatments causes landlords hardship, but I do believe that the current situation (which more or less encourages tenants to ignore bed bug problems until they spread throughout the building) is bad for landlords as well as tenants.

I also strongly feel landlords should demand government assistance if bed bug treatments create hardship. If we can give disaster assistance to property owners who are the victims of natural disasters like hurricanes and tornados, why not help those who are the victims of a bed bug epidemic?

The measure also would require annual inspections of all multi-unit dwellings in the state for bedbug infestations and would require the state Department of Health and Senior Services to create and distribute an informational pamphlet to educate the public about bedbugs.

This is good news. Education is the first step in avoiding bed bugs, recognizing them, and helping prevent their spread. (This is good for everyone: landlords and tenants alike.)

If you’re in New Jersey, please contact your State Assembly member and ask them to support this bill. (You can find Assembly Members via this website; keep in mind Senators and Assembly Members are included together.) And you might also contact the Speaker of the Assembly, asking they put it up for a vote ASAP.Similar Posts:

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Chanteuse Nicole Atkins, who plays the Bowery Ballroom Friday, told amNY she moved to Jersey after battling bed bugs in Brooklyn:

Atkins moved to Asbury Park, N,J., last year, which is a stone’s throw from her Garden State hometown, Neptune, which inspired her acclaimed 2007 major-label debut disc, “Neptune City.”

“I just got sick of sleeping on an air mattress with bedbugs in Brooklyn and paying high rent,” Atkins says. “My friends moved to Asbury Park and started galleries and restaurants. I just wanted to be there. I love it, but I come back to New York a couple times a week. I take the train to the city. It’s where I write my best songs.”

They have bed bugs in New Jersey too, of course, but we’re glad Atkins found an escape from bed bugs and we hope it’s permanent.

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The Jersey Journal reports that the Starlite Motel on Tonnelle Avenue near Fifth Street in Jersey City was closed by Jersey City inspectors yesterday “due to bedbug infestation and fire code violations.”

“In this case, the motel in question had numerous fire violations and was infested with bedbugs, which placed their guests at a great risk,” [Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy] said.

Inspectors found bedbugs in five hotel rooms, including one in which a family of two adults and three children were living as long-term residents, Chief Health Inspector H. James Boor said.

Smoke detectors in 75 percent or the motel’s rooms did not work, said Mark Redfield, chair of the task force.

About 35 additional violations were found, Redfield added, noting the motel was operating without a license since the Fire Department hadn’t completed its inspection process.

It is not clear to me that the city would be shutting down a motel which only had bed bug issues, but it will be interesting to see if that comes up in the future.

I note that, given the new city ordinance which makes Jersey City landlords responsible only for treating their tenants’ units for bed bugs twice (as opposed to being responsible for eradicating bed bugs), long-term hotel residents such as those mentioned here may have more rights to bed bug-free accommodation than those with rental leases.

That doesn’t seem quite fair.

If Mayor Healy doesn’t want Jersey City residents to live with bed bugs, he and his city council should perhaps reconsider the recent ordinance in light of the fact that experts tell us most bed bug cases take three or more traditional treatments, not one or two, before bed bugs are gone.

Aggressive, coordinated treatment of all infested units (and those adjacent to the infested units) make it more likely that bed bugs will be gone more quickly. When it’s left up to landlords to decide, this is often not the type of response they choose to provide.

Unfortunately, the residents of this hotel were forced to evacuate. I hope they have somewhere safe and bed bug-free to go to, and that the city helped them ensure they were not taking bed bugs with them.

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New Jersey Assembly members Joan M. Quigley, L. Grace Spencer, and L. Harvey Smith introduced legislation (A-3203) on Monday which would make New Jersey landlords wholly responsible for eliminating bed bugs from rented accommodation.

The bill has been referred to the Assembly Health and Senior Services Committee for a hearing.

Here’s a video of Joan M. Quigley, Major Conference Leader, New Jersey General Assembly (D-Hudson) talking about the proposed legislation.

We first heard about this proposal back in July.

Although landlords in New Jersey are currently charged with treating for bed bugs, the law does not prohibit them passing on the costs to tenants, which many do. This system is a bad idea: if tenants know they will have to pay for treatment, they are less likely to report bed bugs to the landlord. This helps the problem spread to others.

And the legislation has teeth:

(6.) Any owner of a multiple dwelling whose negligence or failure to act results in action by the local health officer … shall be liable for a civil penalty of not more than $300 for each affected dwelling unit and not more than $1000 for each affected common area in the multiple dwelling. Such penalty shall be recoverable by and in the name of the local board of health.

And the proposed legislation also calls for a modest educational campaign.

According to PolitickerNJ:

The measure also would require the state Department of Health and Senior Services to create and distribute an informational pamphlet to educate the public about bedbugs.

“Making sure that renters are able to live pest free is only one part of the equation,” said Smith (D-Hudson). “We also must work to educate the public about bedbugs to prevent future infestations from reaching epidemic proportions.”

Last week we heard city council members in Jersey City are pushing to make landlords pay for one bed bug treatment and one follow-up per year; however, this is a bad idea, since bed bugs often take multiple treatments. Such a system is bound to help the spread of the problem.

And to head off the usual “you’re anti-landlord!” sentiment: you’re barking up the wrong tree. I think landlords and other homeowners need to demand assistance from the government to help them pay for bed bug treatment. Bed bugs are not termites, ants, or cockroaches.

No one who bought a home or building ten years ago had even heard of them. They’re more like a tornado, hurricane, or other natural disaster touching down (lightly, but repeatedly and destructively). And they’re contagious, in that you can catch them on a bus, or from a friend. You don’t have to do anything negligent to get them.

So no, I am not anti-landlord. But I know what tenants who can’t afford treatment will do if they are left with the choice of paying for treatment or putting up with bed bugs / trying to self-treat / moving away from the problem. And none of those alternative actions help landlords or fellow tenants.

You can read the proposed legislation here, or download a PDF here.
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State Senators and Hudson County Democratic Assembly Members were already working on changing the laws in New Jersey so that landlords could not pass on bed bug extermination costs to tenants.

Now Jersey City politicians are trying to make the same change on the city level, ASAP. The Jersey Journal reported Wednesday via NJ.com:

The Jersey City City Council plans to introduce an ordinance sponsored by Downtown Councilman Steven Fulop [Wednesday night] that puts the financial burden for eradicating bedbugs and other annoying critters solely on landlords.

Fulop is pushing “a model the state can imitate.”

Unfortunately, the model introduced Wednesday night is not one the state should emulate.

A report from the Jersey Journal on Friday clarified the proposed legislation would require landlords to do one treatment and one follow-up treatment per year:

Sponsored by Downtown Councilman Steven Fulop, the ordinance says that landlords are not responsible for undertaking more than one treatment and follow-up treatment per year.

“If repeated treatments are necessary or if the extermination is due to the tenant’s failure to properly maintain the dwelling, the costs can be charged to the tenant,” according to the ordinance, which is up for final adoption in two weeks.

This is illogical. If a unit needs more than two treatments it can be because all bed bugs present were not eliminated in two treatments. It does not necessarily mean the tenant was uncooperative.

We’re told most bed bug infestations take three or more treatments spaced 10-14 days apart to clear, but the length of time it takes to eradicate bed bugs may depend on the skills and knowledge of the PCO, whether neighbors are infested (knowingly or not), how long the bed bugs have been established in the unit, and how far they have spread within it, among other factors.

In short, there is no rule that even careful simultaneous treatment of all properly-prepped infested units in a building will eliminate bed bugs in two visits. I believe that if bed bug experts are consulted on this legislation, they will be able to correct that idea pretty swiftly.

If this legislation goes through, bed bug problems will likely be more persistent, because some tenants who’ve had the problem spring back after their quota of two treatments will be reluctant to report them (because they can’t pay for treatment), and the problem will move around the building.

Instead, if landlords pay to eradicate bed bugs from any units they’re present in, the problem has a chance of being stomped out in a building, rather than spreading endlessly.

I know landlords also do not cause this problem, and am all in favor of government assistance for landlords for whom bed bug infestations cause a hardship. But blaming tenants for any infestations that are not eliminated in two treatments is illogical.

Update (9/25/2008):

Fulop’s proposed ordinance passed in the Jersey City Council last night. This is too bad.

Now units needing more than two treatments will probably not get them.

This shows what can happen when those passing laws do not understand what they’re talking about. Any bed bug expert could tell you that just because an infestation requires more than two treatments does not mean the tenants are necessarily at fault.

And no, I don’t think landlords are necessarily at fault either. But I don’t think landlords or fellow tenants are best served by a system in which tenants have a financial disincentive to reporting their bed bugs.

Bed bugs can be remarkably persistent, neighbors can have no reaction to bites and not know they have bed bugs or are sending them through the walls; it’s a complicated problem.

I hope the NJ Assembly is able to pass their bill.Similar Posts:

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