Got bed bugs? Bedbugger.com » New York bed bug seminars

The first “bed bug seminar” hit New York City last night

nobugsonme — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 20:18:37 +0000

The first of three bed bug seminars planned by the city of New York happened last night. NBC Channel 4 did a brief recap on the 11 o’clock news, but video is not available from wnbc.com as of this writing.

Bedbugger was not on the scene, unfortunately, but we did get some eyewitness reports.

Our source noted that there was useful information shared, but questioned whether the audience wouldn’t be better served if the presenters had a more intimate and extensive knowledge of bed bugs. (The program was scheduled to be led by Elise Shin and Henny Calle. We understand Calle has done previous presentations on lead and other building safety issues.)

This is New York, home to many bed bug experts–people I’ve found to be very helpful and approachable. Why were none of them involved in these proceedings? From what I can gather, they weren’t asked.

It sounds like there could have been more scientific data in evidence, particularly in regard to what was said about pesticides.

Apparently they also showed slides of bites and tried to advise people on identifying them–something that is not possible. Was this made clear? Perhaps someone can report on that.

Rather than lasting the scheduled two hours from 6-8pm, our source said it started at 6:40 and ended by 7:30–thus using 50 out of a scheduled 120 minutes. Perhaps if some experts with more bed bug knowledge were involved, the program would be richer. People expected to come for two hours, so why not use the time well?

A second report came via crawledon, a Bedbugger on the forums. crawledon reports:

I was extremely disappointed with the meeting last night. During the first part, the “educator” basically read information that had been handed out and added a tiny bit of commentary making it quite clear that she never lived through an infestation and also didn’t really know much about the subject. I think I remember her stating that bb’s can live for almost a year without a blood meal. Someone called out, “18 months!” Our educator quipped, “let’s be optimistic.” First she was inaccurate, then joked about it without correcting herself. The Q&A portion was even more ridiculous because she couldn’t really answer the questions. It was frustrating because I recognized many experts in the audience and frankly, they should have been running the show. At the very least, I wished they would have answered the questions.

The main focus was on being able to identify a [bed bug] and where to look for them. Then she talked about integrated pest management where she went on to read that tenants need to declutter, should use a stiff brush to scrape eggs off of mattresses, etc., and how we can caulk holes in walls and floors. The literature that had been passed out said the tenants can find these supplies in the hardware store. This made me very, very angry because quite frankly, it is not our job to go and buy supplies so that we, the tenants can seal up harborages, although we often wind up doing it so it gets done.

crawledon reports that at its close, the event became commercial: “like a convention hall:”

There were many businesses represented, PCOs, PCOs with dogs, salespeople from PCO companies, people wanting to come and ozone your home. . . they all descended upon the tenants, handing out business cards trying to sell their wares. We need these people and appreciate their presence but I wish more [landlords] had been present. They’re the ones that should buy these wares, not the tenants.

Finally, Channel 4 covered the seminar. They stated on their newscast that although it’s not recommended, one can do their own pest control, and listed some of the things our “educator” listed in the “integrated pest control” portion of her talk. If NBC came away thinking we can do this, what did the public come away with?

Finally, crawledon suggests that

The only good this seminar provided was now tenants can better identify a [bed bug]. But ultimately, this seminar and the newscast that followed it might have done more harm than good.

You can read the rest of crawledon’s comments here.

Thanks to our anonymous witness and crawledon for their reports. This is, unfortunately, kind of what I expected, knowing that local experts were not involved in the presentation.

The city needs to smarten up before their next bed bug seminar. Many of the people attending are people with bed bugs, or with neighbors who have them. Others are landlords or social workers or others whose jobs involve getting rid of bed bugs. They may (in many cases) know more about bed bugs than the presenters, and they need more than an introduction to the problem, they need help.

The city needs to do much more than offer a few 50-minute beginner’s bed bug identification classes. We should recall the words of Michael Potter, one of the foremost bed bug experts, at a Pest Control Technology event last August, a true “bed bug seminar”:

“If there is a classic example of why you don’t eliminate entire classes of pesticides,” Potter said, “bed bugs are it. We’re in a heap of trouble in terms of the products we have available to fight this pest,” citing several classes of chemistry that are no longer available (e.g., organophosphates, carbamates, etc.) and the growing threat of pyrethroid resistance. As a result, he said, “I don’t see how this problem is going to get better. I think it’s going to get chaotic. This is the most challenging pest I’ve encountered in my career. We’re in big trouble.”

If this pest has presented the biggest challenge of his career, to a leading entomologist, then perhaps the City of New York needs to consider going further than the albeit important step of showing a few New Yorkers what bed bugs look like.

Bed bug experts have told us that some of those classes of pesticides might be used, cautiously and with restrictions, to more efficiently eradicate a bed bug infestation, and city officials should be lobbying for this.

The city does need an education campaign, but it should be designed with the assistance of the best bed bug experts available to us. And it should be disseminated through television specials, newspaper ads, and bus shelter and subway ads. Not through a 50-minute program you have to RSVP for.

And any education campaign is just the beginning.

If you attended the seminar, or have feedback on the above, please comment below!

Still more on New York’s response to bed bugs

nobugsonme — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 18:49:32 +0000

The press release for the New York HPD bed bug seminars is here. It includes dates and times, addresses, and a phone number for more information. Seminars will be in English and Spanish. Please do call the number listed below to reserve a spot.

The first seminar is scheduled to take place on Monday, January 28 from 6PM to 8PM at the Russ Berrie Medical Science Pavilion, 1^st floor conference room, Columbia University Medical Center, 1150 St. Nicholas Avenue (at 168^th Street) in Manhattan.

The second seminar is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, February 5 from 8PM to 9PM at Ricardo’s Catering Hall, 21-01 24^th Avenue in Astoria, Queens.

The final seminar is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, March 12 from 6PM to 8PM at the Hope Gardens Senior Center, 195 Linden Street in Bushwick, Brooklyn.

Anyone interested in attending any of these seminars is encouraged to call (212) 863-8830 to reserve a space. Translation services will be provided for Spanish-speaking members of the public.

New York Times blogger Jennifer 8. Lee also reported on the seminars. She also gave a helpful insight into what happens after you call 311:

Bedbug complaints are listed as an “emergency,” which means they go to the top of the priority list. The department sends out inspectors at night, when bedbugs tend to be more active. Typically, bedbugs are listed as a Class B violation, which gives the owner 30 days to correct the problem. The least severe violations, Class A, have to be fixed within 90 days. Class C violations, for emergency conditions like no electricity or hot water, must be corrected within 24 hours and completely dwarf the bedbug complaints.

Although we knew something about what happens when bedbuggers call 311, we had not previously heard that inspections were made at night. (I’m not sure how big a help this is, since I assume inspectors aren’t coming to call at 2 am, but still, it can’t hurt.) Lee also provided an interesting quotation from a City Councilperson who had had bed bugs:

Robert Jackson, a city councilman who represents parts of northern Manhattan, said at a news conference that his family had been plagued by bedbugs when he was young.

“They used to bite us all,” he said.”We used to wake up trying to kill them at night.”

Incidentally, Jackson was born and raised in Manhattan, according to the City Council’s biography, linked from his name above. I suspect someone in the New York City Council will soon have a contemporary story of bed bugs. I hope that when they do, they will speak out.

Lee continued,

Awareness has made people paranoid of bedbugs, which is why calls to 311 have skyrocketed, though only a part of those have ended up with violation notices.

“I think a lot of people are convinced they have bedbugs when they don’t,” Mr. Aragon said.

That is another reason they are holding the seminars, he said, so that people with skin rashes know when not to call 311.

This is certainly important– people should not panic, and should rule out other causes of itching. Knowing what different stages of bed bugs look like is key.

However, I have to admit that– having heard some 311 stories myself, and knowing how difficult it can be to find bed bug samples– I would suspect at least some of the 5000 people who called 311 last year and who were told they did not have bed bugs, did have them. Although some of the 7000 calls were doubtless panic reactions, I would not be surprised if more than 2000 were actual bed bug cases. I would like to know what constitutes evidence of bed bugs for the inspectors, and how they are trained to detect infestations. We’re told some PCOs do not visually inspect for bed bugs, finding this too difficult, time-consuming, or pointless.

Hopefully anyone who did have bed bugs, but whose HPD inspection turned up nothing, eventually found evidence and called again. However, we know that when people call for help and don’t get it, they often try other means the next time–like paying for their own treatment, or self-treating. (If neighbors are infested, both methods can fail miserably.)

The Times Ledger community newspapers also reported this week on the planned seminars.

The meetings, one of which will take place on Feb. 5 in Astoria, are a response to the rise in complaints that city residents have filed against the insects, according to City Council Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Astoria).

“It’s a problem that until recently even I wasn’t aware of. You expect something like this in a third world country but not in the capital of the world,” he said.

They cited incorrect statistics on the number of complaints citywide:

In 2005, there were only 62 bedbug complaints, which soared to 366 last year, according to the city. Astoria had the third highest number of complaints, Vallone said. Although bedbugs do not transmit any diseases, they are still pose a health crisis for city residents according to the councilman.

“Other cities don’t consider bed bugs a crisis but when people aren’t sleeping they can develop physical and mental problems,” he said.

Perhaps the paper meant to cite statistics for Astoria? The city reported much higher numbers of complaints in 2007 city-wide. The press release about the seminars says,

In Fiscal Year 2007 alone, the City’s 311 hotline received nearly 7,000 bedbug related complaints and HPD housing inspectors issued over 2,000 violations to building owners all across the City. By comparison, Fiscal Year 2004 saw only 1,800 complaints and less than 400 violations issued.

We should remember these are only the people who called 311 to complain about bed bugs, which it appears most tenants and no coop or condo owners do. The numbers also leave out the NYC housing authority residents who had bed bugs last year. Douglas Feiden’s December report in The Daily News reported that there were

… 1,708 verified bedbug cases in 277 public housing projects this year [2007], the city Housing Authority says.

The city and the media leave us to do the math: New York City knows of approximately 3700 tenants who had bed bugs last year. They have no data on non-NYCHA tenants who reported bed bugs to their landlords directly, nor those who called pest control operators themselves, nor on co-op, condo or other homeowners.

From where I sit, hearing the stories of New York bedbuggers daily–and knowing only a small percentage call 311 about their bed bug problem–this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Vallone is also wrong that other cities don’t consider bed bugs a crisis. Lexington, Kentucky, Cincinnati, Ohio, and San Francisco, California, are all US cities that are taking bed bugs seriously. Though responses have been limited so far, some of these cities have expended more money and energy per capita on bed bugs than New York has, by far.

And outside the US, Vancouver is also taking bed bugs seriously with a number of responses. Toronto is currently figuring out what to do.

Also this week, the New York Press blogged about the bed bug “education campaign”, and used one of Bedbugger mangy_cur’s excellent bed bug photos. Congratulations, mangy_cur!

They also linked to a thread in our forums, which we do appreciate (thanks, Emily Meredith of nypress.com!) though it’s always a little embarrassing when people arrive first via a forums thread, like a new guest coming to visit for the first time off the fire escape and through the kitchen window. But we welcome them nonetheless.

Update 1/21: CBS on the bed bug seminars; includes interview with Lou Sorkin who stresses that people need to look for the tiny, translucent nymphs which will be more common than rust-colored adults.