Which brought us to the host, developer Donald Trump. “The building is going to be something the likes of which has never been done before,” he said of the soaring, sailboat-style glass tower, which recalled to this reporter the Cooper Square Hotel now looming over the Bowery.

Donald Trump Jr., meanwhile, suggested the posh accommodations would be “very comparable to the best you have in New York, and vice versa.”

Any fear of bedbugs in Dubai? (See The Observer’s Summer Phobias report on page C1.)

“Everything’s brand new out there, so I’m sure they don’t have bedbugs,” his lovely wife, Vanessa, interjected.

“Most of it didn’t exist five years ago, so there’s probably not too much of an issue with bedbugs—and certainly not the places we’re staying,” the younger Mr. Trump said.

“No, you won’t have any—I promise,” Trump père said with a wink.

Phew!

They probably don’t have any right now, if the place is brand new. But then people move in and in time, even in the poshest environment, someone is going to bring in a bed bug.

As for the future, hopefully Mr. Trump has his bed bug prevention and management plan ducks in a row.

Meanwhile, over in the Culture section of the same issue:

Among NewYorkers’ summer phobias such as public urination, lightning, and bolting carriage horses, the Observer identifies a fear of picking up bed bugs:

Speaking of Duane Reade, my girlfriend and I were there on a recent Saturday afternoon, buying a can of Pronto bedbug-killing spray. We’d just scored a couple of end tables at a sidewalk sale, and despite the fact the sellers lived in an immaculate brownstone, we couldn’t help shake the thought that any secondhand goods purchased in or around New York might be a vessel for those tiny, blood-sucking vermin that have induced psychological terror across the five boroughs.

How did it get to the point where some of us can’t even go to a flea market without worrying that it might have, well, actual fleas?

Um, well, maybe because it’s now true that they might have bed bugs!

Picking up bed bugs in an end table from a Park Slope stoop sale is not an irrational fear, and has got to be much more likely than being run down by a runaway horse in Central Park.

(If it were not so, you would be reading horsecarnage.com).

The article goes on to try and reassure us with the latest HPD statistics:

According to Neill Coleman, a spokesman for the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, it’s hard to assess the true threat. He said there’s been an increase in the number of bedbug complaints and violations over the past several years (in fiscal year 2004, HPD had 537 complaints, versus 8,840 complaints and 4,243 violations so far in fiscal year 2008, records show), but he also noted that bedbugs make up only a fraction of the more than 500,000 violations the department issues each year.

There are over 16 times as many official bed bug complaints as there were four years ago, and nearly half result in violations. It seems like bed bug cases are multiplying fast.

Of course, for those who assume someone with bed bugs would call 311 to report them as a housing violation, those numbers might seem “manageable.” My own observations suggest the vast majority do not call 311.

But the Observer clearly thinks there’s no cause to adjust your behavior in order to avoid bed bugs.

Still, people like Emilia Rich, 28, of Greenpoint aren’t taking any chances. Her phobia started last year when two small red bumps appeared on her arm, and a co-worker suggested they could be from bedbugs (false alarm). Now she gets freaked out whenever she sees mattresses on the curb on garbage night, so much so that she walks to the other side of the street. As for furniture, she’s sticking with IKEA.

“Buying furniture at a stoop sale?” Ms. Rich said. “That’s not even an option!”

Smart thinking, Emilia.

You don’t have to live in a state of constant panic, but avoiding New York City stoop sales during the current bed bug crisis is probably a good idea.

Not having bed bugs when you think you do is good luck, but it hardly means you should not have some concerns about picking them up.

• Eliminating Bed Bug Phobia - yeah, right
• Hotel Pennsylvania Settles Bedbug Suits for Nearly $100,000 | The New York Observer
• Columbia Spectator on bed bugs, again with the HPD statistic soup
• Lexington, KY vs. New York, NY: a tale of two bedbugged cities

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A bedbug epidemic in her Astoria apartment building forced Ellie Maldonado, 42, to discard her mattress last year.

Now, her brother Marcos Maldonado is spearheading an effort to raise money to replace the infected mattresses of his neighbors living in the Astoria Houses. He has named the project Sweet Dreams.

“I named it this because I want the kids to have sweet dreams as they sleep,” said Maldonado, 43, who has lived in Astoria for 16 years and is the owner of M&D Decorators on Astoria Blvd.

As I said, it’s a lovely idea, and very generous. Mr. Maldonado’s heart is in the right place, and he clearly knows firsthand how much bed bugs can mess up someone’s life and home.

However, and I hate to be a wet blanket (no pun intended), but I am concerned this program may only provide a temporary respite from bed bugs. Discarding bed bug-infested mattresses does not usually eliminate bed bugs from the home. In most cases, the room itself is also infested, along with sofas and other items.

It can give people a false sense of security. Bed bug bites may be lessened or eliminated for a while. But the bed bugs may still be present in smaller numbers, and can quickly bounce back.

What’s more, tossing out infested mattresses isn’t recommended by bed bug experts in most cases. Sealed mattress encasements tested to keep bed bugs out (or in this case, in) allow the mattress to be used and prevent a discarded mattress from going on to infest someone else’s home.

It’s essential that the apartment and the neighboring apartments are all bed bug-free, or these new mattresses will quickly become infested too.

Maldonado is donating mattresses to residents of NYCHA apartments, and the city seems pleased:

Maldonado hopes to establish a permanent, registered nonprofit organization to provide mattresses to families in the Ravenswood and Queensbridge houses next, he said.

City Housing Authority officials lauded Maldonado’s work.

“NYCHA applauds community involvement where community members want to help each other improve the quality of life in their neighborhoods,” a spokeswoman said in a written statement.

What isn’t mentioned outright in this article is the fact that it’s the NYCHA’s responsibility to eliminate bed bug infestations from NYCHA apartments.

I hope that their procedures involve inspecting all adjoining units (top, bottom, and all sides) when a complaint is made. I am concerned this is not so, since the fact sheet linked above says nothing about neighbors being inspected.

To their credit, the NYCHA does tell tenants to destroy any items which must be discarded. But my experience is most people don’t research such instructions before discarding things.

And destroying alone is not enough: mattresses should also be sealed to prevent spreading bed bugs while they await collection by the sanitation dept. or by trash-pickers.

I hope the NYCHA is also educating tenants about the signs of bed bugs, which can be quite subtle.

And I hope Mr. Maldonado will donate good mattress encasements for use with the donated mattresses.

• Tracing the path of the epidemic
• Washington Post prints correction thanks to bed bug activist
• NYC schools closer to having bed bug legislation
• Today show recommends sharing used mattresses on Craigslist, Freecycle

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It is perfectly legal to spritz, recover, and resell used mattresses in New York. They have to be sanitized and labeled properly.

There is no way to “sanitize” used mattresses to reliably remove bed bugs. There is no spray which will kill all the bed bugs and eggs in a used mattress.

Perhaps the only possibility for reliably removing bed bugs would be using heat (over 120 F for 3+ hours) or Vikane gas (which — if done correctly, and it is not always done correctly — should be 100% effective, but would probably raise the cost of refurbished mattresses to the point where no one would buy them).

The recycling of mattresses is shameful and the New York government must put an end to this practice which spreads bed bugs to so many.

And don’t think you’re safe if you never buy a used mattress. If your hotel, school, granddaughter’s day care, child’s friend’s parents, neighbor, building employee, or the person who sat in the movie theater before you bought a used mattress, that’s enough to give you bed bugs.

• inspectors find 600 unsanitized mattresses at Charlotte, N.C. used furniture store
• Bed bugs in Sweden: Ikea, used mattresses, and the spread of vägglus
• New York City is behind in the bed bug wars
• Eastern Nazarene College: students cannot bring in ANY used furniture

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Gale Brewer (Manhattan 6th District) has been at the forefront of the efforts to introduce meaningful bed bug legislation in the New York City Council for the past three years. We recently had an update on those efforts.

In January of this year, as the city launched its bed bug seminars, Council Member Brewer had this to say to NY1:

“The bottom line is bed bugs must be dealt with. And they are a mental health issue if they are not a physical health issue,” said City Councilwoman Gale Brewer. “New Yorkers really need to know their government is behind them in trying to get rid of bedbugs.”

My own theory for why these efforts have not yet yielded control measures that are appropriate to the high levels of infestation in New York City is that the stigma of bed bugs prevents many New Yorkers from voicing their concerns, asking for help and supporting the legislative proposals.

Or could it be that there aren’t enough bed bugs in New York City!? Is there or isn’t there an epidemic? Will you come to the open house to meet Council Member Brewer and tell her what you think?

Thanks to Crawledon for the open house info!

GALE BREWER’S SPRING OPEN HOUSE

Sunday, May 18, 4-7PM & Monday, May 19, 5:30-8:30 PM

Council Member Gale A. Brewer’s District Office at 563 Columbus Ave. (at 87th St.)

Refreshments

Details via Manhattan Community Board No. 4 news.

• Gale Brewer’s Bed Bug Update
• NYC Bed Bug Task Force / City Council Update
• More on New York’s response to bed bugs
• New York Magazine on bed bugs

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But Bill A6667a later died in the NYS Senate in January of this year.

The good news is that the bill has now been amended and approved by the Assembly once again as A6667b. It has been submitted to the New York State Senate again as of 3/19, and is under consideration by their Education Committee. Click here to read the text of the bill and follow its progress through the NYS Assembly to Senate back to the Assembly, and now to the Senate again.

The bill,

Requires city school districts having a population of one million or more to
notify parents and persons in parental relation of any bedbug infestations
found in a school.

And as the bill’s text details, principals would need to notify parents right away and provide information on preventing infestations and on avoiding the spread of bed bugs from school to home (or vice versa):

1 Section 1. The education law is amended by adding a new section 920 to
2 read as follows:
3 S 920. PUBLIC SCHOOLS; INFESTATION OF BEDBUGS (CIMEX LECTULARIUS). 1.
IN A CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT HAVING A POPULATION OF ONE MILLION OR MORE INHABITANTS, THE PRINCIPAL OF EACH PUBLIC SCHOOL SHALL PROVIDE IMMEDIATE NOTIFICATION TO ALL PARENTS OR PERSONS IN PARENTAL RELATION DISCLOSING A FINDING RELATING TO THE INFESTATION OF BEDBUGS (CIMEX LECTULARIUS) IN SUCH SCHOOL. ALONG WITH THE NOTIFICATION REQUIRED PURSUANT TO SUBDIVISION ONE OF THIS SECTION, THE PRINCIPAL OF SUCH PUBLIC SCHOOL SHALL ALSO INCLUDE INFORMATION REGARDING PROPER PROCEDURES TO PREVENT FURTHER INFESTATIONS AT THE SCHOOL AND TO PREVENT THE TRANSFER OF BEDBUGS FROM THE SCHOOL TO THE RESIDENCES OF STUDENTS. SUCH INFORMATION MAY BE DEVELOPED BY THE BOARD OF EDUCATION IN CONSULTATION WITH OTHER CITY AGENCIES AND SHALL BE AVAILABLE IN VARIOUS LANGUAGES AS DEEMED NECESSARY. THE PRINCIPAL SHALL ENSURE THAT THE BEDBUG INFESTATION AT THE SCHOOL IS PROPERLY ADDRESSED IN THE MOST EFFECTIVE AND SAFE MANNER.

Yes– it’s imperfect: why “one million or more”?
But let’s not focus on that for now.

Instead, let’s consider that this is a big step forward. We need the NY Senate to approve this bill. Parents have a right to know if bed bugs are in their kids’ schools.
Let’s not let this bill die again in the Senate.

These are some education-minded NYS Assembly Members who sponsored AO6667b in the Assembly:

SPONSOR Michael N. Gianaris

Michael Gianaris, (D-Astoria, Queens):

COSPNSR Catherine Nolan, Ellen Young, Richard N. Gottfried

MLTSPNSR Peter J. Abbate, Jr., James F. Brennan, Ann Margaret Carrozza, Luis M. Diaz, Ruben Diaz, Jr., Adriano Espaillat, D. Gordon,
Rory I. Lancman, Margaret M. Markey, Audrey I. Pheffer, Bob Reilly, Darryl C. Towns, Harvey Weisenberg

You might want to write your representative, if they’re listed above, and thank them for sponsoring the bill. If you don’t know who your representatives are, you can search by zip code, by clicking here. Please have a look. It will only take a moment.

Although not involved with sponsoring A6667b, Assembly Member José R. Peralta also cares about the effects bed bugs are having on his constituents. Perhaps you’d like to talk to him too.

But right now, the legislation is under consideration by the Education Committee for the NYS Senate. And we can take action to encourage senators to pass this bill.

This is the NYS Senate Education Committee:

Chairperson:
Stephen M. Saland

Members:
Kenneth P. LaValle, Suzi Oppenheimer, James Seward, Velmanette Montgomery, Carl Marcellino, Toby Ann Stavisky, Charles J. Fuschillo, Eric T. Schneiderman, Thomas Morahan, Martin Dilan, Martin Golden, John Sabini, Elizabeth Little, José Serrano, Joseph Robach, Shirley L. Huntley, and Andrew Lanza

Are any of these senators representing you?

You can find your New York State senators by zip code or by map.

Then send your senators an email. This is an alphabetized email list of senators.

If your senators are on the Education Committee (and so listed right above), then tell them that you feel parents must be notified when bed bugs are found in school.

Tell senators on the Education Committee that the bill matters because as the information on A6667b provided by the Assembly states, “Currently, if a bed bug is discovered in a school, only the family of the affected child is notified. Additional notifications are left up to the discretion of school health officials.” Tell them that requiring principals to notify parents promptly about bed bug infestations at school and requiring them to provide information about preventing the spread of bed bugs will help keep bed bugs out of our schools, and will also prevent other New Yorkers from suffering from the cost and pain of removing them from their homes or workplaces. Minimizing the spread of bed bugs helps everyone in New York State.

If your senators are not on the Education Committee, drop them an email letting them know how affected you were by the bed bug problem, and how much you support Bill A6667b, currently being discussed by the Senate Education Committee.

The bill died the first time it was considered by the NY State Senate. Let’s make sure that does not happen again.

You can send good emails to three politicians in five minutes, using the information above. (In contrast, it took me an hour and a half to write this post and include all the links!) Please contact your state senators, Assembly people. We need to press politicians for change on the bed bug issue.

Also, don’t forget, if you live in New York City, you also need to tell your New York City Council Members that the city need a Bed Bug Task Force, now. Click here to find out how to contact them, for a sample letter, and for more pointers from New York vs. Bed Bugs.

• Gianaris’ Bedbug Legislation Passes
• NYC schools closer to having bed bug legislation
• Excerpt from article re NYC Department of Ed policy
• New bed bug legislation: House Bill 565 from Ohio on bed bug treatment

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Grossman is a reader’s reader, happy to have gotten cheap paperbacks from neighborhood stores like the old Shakespeare & Co., Labyrinth Books (now Bookculture), and Papyrus (now Morningside Bookshop). It’s about the content, not covers or first editions. “I like to buy books on the street, too, but I’m wary of it now because of bed bugs.” Her collection has also been fed by the places she traveled to in her youth. She grins large: “My clothes used to fit in an overnight bag. But my books took up trunks and trunks.”

• FAQ: How can I avoid spreading bedbugs to others when I visit their homes?
• Cadwalader, Wickersham, and Taft’s alleged bed bugs, part two
• bedbugs in Denver
• Penelope Trunk: bed bugs as a lesson in “taming materialism”

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A couple selling a New York City apartment had bed bugs six months ago. They have not noticed any problem since. So the question is, do they need to disclose that the property they’re selling had bed bugs recently?

Jay Romano answers that the Property Condition Disclosure Act–requiring a seller to fill out a detailed disclosure statement–doesn’t apply to co-op or condo sales.  (Romano consulted Edward I. Sumber, a White Plains lawyer.)

What does apply to apartment owners, however, is common law, which has been established through judicial rulings over the centuries. “Under the doctrine of caveat emptor — let the buyer beware — the seller has no affirmative obligation to reveal circumstances about the apartment to the buyer,” Mr. Sumber said.

But he added that if a prospective buyer asks a specific question about whether the apartment has had bedbugs, the seller has an obligation to answer honestly.

The lesson is if you are buying a NYC condo or co-op, ask if it has or ever had bed bugs.

And, your broker may also be liable:

In addition, if the real estate broker knows about the bedbug problem, he or she has an obligation to reveal it to a prospective buyer. “The broker is under an affirmative duty to be diligent,” Mr. Sumber said. “But the seller is not required to tell the broker, either.”

House buyers are afforded more protection. Sellers of houses have to answer a 48-question disclosure statement and give it to the buyer.

One of the questions asks whether there has been any pest infestation in the house.

But non-scrupulous house sellers need only take a $500 hit to avoid this kind of disclosure:

The penalty for failing to provide the form is a $500 credit to the buyer.

Sellers, apparently, can simply take the loss and skip disclosure. That’s bad news.

All in all, it appears that people can get around disclosing they have had bed bugs in their home (even, apparently, if the infestation is more recent or active) whether it’s an apartment or house. This is very bad news.

Bedbugger hopes that everyone selling a home will be responsible and make sure they are bed bug-free before selling. We also hope apartment and house buyers will have homes professionally inspected, perhaps with the aid of both a PCO and a bed bug dog, before purchase.

You can read Romano’s full article in the New York Times (1/20/08) here. 

• Bedbugs called “a new kind of roach”; building managment lies
• Bed bugs and marketing (again)
• The bed bug droppings hit the fan
• Ask your bed bug questions / share your tales of bed bug woe here

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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.

• Lexington, KY vs. New York, NY: a tale of two bedbugged cities
• Tomorrow’s bed bug seminar in New York (Tuesday 2/5/2008)
• Roger Smith Hotel on Lexington in NYC: latest bed bug lawsuit
• Columbia Spectator on bed bugs, again with the HPD statistic soup

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The Daily News reports that New York City is going to get a bed bug education campaign.

The article reports that there will be town hall meetings about bed bugs in Washington Heights (1/28), Astoria (2/5) and Bushwick (3/12).

Housing officials will roll out the campaign with a town hall meeting Jan. 28 in Washington Heights, where the creatures have rampaged through tenements, churches, bodegas, taxi garages and upscale co-ops overlooking the Hudson River.

Residents there have been under siege: The number of complaints has skyrocketed from 62 in 2005 to 366 last year, when 119 landlords were hit with violations.

More community forums will follow in two other neighborhoods with recent bedbug outbreaks: Astoria on Feb. 5, and Bushwick, Brooklyn, on March 12.

Tenants, homeowners and community leaders will be taught in English and Spanish how to identify bedbugs, exterminate them in a safe and low-cost manner and guard against future contaminations.

Just as important, they’ll be told what not to do, like spray an apartment, which can scatter the pests, or pour gasoline on mattresses, which poses a fire hazard.

This is all good, but I hope it will be just the start of a wider campaign to raise awareness. Television, billboard, newspaper, and bus shelter advertisements should be implemented to raise awareness, though there has been no suggestion this will happen. If the city wants to fight bed bugs, it is going to cost money, but not nearly as much as continuing to ignore the problem would have cost us in lost tourist income.

Awareness is just the start; as we’ve been saying for a long time, we need local government to track infestations. Someone needs to know where the bed bugs are and how widespread infestations are. Calls to 311 are just the tip of the iceberg. The city is still in denial about the true scope of the problem.

Another goal of the campaign: Alerting immigrants with limited English to watch out for unscrupulous merchants.

“Selling refurnished mattresses to Dominican immigrants who think they’re brand new - without telling them they’ve been reserviced - is a big business in my district,” said City Councilman Miguel Martinez (D-Washington Heights). “Unfortunately, many of those mattresses are crawling with bedbugs.”

This is important. The resale of mattresses should be banned. It should be illegal to pick up and resell any items marked as infested with bed bugs. And people need to learn to mark them as such.
Ultimately, though, the city is going to need to take a tougher line with landlords and tenants. Tenants must report bed bugs, landlords must treat them properly, PCOs must be contracted to come back until bed bugs are gone.

City inspectors should consider employing bed bug dogs to help them detect bed bugs, since visual inspections are time consuming and quick inspections often miss bed bugs.

Finally, financial assistance will be needed on several levels: homeowners and landlords may need assistance with proper treatment. And elderly, disabled, and other people will need physical and financial assistance with doing proper preparation for treatment.

I hope the city will institute a bed bug task force and staff it with entomologists who are true experts on bed bugs–and I hope these experts will be listened to and their suggestions followed. And soon.

This is no hero on a white horse, folks, but it is a start.

Check out the Daily News story here.

Update later in the day on 1/15:

Here’s a video from ABC7 Eyewitness News at 5 pm today.  (Click on the number “2″ next to the bed bug photo, to see the video.)

It is not clear what the city is going to do, besides hold these meetings and work on the mattress resale issue. I guess we will know more tomorrow when the plan is officially unveiled.

The ABC7 video features Jeffery Eisenberg of Pest Away, and a Pest Away tech reporting that they use two chemicals in fighting bed bugs (Suspend and Gentrol).

The newscasters quipped to one another at the end,

“You said you’d get a new bed, right?”

“And you said you’d get a new house!”

Sorry ladies. It’s not that easy.

• bed bugs, news at 11
• Lexington, KY vs. New York, NY: a tale of two bedbugged cities
• Last week’s Town Hall Meeting in Cincinnati
• The first “bed bug seminar” hit New York City last night

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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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