The Structural Pest Management Association of British Columbia (SPMABC) will be hosting a free information session on bed bugs and related topics this Saturday (February 28th) at Library Square from 9:00am – 1:00pm. Admission is free, but on a first come, first served basis (the room holds 300 people).

Topics will include:

• General Bed Bug Information
• Prevention Tips
• Detection Methods
• Health Concerns
• Tenant Rights
• Landlord Obligations

For more information please email info@spmabc.com.Similar Posts:

None Found

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.

Similar Posts:

None Found

KOAA.com reports that

The Pueblo City-County Health Department has issued an advisory about bed bugs, following multiple cases of people complaining of bites or rashes.

We could not find anything on the health department’s website. But an additional story on KKTV.com says the advisory was “sent out” by the dept.

Public education about bed bugs is crucial in helping people become aware of the problem. If you do not know bed bugs exist, and are spreading in your area, then you will not know to look for them. Bravo to Pueblo’s health dept. for warning residents that this problem exists.

The information presented is not perfect, however. It only mentions bed bugs which are 1/4″ long and “reddish-brown,” whereas first instar nymphs are translucent and as small as 1/32″ or 1 mm long. This is important for people to know.

I also wish the information explained that a large segment of the population does not react to bed bug bites.

Bed bugs are found everywhere, and Pueblo is not the only Colorado city (or county) suffering from bed bug bites. Here’s an additional article on bed bugs in Boulder, Colorado, and one on bed bugs in Denver.Similar Posts:

• Man on #2 train with bed bugs: bed bug hysteria? Or fact?
• Mary-Louise Parker talks to Letterman about her current bed bug scare
• Lou Sorkin, “The man who lets the bed bugs bite”
• Wisconsin Dept. of Corrections houses former inmates in bed bug-infested motel
• Wednesday’s New York City Council vote on the Bed Bug Advisory Board: it passed!

The Washington City Paper has a cover story today on bed bugs! In it, Audrey Dutton reports on the status of bed bugs in that city, and on the city’s plans to fight the problem.

We have known there were lots of bed bugs in D.C. for a long time. The Norwood Apartments tenants we mentioned back in 2007 have been battling them for years, with 10 units still infested, according to Dutton.

We haven’t heard from the ladies of D.C.’s Phillis Wheatley YWCA in a while, but I fear they may still be infested too.

And so this is very good to hear:  the city’s Department of Health is taking a keen (and hands-on) interest in bed bugs.  The article notes:

Gerard Brown, who heads the department’s rodent-control division, first spotted an issue with bedbugs in June. Ever since, these tiny pests have eaten up a sizable chunk of his anti-vermin portfolio.

Brown’s people operate under a different set of rules from the [D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, which enforces the city's housing code] —instead of monitoring the infestations, the Department of Health can actually treat them and does so regularly in homeless shelters. It tries various methods to educate the public, including working with neighborhood groups to get the word out. It’s also been tracking reports since June.

“When we realized that it was a beginning to be a problem, then with the support of the mayor’s office and our director’s office, I started doing research,” says Brown.

So far Brown has taken calls on more than 50 properties. Almost one-fifth of those are hotels. The rest are single-family homes, apartment buildings, a school, and a dialysis center where a patient was infested. When Brown goes out to deliver presentations on bedbugs to community groups, senior housing centers, halfway houses, or property managers, he hears even more reports, he says. He was approached by a government worker whose own apartment building was “totally infested.”

Since the Department of Health is involved in dealing with bed bugs, they are developing a keen understanding of the reasons bed bugs are spreading and why they’re so tenacious, especially in multi-unit dwellings.  Dutton reports,

One of the reasons for the bugs’ ubiquity in multi-unit dwellings is that that property owners don’t want to pay to treat multiple units. So bugs in the unit that exterminators are paid to treat just pick up and move next door, or upstairs or downstairs. Two weeks later, a fresh crop of baby bugs hatches and settles into its new home.

Brown counters with a view of landlords not widely shared in the world of D.C. affordable housing. He says that landlords aren’t reluctant—they’re desperate to clear the infestations. “They will ask, ‘What can I do? Help me. I did this, I did this.’ They fax me invoices for the pest control and say, ‘What else can I do? If there’s something I can do I will do it,’” Brown says.

The city hopes to head off some of those questions via a public awareness campaign sponsored by the Health Department along with the Office of the Tenant Advocate and various tenants associations. The department just wrapped up filming on its first bedbug public service announcement. It was shot in a Norwood apartment whose residents agreed to cooperate in exchange for having the department treat a bedbug outbreak.

Besides those mentioned in the article, another reason bed bugs are thriving may be the District of Columbia’s housing code, which, as we understand from this 2007 article in the local press, requires landlords to treat for bed bugs only if there is more than one infested unit in a building.

This is a very bad policy where bed bugs are concerned, because it encourages tenants to ignore their infestations until they find out the bed bugs have spread to others (a situation I explain in more detail in this comment over on New York vs. Bed Bugs).

It’s exactly the sort of policy I would choose if I wanted bed bugs to spread around buildings.  It hurts tenants, and it means landlords end up shelling out much more than they would have if they had dealt with the infestation when it was first detected.

And if that isn’t bad enough, we can assume bed bugs probably just got a boost in DC by the huge influx of visitors who came to visit the city, stayed in its hotels, and in too many cases (because of an acute hotel room shortage), rented rooms in DC residents’ homes.  And, of course, plenty of DC bugs surely also migrated to other cities with Obama fans on their way home from the festivities.

Bed bugs spread when they walk (from one home to another) or hitch a ride.  They can “hitchhike” by getting into your car, into your bag or other stuff, or even into your clothing.  People often get bed bugs from hotels, but they just are surely take them there.

And the same goes for private homes.  Whether you’re hosting a long-lost friend, or renting out a room to a tourist, you can get bed bugs from those people.  Either party may have bed bugs and not realize it.  Or they may think bed bugs don’t spread easily, and that they aren’t putting you at risk.

So that brings us back to DC’s educational campaign about bed bugs.  A lack of knowledge of bed bugs is behind many different problems: people bringing bed bugs to other places, landlords not treating properly, tenants thinking they are bed bug-free because they have no bites, people picking up discarded furniture:  a little information could go a long, long way in making the bed bug problem not-as-bad.

We’ve been calling for PSAs about bed bugs in NYC since this website started in 2006, but the only time we see bed bugs on the subways posters or in television commercial breaks, they’re in ads: for Protect-a-Bed encasements on the subways, Bell Environmental bed bug treatments on NY1.

Of course, education alone won’t solve the bed bug problem.

But education makes solving bed bug problems (whether in one room, in a building, or city-wide) possible.

So bring it on, Washington, D.C.!Similar Posts:

• Bed bugs spread when no one who can pay for treating them is responsible for treating them
• Towels under the door: when cities abandon tenants with bed bugs
• Claridge Towers residents get help with their bed bugs from DC Housing Authority
• 18-story Dayton apartment building infested with bed bugs to be treated with Vikane gas
• Mark Sheperdigian on the limits of bed bug inspections

Bed bugs bite year round, but they breed more quickly in warmer weather.

Bed bug expert entomologist Dr. Stephen Doggett of Westmead Hospital spoke to Australia’s Daily Telegraph about the problem, which appears to be as bad down under as anywhere.

Calls about the problem increased 4500% from 2000-2006, and “Westmead’s entomology unit had calculated the bugs cost $100 million in lost hotel revenue and eradication costs in Australia” during the same six-year period.

$100 million in lost revenue and eradication costs.

We can only assume the same is happening in other places with bed bug problems, like New York, Toronto, Boston, San Francisco, Halifax, London, and, well, everywhere else.

You’d think that the hotel industry would be falling over itself to sponsor research and development into better solutions, and lobbying for legislation to help curb the problem.

But I suspect that everywhere, just as Doggett told the Daily Telegraph about the local situation, “The accommodation industry does not want to admit the scale of the problem.”

And we all know what the first step is, right folks?

Admitting you have a big problem.

Well, okay. Perhaps the 12-steppers have it wrong.

Perhaps the first step is education.

The Daily Telegraph tells us, “Westmead Hospital will, for the first time, run courses on how to detect and control the blood suckers next year.”

And if anyone knows, they do. Doggett, and Westmead, are behind this amazing publication.Similar Posts:

None Found

According to the Stamford Advocate, that city’s health department expects last year’s 85 reported cases of bed bugs will be surpassed this year. (Remember, those are just the cases that get reported to the health department):

“It’s going up and it’s going to continue to go up,” said Mike Kraynak, director of health inspections.

As a New Yorker, I am intrigued to hear a public official express concern that the bed bug problem is growing, though it so obviously is.

And here’s the law in Stamford:

If a bed bug case is reported in rented housing, the city requires landlords to exterminate until the problem is resolved, Kraynak said. First, a resident must find a bed bug and take it to the city as evidence. If a lab worker confirms it is a bed bug, the city sends an extermination order. Usually, if the apartment is six units or less, the city requires the entire building be treated. In larger complexes, the city requires treating only the affected unit and those surrounding it.

I haven’t heard of other cities which invite residents to bring a sample in.

In New York, in stark contrast, we hear inspectors (if they turn up to inspect following a bed bug complaint) like to see them harboring in the “natural habitat” of your home (in daylight, of course, and in plain view). Oh, and we’re told they often expect the resident to be able to find them. As you can imagine, the wily bed bugs don’t always cooperate.

Stamford has some other things going for it, too:

Kraynak said residents must report a bed-bug problem, but a few preventive measures are in place. [City Health Inspector Amy] Lehaney works to educate neighborhood associations. And the health department provides information, including examples of the insects, at its front desk in the government center.

For those who don’t have a problem, Kraynak recommends caution.

“Don’t pick up a mattress from the sidewalk,” he said. “It’s against the law to sell used mattresses. And when you go into a hotel room, check the bedding and make sure you don’t see signs of an infestation.”

So Stamford is educating residents, helping walk-ins learn to identify bed bugs, and it’s also illegal to sell used mattresses in Stamford?

Good news!

In New York, officials turn a blind eye as the used mattress trade works overtime. There sure are a lot of mattresses on the curbside right now. I’m sure it saves New York City a lot of money in terms of garbage collection when those scavengers come and pick them up for re-sale.

I could not find anything about bed bugs by searching on the Stamford Health Inspections website at this time, but it sounds like they have some good policies in place so far. Let’s hope they do even more to fight the spread of bed bugs in Stamford.Similar Posts:

• Baltimore’s 311 Online now has a bed bug complaint option
• Gale Brewer invites bedbuggers to her annual open house
• I asked New York’s Mayor Bloomberg what he is going to do about bedbugs

Residents of White Plains Housing Authority buildings are being bitten by bed bugs, according to this article in The Journal News (via LoHud.com). White Plains Housing Authority officials say last year they “exterminated” for bed bugs in 47 of the 745 apartments they manage, and that as many as 15% may still be infested.

In my experience, however, tenants are very likely to either (a) not notice, (b) not report, or (c) try to self-treat bed bug problems. The actual rate of infestations in WPHA buildings is likely much higher.

Tenants say the number may be higher because many of them exterminate their apartments themselves without reporting the problem, with mixed results.

“They come back because they’re in the walls,” [Winbrook housing complex tenant Louise] Clark said. “It comes and goes. When it gets hot – it’s hot now – they come out. I keep spraying.”

Bobbie Sherill, who lives in a WPHA complex on Lake Street, took her complaint to the mayor’s office:

“I got up at 1 a.m. They’re on my couch,” she said outside Mayor Joseph Delfino’s City Hall office, where she went looking for help. “Where am I going to go after that? You shouldn’t have to live like that. We’re not animals.”

Housing Authority officials claim they’re trying to treat Sherill’s unit:

“We’ve attempted to get into her unit several times,” [Housing Authority executive director Mack] Carter said about Sherrill. “She’s not available or we’re not allowed in.”

Sherrill said the authority offered to exterminate her apartment on the day before Thanksgiving last year, an offer she rejected because she was hosting for the holiday. Instead, she began spraying her mattress with bleach and hot water every morning, which proved ineffective.

The county Department of Health recently told Sherrill it doesn’t respond to bedbug complaints because they don’t carry diseases and so are considered a nuisance rather than a public health problem. The county referred her to the city, which led her to Delfino’s office this month, where an aide took her number and promised to get back to her.

In the meantime, Carter said he will meet with his staff to discuss whether to abandon a policy that requires tenants who can afford extermination, which typically costs $100, to pay for the work.

“We’re doing everything we possibly can,” Carter said. “At some point, the residents have to take some responsibility, too.”

Tenants do need to report bed bug infestations, and cooperate with and prepare for treatment.

They also need to be educated about bed bugs. It’s understandable that someone might resist treatment the day before Thanksgiving. It’s unclear, if this was the case, why the treatment was not offered in the days following the holiday.

The Housing Authority is not just responsible for keeping Sherill’s home bed bug-free, they also have a responsibility to protect other tenants. If someone truly does refuse bed bug treatment (which does not sound like the case here), then there must be additional steps taken.

I would strongly urge WPHA to abandon the pest control charges for tenants. Yes, $100 for a pest control treatment might not seem like much, but keep in mind that when bed bugs come back repeatedly, tenants may either feel they can’t afford to keep paying, or they may feel treatment is not working, so why bother?

And $100 is a lot when you’re on a budget and when the actual cost of preparations for treatment (including laundering and bagging clothing) can be much higher and be required again and again.

What is needed in a complex with multiple active bed bug infestations is aggressive inspections and treatments. It is not enough to wait for tenants to call and report problems; in many cases, where tenants are not allergic to bed bug bites, they will never know, until problems are very far gone.

Ultimately, housing authorities and other building managers need to be more proactive about bed bug infestations in some of their units. They need to consult experts, such as entomologists who specialize in bed bugs, and formulate better plans for dealing with this (preferably before it comes up, or in the early stages). In the long run, it will save the management and tenants a lot of time, money, and heartache.

View Larger MapSimilar Posts:

None Found

A Halifax resident going by the moniker “Bugged by Bedbugs” used the soapbox “Love the way we bitch” on Halifax website The Coast, to call fellow residents to action on the bed bug issue, in a post entitled “WTF is with the bedbugs?”:

There is a certain trio of dusky-colored high-rise apartment buildings in Halifax that are, and have always been, swarming with bedbugs.

Since these infested buildings have been gentrified and rented out to the oft-mobile university student population, what we have is a spread of bedbugs to other homes and buildings throughout Halifax.

Current legislation places the responsibility of bedbug control on the person who brought them into the building. Since extermination is expensive, tenants stay mum about it until the infestation spreads like wildfire to their neighbors.

The law regarding who pays for bed bug treatment in Nova Scotia rentals is a bit murky.

The CBC tells us, in their round-up of Canadian laws pertaining to this problem,

In Nova Scotia, Halifax doesn’t have clear-cut legislation for dealing with bedbugs. Responsibility for extermination falls upon the tenant if a landlord can prove a tenant brought the bugs in. The Halifax agency has found that landlords often foot the bill as it’s difficult to prove there were no bugs before a tenant moves in. Tenants are advised to write a letter to a landlord asking to deal with the problem within a reasonable timeframe. If the landlord refuses, a hearing can be conducted in front of the officer of residential tenancies.

Here’s my concern: “Responsibility for extermination falls upon the tenant if a landlord can prove a tenant brought the bugs in.”

What Bugged by Bedbugs highlights is that this motivates many tenants to not seek help — as long as they resist treatment, and bed bugs spread everywhere, individual tenants can no longer be assumed to be the “source.”

Of course, tenants who may be making such a choice, consciously, or by default (because they simply cannot pay for treatment) assume they are the “source” of their building’s problem.

Many Bedbugger Forum participants also assume they are the first in their building to have bed bugs. Why? Because landlords and neighboring tenants are not under any obligation to disclose their bed bug problem.

The reasoning seems to be that if I admit to having bed bugs, I will be seen as the source. Unfortunately, tenants have good reason for worrying about this — landlords and neighbors will likely assume the first person to find bed bugs is the “source,” even though it turns out, in so many cases, others have them too and either (a) don’t know about them, (b) know about them and are unsure what to do, or (c) know about them and — for whatever reason — just don’t care.

We have to remember that a great many people fall into category (a) and have no idea they have bed bugs. So your neighbor may be bitten badly and for a long time, but have no bite marks, no itching, and not see any bed bugs, until the problem becomes quite bad and they are crawling on the walls in daylight.

The bed bug blame game — in this case, blaming the “canary” who first notices and announces the presence of bed bugs in a building — isn’t fair. And it’s often not accurate that this person is the “source” of the building’s bed bugs.

And, let’s face it, the way bed bugs are spreading, I don’t think it’s fair to blame people for unknowingly bringing bed bugs into their building — even if they did so — if they did not have the awareness they were doing so. If you got bed bugs riding on a city bus or sitting in a library, who is to blame? Collectively, everyone needs to deal with the problem.

Bugged by Bedbugs suggests Halifax residents write to their Halifax Municipal Councillors:

I say anyone who has experienced the anxiety and disgust of a bedbug infestation, and anyone who does not want to live through the former, should write to your local Halifax councillor and demand legislation that places the responsibility of bedbug control on the landlord. Such a law would force landlords to keep buildings bug-free by regular maintenance, since an infestation would cost tens of thousands of dollars.

The problem with laws that force the “tenant who brought bed bugs in” to pay for treatment, is both that pinpointing such a “source” is more difficult than people think, and also that infestations quickly spread and get out of control.

On the other hand, I would not simply stop with passing the buck to landlords Here in NYC landlords are responsible in most cases, but buildings still become badly infested, tenants still fear reporting the problem will lead to blame, and negative repercussions. The inspection system (where people call 311 to report bed bugs) does not work well, since inspectors apparently will not file a violation unless tenants can show them a live bed bug scurrying around in the home, in daytime. And landlords don’t necessarily get rid of the problem even though the laws say they have to.

I think Bugged by Bedbugs has the right idea about the problem here, but I would argue for a more complex solution.

We need to remember that tenants do have some responsibility to help keep buildings bed bug-free. I am also mindful on the terrible impact bed bugs can have, financially, on landlords. Bed bugs are not good for anyone involved.

Therefore, rather than simply push for laws which place the financial obligations on landlords, we need to also push for local government assistance to help landlords get rid of bed bugs in their buildings and keep them bed bug-free. Such assistance might include guidance on the best practices for bed bug treatment and prevention, financial assistance where needed in properly eliminating bed bugs from a building, and educational programs for landlords, staff, and tenants, to prevent future outbreaks. Ideally it would probably also include city-wide programs for dealing with infested refuse, educating everyone in the city about bed bugs, and taking reports of bed bugs and keeping track of where infestations occur.

Bugged by Bedbugs also has the right idea about contacting politicians and demanding help. Wherever you live, contacting your local political representatives is a good idea. Tell them about your bed bug experience and the impact it has had on your life, and why they need to take action to help residents fight bed bugs.

Halifax residents, you can find your Councillor here, and send them an email here.Similar Posts:

None Found

Wendy Stueck writes in today’s Globe and Mail that a new Vancouver apartment building is going to have a sauna for decontaminating bed bug-infested items. Talk about planning ahead:

. . . a housing complex under construction in Vancouver will include what’s been dubbed the “bedbug sauna,” a room where furniture, clothing and other belongings can be heated to a point that kills Cimex lectularius, the common bedbug enjoying a worldwide resurgence.

The idea was born of frustration with the rising cost of treating bedbug infestations and the desire to find some way to get rid of them that wouldn’t force people to throw away their belongings, says George Simpson, operations manager for RainCity Housing, the non-profit group that has ordered the bug room for a 92-unit complex now under construction.

“Inevitably, belongings had to be disposed of that couldn’t be treated or laundered,” says Mr. Simpson, for whom bedbugs have become a major headache in recent years.

The room will be big enough to hold mattresses and other bulky furniture, and equipped with technology that allows contents to be heated to a point that cooks bugs and their eggs.

It’s not a bad idea.

Parakeets fantasized about her idea of an apartment with attached sauna for decontamination purposes repeatedly on the Bedbugger yahoo group. And along similar lines, I spoke about getting items decontaminated (”sauna’d”) here and elsewhere.

I think it’s a great idea that people are thinking about ways to help people get rid of bed bugs in the future, even while constructing new developments.

The planners got advice from pest control firm Steritech:

The concept is sound, says Judy Black, technical director with Steritech Group Inc., a U.S. pest-control company that last year briefed Vancouver hoteliers on the pests.

“Bedbugs are relatively insusceptible to cold, but they are very sensitive to heat,” says Ms. Black, adding that Steritech is investigating heat as a control method.

A blast of sufficient heat – about 55 degrees [editor's note: 55 C = 131 degrees F], Ms. Black estimates, applied for a matter of minutes, not hours – would kill bugs without using pesticides that can leave rooms uninhabitable for days.

A room to heat large items may be advisable, so long as it meets applicable regulations, says the bedbug-prevention design guidelines from BC Housing. Currently, there are no standard heating units on the market.

The room could help rein in the cost of bedbug control – including compensation for staff members who pick up bedbugs on the job, which can amount to $800 or more. If the room proves effective, RainCity hopes it will become a model for other housing complexes in the city.

I am curious about some of the logistics about how the room will be used in bed bug treatment.

First, the management and tenants need to know how to safely get items to the room. They need to be sealed carefully in order to prevent infesting hallways, elevators, and other apartments en route.

Furthermore, the building needs to educate tenants about avoiding bed bugs in the first place. An ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure, where bed bugs are concerned.

Finally, I am wondering about the logistics of decontaminating furniture while treating the apartment. Let’s say I have bed bugs in my apartment. My furniture could be removed and baked, but not all at once (the hot room is not that big). Will it then be placed somewhere else until the room is bed bug free and all the contents are as well?

It’s essential to remember that rooms, as well as furniture and other “stuff,” are infested with bed bugs. Returning uninfested items to an apartment where the structure or other remaining furniture or other items still contain bed bugs would simply mean those decontaminated items can be reinfested.

However, RainCity seems to be on top of their game, and so I assume all of this has been worked out by those doing the planning. It is a great idea to provide this kind of service, and with some forethought and education of tenants, this building is has the potential to deal with bed bugs more efficiently than many others.

I am especially excited that RainCity Housing is leading the way by being the first we know of to install a decontamination room in an apartment building. According to their website, they provide housing to people who are homeless, in transition, have mental health or drug issues, and other challenges. They believe everyone should have a home, and clearly, they believe everyone deserves a home without bed bugs. Bravo, RainCity!

As a side note, kudos are also due to the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, which is taking steps to help stop the spread of bed bugs. The article reminds us that:

The agency also educates landlords, outreach workers and housing agencies about bedbug control and provides some health care workers with “bedbug kits” that include an oversized Ziploc-type bag to hold briefcases and laptops to prevent bedbugs from hitching a ride from an infested site.

These are the kinds of small steps that can make a huge difference: a little knowledge and a cheap, reclosable ziploc. How expensive or hard is that?

I hope agencies in other cities (hello, New York!) will follow suit.Similar Posts:

None Found

The Greenpoint HPD Bed Bug Seminar was last night.

I was not able to be there, but Miss Heather has an excellent recap on the evening.

New York vs Bed Bugs members were there spreading word on how to get some change on the bed bug issue in NYC.

The presenter was Ed Brownbear, the only HPD educator who has actually had bed bugs.

Congratulations to those who helped organize this event (Miss Heather and Ann Kansfield) and to Lou Sorkin and the NY vs Bed Bugs crowd for being there!

If anyone who was there wants to share some details, they’d be very much welcomed.

Similar Posts:

None Found