Terry says, “A pest control program for bed bugs is very detailed. You’ve got to get all the crevices. We are doing a little more than we really need to, but it’s to make sure we don’t have a problem in the future.”

That means Terry’s son, Tony, has to bag contents of every locker in the school, and then spray those contents with an insecticide.

Tony and his mother are wearing only gloves now, but when the heavy fumigation gets underway, they’ll be wearing face masks, too.

I am interested in these methods, since I have not heard PCOs here talking about spraying into bags of belongings. Perhaps a PCO would tell us what this might be.

I initially thought it was a good thing that Bracken County Schools were taking bed bugs seriously after finding a bed bug in school, since cities like New York City are so slow to take action against similar situations. My initial positive sense was based on Bracken County’s willingness to treat schools for bed bugs. I thought that their treatment of every school in the district was based on a sense that bed bugs must be more widespread than in just this one school.

Now, however, I am becoming more concerned about the community’s response, especially their apparent obsession with pinpointing its source. It betrays a lack of education about bed bugs and their behavior, which appears to be a prevalent problem elsewhere too.

Parents in Brooksville are divided about the schools closing an extra day just for bed bugs.

Elizabeth Aulick, a mother of two Bracken County students says, “Yeah, it does concern me, but the letter I got said they only found one bug. If it’s one bug isolated to one child, keep him home for a few days.”

A mother of three Bracken County students, including one at the Middle School says, “I guess it’s a little unexpected. I never expected something like this, but I guess it’s a good thing. Just to be on the safe side. It didn’t both me, I said, ‘Well, that’s fine.’”

The school fumigation in Bracken County is getting the full support of the county health department there.

I am glad the health department in Bracken County recognizes bed bugs as a concern, since many don’t. However, I have to say that what’s being said about the child in this case is absurd.

People in Bracken County must not associate the schools’ bed bug issue, if they indeed have one, with this one student who may have had the bed bug on his things or on his clothing. Bed bugs can live and breed in schools or in school buses or public transportation, and they can crawl onto students at any of these locations (as well as many others). As we have taken pains to explain in the past, the presence of a bed bug on a person or their things absolutely does not prove the person brought the bed bug in.

All parents, including those of the child who was bitten by the bed bug, must search at home and have a qualified PCO inspect if anyone is complaining of bites or if they see any bed bugs or possible signs. However, it is crucial that parents and school officials realize that bed bugs are not lice, and do not live on people. They crawl on, feed, and run away. If a bed bug is found on a person in a school, it does not mean the person brought the bed bug to the school.

I would assume the Bracken County School officials know this, since they are treating every school, and not just the one the bed bug was found in. And yet it does not sound like the parents or media have been picking up on that fact.

If the child did indeed have had an infestation at home and brought them into the school, then his family, too, caught them from somewhere. They spread easily. And everyone should be alert. Everyone should be asking where this family might have picked up bed bugs: parents’ workplace? YMCA? School? Bus? Motel? Because where they got them, you can get them too.

However, the child should not be blamed, nor should he be kept home. People with active infestations need to take some steps to avoid spreading bed bugs. Treating the child himself as if he were contagious is an ignorant mistake.

• Schools in Bracken County, KY shut down due to bed bugs
• NYC Bedbuggers: time to have some local politicians over for a bite or two
• New York City public schools continue to be treated for bed bugs
• Spring break bed bug warnings!

ShareThis

Bracken County schools will be closed Friday after a middle school student was found to have an infestation of bed bugs, and one of the bugs was found in a classroom.

Bracken County Schools Superintendent Tony Johnson said in a release Thursday that the health department was contacted after the discovery, and that the schools will be closed in order to perform pest control treatments in each school as a precaution.

NBC WLWT5.com says that the school is being closed today, but that Monday and Tuesday were already scheduled as days off. Still, this gives schools more time to do their work. WLWT also adds:

Health department officials will oversee measures intended to prevent the spread of bedbugs, and the student will receive treatment, officials said.

This is interesting: it does not say the child’s parents will be directed to get treatment. It implies they may be taking care of it.

The most interesting thing here is that they found one bed bug, in one school, but they are treating them all. Oh, and they’re talking about it. The New York City Department of Education could learn a thing or two from them about how to deal with bed bugs.

More than a year ago, one of the first posts on this blog suggested that Lexington, KY was taking bed bugs more seriously than New York City. The same could definitely now also be said of Bracken County.

But is Bracken County’s response too enthusiastic? Is this overkill?

• Warning to Bracken County, KY: don’t get caught in the bed bug blame game
• Rockford, IL: half of Red Roof Inn shut down due to bed bugs
• More on the New York City schools and bed bugs
• New York City public schools continue to be treated for bed bugs

ShareThis

Calvin Merritt’s problems at Hillrise Apartments are pretty simple.

“Mostly bugs, roaches and all that…”

The “all that” is bed bugs. Dead ones were easy to find under Calvin’s mattress, and piles of them behind the bed. When exterminators come in to spray here, their work’s easy to see, pesticide stains run down Calvin’s walls. Calvin pays 313 dollars a month for this one bedroom…what little furniture he had was mostly pitched, because it was infested.

Calvin Merritt, Resident: “I done lost everything got here, my couch, my other chairs, all the stuff I had was new, I had to get rid of all of that.”

At the other end of the hall, Jeanette Jessie doesn’t have any bedbugs, but she worries about them just the same.

Jeanette Jessie, Resident: “They just spread them from one end of the building to the other, this is crazy, get this place cleaned up, spray it at one time and get rid of this mess.”

It sounds a bit like the Phyllis Wheatley YWCA in Washington DC, Halcyon House in Denver, and Warren Towers in East Moline, Illinois. Elderly people, disabled people, and anyone in low-income housing is being dealt a raw deal when it comes to getting rid of bed bugs. Let’s face it, bed bugs are expensive to treat. They’re also a rather sudden problem no one was expecting and no one has budgeted for.

Bed bugs are difficult to treat, too. Traditional treatments require multiple pest control visits at short intervals. Residents must prepare for treatment, which can be a lengthy process and costly too (especially for those on a fixed income).

However, make no mistake: non-aggressive treatment (treating only some of the infested units, treating at too-long intervals, or not coming as many times as needed), waiting for tenants who might be unaware they have bed bugs to report them, and not providing assistance with preparation costs and physical labor–all of these reactions from landlords and housing managers mean that bed bugs will be around longer, spread into more units, and cost much more to get rid of.

It just does not make sense on any practical level to not be aggressive, thorough, and quick to treat bed bugs in a building you are responsible for. It is simply a display of ignorance about the nature of this beast.

We can’t entirely blame landlords for this ignorance; none of us were expecting bed bugs. But we need to educate the public about the signs of bed bugs, and we need to educate professionals in all walks of life (from those who provide housing, to hospitality services, to health care, education, and on and on) about the need for a bed bug protocol which includes both proactive searching for signs of bed bugs, and swift reactions to any bed bug signs or sightings.

Too many people seem to be hoping they’ll just go away. Good luck with that. In the meantime:

Channel 12 reports,

Officials from the Cincinnati Health Department tell us they’ll soon be taking a closer look at conditions in the apartments.

I love the Cincinnati Health Department. But you knew that.

• Cincinnati Establishes Bed Bug Furniture Pick-Up Procedures and Hotline
• Cincinnati fights bed bugs, declares some success
• Cincinnati: “best weapon against bed bugs is … education”
• Cincinnati government discovers bed bugs are not easily treated, news at 11

ShareThis

This is the information on the Division of School Facilities website:

What’s New at DSF?
DOE Provides Bed Bug Kits for Schools

Bed bugs are increasingly becoming a problem within residences of all kinds including homes, apartments, hotels, dormitories and shelters throughout the United States. Although at present there is no evidence of a major infestation or harborage within NYC school buildings, these tiny insects have been occasionally showing up, mainly on clothing. While bedbugs are not known to be dangerous or transmit disease, their bites, initially painless, later cause large itchy skin welts.

Schools are not an ideal location for bed bugs to reproduce, because they are nocturnal insects that require feeding prior to reproduction; but in the event that bedbugs do show up in our schools, the DOE’s Pest Management Unit is providing a Bed Bug Kit to deal with specimens.

This information really needs to be updated, since the news media has reported 72 bed bug cases at 43 schools as of February 2007. Bed bugs in NYC schools are not a remote possibility as implied by the DOE website, but a current problem.

The kit includes: • A Four Step Specimen Collection and Mailing Procedure brochure with photos; • A step by step Protocol to follow if a suspected bed bug is captured; • A sample parent or guardian notification letter; • A Specimen Data Submission Form; • The Department of Health’s bed bug fact sheet, “Stop Bed Bugs Safely” in English and Spanish. Click here to download a PDF with this information. In the event a suspected bed bug is captured, school administrators are to open the kit and follow the enclosed protocol and procedures. If you have any questions please contact the Pest Management Unit at (718) 707-4493, E-mail, Pest Control@schools.nyc.gov, or call 311.

The protocol above is only for bed bugs found in schools in NYC. But the Stop Bed Bugs Safetly PDF is the same one available since last summer on the Department of Mental Health and Hygiene website (click for PDF). It’s not bad, though it implies that pest control professionals need to clean and “may” need to use pesticides. And while I appreciate the aims of IPM, I fear this makes people think professional pest control is not always necessary, since they think, “hey, I can clean!”; in most cases, in my experience, bed bugs do require a lot of pesticides applied repeatedly at 10-14 day intervals, or professional thermal, cold, or Vikane gas treatments.

This pamphlet from the NYC DOMHH also wrongly implies that the problem with using foggers or bombs is that they spread nasty chemicals throughout your home. The real problem with foggers and bombs, as I understand it, is that they can spread bed bugs throughout your home and to your neighbors, and make it much harder to get them out of the home.

• NYC schools closer to having bed bug legislation
• Excerpt from article re NYC Department of Ed policy
• Schools in Bracken County, KY shut down due to bed bugs
• Gianaris’ Bedbug Legislation Passes

ShareThis

The good news:

Months after elected officials and parents complained the city was not doing enough to alert school communities about bedbug outbreaks, the Department of Education issued its first-ever policy to cope with the vermin.

Under the new protocols, principals must alert their school communities when bedbugs are found inside schools. Letters must be sent home, as well as the Department of Health’s “Stop Bed Bugs Safety” fact sheet.

That’s good. Click to load a PDF of Stop Bed Bugs Safely. This is the leaflet that suggests that when you call a PCO and it’s determined you have bed bugs, the PCO “may” use a pesticide to treat the problem. I realize they’re tryng to encourage people to clean and remove hiding places for bed bugs, but I think this is incorrectly worded. If you call a PCO and you have bed bugs, s/he should use several pesticides, not one, not maybe. And yes, cleaning, steaming, etc. is all very good. But unless you’re using thermal or vikane, don’t expect this problem to go away easily.

But the next part is a bit questionable:

“We are giving principals the discretion to notify all or part of the community,” said DOE spokeswoman Margie Feinberg.

This is troubling, since many Principals will no doubt err on the side of keeping things more secretive and not notifying the entire community.

And then the article continues with some blatant misinformation:

First,

Bedbugs don’t breed in schools, Feinberg said, but are brought in on the clothing of students.

If she said this, Marjorie Feinberg is wrong. Once introduced to a new location, whether it’s a home, workplace, bus, park bench, school, or taxi, bed bugs will live there. They will bite people who enter the environment, and they will breed and lay eggs. None of these locations (including your home) contain people 24 hours a day, and that’s just fine. Bed bugs will bite when people are around. And they will lay eggs. And more bed bugs will hatch in the schools.

Next,

The critters usually show up in cooler weather, and cases are on the rise.

Cases are on the rise, but bed bugs show up in hot or cold weather, rain or shine. Actually, plenty of people notice an increase when it starts to get warmer in spring. However, I don’t doubt that schools get a spike in bed bugs when kids return to class in fall.

Finally, this is not a point of misinformation, but look at these statistics:

There were 34 cases at 24 public schools last October and November. There were 72 cases at 43 schools in January and February, according to the DOE.

According to the DOE’s statistics, bed bug cases in NYC schools more than doubled, and the number of schools with infestations nearly doubled, in the space of between 3-5 months. That is a serious increase in incidents of bed bugs in schools.

I wonder why data for March through June was not provided. I’d hazard a guess the numbers kept rising between February and the end of the school year.

Unmentioned in the press about bed bugs is Local Law 37, which since 2005 has severely restricted the use of pesticides in City-owned buildings. Schools (and, gasp, public housing) have stricter laws about which pesticides can be used. Some products used against bed bugs are included. While I think everyone would like to err on the side of caution, and I do think special care should be taken to make sure growing children are safe from toxins, most people would be shocked to know that their own PCO is legally able to use products legally in their home, where their kids live, in ways the city’s PCOs can’t use them in public housing or schools, and public hospitals, for example. (The law restricts certain chemicals and has certain requirements for 24 hour notification of spraying.)

This undoubtedly makes things tougher in the schools, where it’s already hard enough to identify and treat for bed bugs. As far as I know, the city still does not identify a bed bug problem until a teacher catches a bed bug, bags it, and sends it off to be identified. That may seem reasonable, in theory, but not when you realize that teachers are already overburdened, and each one is trying to teach 30-some youngsters, and meanwhile, trying to keep order. When a kid sees a bed bug (which is surely a rare occurrence, even if the child is being bit at school), the teacher must drop everything, catch up with the bed bug, and bag it.

Imagine Stand and Deliver meets Kindergarden Cop, meets Crocodile Hunter, meets a day in the life of Lou Sorkin, entomologist, and you’ll have some idea what we’re expecting teachers to do here.

All I can say is bring on those bed bug pheromone traps, before the whole city is infested, and doesn’t even know it.

• New York City public schools continue to be treated for bed bugs
• More on the New York City schools and bed bugs
• NYC Bedbuggers: time to have some local politicians over for a bite or two
• NYC DOE now provides information on their website about bed bug policy in schools

ShareThis

On August 17th, 2006 the BBC reported that a residence for doctors and nurses in a hospital in Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, was infested with bed bugs. The unit was not attached to the hospital, so patients and visitors, the article said, were not at risk. (However, you do have to consider where doctors and nurses might have picked up bed bugs. A hospital, perhaps? They had to catch them somewhere. But we shouldn’t jump to conclusions–perhaps someone moved in and brought them.) Anyway, I’d bet there are currently a number of doctors in Fermanagh who just discovered the hard way that bed bug bites don’t all look the same.

This article from the BBC from February 28th, 2007 is about bed bug infestations in student residence halls at the University of Exeter. Eight students reported bites (so it’s likely there were more, who did not feel bites, right?):

Bedbugs hit university students

A university is fumigating student accommodation after an infestation of bedbugs in halls of residence in Devon.

Pest control experts were called in to the University of Exeter accommodation after about eight students reported they had been bitten.

A treatment programme is under way in the affected rooms and nearby areas.

A university spokesman said the outbreak was not the result of poor hygiene and the bugs had probably been brought in on someone’s clothes.

Bedbugs feed on blood, but can survive for many months without food. Bites are usually no more than a nuisance, although some people can develop an allergic reaction.

This additional BBC report, also from last February, is about a school infested with what are thought to be fleas sounds suspicious to me. (Apparently it did to the person who wrote the headline, too. See below.) Fleas are fairly easy to detect. Bed bugs are not.

School closed in ‘flea’ outbreak
A Devon school has been closed while an outbreak of what is thought to be fleas is dealt with.

St Luke’s Science and Sports College, which was opened in Exeter last year, will be closed until Monday while the building is fumigated.

The college website said there was a limited minor infestation in some parts of the college by “some type of small biting insect”.

The college will be “completely cleansed” and open as normal on Monday.

“The numbers of students affected are very small,” said the site.

“Having taken advice from the NHS, we have been assured there is no risk to anyone’s health.”

College deputy head teacher Julie Phelan said the school was being closed because chemicals used in the fumigation needed time to settle, not because the insects were dangerous.

It could be some other cause, of course, for example, bird mites. But it could also have been bed bugs. Whatever it was, I hope it is gone.

On the other hand, some people have no clue about bed bugs. This CBBC article for kids about “bedbugs” was published only two years ago, but features information about dust mites and a photo of a dust mite, while referring to bedbugs repeatedly:

Kill bedbugs - live like a slob!

Not making your bed could keep you healthy, as scientists say it could stop bedbugs infesting your sheets.

The bugs live on skin cells and sweat that come off you while you sleep. They also release chemicals which cause asthma and other allergies.

But scientists reckon leaving your sheets unmade allows air to circulate, getting rid of the stuff the bugs eat.

The average bed could be home to up to 1.5 million house dust mites, which are less than a millimetre long.

The researchers are looking into ways to reduce the £700m spent treating illnesses caused by mites in the UK each year.

They will soon be putting ‘mite pockets’ in 36 people’s beds around Britain to count their numbers and see what else affects the tiny bugs.

New readers, substitute “dust mites” for bed bugs in that article, and it will be factual.

Dust mites are no picnic, but they seem easier to deal with than bed bugs. Encasements and steam seem to be the way to go.
I’ve sent the Beeb a complaint outlining the errors, and hopefully they will remove it or fix it soon.

Finally, also from the BBC archives, a general story about bed bugs, dated February 22, 2007.

But can someone tell me what’s going on in this photo from Richard Naylor of the University of Sheffield? No, please, do not tell me.

• Eastern Nazarene College: students cannot bring in ANY used furniture
• Are the bed bugs bigger in Texas? University of Texas at Dallas students infested with bed bugs
• Bed bugs. Are. Not. Dust Mites.
• Bed bugs at Stanford again

ShareThis

But what caught my eye was this:

The insect, which dwells in mattresses, under carpets, on furniture and in walls, is generally active at night, reproduces rapidly and can be transferred from one person to another.

I think the press is starting to really catch on. Only a few short months ago, we regularly saw news outlets telling people to dust some flea powder and throw out your mattresses.

Nice work Nathan Duke!

• Vancouver public education forum on bed bugs is a start, but probably not enough
• 48th Street between 3rd and Lex, last night
• Good news, Chicagoland: you might have itch mites
• NYC schools closer to having bed bug legislation

ShareThis

Legislation requiring notice of bedbug infestations to all parents at an affected school passed in the New York State Assembly today by a vote of 134 to O. The Gianaris proposal would require the City’s Department of Education to institute a mandatory policy notifying all parents whose children attend a bedbug-infested school of the infestation and providing them with information.

“Today, we are one step closer to restoring some sanity to this school health policy,” said Assemblyman Gianaris. “Knowledge is our best weapon to keep the bedbug problem in our schools from spreading further. I am glad my colleages in the Assembly supported this legislation so overwhelmingly and recognized that we must deal with the hazard posed by bedbugs.”

• NYC schools closer to having bed bug legislation
• Excerpt from article re NYC Department of Ed policy
• Update on New York State bed bug legislation (parental notification re: bed bugs in school)
• NYC Bedbuggers: time to have some local politicians over for a bite or two

ShareThis

Legislation by Assemblymember Michael Gianaris (D-Astoria) requiring notice of bedbug infestations to all parents at an affected school took a step towards becoming a law last week when it was reported favorably from the Assembly Education Committee. The Gianaris proposal would require the city Department of Education to institute a mandatory policy notifying all parents whose children attend a bedbuginfested school of the infestation and providing them with prevention information.

“Today, we are one step closer to restoring some sanity to this school health policy,” Gianaris said. “Knowledge is our best weapon to keep the bedbug problem in our schools from spreading further and this legislation would provide crucial information to concerned parents.”

Since some believe that NYC’s bed bug epidemic started in Astoria, it makes sense that an Astoria politician would be the one to get behind such legislation, though bed bugs in schools are a problem citywide, as the article states. And don’t kid yourself: the Upper East Side is among neighborhoods where Bedbuggers report a lot of infestations. One reader swaps bed bug stories at parties with her tony UES neighbors. Bed bugs can go to school with a rich kid or a rich school Head just as easily as they can creep into humbler institutions. So if you think posh private schools aren’t also housing bed bugs, think again. Let’s hope they have their own protocols already in place.

What newspapers are saying about bed bugs is getting smarter too. The Queens Gazette article closed with the following:

In recent years, bedbugs have become a much larger problem throughout New York City, affecting not just school communities. They reproduce rapidly and are easily transferable from one person to another. Once a bedbug is found, it should be dealt with immediately to prevent further infestation.

Wise words.

• Gianaris’ Bedbug Legislation Passes
• Update on New York State bed bug legislation (parental notification re: bed bugs in school)
• Excerpt from article re NYC Department of Ed policy
• Gianaris- a champion for change

ShareThis

Reports of the nasty critters skyrocketed from 34 cases at 24 public schools in October and November to 72 cases at 43 schools in January and February, according to the Department of Education.

And despite the surge in the creepy-crawlers, the school system continues to resist calls to inform all parents in schools where insects are found.

There’s nothing else that’s really substantial in this NY Post article reminding us that bed bugs are spreading in NYC public schools. So far, the New York City Board of Education’s official policy on bed bugs is that only the parents of the child found with bed bugs on his or her person are notified. And it’s absurd.

All you Bedbuggers out there should invite some local politicians (preferably school board officials) into your homes, and have them sit on your infested sofas, and offer them a nice beverage and some hummus and a mini pita bread or two. Maybe crank up some music or put on that new Tudors show if you get Showtime (Tudors! I bet Henry VIII spread mad bed bugs.)

Now, after a while, a bed bug may crawl onto your local elected official; when it does, you can point and say “You! You brought bed bugs into my home!” You can then trap and bag it, and say, “I am going to call the newspapers and report that you, local politician so-and-so, infested my home with bed bugs!”

You may find this to be a silly analogy, but it’s exactly how children in our schools are treated when bed bugs are found to be crawling on them.

Assuming the bed bugs found on a child came into school on the child or in his or her stuff, is ridiculous. It’s as ridiculous as assuming your local politician brought them in, when we all know you’ve had them for months.

Someone in an infested school can have bed bugs on them because they’re in an infested school. The children may be the ones the bed bugs rode in on, or not, and so could the Principal (even if s/he lives in a nice Manhattan co-op, many of which are crawling), teachers, staff, and visitors.

I need to qualify the above suggestion: Bedbuggers, please do not invite Queens Assemblyman Michael Gianaris over for hummus on your infested sofa. Michael Gianaris is, according to this and other news reports, the lone voice in favor of notifying all parents–not just the parents of the child who is wrongly thought to be “infested.” (This is an error in thinking; bed bugs are not lice, they don’t live on people.)

The local news media needs to stop printing things like this:

Currently, only the parents of an affected child [my emphasis] are automatically notified. The city’s Office of School Health decides on a case-by-case basis if other letters need to be sent out.

This implies that a child is “affected” as opposed to all children and other humans in the vicinity. That sounds a lot like implying the child is infested, and not the school. The reason everyone should be notified is not only because everyone is exposed to the bed bugs, as these articles imply, but because anyone at all could have brought them in, regardless of who bed bugs are found on. Seriously.

And they’re still saying things like this:

The blood-sucking insects get into schools on student clothing, bookbags or other items.

No, bed bugs come into schools on people, not students, and leave that way too. Since the New York City Board of Education policy on bed bugs is that the school doesn’t have an infestation unless a bug is caught, bagged, and sent in by the teacher, you can bet that many, many more than 43 schools are now infested. You can also bet that bed bugs may be creeping around in offices, on administrators’ purses and briefcases, on teachers’ backs.

But as long as being caught with a bed bug on you or your stuff marks you as the “source” of the school’s problem, there’s no incentive to find out if there are really bed bugs in the school. It’s a game of musical bed bugs: the bed bugs move from person to person and if the music stops, and you’re the one caught with a bed bug on you, you lose.

There’s something racist and classist going on here, where public school children are assumed to be the (only possible) bringers of filth into the school. Sadly, the truth is they’re taking it home to their uninfested homes. And so are teachers, administrators, lunch staff, and everyone else.

Update (4/3): here’s the backstory on this issue, which we’ve been talking about since December: in December, and again in January, the Queens Gazette reported the story, especially in relation to that bedbugged borough, and Queens Assemblyman Gianairis’s attempts to change this ridiculous Board of Ed. policy, then February, a UFT official commented on our blog, asking how teachers could get schools to change their policy, and in mid-February, the Daily News covered the issue.

• Gianaris’ Bedbug Legislation Passes
• New York City public schools continue to be treated for bed bugs
• NYC schools closer to having bed bug legislation
• More on the New York City schools and bed bugs

ShareThis