An anonymous caller told the Middletown Health Department on Thursday morning, Sept. 4, that bedbugs had been discovered at the shelter, Middletown health inspector Janay Mourer told the Middletown Journal:

Hope House confirmed Thursday that exterminators had been at the shelter recently, and that the health department had notified them Thursday, said the Rev. Mitchell Foster, the pastor of Tried Stone Baptist Church and an adviser to Hope House who is running daily operations.

“We’ve already taken care of it … we dealt with the issue, and it’s under control,” Foster said.

Asked when exterminators were at Hope House, Foster said he was “not absolutely sure, but I know the problem is taken care of.”

Carla Ealy, a supervising sanitarian for the health department, said she spoke to Foster and was satisfied that the situation was being handled. Foster also said the shelter has ordered new mattresses.

Although it sounds like the management are on the case, I would not be so quick to declare the problem “taken care of.”

The anonymous tip-off about the bed bugs was made on Thursday morning and this article was online as of 1:00 am Friday. The only way to have eradicated the problem this quickly would be if the entire structure were heat treated or gassed with a fumigant like Vikane.

Traditional pest control methods (sprays and dusts) do not work that fast or that effectively. They must be given time and re-treatments are likely needed in the next two weeks.

Bed bugs can be very persistent, especially among a population that may be being exposed and re-exposed to them off-site.

Hopefully the shelter will educate staff and guests about how to avoid and detect bed bugs, and hopefully the shelter will be getting follow-up treatments (which are almost always necessary) and regular inspections.

• Bed bug news round-up: Waterbury, Connecticut; MIT
• More on bed bugs at the Montana Rescue Mission in Billings
• Bed bugs in another women’s shelter in Charlotte, North Carolina
• Bowling Green Towers: another infestation in elderly and disabled housing

ShareThis

It’s worth noting that Wikipedia claims Seaton House is the largest homeless shelter in Toronto, housing at times as many as 700 men.

I found more information on this initiative in this PDF at the City of Toronto website. (”Bug and Scrub” is item #2.) They even have a great name, though if they are only dealing with bed bugs–and this is not clear from the description–they might have gone with “Bed Bug and Scrub” to make this clearer.

It sounds like the program provides full-service assistance with bed bugs (from detection, to cleaning and prep for treatment, pesticide application, and follow-ups):

Bug and Scrub is an all in one service that incorporates responsible and reliable measures to deal with the bed bug issue. Following an Integrated Pest Management protocol, full treatment is provided including assessment, prep work, spraying of the bed bugs, removal of belongings and follow up. The business has already proven successful and has provided many low-income, vulnerable individuals with this unique service.

Staff at Seaton House support clients during their training and employment phase. Anyone residing in the City of Toronto can receive the Bug and Scrub service. Fees operate on a sliding scale and can range from $250 -$800 based on the type of work required.

For more information please contact Richard Grotsch at 416-392-5572.

Remember, contrary to some misconceptions, IPM doesn’t mean no pesticides are used. It means fighting bed bugs on multiple fronts, trying to remove them as much as you can, and then treating to kill what’s left.

I have to say, the Bug and Scrub concept excites me: these men are getting training in what is unfortunately a growth field, they’re getting support as they make an educational/career transition, and Toronto residents are hopefully getting good, reasonably-priced pest control service.

• Toronto Public Health now has a Bed Bug Action Committee. Action, people.
• Bed bug infestation at Middletown, Ohio homeless shelter
• bed bugs in Toronto; Vancouver; Billings, MT,
• Bed bugs: what’s really working?

ShareThis

Ironically, when these men have made the choice to leave homelessness behind, they’re made to live in housing that makes the street look attractive.  (This is a problem elsewhere too.)

There have been rat droppings on the old, musty carpet and frequent mouse sightings near holes in the pocked, plaster walls. For months, exterminators have fought an infestation of bedbugs, which left at least one client with bite marks so bad he was treated at a hospital. Watermarks stain the aging ceiling, and some window frames are so old and ill-fitting that duct tape was used to stop drafts. In bathrooms, many of the urinals, toilets, and sinks are out of order.

Officials at the Cardinal Medeiros Transitional Program say they have complained about the conditions for years, but they contend that the YMCA Greater Boston, their landlord in the century-old building on Huntington Avenue, has ignored them while investing in top-of-the-line equipment for its gym. They accuse the Y of neglecting the 63 formerly homeless men who live there after an effort to terminate the program’s lease failed four years ago.

Now, program officials are threatening to withhold state lease payments to cover the cost of renovations, which they estimate could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Click here to read the rest of this Boston Globe story.

• Portland’s public housing and bed bugs
• A tale of another city: Monticello, NY low-income tenants 1, slumlord 0
• Homeless people wandering streets, refusing to stay in infested homeless shelter
• Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Housing Authority vs. Bed Bugs

ShareThis

“This is an all-embracing examination of our need to sleep. . . . The very practical logistics of sleeping are also tackled: bedbugs and the luxury of a bed to oneself.” Bed bugs figure in exhibit on sleep at medical-themed-art centre in London.

Cincinnati YWCA Women’s Emergency Shelter has bed bugs, according to Porkopolis

“Now only new clothing can be accepted for donation, and all personal belongings of residents must be stored in large plastic bins. They’re also looking at replacing the sturdy, familiar wooden bunk beds with metal ones to help reduce infestations.”

RealTravel - Hotel Paradiso! | Bargara Travel Blog | Bargara Travel Reviews

Travel blogger claims Bargara, Queensland hostel was bedbugged, and more: “There were rats, mice, possums, bed-bugs, and one morning a kitchen full of maggots. gross. there were curious looking stains on the carpets, especially in our bedroom and there was possum s–t on our floor.”

Bed bugs, or incontinent possums: which is worse?  I’ll take the possums any day, mate.

• Bed bug Helloise: a nice, reasonably-priced white metal bed frame with no wooden slats
• More on bed bugs at the Montana Rescue Mission in Billings
• Spring break bed bug warnings!
• Bed bug news round-up: South Jersey apartment complex; Charlotte, North Carolina Salvation Army shelter

ShareThis

This article carries more details on the bed bug war going on in the Montana Rescue Mission men’s shelter than the one blogged last week. It is a harrowing reminder of how hard it is to get rid of bed bugs under certain circumstances.

More than a year ago, the mission spent $5,500 replacing all 27 wooden bunk beds in the men’s shelter dormitory with steel bunks that give the bugs no openings to hole up in or to build nests. All the wooden beds at the mission’s Women’s and Family Shelter on First Avenue North were replaced at the same time, [shelter manager Tracy] Hansen said

Ecolab Pest Elimination Services has been coming at least once a month to do treatments at the shelter, and shelter workers also use a nontoxic powder to treat areas in which bedbugs are found. All the mattresses were replaced at one point, and sheets are now washed daily.

Blankets are also washed regularly, Hansen said, and soon they will be dried in a large commercial dryer, which will kill any bedbugs.

After initially making good progress against the bedbugs, the shelter saw another outbreak over the summer. As Drake explained, “We have so many people bringing in so many things on their persons.”

Hansen said the problem this summer and fall has been concentrated in the chapel, which handles overflow sleepers. Although the dormitory sleeps 54 people and 20 more men involved in change-of-life programs sleep in several common rooms, as many as 40 men a night will stretch out on mats on the floor of the chapel. People are asked not to bring in bags or their own blankets, but they still end up bringing in bedbugs in their clothes.

Over the summer, mission workers ripped out the baseboard all around the chapel, where they found several nests in decaying wood and plaster. Those areas were treated, but there are still occasional finds, Hansen said. Over the summer, he might find 10 to 15 live bugs a day. On Thursday, he said, he found two.
.

Replacing wooden beds with metal probably helps, though bed bugs can also infest metal beds; they can even harbor in the groove of a screw-head. And replacing bed frames does nothing, if mattresses are not properly encased (whether replaced or not). I would like to know if the mattresses are encased, which will help keep them from becoming reinfested.

Regular treatments are good, but most PCOs who know bed bugs seem to recommend treating more than once a month. Washing/drying sheets daily and washing or even just drying blankets (which should also be done daily under such circumstances) is a good idea.

The sad fact is that it is probably hard to do more than control bed bugs in a shelter situation. Even if guests do not bring in bags, as long as people are coming in wearing clothing, the potential for reinfestation is there.

One statement in the article really jumped out at me:

Barbara Schneeman, the communications and advocacy manager at the Yellowstone City-County Health Department, said the department hasn’t heard of any problems with bedbugs anywhere else in Billings. In a given year, she said, there might be one or two calls about bedbugs.

If a homeless shelter has bed bugs, a person brought them in, or they were brought in with a shipment. The former is more likely.
The person can have been an employee, visitor, or homeless guest.

If people are exposed to bed bugs in the shelter, they will also carry those bed bugs elsewhere.
Those people can be employees, visitors, or homeless guests.

Where those people go next, they may leave bed bugs: stores, cafes, government offices, laundromats, buses, trains, cars, schools, hospitals, PCO’s offices, employees’ and visitors’ and guests’ and their friends’ apartments and houses.

If a homeless shelter in Billings has bed bugs, there are problems with bed bugs in other places in Billings.
It’s a matter of time before people realize it.

I hope everyone in Billings with bed bugs will call the Yellowstone City-County Health Department and let them know. Public health officials will not recognize bed bugs as a problem unless you call them and tell them they are a problem. If they shrug it off, do not take it personally. If everyone calls, officials will have to take this seriously. Other health departments are beginning to.

• Salt Lake City Firehouse closed due to bed bugs
• bed bugs in Toronto; Vancouver; Billings, MT,
• Toronto Community Housing does good; Orlando, Florida tenants and Billings, Montana shelter guest demonstrate why more bed bug education is needed
• Charlotte, NC Salvation Army Women’s Shelter has bed bugs again

ShareThis

• bed bug news for 2007-11-11: Lexington, KY and Toronto, ON
• bed bug news for 2007-11-16
• Bed bugs in homeless shelters, casinos, hotels, apartments: Waynesboro, Atlantic City, Greenpoint, Toronto
• bed bug news for 2007-11-14

ShareThis

The story above, along with the others I’ve included in these recent news round-ups, was very distressing to me: twenty women and children from a shelter, many of them in the shelter due to domestic abuse, have to relocate due to bed bugs. This is an example of the impact bed bugs can have on peoples’ lives. The story goes on to explain that it is hard to find another location to house these women and children, who need to remain together for support reasons, and (because some cases involve abuse) whose whereabouts must be kept secret for safety reasons.

The bed bug stories in the media keep on coming. In the last week, as you can see, I’ve started blogging some news stories with a mini-analysis or comment from me (as above), using the “daily blog posting” function at del.icio.us, which was recommended to me by bed bug blog veteran Windy City Mike. This is not meant to substitute for more in-depth coverage, but to deal with an ever-increasing volume of bed bug news.

As much as I hate not commenting in length on every important bed bug story I read, it’s been impossible to do so for some time now. I hope that these mini-analyses are helpful. As always, I welcome your comments and feedback.

• Bed bugs in another women’s shelter in Charlotte, North Carolina
• Bed bug news round-up: South Jersey apartment complex; Charlotte, North Carolina Salvation Army shelter
• Gender, race, and being bitten by bed bugs
• Charlotte, NC Salvation Army Women’s Shelter has bed bugs again

ShareThis