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Bed bugs vs. Madrid: the government takes action

nobugsonme — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 07:46:32 +0000

AFP reports that the government in Madrid, Spain is educating its public about bed bugs and how to get rid of them:

Authorities in Madrid have declared war on a growing and formidable enemy — bed bugs that are infesting hotel rooms throughout the country at an alarming rate.

The government for the Madrid region has published a manual to make people and businesses more aware of the tiny pests and how to get rid of them.

The number of bed bugs actually declined in Spain in the 1950s and 60s.

But “today the situation seems to have completely changed, the declared number of cases has risen, in some cases quite significantly, approaching the level of an epidemic,” said the manual, seen by AFP on Wednesday.

It’s important for everyone in Madrid to realize that any location can become infested, not just hotel rooms.

Bed bugs seem to be spreading very quickly in all well-traveled areas of the globe. Few cities or regions are willing to declare them as “approaching an epidemic,” perhaps out of fear that tourists will stay away.

In fact, I’d much rather visit a place where business owners and individuals are educated about and talk about the prevalence of this pest, how to detect them, and how to get rid of bed bugs, as opposed to visiting a city where the hotel industry is mum on the issue, as if it did not exist.

AFP also reports that

[Bed bug] numbers rose by 10 to 20 percent in 2008 in Spain, according to a study last year by the National Association for the Control of Plagues (ANECPLA).

I know you’re asking yourselves, non-Spaniards, “Why don’t we have a National Association for the Control of Plagues?”

ANECPLA is associated with the National Pest Management Association in the US.Similar Posts:

Access-A-Ride offices in Long Island City infested with bed bugs

nobugsonme — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:50:38 +0000

Access-a-Ride dispatchers in Long Island City say their Northern Blvd. bed bugs have been found in their office since the summer of 2008, and NYC Transit is only now taking action, The New York Daily News reports today. (Access-a-Ride is a transportation van service for the disabled.)

A bed bug sniffing dog team found bed bugs on the 7th and 8th floors of the building on Friday.

“I hope it will force some pressure for them to do something,” said John Wau, 48, who showed pinprick-sized scars along his right arm that he said came from numerous bedbug bites.”They keep telling us not to worry, that everything is okay,” said Wau, a customer service representative. “But they’re not doing anything about it.”

Since the bedbugs were detected Friday on the seventh and eighth floors of the facility – where more than 700 dispatchers work for the firm – sections have been taped off to keep employees away from the infested areas and several items were removed, workers said.

Officials from NYC Transit, which operates Access-A-Ride, said the problem is being addressed.

“One of the recommendations to be implemented within the next two days will be the steam-cleaning of carpets, cubicles and office chairs of the call centers,” said spokesman Charles Seaton.

Note: taping off specific areas will keep employees from an area, but will not keep bed bugs from coming to the employees.

The article features an interview with one worker, Idalia Perez, who says she brought bed bugs from work home to her Bronx apartment in August 2008; she says she lost thousands of dollars of furniture due to the infestation, and received no support from her employer.

When hundreds of workers may have been exposed to bed bugs over more than a year’s time, you have to wonder how many people in New York may have gotten their bed bugs from this one prolonged bed bug infestation.Similar Posts:

Hazleton Area School District goes bed bug wild

nobugsonme — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 04:25:29 +0000

The Hazleton, Pennsylvania school district went bed bug-wild on Wednesday, after a single student apparently discovered a single bed bug bite after a sleepover, according to the Standard Speaker.

The discovery of a child with a bedbug bite at the Valley Elementary Middle School on Tuesday led exterminators to search five schools on Veterans Day to make sure there was no infestation before classes resumed Thursday.

School administrators checked with the family of the student who was bitten and found that she had attended a sleepover. Her family and the family that hosted the sleepover have a total of six children who attend five schools: Valley, Hazleton Area High School, the Ninth Grade Center, the Hazleton Area Career Center and Heights-Terrace Elementary/Middle School.

Not only did the pest control company search the well-trod paths those six students normally moved along, checking their classrooms, buses, and lockers they all used, but

As a precaution, technicians sprayed a mix of five chemicals in the areas where the students traveled. Temborski said the chemicals don’t harm people and dry in two to four hours, so the closing of school for Veterans Day provided an ideal time to work.

In addition, the two families involved (the girl’s family and the sleepover host’s family) had their homes professionally treated for bed bugs by All ‘Bout Critters Pest Control, the same company contracted to do the work in the schools:

The two families hired ABC Pest Control to exterminate the bedbugs in their homes, and their children won’t return to school until the work is done. Temborski said treating bedbugs takes at least two treatments given two days apart.

There may be much more to the story than is included in this article. ABC said they “found nothing” in the school.

However, it is not clear from the article whether any evidence of bed bugs was found in the homes, or how anyone knew it was a bed bug that left a mark on the little girl in question.

As much as I lament the ridiculous approach to bed bugs in New York City Schools, where busy teachers are apparently expected to trap a sample bed bug and ship it away before anyone will even look into a potential bed bug problem in classrooms, it seems possible that this school district’s response was overkill.

On the other hand, here in NYC, it’s illegal to treat for bed bugs unless you have proof of their presence; I am not sure of the laws in Pennsylvania or the local area surrounding the Hazelton, PA School District.Similar Posts:

Bed bugs invade New York City Department of Health offices

nobugsonme — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 17:56:55 +0000

The New York Post reports that New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene workers are being bitten by bed bugs.

Workers in the department’s tuberculosis-prevention unit complain that the painful pests have invaded their offices on the eighth floor of 346 Broadway for the second time.

“People are really upset,” one worker said, adding that while it was never made public, a bedbug colony took up residence on the same site two years ago.

“They told us we were crazy,” the worker said, referring to higher-ups. “I said, ‘I know what I saw. I’m not crazy.’ ”

Officials confirmed that bedbugs were found in the TB unit in 2007 and again within the last few days. In both cases, exterminators were called in.

“It’s fairly common to have a couple of bedbugs brought in by an individual,” said department spokeswoman Jessica Scaperotti. “It’s not an infestation.”

The “condition” of bed bugs in the tuberculosis-prevention unit of the NYC DOHMH suggests that the DOHMH also needs a “bed bug prevention unit.” Not for their building, but for the city.

Bed bugs don’t kill you like TB will (at least not in most cases) but they certainly are a quickly-spreading parasite which messes with one’s “mental hygiene” big time.

NY Magazine’s Daily Intel also questions the “it’s not an infestation” spin from John Jay and Department of Health, reminding me that “I’m not crazy” either.Similar Posts:

Bed bugs infest multiple areas of New York’s John Jay College (CUNY)

nobugsonme — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 06:55:09 +0000

Colleges are bracing themselves for H1N1 this fall, but students and staff should remember that bed bugs are always a problem in colleges. Yes, even in commuter colleges with no student housing!

CBS2 in New York reports that students at the City University of New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice found out in an email Wednesday night that the first floor of the college’s North Hall has been infested with bed bugs:

The word came in a mass e-mail identifying several offices, including admissions, financial aid, health, student government, the registrar and a conference room as among those that have — not an infestation — but rather in the words of the email, a bed bug condition.

Unfortunately, having a “bed bug condition” in at least five offices and a conference room does indeed amount to a bed bug infestation.

Bed bug treatment is going to be carried out on Saturday to avoid disrupting classes.

Some students in the CBS report claimed to have been bitten already; of course, in New York, bed bugs are now so commonplace that this might also happen on a bus, in a subway seat, in a cafe or someone’s home.

We can only hope students, staff and faculty at John Jay are also getting a briefing on how to detect, identify — and respond to — bed bug infestations at home.

Watch the video and see the story: John Jay College Overrun By Bed Bugs – wcbstv.com.

Update (9/24):

As Buggedinsomerville notes in the comments below, The New York Times City Room blog now has a story on this.

City Room reports that North Hall has been closed until Tuesday for treatment, and there’s a Q&A with the college president and a pest firm in the College Theater at 2 today.

In it, Jim Grossman, a John Jay spokesman, explains the whole “bed bug condition” thing:

John Jay is calling it a bedbug “condition.” Mr. Grossman said, “Infestation is when you can see them swarming.”

[Emphasis mine.]

Oh dear!

This is terribly inaccurate and just shows an ignorance of how bed bugs act normally — they hide and they do so very well.

If you can see bed bugs swarming, you have an extremely serious bed bug infestation.

This level of infestation is very rare, though we’ve heard of a few cases.

It’s possible to have a considerable bed bug infestation and see few, if any, bed bugs.

City Room says that

Bedbugs were found on the first three floors of the four-story building, though they were concentrated mainly on the first.

[Emphasis mine.]

Three quarters of the building? That, my friends, sounds like a sizeable bed bug infestation.

Update #2 (9/24):

Don’t look now, John Jay PR folks, but NBC called this a “bed bug infestation” no less than five times in this article alone.

The New York Times did not dip into that pesky conundrum.

And Running Scared (Village Voice) blogger Chez Pazienza had a bit of fun:

We don’t need to tell you that the past few years has seen near-epidemic bedbug “conditions” in New York City…

Yes, indeed.

By any other name, a bed bug problem smells just as nasty.*

In deference to our friend Winston, I will surrender the “i” word for now.

Here’s the thing, though: you have bed bugs (plural) in multiple offices and 3/4 floors of a building?

You have a bed bug problem. A serious one.

One which appears to have been going on since at least mid-August, according to the New York Times.

(I’m not discounting the importance of getting rid of even one single male bed bug, honestly, but am trying

And remember: there’s no shame in having a bed bug problem. What matters is how swiftly, carefully, and fully you respond to it.

———————–

*Yes: bed bug infestations can smell, but no: most people don’t report noticing this most of the time. Just taking a bit of poetic license.Similar Posts:

Denver Public Library Book Return infested with bed bugs

nobugsonme — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 03:46:14 +0000

The Denver Public Library’s book return drop box was infested with bed bugs, apparently by a single heavy user of the library’s services. CBS4 in Denver reported that

Library workers handling the books left in the drop box noticed the bugs first.

“When we were returning those materials back in to get them off of his card, some of the bugs fell out,” said Celeste Jackson.

The books were not your typical popular fiction. They are described as volumes of rare classic literature. The books are not the property of the Denver Public Library. They’re part of the inter-library loan system. Those books have been fumigated and the library quarantined.

The library said the customer was aware of the problem.

“We said, sir we think you may have a problem and we’re trying to keep this from becoming … something that really is throughout the library system,” Jackson said.

Jackson said after the man was informed he returned more books with bedbugs.

[Emphasis mine.]

He knew he had bed bugs, he knew he was transmitting them to the library, and he continued doing so.

The infested books could have been rendered bed bug-free, but their pages were stained so heavily by bed bug droppings that they had to be destroyed. He’s now been banned from the library and fined the $12,000 for the 31 ruined rare books.

I love that this story hit the news, because it is important for people to see that bed bugs can spread by all kinds of conduits — including ones so seemingly innocent as a library book.

Has the infestation been smaller — if bed bugs had not fallen out of books which were being checked back into the library — it may not have been noticed, and the books may have been reshelved.

If this had occurred, depending how rarely these tomes get pulled off the shelf, the bed bugs may have set off to bite others, perhaps in the library itself.

(We can only hope that items the man returned previously to the discovery did not contain bed bugs, perhaps to a less noticeable degree.)

It’s important to note also that there are others, like this man, who know they have bed bugs and — for whatever reason — appear to not be getting help.

Moreover, this man was not concerned about inflicting the problem on others.

What should happen when strangers find out someone is living with this problem — such a severe problem that they are easily transmitting it around town?

Should social services be called out?

The police?

Whatever department in Denver inspects housing for inhabitability?

What do you think?

Check out the rest of the article and video: Unwanted Visitors Found In Library Book Return – cbs4denver.com.

Update (9/24):

And now ABC7 in Denver reports the identity of the man who returned the books to the library.

The infected books came from 69-year-old Denver resident Roger Goffeney. He checks out historic books, some 200 years old, and helps archive them online in an effort called the Gutenberg Project.

When he brought a few of the rare books back, bed bugs from his downtown apartment hitched a ride. Goffeney said the landlord is to blame. Goffeney lives at Cathedral Plaza, which is owned by the Catholic Archdiocese of Denver.

“We’ve always had some kind of insect infestation, but it’s never been to this degree,” Goffeney said of the building where he lives.

Still, Goffeney said he didn’t think it was a big deal.

“I thought that they could easily be cleaned if they had discovered that to be the problem,” Goffeney said.

Cathedral Plaza is one of the Denver senior housing properties listed on the Archdiocesan Housing website.

ABC7 in Denver notes that Goffeney is considering filing a lawsuit to get his library privileges back.

Project Gutenberg is an effort to get books out of copyright online, so everyone with access to the internet can read them for free. Project Gutenberg volunteers work to preserve literature.

Susan Greene wrote in the Denver Post that

Goffeney takes no responsibility for the blight, nor for fines he says should be paid by his lousy landlord. He sees little irony in the fact that his efforts to save world literature have resulted in book burning.

“Huh . . .,” he says. “I guess I’ve never thought of it like that.”

Even where landlords are responsible for treatment for bed bugs, tenants must participate both by disclosing the problem in their unit, by preparing for treatment, and by following up afterwards. It’s unclear at this time whether Goffeney has received bed bug treatment, or if the landlord knows about and is attempting to fix the problem.

I guess now we’re waiting until the press hears from the Catholic Archdiocese of Denver?Similar Posts:

Bed bugs in apartment complexes: bed bug “lotharios” and “Nintento Trojan horses”

nobugsonme — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 23:03:46 +0000

Mark Sheperdigian has an excellent new article in Pest Management Professional about what apartment building managers need to be aware of when dealing with a bed bug infestation — the often unconsidered aspects of multi-unit dwelling life which help bed bugs to spread from unit to unit.

We’re all familiar with the problem of a single household discarding its contents (often unnecessarily) which then spread bed bugs to everyone who collects something from the pile.

However, bed bugs may spread easily in ways which are less obvious.

For example, have you also considered the potential for bed bugs being spread around a complex by a gentleman caller with multiple lady friends in the building, or by the visiting meals on wheels volunteer?

Or the way bed bugs might move around with adolescents who troop from one kid’s bedroom to another with Nintendos, game chairs, and other gear in tow? (These are what Sheperdigian cleverly dubs “Nintendo Trojan horses”).

Sheperdigian suggests apartment managers need to try to develop

programs that work to find and encompass all the networks, families and friendships that facilitate the move of bed bugs across a community.

Although I am skeptical most apartment managers won’t bother doing this — let’s face it, we hear so many won’t choose a knowledgeable professional, have adjacent units inspected, or follow-up on treatments — Sheperdigian shows us how very important these networks can be, if we really want to get rid of bed bugs in the building.

Instead of only searching adjacent units in a clover-leaf pattern, apartment managers may want PCOs to also inspect units frequented by tenants of an infested unit, or whose inhabitants are frequent visitors of an infested unit, or whose owners have the same visitors as the infested unit.

Sounds confusing, right? All the more reason, frankly, to consider just doing a careful inspection of the entire building.

Other recommendations Shepherdgian outlines for apartment managers include

Telling tenants about the bed bug problem and educating them about bed bugs (rather than keeping mum about the problem);
Setting up assistance programs for those needing help (such as the elderly or infirm);
Implementing programs for discarding items which must be removed, so removals don’t spread bed bugs in the building; and
Reaching out to regular visitors (like that meals-on-wheels volunteer) to make sure they aren’t re-infesting units they visit.

More and more, apartment managers are talking about how to prevent and respond to bed bug outbreaks. Last week Renee brought to our attention a new draft training manual created by the Columbus Apartment Association (with the assistance of Dr. Susan Jones).

Bed bugs are difficult to treat, even for the most well-meaning and attentive building managers. I applaud Mark Sheperdigian for outlining some of the angles which are commonly missed, and I know you’ll want to read the rest of the article here: Bed Bugs in the Apartment Department at Pest Management Professional.Similar Posts:

New York vs. Bed Bugs on bed bug prep, and the widening divide between bed bugs haves and have-nots

nobugsonme — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 06:11:05 +0000

Renee Corea has an excellent post over on New York vs. Bed Bugs today which discusses varying approaches to bed bug preparation, what people are required to do, and who does and does not have access to help with this.

Although as Renee notes, it still is difficult for rich and poor alike to battle bed bugs, there may soon come a time when this is not so:

The market is working to make services, products and innovations available. But not to everyone. I wonder if the time is approaching when bed bug eradication will be significantly easier for the wealthy. Perhaps you think this is already the case? I don’t think so. Not quite yet. It’s clear that the only reason that New York City started to pay official attention to the bed bug problem is that the ruinous experience of bed bug infestations spread widely enough that people with access to power began to personally understand the nature of the problem. But this is what will happen when this particular moment, this equitable distribution of bed bug misery passes: bed bugs will once again be a problem of the poor — truly, and not just in the imagination of the public and in the prejudices of the ill-informed.

These are important questions.

It’s crucial that everyone understands that you cannot fight bed bugs in isolation. No matter what tools are at your disposal (and Renee points us to a new service offering bed bug prep in NYC), you can’t make this problem go away for you, for good, unless it goes away for everyone else.

When it comes to eliminating bed bugs, we are all interdependent, as this blog has been insisting since October, 2006. You might get rid of your bed bugs, but if someone in your building or neighborhood, or someone in your boss’s building or your kid’s school or your cleaning lady’s train route has them, you can get them again.

To win the bed bug fight, and stem the tide of this epidemic, we have to fight everyone’s bed bugs, not just our own.

To use Jessica’s catchphrase, “we are all in this together.”

I know you’ll want to read the rest of Renee’s post here: Preparation, money, and the shortening of the window to act — New York vs Bed Bugs.Similar Posts:

Bed bugs continue to plague Boston, but the news is not all bad

nobugsonme — Mon, 11 May 2009 07:03:46 +0000

A new article from the Boston Herald warns of a difficult bed bug spring, and notes a continued yearly rise in bed bug complaints to the Boston Inspectional Services Department.

The bedbug resurgence that began in the early 21st century is creeping and crawling with a vengeance, according to national and local experts, who warn of a particularly pesky spring.

“As the weather gets warmer, we typically get more complaints,” said Boston Inspectional Services Department Assistant Commissioner Dion Irish. “The bedbugs get more active as the climate gets warmer.”

According to ISD, as of April 15, Hub bedbug complaints already had surpassed yearly totals for the two previous years: 223 complaints in 2009 versus 182 complaints in 2007 and 210 complaints in 2008.

However, there are some things Boston is doing well. For example, as the Boston ISD website states,

Our Standard bed bug notice of violation also requires that owners inspect all units in the dwelling, and they must treat all horizontally and vertically adjacent units to the infested unit(s).

(Emphasis added.)

We hear from tenants in other cities that many (if not most) landlords will not voluntarily pay to have adjacent units inspected, let alone the entire building — even though their PCOs or entomologists may recommend this.

Having a policy that requires adjacent units to be treated means small and difficult to detect neighboring infestations may be nipped in the bud. And having the entire building inspected means there’s more chance of detecting additional infested units.

All of this costs money, but when you think of the amount landlords in other cities pay to perpetually treat units one by one, piecemeal (a process which may never remove the problem), it does not seem like a bad idea economically.

The article notes that the city’s aggressive response to bed bugs in the Allston-Brighton neighborhood has made a difference.

Irish said the department is working to make sure there’s quality pest control available to property owners, and noted landlords are responsible for extermination costs or face housing court.

“Whenever we’re aware of an infestation, we require multiple exterminations and monitoring,” Irish said, touting the city’s get-tough policy for improvements in the Allston-Brighton area.

That neighborhood had seen a concentration of bedbug complaints dating back to 2003. Thanks to outreach efforts, a strategy of quick street-side pickups of discarded furniture by the Department of Public Works, and aggressive treatment of infested and surrounding units, “those areas are no longer troubled areas,” Irish said. The number of complaints in Allston- Brighton dropped from 38 in 2007 to 27 in 2008. There are 25 complaints there so far this year.

(Emphasis added.)

Obviously, Allston-Brighton is still troubled by bed bugs, but it appears to have been much less troubled in 2008 than in 2007. Keeping in mind that bed bug problems will tend to get worse in time, as the problem spreads through a neighborhood, a reduction in complaints like this is good news indeed.

On the other hand, there are 25 complaints in 2009 so far — suggesting 2009 is on track to be big for bed bugs in Allston-Brighton. Is this a factor of a less aggressive recent approach in the neighborhoods? Or is it a sign that this is indeed “a particularly pesky spring” for bed bugs in Boston?

In any case, it looks like Boston has lots of work to do.

See Bedbugs back on attack – BostonHerald.com.Similar Posts:

Bed bugs found in San Diego State University library: second instance of infested chairs on campus

nobugsonme — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 18:50:31 +0000

According to independent student newspaper, The Daily Aztec, twenty-seven “comfy” chairs were recently removed from the lower level of the San Diego State University library after bed bugs were found there.

Bedbugs are back with a recent infestation in the library, specifically in the “comfy” chairs on the lower level of the Dome.

“Twenty-seven chairs from the lower level of the dome were removed,” Mark Lester, director, Access, Administrative Operations and Communication of Library and Information Access, said. “We resolved the problem in the best way we could think of.”

This article from the university’s independent student newspaper notes that bed bugs were found in SDSU dorms earlier this semester.

And we also reported back in January that, again according to the Daily Aztec, bed bugs had been found in the “egg chairs” in the Counseling and Psychological Services Office at San Diego State.

Since bed bugs do hitchhike on clothing and in people’s bags, these should not be assumed to be unrelated incidents. Bed bugs in chairs in multiple buildings around campus should be taken very seriously.

A campus that is seeing bed bug infestations in chairs around the campus should be taking a very proactive role in detecting bed bugs and treating them properly — both in student housing and in other facilities. If they are in the counseling office waiting room and the library, they could be anywhere.

Check out: The Daily Aztec – Bedbugs found in library.Similar Posts: