First, Donna Freydkin published twin articles in USA Today on Tuesday: one about her personal experiences with bed bugs, and one about others’ experiences. There was also a sidebar alerting people to the dangers of curbside mattresses, the problems of foggers, and other important stuff. Especially interesting, since USA Today is distributed free in hotels around the USA, is this warning to travelers:

Be careful where you put your suitcase when you travel. “These guys are fantastic hitchhikers,” says the University of Maryland’s Michael Raupp. “If you have a luggage rack with metal racks, put your suitcase on that.”

Check behind a hotel headboard. That’s one of their favorite spots, Raupp says. Pull back the comforter and sheets and look for the fecal stains on the mattress seams and ticking. Shine a penlight behind the headboard and look for dark fecal stains.

There are some points in the article that are not fully explained and might mislead people (for example, drying for ten minutes on hot will not be enough if the item being dried is wet, an important bit of information if anyone is actually going to treat their clothing based on such a recommendation). Also, many pros recommend not getting rid of your mattress or box springs. Doing so when unnecessary is a good way to give your neighbors bed bugs; a good mattress encasement will usually be enough. However, despite these details, Ms. Freydkin did speak with Dr. Michael Potter, whose unofficial fan club is right here. And bed bug news in such a popular paper is always good.

Meanwhile, in other news, the Minnesota Star Tribune asks, “How safe are your kids at college?” and among the many other concerns addressed, bed bugs:

Look for evidence of bedbugs — fecal staining that resembles an accumulation or a scattering of pepper — around baseboards, along cracks and crevices and furniture in rooms where people rest, such as bedrooms or TV rooms.

Prevent infestation: Resist the temptation to scavenge mattresses, sofas or other furniture set out by curbs or behind stores, said [University of Minnesota Assistant Professor of Entomology Stephen Kells]. They can harbor bedbugs. Don’t encourage cockroaches. Keep counters clean and remove garbage regularly. Wipe surfaces and sweep floors frequently. Pick up papers, boxes and other clutter that gives cockroaches places to hide.

Ask about infestation: Ask the landlord the last time the place was evaluated for infestations and if the building is on a regular control and prevention program, said Kells. Remember, treating just one apartment for infestation is ineffective. The whole building needs treatment, combined with prevention tactics.

Good advice.

Finally, from the good-blog capital of Brooklyn, Greenpointers has posted an image of an ad that appeared on Craigslist Monday, in which current or former tenants of the Astral put up a bed bug warning to potential tenants.

The ad (NYC ad #469469878) reads:

This is a warning: two former tenants of the astral (the large beautiful building in greenpoint on the corner of java and franklin) have moved out due to a BEDBUG infestation, and it is rumored that the entire floor is moving out because of the same problem.

Make sure that you discuss this with your realtor/potential roomate before moving in!

This is a serious posting, not a prank–I thought it was something people should know before moving in, to protect themselves! I would want to know.

You can go to Greenpointers to see an image of the actual ad. (Clever bloggers: Craigslist usually removes these kinds of ads tout de suite.)

We’re not breaking the news on the Astral-bed bugs allegation. But Curbed, NewYorkShitty, and the BedBugBlog commenters have that covered. The building also has two entries on the Bed Bug Registry. Rumor has it Mae West once lived in the Astral.

• Bed bugs in homeless shelters, casinos, hotels, apartments: Waynesboro, Atlantic City, Greenpoint, Toronto
• Sunday, Buggy Sunday
• When I say the title of the blog, it makes me feel like Sean Connery
• Forget black mattress stains, bed bugs, shells, and eggs: NMPA press release tells consumers to look for “blood spots”

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This story from WLWT.com (channel 5) on Thursday indicates that the city is surprised by the persistence of bed bugs. It focuses on Cincinnati resident Samuel Blackmon.

On Friday, Blackmon showed off his apartment to some guests: City Councilman Chris Monzel, Ohio Rep. Dale Mallory and News 5’s Michelle Hopkins.

“It’s horrible. It gives me the creeps. I get chills every time I think about it,” Mallory said.

“I’ve got to buy all new furniture. I don’t know how I’m going to do it,” Blackmon said.

In his bathtub, more dead bugs. Blackmon said they are falling from his ceiling.

Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority bosses said Blackmon’s apartment was treated a month ago.

“We are committed, and we have been successful in reducing the numbers dramatically of infestations,” director Donald Troendle said.

Troendle said his agency’s spent $500,000 to get rid of the bugs, but Blackmon’s apartment showed that it hadn’t worked.

Blackmon’s apartment “was treated a month ago.” But since he lives in a multi-unit building, a high-rise called Stanley Rowe with many infested units, treatment must be aggressive, persistent, and will probably take many weeks of follow-ups, spaced around 2 weeks apart. All infested units must be treated as aggressively. Frankly, in such circumstances, the whole building may need treatment if there really is to be an end to the problem.

The confusion and surprise the officials feel is not unusual. But what is unusual in Cincinnati, is that there does seem to be an awareness and recognition that more is needed:

“This is just totally unacceptable to be occuring in public housing,” Monzel said. “What we really need to do is look at attacking the problem, from inspections to cleaning to reinspections, to make sure these folks are living in places that are free of bedbugs.”

Yes.

“These are folks who have lived a good life. They don’t deserve to have the last years of their lives eaten by bedbugs,” Monzel said.

Monzel and Mallory said they did this inspection to bring more light to the bedbug problem in public housing.

They said they’re both working to get more money and resources to stamp out the problem.

One reader pointed out that Cincinnati officials were not listening closely enough to local entomologists and pest control experts. If that’s true, now would be a good time to do so. Was Mr. Blackmon’s apartment treated once, a month ago? Twice? I could have told Cincinnati officials that this would not be enough under the circumstances. Aren’t they working with a PCO who can tell them the same thing?

Mr. Blackmon’s situation is horrifying and tragic. But the fact that officials are persisting with trying to find a solution, is a positive thing. That the local media is reporting on the persistence of the problem “despite treatment” is good. What they need to be saying is that everyone with bed bugs will need persistent, aggressive, repeated treatments.

And no one is immune: Another recent story from WLWT news tells us those in “luxury” $1000-a-month rentals at Union Station Apartments in West Chester as just as much in need of help as those in public housing.

• Urgent: if you’re in Cincinnati…
• Finally, somebody does something: Cincinnati’s new Bed Bug Remediation Commission
• Cincinnati fights bed bugs, declares some success
• More from Cincinnati: senior housing complex

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Bushwick, Brooklyn is home to two large dueling loft buildings: 248 and 255 McKibben Street. Yes, that’s right: they’re buildings so hip, fun, and now, they have their own myspace pages. (Don’t laugh, but we have one too.)

Gawker did an article today about the buildings’ problems with bed bugs, though judging from the comments there and on myspace, only the residents of 248 are claiming to have a problem with bed bugs.

The Bed Bug Registry has complaints from thirteen different tenants about the building. (For its neighbor 255 McKibben, there are none.)

248 McKibben also has a whole blog running on myspace about the building’s alleged bed bug epidemic. It makes for interesting reading. The residents are correct that the entire building must be treated, if the infestation is as extensive as they claim it is. There’s a reluctancy on the part of some residents to call HPD (311) and file a housing complaint, for fear they won’t get references from their landlord in future.

Such concerns abound on our forums too. I have not heard from anyone who has filed an HPD report on a landlord and who has not been able to rent after that. I do know multiple people who have “pissed landlords off” by expecting to have pest problems, leaks, etc. fixed, and whose landlords were so happy to see such “troublemakers” move on that they gave the next landlord glowing reviews!

So I think the idea is kind of an urban myth. If it happens, though, surely the tenants could clip articles about how infested their building was, and show it to future real estate brokers as evidence that they had good reason to file an HPD report. Frankly, shouldn’t the real estate brokers recognize that if HPD agrees with the tenant that their building is infested (and files said report), then the tenant should not be blacklisted in this way?

Or are we all going to end up living with bed bugs because we’re afraid our landlords will not give us a good reference when we want to move to another building with different amenities and more bed bugs? Because if everyone is afraid to demand their landlords treat the problem, we’ll all have bed bugs soon.

• Shameful landlord AIMCO: biggest landlord in USA refuses to deal with bed bugs
• Lexington, KY vs. New York, NY: a tale of two bedbugged cities
• 25 Grant Street in Denver, Colorado: bed bugs for two years
• Bed bugs in homeless shelters, casinos, hotels, apartments: Waynesboro, Atlantic City, Greenpoint, Toronto

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“Bed bugs,” said Diann Waters, bed bugs in home. “All over my baby.”

Diann Waters may tell her son, “don’t let the bed bugs bite” before he goes to sleep, but it looks like they did anyways.

“He done scratched them and stuff. They from bed bugs.”

Waters lives in Over-the-Rhine. Recently, she spotted insects on her furniture.

“First thing that came to my mind was that I got to get it out of my house,” said Waters. “I had to throw my furniture away. My daughter seen a bug and I figured that’s what it was, but it had eggs all the way around the lining of my furniture.”

Waters isn’t alone. Neighbors say a woman threw out a mattress and rug because it was infested.

Hopefully now the people of Cincinnati will be getting some real help. The article also hints about some of the alliances forming in the fight against bed bugs:

Carles Tassell is involved with an apartment association that’s joining forces with the city to form a task force to fight the pests.

“Bed bugs don’t care what race you are, how much money you make,” said Charles Tassell, Cincinnati Northern Kentucky Apartment Association. ” They care that you’re human. They are equal opportunity pests.”

I was curious about that group, so I googled them. Turns out, they are a trade association of apartment buiding owners and managers, and developers in the multi-family housing industry.

(Was that a pig with wings that just flew overhead?)

Yes, not only did the Cincinnati public health official declare bed bugs a public health issue, but the multi-family housing landlords’ trade group is signed on to fight bed bugs. While all this seems like a logical, obvious step, on the one hand, you have to recall that elsewhere in the country, Mayors are turning a blind eye to bed bugs and landlords are trying to discuss ways to avoid paying for treatment. Smart landlords will understand that beating bed bugs and halting their spread helps business. And turning a blind eye is disastrous.

Since this group is part of a national one for owners and developers of multi-unit dwellings, perhaps other cities may follow suit.

The news video suggests people tossing out bed bug-infested furniture put a sign on it. While it’s true that this can help, it is not as effective as destroying the item. Taking a box-cutter and slashing sofas and mattresses, is one way to make sure no one uses the item. If you are tossing out a piece of furniture like a dresser or desk, Bedbugger S. suggested removing one part to the garbage pile at a time, until each piece is carted off. (So people will find, for example, a table leg, rather than a useful table.) This will work if you are not trying to get rid of items all in one day.

But remember: though articles and videos like this portray it as the normal response to bed bugs, tossing things out is not usually a great solution: in most cases, it won’t get rid of bed bugs, and it also spreads them to your neighbors, meaning they come back. Instead, a good PCO can treat most furniture along with your home, and they’ll tell you if “tossing out” is needed, and how to do it safely.

The video also mentions that in addition to a furniture pickup hotline for infested refuse, the city is working on a system of “citations” for landlords who won’t treat the problem. Click to watch.

• This is bad: bed bugs crawling everywhere. Video at 11.
• Dayton and Middletown, Ohio: avoiding bed bugs is difficult
• Cincinnati Establishes Bed Bug Furniture Pick-Up Procedures and Hotline
• Cincinnati fights bed bugs, declares some success

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Yesterday, Joe Wessels of the Cincinnati Post reported that city officials were forming a commission to fight the problem:

The Bedbug Remediation Commission, a five-member panel of local health, social service and elected leaders, is in the process of forming and will try to find ways to better educate the public about how to combat and prevent bedbug infestations.

“It’s just crazy that we have that in our city in the 21st century,” said City Council Member Chris Monzel, who is working with West End state Rep. Dale Mallory to establish the panel. “We need to do whatever we (the city) can to eliminate this.”

That’s exactly what we think too–something must be done. Surely something can be done? And yet local, state, and federal governments have been so slow to take action.

What made Cincy’s politicians take note? According to Wessels,

Workers for the Council of Aging have refused to make home visits to some seniors’ residences because they are infested. The workers complained they were being bitten and unwittingly carrying the parasites back to their own homes.

Residents of a Race Street building plagued with bedbugs have taken to sleeping on the sidewalk in front of the structure to keep from being bitten while they rest. The pests are so thick in the building that Tuesday they were seen during the day, extremely rare for the nocturnal creatures.

“Bedbugs do not typically live outside,” said Erich Hardebeck, vice president of Covington-based Permakil Pest Control, who was called in by rehabbers of a neighboring building to see if the bugs had spread to it.

Cincinnati’s bed bug problem sounds bad, but the things that are happening there are happening everywhere that bed bugs are taking over.

What exactly are the city’s statistics on bed bugs?

Cincinnati Health Department officials said they had received 179 bedbug calls through July 20, including 28 from West Price Hill, 21 from East Price Hill, 21 from Westwood and 10 from South Fairmount. Calls have picked up recently from Over-the-Rhine and the West End.

There is plenty of evidence that NYC’s problem is every bit as bad, per capita, and possibly much, much worse. NYC says only around 1190 actual cases were identified by the housing department based on complaints to 311 in the period from Summer 2005-Summer 2006. It’s striking that no one has cited any statistics for the period from Summer 2006-2007; one can only imagine they are much worse. At the same time, as I’ve written many times before, Mara Altman, in her odious Village Voice story last December, cited the head of one local PCO who claimed to get 85 actual bed bug calls per day (at the end of 2006). Clearly, 311’s statistics are just the tip of the iceberg, as Cincinnati’s probably are too.

Cincinnati’s government officials are smart: they see things are bad, they see them getting progressively worse, and they’re going to get some folks together and work on it.

New York City’s City Council also has a “Bed Bug Task Force.” However, except for a hearing about the issue of reselling used mattresses, we have not seen any public discussion on this issue yet. Except for a fact sheet on the health department’s website, which tells people to clean and that they may need a PCO, NYC has not admitted that bed bugs are a problem, let alone a serious one. They certainly won’t admit it’s a public health problem.

Let’s compare with their counterparts in the Cincinnati-Hamilton County area:

“We believe strongly that the insect should not be allowed to crawl over children while they are sleeping,” said Chris Eddy, Hamilton County’s environmental health director. “We took the position two years ago that (bedbugs) are a public health crisis. We believe that we need to be able to use the nuisance complaint code to get rid of these.”

Bed bugs are a public health crisis? Darn right they are. But sadly, few other public health departments are making a statement like this. And they should be–talking about bed bugs, and taking action on bed bugs.

How did this happen in Cincinnati? Last month, there was a Town Hall Meeting. The Enquirer reports in another article that, in a very effective move, one woman apparently turned up carrying a bag of dead bed bugs from her apartment:

City Councilman Chris Monzel and State Rep. Dale Mallory, D-West End, are working on the issue after hearing at council’s Health Committee on Tuesday what Monzel called “heartbreaking” stories.

One woman, he said, brought a plastic bag of dead bugs to a town hall meeting last month about the problem.

After talking to an exterminator, representatives from area apartment associations and the Council on Aging of Southwest Ohio, Monzel said he decided to try to improve enforcement of city regulations or beef up ordinances to stress that the bugs have become a public health problem.

I am absolutely in love with Cincinnati City Council right now. They actually heard heartbreaking stories three weeks ago and they are doing something? Break out the vikane and the UHauls, kids, and let’s move over there: Cincinnati is a good town.

Hey, I love New York too, but it’s been a year since Caitlin Heller, Bugsinthehood, and several others spoke at a NYC City Council Hearing related to the bed bug issue (which was, sadly, officially only about the resale of mattresses issue). You bet your patootie they had some heartbreaking stories. Where’s my Bed Bug Remediation Commission? Where’s my admission that our city has a serious problem?

Could it be that NYC fears that to admit their problem publicly would mean a loss in tourism revenue? Is this really the only reason we aren’t seeing any action around here?

What is being done in Cincinnati? The Post makes it clear that public education is part of the plan. The Enquirer says the plans also include a hotline residents can call so that infested furniture is picked up quickly. The Bed Bug Remediation Commission also plans to “plan to work with second-hand stores to make sure they’re not reselling infested mattresses and furniture.” Above all else, improving enforcement of existing regulations, and “beefing up” ordinances where necessary, is exactly what is needed to help curb this problem. Bravo, Cincinnati!

Bed bugs are not going to go away overnight, but for goodness’ sake, do something.

• Urgent: if you’re in Cincinnati…
• New York vs. Bed Bugs: NYC is the underdog!
• Cincinnati: awareness spreading, funds needed to fight bed bugs
• Last week’s Town Hall Meeting in Cincinnati

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It opens with a typical bed bug experience:

It was six months before Joan could finally go to sleep without a night light.

“I was convinced they were going to be on me — I pray to God I won’t ever have to say they’re back in my house,” explains the West Orange resident, who’s established some new rules to keep the home she shares with husband Paul and Mark, their college-age son, safe from another invasion of bed bugs.

One thing I’ve gathered from speaking to reporters, and reading accounts other reporters have written, is that some of the things we bed bug sufferers typically say sound quite insane to reporters, and even some bed bug researchers. As crazy as this woman’s account may sound to some, her obvious fear of bed bugs is based on a traumatic experience she’s suffered, and sleeping with a nightlight for six months is not a sign this woman is crazy. It’s a reasonable reaction to what she experienced.

She’s typical, from what I hear. And accounts such as hers, heard and read repeatedly, may eventually make that point clear to those who don’t know bed bugs.

The same woman is also quoted as saying she leaves luggage bagged in her car for a few days before bringing it inside:

For one thing, anybody returning from college or a trip away isn’t allowed to bring luggage and clothing into the house until it’s first been bagged in heavy-duty plastic and left inside the family car — which would be deliberately parked in abundant, hot sunshine — for a day or two.

“It guarantees us that if we’re coming home with anything at all, it will be cooked” (translation: dead), according to Joan, who doesn’t want her last name published because of the social stigma often attached to bed bugs.

I have to say that though lots of people are doing this and some professionals are recommending it, I think a thorough visual inspection of every item and every crevice is also required after doing this. And I still would not say the items were guaranteed to be bug-free. Cars don’t get that hot (year round, and especially in New Jersey) to absolutely kill bed bugs. People have many times reported failure to kill bed bugs using hot cars or “leaving things in the snow for a month,” and while we can’t comment on whether they did or didn’t kill the bed bugs (which might have been living undetected in the home previously), I would still exercise every caution. But I also note that since the woman has no reason to think the items are infested, this (plus visual inspection) is probably reasonable.

On the other hand, if you knew you’d encountered bed bugs, I’d take much more extreme measures.

Also interesting in the article, Richard Cooper of Cooper Pest is quoted as saying, confidently, that 55 days with no bed bugs or signs or bites, means bed bugs are gone:

“You need 55 days of bug-free, bite-free time to know the problem’s been resolved,” says Cooper.

I am not sure why 55, but that’s what the man said. People who are eager to unpack sealed, washed clothes, there you have it.

Note: if you do not react to bites, you may still have bed bugs, well-hidden. After all, people who don’t respond to bites may take ages to discover the problem. Is 55 days enough time for there to be ample evidence for every PCO — not just the highly experienced ones — to inspect and declare a home bug free? Let’s hope so!

• Gender, race, and being bitten by bed bugs
• FAQ: My landlord hired a PCO who comes twice a month, and we still have bed bugs
• Merry Christmas; gratitude; the blasted 55-day rule
• Case study: bed bugs survived dry cleaning… and resurfaced 6 months later (update)

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She speculates that she may well have gotten them from eBay. Or from a roommate who is completely unaffected by the bugs, but who likes to travel. (Maybe he brought them home, but, unallergic, never noticed them).

She also has an experience some Bedbuggers have shared here, seeing a neighbor obviously cleaning up their own infestation (never disclosed to the author). Though she does not suggest this, the bugs may well have come from the neighbor–perhaps this is the most likely scenario.

We often think we know where our bed bugs came from. Some, like this author, and our own Jess, speculate about the source. In Jess’s case, she later discovered she was wrong, but only after telling the world she got them from a friend’s secondhand mattress.

The lesson is this: you think you know where you got them, but you don’t. Had she found out her mattress-giving-friend had bed bugs, Jess probably would have stayed with that explanation. Instead, other more likely scenarios came to light.

People often say in the comments or on the forums, “I am going to sue my neighbor who gave them to me.” But you can be bitten for months with no reaction; you could have given them to the neighbor. Landlords, too, may blame new tenants for bringing them in, when all the while, the former tenants could have been infested and not even known about it.

Tricky little b@#$%^&s, these bed bugs.

• Salt Lake City Tribune on bed bugs: they don’t quite get it yet
• Bed bugs in “refurbished” mattresses on Fox NY
• My Bedbugs
• Bedbugger Jess: almost famous!

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