Bed bugs are covered by some local newspapers every week.  But some syndicated stories reach a lot of readers.

One compelling story from the Springdale Gardens Apartments in Austin, Texas appeared on Wednesday on KVUE.com (click to read story or see video).

Yahoo! News picked up the video from the KVUE story on Friday, where it doubtless got many more viewers.  And Yahoo! accompanied this with a McClatchy syndicated news story (which appeared in papers all over the US on Friday) about the resurgence of bed bugs, and the recently reintroduced Butterfield Bill, the Don’t Let the Bed Bugs Bite Act of 2009:

Democratic Rep. G.K. Butterfield just introduced legislation that would authorize $50 million that’s already in the Department of Commerce budget to train health inspectors how to recognize signs of the insects.

The Don’t Let the Bed Bugs Bite Act of 2009 also would require public housing agencies to submit bedbug inspection plans to the federal government. It would add bedbugs to a rodent and cockroach program in the Department of Health and Human Services . It also would require the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to research bedbugs’ impact on public mental health.

Butterfield’s letter to congressional colleagues about the legislation attracted lots of attention: It was topped with a full-color picture of the insect sitting on human skin.

“Unfortunately, in recent years, the United States has seen a resurgence in bedbugs,” the letter reads. “That’s right — they’re back in the sack — and biting.”

There is much more discussion of the bill in the news this time around, and — though libertarian news sites in particular enjoy jumping on this kind of bill — there’s a lot less snark and sniggering on the ‘net about the bill than there was last year.

I love how Dr. Michael Potter (of the University of Kentucky) puts the health issues caused by bed bugs in the spotlight:

“Most health departments say, ‘Hey, we don’t deal with bedbugs,’ ” Potter said.

Those who’ve suffered outbreaks say that the anxiety it induces can be debilitating. Potter said many sufferers tossed out furniture and could spend thousands of dollars on repeated treatments from pesticide companies. They call him about anxiety, insomnia, shame and the incessant annoyance of itchy red welts on their skin.

“They’re, like, ready to blow their brains out,” Potter said. “It’s emotionally distressing. Anyone that has never had a bedbug problem is not one to judge whether we’re dealing with a medical, emotional public health issue.”

Did you catch that?

Yes, Dr. Potter said, “Anyone that has never had a bedbug problem is not one to judge whether we’re dealing with a medical, emotional public health issue.”

Go Dr. Michael Potter!

In fact, anyone watching the video from Austin of stressed-out mom Sommer Jackson showing off bite marks on her adorable infant, or Sommer’s neighbor Laketra Jackson who threw out all her bedding and still has bed bugs, should get that this problem is a big deal.

See: Boom in tiny bedbugs is causing big trouble.Similar Posts:

• Steven Kells: bed bugs “could almost be considered like a disease themselves”
• University of Manitoba student rooms infested with bed bugs
• Soundbites from the EPA National Bed Bug Summit
• Bed bugs bite in Edmonton sleep disorder clinic
• Don’t Let the Bed Bugs Bite Act of 2009: new and improved

Jane Brody reports in the New York Times Health section today about the spread of bed bugs, and their effects on health.  Of course, she mentions the recent JAMA report, and the fact that bed bugs are not yet known to spread contagious diseases.

Brody outlines the varying effects of bed bug bites:

Most people who are bitten by bed bugs do not react. Of the 30 percent or so who do, many mistake the small, pink, itchy bumps for mosquito bites, although people may become more suspicious and more sensitive with repeated bites.

People who are highly sensitive react with intense itching that prompts scratching and can lead to infections. One Brooklyn family did not know they were sharing quarters with bed bugs until a sensitive relative visited and woke in the morning with very itchy bites.

Still others may experience more extreme reactions, including asthma, generalized hives, and even a life-threatening allergy (anaphylaxis) that requires emergency treatment with epinephrine.

But most bed bug lesions can be treated with an anti-itch product like calamine lotion or a topical or oral corticosteroid and antihistamine. If bites become infected, a topical or oral antibiotic may be needed.

Brody also mentions that a “family living in a $3 million private house in Brooklyn discarded rooms’ worth of furniture” due to bed bugs.

The percentage of people reacting to bites is often cited as being anywhere from 50-70%.

Regardless, all bitten by bed bugs are hit financially, if not physically. (And I’ve said time and again, if you are short of money, this can have a clear and definite negative impact on your health.)

And anxiety?  Stress? Lack of sleep?

More or less ubiquitous among bed bug sufferers, along with the hole bed bugs bite through your wallet.

via Personal Health – Keeping Those Bed Bugs From Biting – NYTimes.com.Similar Posts:

• Pest Control Technology’s Aug. 2009 bed bug supplement
• Bed bugs in the media: David Cain on British radio, Dr. Susan Jones in the Plain Dealer
• Don’t Let the Bed Bugs Bite Act of 2009: new and improved
• Bed bugs bite Edmonton
• Megan McArdle on Atlantic.com: bed bugs and Craigslist

The news was abuzz today with reports about a new report in the Journal of the American Medical Association, from Jerome Goddard and Richard DeShazo. It’s a review of past research on the question of whether bed bugs transmit disease.

. . . in the April 1 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers reviewed all of the studies done on the pesky critters to date and found no evidence of disease transmission.They did find that some people have reactions to the bites, but these reactions are usually short-lived.

“While there is a nuisance effect from bed bug bites, the public health significance is minimal,” said study author Jerome Goddard, an associate professor of entomology at Mississippi State University in Jackson. “It’s not good. Nobody wants to have blood sucked out of them, but in the scheme of things, they’re not carrying malaria or anything like that.”

Goddard and his colleague, Dr. Richard deShazo from the University of Mississippi Medical Center, reviewed 53 studies on bed bugs published over the past 50 years.

Interestingly, they found that only about half of the people who are bitten show signs of a bite. And, for those who do react, the reaction can vary from a slight red spot that’s intensely itchy like a mosquito bite to anaphylactic shock (a life-threatening allergic reaction), according to Goddard. But, he noted, anaphylactic shock is very rare.

via Yahoo’s Bed Bugs Bring No Disease Danger.

7ONLINE.COM in New York also picked up this story.

I do appreciate what the study is doing to bring together knowledge from prior studies done on this question. Bed bugs are not now known to be transmitting a disease like malaria, and believe me, I am glad. It’s important to note, however, that we don’t know whether this will always be the case.

Even if it were, I feel strongly that if itchy skin reactions, sleeplessness, and stress were the only health effects caused by bed bugs, that these — in many cases — can be seen as significant health problems for sufferers.

But those are not the only health effects caused by bed bugs.

We have heard from readers of this website who went to the ER with anaphylactic shock because of bed bug bites, and those who have been diagnosed as having an Acute Traumatic Stress Disorder arising from the anxiety of living with a chronic bed bug infestation.

While such reactions are rare, many people do not sleep properly, often while battling bed bugs for many months (or longer).

There are also people on low incomes who have to decide between spending precious funds on nourishing foods, medicines, and other necessities, or on bed bug sprays, plastic bags, and endless loads of laundry.  In this economic climate, surely bed bugs are affecting the health of children and elderly people in these situations?

And what about people who — in acts of desperation and in the absence of good, affordable, professional help — attempt to self-treat their bed bug problems, harming themselves by inhaling pool-grade diatomaceous earth, or over- and mis-applying pesticide sprays?

As the Yahoo article notes, bed bugs can be extremely hard to treat, especially in multi-unit dwellings.  More people than you think are living with chronic, ongoing bed bug infestations.

The media keeps telling us that stress or a chronic lack of sleep in and of themselves may contribute to serious health problems and even to the onset of disease.

The World Health Organization thought enough of the public health significance of bed bugs to put them on the cover of their 2008 report entitled The Public Health Significance of Urban Pests, which you can download here.

The WHO said in this report last year,

Besides the effects of direct bites, airborne common bedbug allergens that are always released during infestations may produce bronchial asthma. Within a group of 54 asthmatic Egyptian patients, 37.1% reacted positively to a common bedbug head and thorax extract, and 50.1% reacted positively to an abdominal common bedbug extract (Abou Gamra et al., 1991). Numerous routine bedbug bites can contribute to anaemia and may even make a person more susceptible to common diseases (Usinger, 1966; Snetsinger, 1997). Some people can develop a general malaise from numerous bedbug bites; that, along with the loss of sleep and extreme itching of bug bites, can lower a person’s vitality and make individuals listless and almost constantly uncomfortable (2008: 138-139).

And, the WHO recommended that

Research should be encouraged and carried out to determine whether or not bedbugs can successfully transmit human pathogens, especially those that cause new or emerging diseases (2008: 149).

And that

Research should be encouraged and carried out to further characterize the nature and effective treatment of the effects on people of unusual, extreme or very persistent bedbug bites (2008: 149).

Let’s definitely be grateful bed bugs have not yet been shown to transmit disease, but let’s also hope entomologists continue to study this question — and other questions about bed bugs’ effect on our health — with continuing research.Similar Posts:

• Pest Control Technology’s Aug. 2009 bed bug supplement
• New York Times Health article on bed bugs: bed bugs bite
• Halifax tenants dealing with with bed bugs and unsympathetic health department
• Ohio County, WV Health Dept. official: bed bugs “public health nuisance” and “psychological disaster”
• What percentage of people react to bed bug bites?

This article from Local 12 in Cincinnati, Ohio reports that a resident’s attempts to self-treat for bed bugs likely contributed to a fire last night in Scottwood Avenue in Bond Hill.

Investigators believe the resident was treating a bedroom with a mixture of alcohol and bug killing solution. A cigarette may have ignited fumes generated by the mixture.

Oh dear.

I assume the alcohol is 91% rubbing alcohol, which some people use as an inexpensive contact killer for bed bugs.  Many people probably overdo it.  It is important to remember that even a common household item such as rubbing alcohol is flammable (and also generates fumes which may cause danger).  And, honestly, you are probably not doing any good if you are trying to saturate your home with any contact killer (alcohol or otherwise).

Smoking around alcohol or pesticides is just a very bad idea.  And pesticides should only be used appropriately and according to the label instructions.

Bedbugger understands how expensive bed bugs are to get rid of, but we still recommend getting a professional who is knowledgeable about and experienced with bed bugs to treat your home.  (With the usual caveat: all bed bug professionals are not experienced in efficiently and successfully killing bed bugs.)  Not only is it usually quicker and more effective to get someone with experience to do this job, it is also usually much safer than doing your own pest control. We say this as consumers; if you could do it more easily or cheaply, believe me, we would happily tell you.

And if you apply anything at all, please, please be careful. This isn’t the first fire we’ve heard of (apparently) being caused by DIY bed bug treatment. There have been other cases where misuse of pesticides in bed bug treatment have led to injury or death.  Another man, in New Jersey, caused an explosion and fire using bug spray.  And then there are the bug bomb injuries and deaths.

A recent survey showed that 14.5% of the people in Cincinnati have had bed bugs.  Of these, 31% used only an over-the-counter spray to treat for bed bugs.

And those are the do-it-yourself folks who only used an OTC spray.  I am not sure of the definition of over-the-counter: does it include professional-grade materials available for public purchase?  If so, we can only guess that an even larger percentage self-treated with more powerful materials, dusts, etc.

Seeing bed bugs or suffering from bed bug bites is unpleasant and can cause serious sleep deprivation and stress, and sometimes more serious health problems.  Lots of people in Cincinnati are desperate to get rid of bed bugs, and many of them cannot afford to pay for professional treatment.  Stories like this remind us that this can be a dangerous situation to be in.Similar Posts:

• Yet another person tries to self-treat for bed bugs and sets building on fire
• Towels under the door: when cities abandon tenants with bed bugs
• Apartment Therapy on bed bugs, bed bug sniffing dogs
• Cincinnati stops bed bug inspections; MSNBC touts Cincinnati’s educational campaign; hmpf.
• Entire Kansas City high-rise gets thermal treatment for bed bugs

Click here to listen to this brief news item on New York City Council’s Intro. 873 from WNYC news, New York.

The tone of the item is dominated by the Health Department’s reminder that bed bugs are only “a stressful and unpleasant nuisance,” and that the health department already has a page on its website about bed bugs, and that “the Department of Housing, Preservation and Development takes complaints, performs inspections and issues violation summonses when appropriate.”

Yes, and the city’s response to bed bugs so far has been so effective that bed bugs are (somehow, still) spreading at an alarming rate. I judge this only by the reports to HPD, since we don’t have a more complete set of data.

Some cities, like Cincinnati (well, okay — only Cincinnati), actually attempt to find out what percentage of their inhabitants have (or have had) bed bugs. The answer — in Cincinnati? 14.5%.

I would not be surprised if a similar percentage of New Yorkers had been afflicted with bed bugs.

But the way things are going, we will never know, because we are completely in denial about it and no one is asking the question and therefore we don’t have to deal with the answer.

As a general rule, I don’t wish bed bugs on anyone. Not even my worst enemy.

But I do wish a knowledge of what it is like to have bed bugs on those who feel they are merely “a stressful and unpleasant nuisance.” Lice are a stressful and unpleasant nuisance. Detected and treated, they usually do not trouble a person for more than a few days.

We regularly hear from people in New York, Cincinnati, London, Boston, Vancouver, and all points in-between who are getting bed bug treatment and yet are troubled by bed bugs for weeks and even months on end.

They lose a lot of sleep.
They suffer a lot of stress.
They use money — often thousands of dollars which should go to health insurance, or medications, or buying vegetables for their kids — to pay for treatment, endless rounds of laundry, plastic bags, and more treatment.
They get their belongings gassed with sulfuryl flouride.
They sometimes have to move.
They go to job interviews with red welts all over their faces and remain unemployed.
They stop having friends and family over, for fear others will become infested.
Those in multi-unit buildings who cannot afford to move may never get rid of the problem.

Think this causes very real psychological and physical health problems? You bet.
It is a lot worse than a nuisance.
The health effects of bed bugs are often a lot more serious than a bit of stress.

In this economy, in this expensive city, the Health Department is being a bit short-sighted not to see the potential of any problem that causes ongoing stress and saps one’s financial resources as a genuine health concern.

More on Intro. 873 here.

And read Renee’s response on New York vs. Bed Bugs. She did not receive the Health Dept.’s comments well either.
Similar Posts:

None Found

Both the San Jose Mercury News and the Stamford Advocate have a feature where they identify people in the community needing donors to “grant a wish” this holiday season.

The San Jose Mercury article I mentioned yesterday (about the San Jose Family Shelter) also describes a “Wish Book” request from the shelter:

Some of the mattresses and box springs had to go. But it’s been too expensive to trash all the wooden bunk beds and bed frames, which the bugs love to burrow in. Instead, the shelter crew has been taking apart the frames, spraying them down and letting the sun bake the creatures out of hiding, then spraying again.

For now, the bedbugs seem to have gone on hiatus, but [shelter executive director Trish] Crowder isn’t taking chances. She’s asking Wish Book readers to help her nonprofit buy heavy-duty metal beds — 70 bunks ($300 each) and 35 double beds ($300 each) and with mattresses for each ($100) — along with zip-up vinyl mattress covers ($15 each) and cotton mattress covers ($15 each).

This wish list roundup from the Stamford Advocate describes a woman needing assistance due to bed bugs,

No. 57: A recent bout with bedbugs has left Betty, 82, without a couch or comfortable chair in her apartment. A gift of $500 would allow her to replace the furniture she has lost.

If you’re in a position to help, then you can find the information on doing so by clicking the links to the paper in question. The main reason for my post, however, is to note that these requests give the public a small sense of the economic hit bed bugs can cause — beyond the cost of actual treatment — to those affected.

In these tough economic times, bed bugs can easily cause a person or an organization that is struggling financially to go over the deep end. Or at least to go without. Most people suffering from the financial effects of bed bug treatment, or related expenses (furniture replacement, commodity fumigation, moving), have nowhere to go to ask for help.

If we’re going to fight for change, people who have not had bed bugs need to be aware of the hardships — financial, emotional, and health-related stresses bed bugs cause to sufferers.Similar Posts:

None Found

This story first made me want to cry.

And then it made me want to smash my hand into the wall.

The Ottawa Citizen reported today on the story of a local woman named Jadwiga Dziedziczak, aged 60. For ten years, she’s lived in an Ottawa public housing unit on Wurtemburg Street.

She had bed bugs. After many treatments and many months, she still had them. But those who could help her did not believe it.

“There was so much stress from so little sleep that she often used sleeping pills to help her cope at night.” And two weeks ago, she overdosed on the sleeping pills.

Friends and neighbors tried to help her navigate the public housing and public health offices, to get help despite her limited English.

The story is a testament to how stressful bed bugs can be, especially when the people responsible for keeping your home bed bug-free (the housing agency) think you are imagining a continued infestation.

Oh Lord yes, we have heard this one before.

Ms. Dziedziczak couldn’t fathom the idea of using her bed any more for fear of more bites and welts. She slept in the tub, on the floor and even on a chair with her head on the table, wrapped in sheets and blankets in an attempt to shield herself from the bugs. She even threw her old mattress out and bought a new one a month or so ago, but she stopped using it almost immediately after finding more bugs. Now that mattress and a couch have been thrown out, too.

Ms. Dziedziczak figures city-hired exterminators have been to her unit about five or six times in the last 10 months and says she was ridiculed occasionally by those who came to spray her bed. They told her she was imagining things. Her friends say the exterminators probably never did a thorough job because of their attitude and were usually gone within minutes of arriving. One even suggested that Mickey had a flea problem, but a veterinarian told her the dog was fine.

People in her building embarrassed her by suggesting her apartment was dirty. Those who know say she is impeccably clean. Her sister, who lives in the Alta Vista area, stopped visiting because she was afraid of getting bugs in her clothing and bringing them to her home.

It’s no wonder she felt so much stress, on top of the lack of sleep. My heart goes out to this woman and to all others who are suffering from bed bugs and simply not getting the help they need — even why they know they need help, when they ask for it, and even when there’s someone whose duty it is to provide it.

Thank goodness the overdose was not fatal. Ms. Dziedziczak is hospitalized. Her home is apparently still infested with bed bugs, and she’s still in the hospital, waiting for a bed bug-free home to go to.

The article also reports that 1,300 public housing units have been treated for bed bugs this year in Ottawa. And that

Ottawa Community Housing is asking the city to increase pest-control spending to $420,000 from $240,000. A “healthy” portion of pest control goes toward bedbug extermination, says Jo-Anne Poirier, chief executive of the housing agency.

Ottawa needs help. They need to follow in Toronto’s footsteps, declaring bed bugs a public enemy and a problem. And they need to rally their best resources to fight them.

Above all else, public health agencies need to recognize that bed bugs are a public health problem. If nothing else, they cause anxiety and sleeplessness, allergic reactions, and itching from bites. They cause stress.

And a lack of sleep can cause other health problems. Let’s not forget Theresa Kelly.

Even more troubling, Itchy-scratchy tells us, in the forums, there’s been at least one suicide in Ottawa we can probably attribute to bed bugs. And check out the discussion of this article on the forums too.

If you’re in Ottawa and have bed bugs, the paper wants to hear from you. The article ends with this invitation:

Is anything broken or bugging you where you live? Please let us know.

Contact: thepubliccitizen@thecitizen.canwest.com

And read the entire story in the Ottawa Citizen, now.
Similar Posts:

• More Toronto bed bug stories from Joe Fiorito
• North Carolina shelter with bed bugs: outlook grim
• Bed bugs at college: SUNY Potsdam
• Bed bugs infest multiple areas of New York’s John Jay College (CUNY)
• Worst case of bed bugs Dover health inspector has seen

The Vancouver Sun reports,

Bedbug complaints in Metro Vancouver, which first started in 2003 with 40 complaints, have doubled each year for the past five years, said local expert Shelley Beaudet.

That means there were:

40 bed bug complaints in 2003,

80 in 2004,

160 in 2005,

320 in 2006,

640 in 2007, and

1280 in 2008.

That’s a total of 2,520 in five years.  And I imagine those are just the official complaints.  I would guess most bed bug cases never get officially reported by fearful tenants, their landlords, or homeowners.

When buildings like the one in Pendrell Street, described in this article, have 114 units and are 80% infested (that’s 91 infested units), it’s hard to believe the numbers aren’t even higher.

They will be soon, if this keeps up at the current rate: we can expect

2,560 complaints in 2009

5,120 in 2010 (just in time for the Vancouver Olympics!), and a whopping

10,240 official bed bug complaints in three years’ time, in 2011.

Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.

Vancouver needs to aggressively treat this problem, especially in the besieged and densely populated Downtown Eastside community.

There is some hope in that developers are beginning to respond to this problem.  The article mentions the new RainCity development going up in Vancouver which will have a built-in sauna for decontaminating infested items.

The Vancouver Sun also goes into the stress bed bugs cause:

[exterminator Mark Amery of Vancouver Bed Bug Control Inc.] said living with bedbugs is stressful. “Usually [people] are sleep-deprived because the bedbugs eat at night,” Amery said. “Some people are crying on the phone. Some people are just done.”

Don’t we know it!Similar Posts:

• San Diego State University: don’t wait for students to show you a bed bug
• Self-treatment for bed bugs probably caused Cincinnati fire

A Charlotte, North Carolina shelter that houses women who have suffered domestic violence has evacuated residents for several weeks while bed bugs are removed, according to the Charlotte Observer:

The Charlotte-area United Family Services domestic violence shelter has evacuated its residents to “a safe place” in order to battle a recent infestation of bedbugs, said Libby McLaughlin, vice president of development and communication. The staff anticipates reopening the shelter in two to three weeks.

But the move has added to the difficulties the women face, which include other time constraints. Shelter rules dictate that, upon arrival, residents have 30 days to find a job and another place to stay.

The bites and rashes from the bedbugs have made it hard for some women to find a job. And the medicine given to fight the itching, such as steroids or Benadryl, has triggered the addictions of some women with substance abuse problems.

“People are saying to go back home,” said one anonymous shelter resident. “I don’t have that option, because I’m not going back home.”

One would hope that the normal rules of the shelter would be adapted during such a crisis.

While removed from much more dangerous situations in their homes, these women have still been suffering from a lesser kind of “domestic crisis.” It’s a lot to expect for women who may be losing a lot of sleep and suffering from stress, visible bed bug bites, and itching (which can be quite uncomfortable) to find new jobs and a new home within thirty days.

We’ve previously reported on another Charlotte shelter, the Salvation Army women’s shelter, which houses homeless women, and which has been battling bed bugs off and on for nearly a year. The Salvation Army has apparently spent $50,000 in the last few weeks on renovations aimed at eliminating their bed bug problems.

Meanwhile, the United Family Services shelter has invested in new flooring, mattresses and bedding. It has also purchased a new dryer and new metal frame beds. (It is not mentioned in the article, but I hope they are getting good, aggressive pest control treatment as well.)

Local public health officials stress bed bugs are not a health problem,

“This is not a public health pest,” said Lynn Lathan, environmental health supervisor for the Mecklenburg County Health Department. “They’re annoying, but not transmitting disease.”

However, I personally think that a condition which can cause serious skin irritation, visible welts all over your face and body, other allergic reactions, anxiety and loss of sleep is a health concern.

Nevertheless, the women at United Family Services have worse threats to worry about:

For women in the United Family Services shelter, there’s a choice: Face the bugs in the shelter, or face abuse at home.

“I have a choice of going back to my husband and getting punched in the eye or getting eaten by bugs,” said one anonymous shelter resident.

We can only hope things are better for these women soon.

Similar Posts:

None Found

Three articles on bed bugs appeared today in the Washington Post. One gives a first-person account of what was apparently a not-so-serious bed bug case, and the second shrugs away the problem as a bunch of media hype.

“Yes, Tiny, Evil–and in My Bed” is the first, and provides yet another first-person account from a journalist who had bed bugs (here are a bunch more journalists who had bed bugs). Daniela Deane was lucky to get rid of her bed bugs quickly:

I probably caught my infestation early, the experts tell me, meaning it hadn’t yet spread beyond the confines of my bed.

I caught it early because I was lucky enough to be one of the people who show an allergic reaction to the bites. Michael Potter, an entomologist at the University of Kentucky and a leading expert on bedbugs, said that between 20 and 50 percent of people don’t, meaning the problem can go undetected for a long period of time.

“If an infestation goes undetected, the bedbugs are much more entrenched into the bed structure and even adjoining structures,” [bed bug expert Richard] Cooper [of Cooper Pest in New Jersey] said. “Then it gets very, very difficult to get rid of them.”

Incidentally, Deane suspected she got bed bugs from a favorite pillow she took to a hotel on a vacation. That’s the second such report today, since the woman from Charlotte featured in the video about Mr. K the bed bug dog told the same story. They could have brought bed bugs home anyway, but a pillow from home makes it so easy.

Nevertheless, the Washington Post felt the need to accompany this story with a second story arguing that the “media frenzy” around bed bugs is just hype. “Hmm. Tiny, Evil–and Everywhere?” makes one valid point: that there’s no need for everyone to panic. While I do think the word “epidemic” is appropriate, I agree that “plague” is probably an overstatement.

Yes — bed bugs are not every single place you go everyday, and the thing that makes you itch might not be bed bugs, and often isn’t. We at Bedbugger acknowledge that every day, and we are constantly pointing out to visitors that they need to rule out other possibilities — and strive to get an actual bed bug sample for verification.

That said, it’s no surprise that Bedbuggers, including myself, don’t appreciate it so much when articles deny how widespread the problem appears to be, or when journalists discount the true difficulties that a bed bug infestation can bring. Daniela Deane was very lucky–by her own account. Yes, bed bugs are treatable, and no, they are not known to spread any disease (yet). But they do wreak havoc on one’s home and, dare I say it, one’s mental health.

And no, I don’t mean “mental health” as in delusional parasitosis, though experts are often quick to mention people exhibiting “the matchbox sign” when they talk about how bed bugs are not as widespread as people think. The “matchbox sign” is what doctors call it when patients turn up with a matchbox (envelope, paper bag) full of lint and particles, claiming they have a sample of what’s biting them. No doubt PCOs get a lot of this too.

“We had a lady come in here with a garbage bag she said was filled with bugs that were biting her,” says Matt Nixon of American Pest Management in Takoma Park. “She handed it to my dad and she said, ‘If you open that and you get bit, it’s your problem.’ And there was nothing in there except lint, hair and dry skin. We deal with people like that every week.”

Delusional parasitosis is a real — not imaginary — medical condition, in which people feel the sensation of insects crawling on them and biting them, when there are no bugs present.

It’s also a nice, distracting concept to throw into a story about how the bed bug panic is all hype. The thing is that bed bugs can be hard to detect.

I grant that the woman with a garbage bag of scraps likely has another condition.

On the other hand, while a customer or patient with an envelope of scraps may have delusional parasitosis, she may also have some other problem or condition, or she may be experiencing real bed bug bites but nevertheless have had trouble finding bed bugs or signs of them. She may even have had a Pest Control Operator inspect who did not find signs. Bed bugs do leave visible evidence, but everyone does not know how to find it. And if the infestation is very new, there may not be a lot of it yet.

So, in response to Matt Nixon’s story, let me tell you, dear readers, about the kinds of people we at Bedbugger “deal with every week”:

• Readers who are told by qualified PCOs that they do not have bed bugs, after a cursory flip of the mattress yields no black marks or bed bugs;
• Pest Control Operators who tell us that –since we brought them a sample of a spider beetle we found in a bed, that we don’t have bed bugs (even though the most rudimentary understanding of the scientific method tells us that the presence of a spider beetle does not rule out the presence of bed bugs, and an inspection might be in order). In one such incident, the PCO actually told the Bedbugger in question, who was covered in itchy bite marks — without ever entering the home — that the spider beetles were probably biting her and that they could treat for that (and oh yeah — they just treated another woman for the same problem) — even though a cursory glance at university fact sheets tells us spider beetles are a grain pest and do not bite humans.
• Well-known and well-respected PCOs who tell us that there’s no point in inspecting since bed bugs are so hard to detect, so why don’t they treat anyway?
• PCOs who tell us that we don’t have bed bugs because we do not have bite marks;
• Doctors who tell us — simply by looking at our suspected bite marks — that we have scabies / that we have bed bugs / that we don’t have bed bugs — when it is known that visual inspection is not enough to diagnose either condition definitively;
• Landlords who self-treat, hire PCOs who don’t know what they’re doing, or hire good PCOs and don’t pay them to inspect and treat thoroughly;
• Landlords who refuse to have neighboring units professionally inspected (since neighbors claim not to have any bite marks), and therefore cause bed bug problems to continue much longer than they need to, and spread to others.

I would venture many of these occurrences are as common to me as customers with bags of lint are to pest management professionals, and probably even moreso.

Many people do feel or think they have bed bugs when they don’t. But quite often, people with bed bugs have trouble verifying their presence, and it takes a very long time for them to address the problem because they can’t get the proper assistance to detect and get rid of the problem.

About the health problems bed bugs are known to cause?

• Not sleeping enough;
• Allergic reactions (most who react experience itchy bites, but in some cases, extreme life-threatening reactions do occur);
• Stress (which can lead to a host of medical problems);
• In rare cases, reactions to pesticides, expecially if treatment goes on for a long time;
• In some cases, anxiety and depression.

These are usually not life-threatening, but nevertheless are (or can cause) medical problems.

Add this to the other stress-inducing experiences bed bugs cause:

• Spending a lot of time washing clothes, decluttering and otherwise prepping for bed bug treatment;
• Spending thousands on treatment and supplies; and
• Undergoing treatment for months and months, since your neighbors may insist they have no bed bugs, or may believe they have no bed bugs, when they are actually continually exporting them to you, or since your landlord may hire someone who does not know what they’re doing to treat for bed bugs, since — as Deane cites Michael Potter as saying — 20-50% of people don’t react to bed bugs–and you may be one of them, and have no idea until they are very far along indeed, and you see them cavorting in daylight.

Bed bugs may rob you of money, sleep, and time, and cause a great amount of stress. They can cause real mental health concerns for many.

And saying there’s no reason for everyone to panic does not mean that bed bugs are not a possibility, since you can indeed encounter them anywhere or bring them home at any time. Saying there’s no reason to panic does not mean that governments, businesses, institutions, and individuals should not try and prevent a bed bug infestation, nor that they should not seriously spring into action should one occur.

More, not less, needs to be done by the government to track bed bug infestations and help homeowners, landlords, tenants, and others prevent and deal with them.

The statistics this Washington Post article cites for the incidence of NYC bed bug cases are way off. The Post claims

In New York, the city housing authority has fielded and checked out more than 2,500 bedbug complaints in the past three years; fewer than 500 turned out to be actual infestations.

These statistics are incorrect according to all other accounts I’ve seen. In NYC public housing, The Daily News reported, in December 2007, there were:

. . . 1,708 verified bedbug cases in 277 public housing projects this year, the city Housing Authority says. The Department of Education has documented another 74 cases, spread across 50 schools.

That’s 1708 cases in NYC Housing Authority public housing projects in 2007, not 500 in three years. And that’s only in public housing projects.

Other news sources had much higher figures for infestations in non-NYCHA apartments which were reported to the Housing Preservation Dept. via 311 and verified by the city in fiscal years 2006 and 2007.

The Village Voice reported that

Carmen Boon, the spokesperson for New York City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, reports that of 4,638 calls about bedbugs in fiscal year 2006, about a quarter—only 1,195—of those, upon inspection, were actual infestations. That’s up from two complaints in 2002. That’s an increase of 231,800 percent (not to mention a 25,000 percent increase in bedbug articles in newspapers and magazines).

So HPD got 1195 actual complaints in FY 2006 (July 2005-June 2006). In December 2007, The Daily News said Fiscal Year 2007 (July 2006-June 2007) brought significantly more bed bug violations:

In the fiscal year that ended in June, 6,889 infestation complaints were logged and 2,008 building owners were hit with summonses.

And, as I keep insisting on this here blog, the HPD stats only track bed bug cases of people who complained to 311 and then had a housing inspector verify their bed bug case. Comparing fiscal year 2006 with fiscal year 2007, according to the stats above, the percentage of 311 complaints which are actual infestations went up (from 25% in FY 2006 to 29% in FY 2007) — which may mean there were fewer false alarms in 2007 than 2006 (and/or, possibly, that there were more experienced inspectors, who were able to detect more infestations in 2007 than 2006).

These statistics understate the problem of bed bugs in New York. Very, very few New Yorkers call 311 to report their problems. The vast majority will not call to file a complaint with the Housing and Preservation Department, when simply calling your landlord to ask them to fix the problem is the normal first step in getting help for a problem in your apartment.

Almost everyone reports bed bugs to their landlords first. (So all those cases which are then treated by landlords do not get included in the statistics journalists cite.)

Of those whose landlords are uncooperative, or who do not fully solve the problem, some will call 311. But many also fear filing housing complaints because they fear (rightly or wrongly) that doing so may mean they will have trouble getting a reference when its time to move (and boy, do some folks with bed bugs and unhelpful landlords want to move).

And let’s not forget that homeowners would never call 311 about bed bugs in their co-op, condo, or house. Bed bugs infest those homes too.

So even though the Post grossly understates the true level of bed bug violations the city has tracked, it also misses the point — as every other article stating these statistics so far has done — that 311 reports of bed bugs are the tip of the iceberg in terms of actual bed bug infestations that occur in New York City.

Of the hundreds of New Yorkers with suspected or confirmed bed bug cases who pass through the Bedbugger forums, few have reported calling 311 and getting the housing inspectors in. Another confirmation that these statistics understate the problem is that if you read the statistics cited by pest control operators on how many confirmed bed bug cases they treat, they themselves show how much more widespread the problem is. I have previously quoted statistics from Jeff Eisenberg of Pest Away, who told the Village Voice in December 2006 how many bed bug cases he encountered each day:

Out of Eisenberg’s 100 calls a day, at least 15 percent are wrongly self-diagnosed rashes or lint balls.

But as many as 85 calls per day to this single PCO [in late 2006] pertained to actual bed bug infestations!?! If this happened five days a week, 52 weeks a year, that would be 22,100 actual bed bug cases a year. And that’s assuming the number does not keep growing (though other data suggests it has). Yes, it’s anecdotal (we don’t have data from this company, though I am sure PCOs are keeping track of how many bed bug cases they see).

The city must implement a method of tracking actual bed bug cases in rental units that is not tied to filing a housing complaint. It is important to know how many people actually have bed bugs in this city. If the numbers truly are small, then I’d be happy to hear it. But I am weary of Housing Authority bed bug complaints or HPD (311) reports of bed bug violations being offered as evidence of how few New Yorkers have bed bugs, when it does not take a genius to see they can’t possibly represent the true scope of the problem.

Last but not least, the third Post article on bed bugs today, “Know Your Bedfellows” offers “just the facts” but nevertheless is not without inaccuracies, for example:

Life span: Adults live for about a year. They can survive for several months at a stretch without feeding.

Many reputable sources (including the Harvard site the Washington Post links to in the same article), point out more than a year is possible. Some say as long as 18 months. Harvard says:

Under ideal conditions, adult bed bugs can survive for more than one year between meals.

The following, also from the Post, is not inaccurate, but tells only part of the story:

Favored hiding sites: Mattresses and box springs, as well as cracks and crevices in furniture and walls.

Bed bugs are commonly found outside the bedroom, especially in sofas and upholstered furniture, but also desk chairs, in addition to other furniture and walls. Pointing this out can be helpful.

Unlike the Washington Post, I think bed bugs are underreported. Every article that comes out, no matter how inaccurate, misleading, or downright insulting to my intelligence (and this is by far not the worst we’ve seen) is positive in that it makes more people think about bed bugs.

That said, I’m not terribly impressed with the contribution to bed bug journalism that the second and third articles represent.

How about you?Similar Posts:

None Found