Some public housing authorities don’t seem to be tackling bed bugs as aggressively as they should.

Many public housing agencies (like other landlords) only treat units as residents report them infested, neglecting to inspect adjacent attached units. It’s not surprising that many infestations continue a year or more after the initial treatment.

Other public housing agencies leave bed bug inspections to apparently inexperienced building managers rather than enlisting experienced professionals, and some lack basic education about the pests, blaming tenants for the presence of bed bugs, and erroneously linking infestations to cleanliness of tenants’ homes.

Yesterday The Patriot-News reported that the Harrisburg (PA) Housing Authority seems to be reacting more aggressively than many public housing authorities:

The Harrisburg Housing Authority is dealing with regular bed bug uprisings. Before 2006, the problem was nonexistent, said LeRoy Robinson, an assistant to the authority’s executive director. The most intense problems have been at Morrison Towers, a 12-story high-rise for seniors on Chestnut Street.

Authority officials received a complaint from a resident about two months ago. The authority had the unit sprayed. But after another 10 or so complaints of bedbugs, they decided to spray the entire building.

To prevent a comeback, they now spray parts of the building twice a month, Robinson said. Treating all 12 floors costs $12,000. “It’s an expensive proposition, but you have to do it,” Robinson said.

It took two months and ten complaints before they treated the whole building. Perhaps they could have responded more swiftly, but this is more aggressive than many of the cases cited above.

Of course, one spraying, even of the whole building, is unlikely to suffice. Traditional treatments don’t kill bed bug eggs, which will hatch in 10-14 days after treatment. Any units with bed bugs need to be retreated at 10-14 day intervals until all bed bugs are gone and there are no further bites. And since many do not react to bed bug bites, whether bed bugs are gone can be hard to assess.

Regular follow-up inspections and treatments are vital, since tenants may be continually exposed to the same bed bugs originally brought in. Staff and tenants need education about how to prevent such reinfestations.

Public Housing Authorities would do well to consider the aggressive approach being taken by Toronto Community Housing, in refurbishing public housing units (sealing cracks is just one focus), setting treatment standards and response times for pest control vendors, and developing enterprise initiatives that hire and train residents to work as expert bed bug pest control technicians.

As voters and taxpaying citizens, we should all take an interest in the way our local public housing authorities respond to complaints of bed bugs, and pressure public officials to improve these responses.Similar Posts:

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If the Thai train infested with bed bugs does not have you thoroughly skeeved, Joe Fiorito has a new article today in the Toronto Star on 55 Bleecker, a Toronto Community Housing (public housing) building in Toronto, where tenants have meetings about bed bugs at 2 a.m. because they’re all up anyway.

2 a.m.!

That’s just the beginning.

“There was a fire in the building in November, on the fourth floor. One man was killed. Nobody knew him; we’re still suffering from the stress of that … the bugs were totally blown out of that unit.”

Blown out?

“People were coming to me in tears, in total frustration, from bugs on the fifth floor, and more on the third floor; they were falling from the ceiling.” Bedbugs fleeing fire.

As if the horror of a fire in the building and a neighbor losing his life were not enough. Imagine bed bugs raining down from your ceiling.

Fiorito’s assessment of the public housing situation in Toronto vis a vis bed bugs?

Funny, TCHC [Toronto Community Housing Corporation] staff told me last year there might be three or four of their buildings with bedbug problems. I now believe there might be three or four without bedbug problems.

Toronto now has a Bed Bug Action Committee, so change is hopefully on its way. As I said before, I have no doubt Fiorito’s excellent series of articles on bed bugs in Toronto has a lot to do with that. Rock on, Joe!Similar Posts:

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• Clip of the Day:
  TheStar.com | Public Health must declare bedbug war

  “The problem is spreading like flames all over town. Where are the people who will deal with this problem as if they were firefighters in front of a burning building?”

  Bedbuggers, Are you all reading Joe Fiorito’s articles in the Star? You really must. He has been doing the most amazing series of articles on people suffering from bed bugs in Toronto. Article after article as documented in recent news posts here.
  I wrote him a fan letter.

(tags: toronto ontario torontocommunityhousing canada thestar JoeFiorito bedbugs publichealth)
• MySpace: The Astral, Greenpoint
  If you’re a tenant of Pistilli Realty’s beleaguered Astral apartments, in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, you can join this new MySpace group and talk to your neighbors.
  (tags: bedbugs landlords astral greenpoint brooklyn nyc)
• Local resident is new director of New Hope Shelter – Herald-Mail News for Hagerstown, Washington County Maryland, Pennsylvania and West Virginia
  “A recent problem was an infestation of bedbugs, which Freeman said was remedied with donations of new beds and bedding.” This kind of lacadaisical reporting sends the wrong idea. New beds and bedding did not eliminate bed bugs from a homeless shelter.
  (tags: bedbugs homelessshelter homeless pennsylvania waynesboro newhopeshelter spread)
• Tropicana owner pledges to correct mistakes
  “Now Tropicana will have to ‘get bedbugs headlines out of people’s minds,’ (William J. ) Yung (III) said.”
  There’s one way to get them out of our heads: make sure they’re not in any of the beds!
  (tags: bedbugs tropicana atlanticcity newjersey NJ casino spread hotels)

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• TheStar.com | Battling bedbugs is not easy: Joe Fiorito talks to Steve Floros of Toronto Community Housing:
  This is a public housing official: “We have a program of unit refurbishment. We’re spending $75 million over three years to upgrade kitchens and bathrooms; we want to seal every crack so there isn’t free ability of the pests to move. And our new buildings have similar specs…” Seems pretty progressive to me.
  (tags: torontocommunityhousing toronto publichousing affordablehousing low-incomehousing tenants bedbugs ontario canada thestar spread caulking sealants prevention JoeFiorito treatment)
• GoErie.com: Don’t let the bedbugs bite
  “Many infestations can be traced to people coming to the United States from third-world countries or Eastern Europe.” (I’m not sure anyone has actually traced the paths of these infestations. Yes, bed bugs travel, but they do so in every direction. I don’t doubt that bed bugs do come with immigrants, but they also go out with travelers and business people. They know no boundaries of class, national origin, or nationality, and whenever people throw down the “immigrant” card, I get my hackles up.)
  (tags: misinformation immigration immigrantsandbedbugs pennsylvania erie bedbugs spread travel)
• The Columbus Dispatch : Fighting the biters
  On recent bed bug pyrethroid resistance studies: “The Cincinnati and Lexington bugs were immune at levels 200 to 300 times the recommended dosage and also unaffected when directly sprayed with two commercial pyrethroid insecticides.” Lots more of interest here on the relative immunity to pyrethroids of bed bugs in various cities.
  (tags: bedbug pyrethroids treatment nov2007 2007 cincinnati lexington columbus spread bedbugs epidemic)

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