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Update on the bed bug battle at 125 Canal St., Brattleboro, Vermont

nobugsonme — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 05:47:02 +0000

More on the multi-unit building in Brattleboro, Vermont where landlord Ron Gaida took out a $3000 loan from the town to help pay for bed bug treatment.

The Brattleboro Reformer cites Daniel Dente, owner of Vernon, Vermont PCO firm Abatem as saying 125 Canal Street has now been “treated with chemicals approved by the Environmental Protection Agency to kill bed bugs.”

Tenants have returned home.

It is not clear from the article whether there will be any follow-up treatments or inspections. I hope there will be — of course, the chemicals are approved by the EPA for use on bed bugs, but it does not mean they normally kill all the bed bugs in one application.

Dealing with bed bugs living in furniture may help speed the process of treatment. In addition to chemical treatment of the building, The Reformer also reports that the tenants had sofas, beds, and easy chairs treated in Abatem’s heat truck:

Those items were put into a specially designed truck where they were heat treated at 140 degrees for about an hour, said Assistant Fire Chief Peter Lynch, who is also the town’s health officer. The heat treatment killed the bed bugs, he said.

Clothes and linens were laundered in hot water and dried at temperatures around 160 degrees to guarantee they were free of the pests, said Lynch, who insisted every precaution was taken to insure the bed bugs didn’t survive the treatment.

“We were confident all the laundry was clean when it came back,” he said.

The way things are going elsewhere, Peter Lynch may yet have to deal with bed bugs in both his capacity as Fire Chief and as health officer. Let’s hope not!

Though thermal trucks are not a novel idea (Adams Pest in MN has a thermal trailer pictured here), Abatem’s truck was retrofitted by the company:

The heated truck used to be an old moving truck, said Dente, which he and his team retrofitted for just this purpose. This was the fourth time it had been used to eliminate pests, he said.

Until every home has a bed bug sauna, thermal trucks are something we’d like to see a lot more of.

Good luck to Ron Gaida, his tenants, and the team that did their treatment. I truly hope the problem there is solved — or at least close to being solved.Similar Posts:

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More on Vancouver building’s bed bug sauna

nobugsonme — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:24:08 +0000

Remember the “bed bug sauna” which was designed into the new Lux residence by Vancouver supportive housing developer RainCity? There’s an article on the building in The Province today, which notes:

The latest supportive housing building to officially open in the Downtown Eastside has something no other building in the city has: a bedbug sauna.

The nine-storey Lux on 65 E. Hastings boasts a 400-square-foot hot room on the ground floor that heats up to 65 C to cook the voracious apple-seed-size parasites that plague many Metro Vancouver homes and Downtown Eastside hotel rooms.

It’s already seen a lot of use from Lux tenants.

“I’ve already brought my couch down two times now, said Greg Cornish, 50. “It’s a really great feature.”

And yes, it also cooks bed bugs which are not “apple-seed-size” but are as small as first instar 1/32″ (1mm) long nymphs.

I want one in my building! That and the luxe bamboo flooring… sweet.Similar Posts:

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160-unit Richmond, California complex evacuated for tent fumigation of bed bugs

nobugsonme — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 20:12:07 +0000

Remember the 160-unit Hacienda high rise in Richmond, California?

We suggested last month that one bed bug spray treatment probably would not be enough to get rid of bed bugs in this affordable housing complex. And sadly, we were right.

The backstory on this is that tenants council complained to the city about bed bugs in April and were given piecemeal treatment of “a handful of units” back in May; the management said it knew of 11 units infested with bed bugs, even though 63 tenants had signed a petition asking the city to get rid of bed bugs.

Finally, in the last month, the city came through with a plan and funding to get the entire building tented and fumigated — with what, we do not know. The article says “A large tent is scheduled to be cast over the 160-unit Hacienda high-rise Friday morning, and crews will spray the building with a pesticide.”

The Contra Costa Times reports that

Tenants begged the city to tent and fumigate the building rather than spray individual apartments, as it did in May, to ensure the pests are killed for good. The Housing Authority agreed and moved ahead with the plan.”Once they got started, they really haven’t wasted any time getting on top of it,” said Dolores Johnson, president of the tenants council.

The Housing Authority is tallying up expenses and doesn’t know what the final price tag will be, [Manuel Rosario, deputy director of the city Housing Authority] said, but booking the hotel rooms for tenants to stay several days will cost more than $60,000. Each family also is receiving a per diem for food. The amount varies, but can run in the hundreds of dollars per unit.

That $60,000 price tag only covers the hotel stay for tenants!

The article notes that some units are infested with fleas and others with bed bugs.

Interestingly, the move-out plan included having residents’ dogs and cats bathed upon evacuation:

In the rear parking lot, pet owners handed their dogs and cats over to groomers waiting in a mobile pet-grooming van. Candace Kidd, lead dog stylist for Aussie Pet Mobile in Marin County, used a plant-based product to wash the animals. Groomers found at least one dog with bedbugs hidden in its fur.

“They (bedbugs) are very similar to fleas,” said Dave Ely, owner of Aussie Pet Mobile. “They’re a bloodsucking insect. They get on you, and at night, they munch on you.”

I hope the plan goes well, and that tenants are educated about how not to take bed bugs to other places (like hotels or family members’ homes), and that tenants and staff are also educated about how to avoid bringing bed bugs into the building again in future.Similar Posts:

Bed bugs bite Edmonton

nobugsonme — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 05:25:31 +0000

The Edmonton Sun reports that

Swarms of bloodthirsty bedbugs are taking over entire apartment buildings across the city, and public health officials warn that it’s only getting worse.

And how do bed bugs come to take over “entire apartment buildings”?

Step one: when tenants complain of bed bugs, treat once and never follow up.

[Tenant April Lariviere] first noticed the bugs in her furniture last spring. It’s gotten so bad in her northside apartment that she’s had to throw out their mattresses, couches and chairs. They now sleep on air mattresses on the living room floor.

“We’re living in Tupperware containers,” she said. “Everything has to be sealed up to keep the bedbugs off.”

She said the building was fumigated in the spring, but the bugs came right back.

“Nothing’s happened since them,” she said. “There was no follow-up.”

[Emphasis mine.]

Bed bugs are not new to Edmonton; the city has been struggling for years.

What are the laws regarding bed bugs in Edmonton? According to the CBC,

Alberta’s public health act and housing regulations require a landlord to provide a tenant with a healthy and habitable environment. A tenant with bedbugs is advised to report the dwelling to the regional health authority. Health inspectors will then assess the problem and in most cases order the landlord to take care of it.

In the Sun article, Ken Dong, a senior environmental health official with Alberta Health, notes matters are complicated in the building Lariviere lives in, because many tenants are renting their suites from individual condo owners who live out of town. But Alberta Health is now on the case:

After several complaints from tenants, Dong said, a health inspector recently went through the place again and informally told the management company to work with the condominium board and tenants to get rid of the pests.

Dong acknowledged that it’s complicated because most of the suites’ owners live out of town and rent them out.

He said inspectors will continue to monitor the building, and if they’re not satisfied with how the infestation is being handled, they can slap the condo board with a formal order. Failure to comply with the order could result in fines. They can also order suites vacated.

It would be a shame if the tenants lost their homes after having suffered from bed bugs for so long. Let’s hope it does not come to that.

Living in the Edmonton area?

Capital Health has a Bed Bug Prevention PDF and a Bedbugs Fact Sheet; you can download both here.Similar Posts:

“On the bed bug list” in Brooklyn

nobugsonme — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 05:27:31 +0000

TV on the Radio vocalist/guitarist (and solo artist) Kyp Malone talks openly to Larry Getlen in this New York Post story about how he’s aware people in his building have bed bugs. The building?

“It’s pretty old. It’s on the bedbug list,” Malone says, complaining about the prewar building in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, where he’s lived in a one-plus-bedroom, sixth-floor walk-up for the past four years. “I’ve seen people cycle through. They spray and bomb* and all the things you’re supposed to do, but it doesn’t work.”

Despite the building’s bedbug misfortune (a bullet he’s managed to dodge), the apartment, which Malone has shared since December with his artist girlfriend, Jessie, has served him well through multiple redecorations.

It seems like a tipping point that people who haven’t had bed bugs are aware of and talking about bed bugs in their buildings — and kind of famous people, no less.

I like Kyp Malone’s music, and I really hope he doesn’t have any bed bug problems going forward (because bed bugs and musical instruments or works of art are such a bad combination), and I really hope that his neighbors get some proper help soon.

No one in New York City should be living with bed bugs.

No building should go onto “the bed bug list” and stay there.**

—

*Note: people really should not be bombing to try and eliminate bed bugs. Just FYI.

**Note: we’re not aware of any actual “bed bug list.” Perhaps this refers to the Bed Bug Registry, where people voluntarily report their own infested apartment units or hotels, to warn others. Or maybe this refers to the records NYCHPD keeps on building violations, which you can access here.
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Central Vermont Public Service won’t read meters of building with bed bugs

nobugsonme — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 05:44:03 +0000

WCAX reports that the Central Vermont Public Service is saying it won’t read the meters of anyone in the Depot Square building until bed bugs are eliminated.

It’s had bedbugs for several months. Almost every unit is infested.

Now CVPS will not go in to read meters there at the request of the electric company’s employees. CVPS says it will instead rely on past power use to estimate consumption until the bedbugs are eradicated.

[Emphasis mine.]

You may recall Depot Square; back in August, 39 of the St. Johnsbury, VT building’s 47 units were found to have bed bugs.

No word on treatment in this article.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:

Bed bugs take over the New York Times Real Estate Section

nobugsonme — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 04:49:18 +0000

Well, almost. Bed bugs feature in a trio of New York Times Real Estate articles this weekend.

The first, Buying and Selling in Bedbug City attempts to navigate the complicated and murky waters of shopping for a co-op or condo in a multi-unit building, in what New York Magazine’s Intelligencer referred to Friday as “The Age of Bedbugs.”

Teri Karush Rogers reports in “Buying and Selling in Bedbug City” that

According to the law, sellers and their brokers must acknowledge a [bed bug] problem if asked. But conflicts of interest aside, neither can be expected to know whether an infestation exists elsewhere in the building.

The problem is so pervasive that some lawyers have begun incorporating sellers’ representations about bedbugs into sales contracts, adding to now-standard ones about leaks, mold and noise issues. And buyers are having to determine if the pests are a deal-breaker or just one more headache on the road to a new home.

The article also tells stories of buyers who walk away once they find out a building has a bed bug issue, and those who don’t.

Perhaps the most distressing point made:

“Most residential buildings in New York City have had bedbugs,” said Aaron Shmulewitz, a real estate lawyer at Belkin Burden Wenig & Goldman who represents 300 Manhattan co-op and condo boards. (Among his most frequently asked questions: Who must pay for extermination?)

(Emphasis mine.)

The message here is that it’s apparently no longer about whether your prospective building in New York City has ever had bed bugs, it’s now about whether your unit or a proximate unit has them, and about how well and proactively the building deals with bed bugs or has dealt with them in the past.

The second article, “Disgusting, Yes. But a Deal Breaker?” suggests buyers should consider the location and proximity of an infestation to the unit for sale, how long the infestation has been going on, how widespread it is, and the ability and willingness of owners/occupants to cooperate with and participate with treatment and prep (and, it is not mentioned but goes without saying: prevention of future infestations). Of course, it is often very difficult or impossible to determine the answers to those questions.

The third article, “Debugging a New Home: Of Surrogate Sleepers and Pest Sensors and Special Dust,” suggests techniques for making sure a new home is bed bug free: bed bug sniffing dogs are an option, but not perfect; hiring someone (presumably someone known to react to bed bug bites) to sleep in your new home is an option; pest control professionals Gil Bloom (of Standard Pest) and John Furman (Boot-a-Pest) are quoted as suggesting Nightwatch bed bug monitors; Jodi Gangloff-Kaufmann (of the New York State Integrated Pest Management program) suggests having the insides of walls dusted.

Rogers notes,

Dessicant dust can be placed in the spaces behind outlets, for example. In addition, floors can be sealed with a thick coat of polyurethane, and sealant caulk can be applied to moldings. Some pest control companies have started marketing these as “exclusion services.”

Of course, we have heard of people fleeing bed bugs, or who were trying to avoid ever getting them again, going to such lengths when moving to a new home, or when trying to keep their old home free of bed bugs after treatment. However, this is the first time I have heard these “exclusion services” suggested as preventive measures in the mainstream press to people who may have never had bed bugs before.

It’s a sign of the times — a scary one, but a healthy one nonetheless.

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Depot Square in St. Johnsbury, VT: 39 of 47 units infested

nobugsonme — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 01:02:44 +0000

Representatives of various state agencies in St. Johnsbury, Vermont met Friday to formulate an action plan in Depot Square, a heavily infested building where canine scent detection teams found bed bugs in 39 of 47 units. WCAX.com reports,

For the last four months, tenants living in the Depot Square building have been living side by side with bedbugs, even after repeated attempts to exterminate them.

“It seems like they can’t get rid of it then you have to throw away all of your stuff and start from scratch,” Stepp said.

A dog specially trained to sniff out bedbugs recently went through the apartment complex and found that all but eight of the 47 units are infested.

Various state agencies gathered in St. Johnsbury Friday morning to work on an action plan to eradicate the bugs. The building’s owner joined the meeting by phone.

WCAX.com reports that an exterminator is going to “go through the building” Wednesday.

Though they’re often considered for a heavily infested building such as this, the implication is that thermal and Vikane gas treatments are not planned for the building at this time.

See St. J Tenants Battle Bedbugs – WCAX.COM.Similar Posts:

Co-op pays $250K after bed bugs found in several units, storage area, stairwells

nobugsonme — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 22:03:06 +0000

BrickUnderground reports that the July/August 2009 issue of Habitat magazine (not yet available on their website) reports that a three-tower, 217-unit Theater District co-op building paid $250,000 to get rid of its bed bug problem.

BrickUnderground writes,

The co-op in the Habitat article found bed bugs in several neighboring apartments, two stairwells and some of the basement storage lockers.

Working with one exterminator and several subcontractors, it treated infested apartments with powders for the walls and heat and chemicals for cracks and crevices.

In addition, everything in the basement storage lockers was packed in impermeable containers and shipped to an off-site exterminator, while the storage rooms were treated.

The plan includes new rules for sealing items before putting them into storage, and regular visits from a bed bug sniffing canine.

BrickUnderground reports the cost “was paid from the building’s reserve funds.”

This is a good lesson for other multi-unit buildings (whether rentals, condos or co-ops): take bed bugs seriously whenever they appear.

Better yet, develop a preventive strategy before you have any bed bug reports. And educate your staff and tenants or unit owners about bed bugs and how to spot them.

Education of management (including co-op boards/owner associations) is key: too often, we hear in the Bedbugger Forums from harried co-op or condo residents who suspect neighbors are infested, but can’t get through to them or the co-op board or condo association about the need for a cooperative effort.

See Co-op hair-raiser: $250,000 bed bug bill to read more from BrickUnderground.

We found out about this story via New York vs. Bed Bugs. Thanks, Renee!Similar Posts: