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Denver Public Library Book Return infested with bed bugs

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

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

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

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

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

The library said the customer was aware of the problem.

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

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

[Emphasis mine.]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Should social services be called out?

The police?

Whatever department in Denver inspects housing for inhabitability?

What do you think?

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

Update (9/24):

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Susan Greene wrote in the Denver Post that

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

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

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

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

Middle school class trip encounters bed bugs at YMCA of the Rockies

nobugsonme — Mon, 04 May 2009 00:30:48 +0000

Bed bugs can infest any location. Recently, Centennial, Colorado middle school students and adult chaperones encountered bed bugs in a YMCA.

YMCA spokesperson Laurie Van Horn says the 150 students and 23 adults stayed at the Silver Stage Lodge at the Snow Mountain Ranch. This was the first of three trips scheduled by Thunder Ridge.

Van Horn says four rooms total at the Silver Stage Lodge have been confirmed with bed bug infestation. She says the rest of the lodge is currently closed as dogs trained in sniffing bed bugs are going through looking for any further infestation.

Van Horn says prior to the students’ arrival, two adult guests complained of bed bugs in their room. She says students then arrived with some occupying the adjacent rooms. Van Horn says those students also filed complaints of bed bugs in their rooms.

It’s great that the bed bugs were detected, so the party can take steps to avoid bringing bed bugs home. I hope they also showered and put on fresh clothing to avoid infesting the vehicles they were traveling in.

However, I was concerned by this report:

All the of the students belongings have been bagged and parents were given specific instructions to check for any signs of bedbugs before opening the bags. Amole says that was just precautionary.

(Emphasis mine.)

Huh?

In my opinion, it isn’t precautionary. And it isn’t enough.

It really is not clear to me how parents could determine whether bed bugs are present in the bags before opening them and potentially exposing the home to this scourge.

I would hope parents would be educated as to what bed bugs and their signs look like, and then instructed to run everything through a dryer on hot (if dry, this does not take long). If items cannot be dried, they should, at minimum, be carefully visually-inspected.

There’s some risk, however, in unpacking anything that has not been carefully treated. These FAQs may help anyone wishing to get bed bugs out of their belongings.

After all, we don’t want to hear 6 or 12 or 18 months down the line that there are bed bugs at Thunder Ridge Middle School in Centennial, Colorado.

If students or staff do not take every precaution to avoid bringing bed bugs home, this could happen.

See: 9NEWS.com | Colorado’s Online News Leader | Bedbug infestation cancels school trip.Similar Posts:

Bed bugs displace afterschool program at Denver’s Lake Middle School

nobugsonme — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 04:14:03 +0000

An auxiliary gym at Denver’s Lake Middle School, which is used for an afterschool program, is infested with bed bugs:

The [afterschool] program was cancelled Thursday and will not reopen before Tuesday, pending approval from exterminators.

The gym, which contains a game room, office space and a TV room, is being sprayed with pesticides Friday.

“There were several pieces of furniture infested with what they call bed bugs,” Kayser said.

Kayser says Mi Casa staffers reported being bitten by the insects, but he was unaware of any such complaints from children.

The Mi Casa program at Lake involves about 85 children. A letter explaining the situation is being sent to parents.

I hope all staff were educated about bed bugs and their signs also. Bed bugs could have come in with any staff member, child, or visitor, or even in a shipment of materials.

I also hope everyone is made aware that you can be bitten by bed bugs and not react. It’s quite common.

See the article at 9NEWS.com | Colorado’s Online News Leader | Bed bugs displace afterschool program.Similar Posts:

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Pueblo, Colorado issues health advisory about bed bugs

nobugsonme — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 21:05:04 +0000

KOAA.com reports that

The Pueblo City-County Health Department has issued an advisory about bed bugs, following multiple cases of people complaining of bites or rashes.

We could not find anything on the health department’s website. But an additional story on KKTV.com says the advisory was “sent out” by the dept.

Public education about bed bugs is crucial in helping people become aware of the problem. If you do not know bed bugs exist, and are spreading in your area, then you will not know to look for them. Bravo to Pueblo’s health dept. for warning residents that this problem exists.

The information presented is not perfect, however. It only mentions bed bugs which are 1/4″ long and “reddish-brown,” whereas first instar nymphs are translucent and as small as 1/32″ or 1 mm long. This is important for people to know.

I also wish the information explained that a large segment of the population does not react to bed bug bites.

Bed bugs are found everywhere, and Pueblo is not the only Colorado city (or county) suffering from bed bug bites. Here’s an additional article on bed bugs in Boulder, Colorado, and one on bed bugs in Denver.Similar Posts:

Aurora, Colorado woman claims she got bed bugs from rental furniture

nobugsonme — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 05:23:09 +0000

According to Fox 31 News in Colorado, JoDean Persichetti says she did not have bed bugs in her apartment until after her shipment of rented furniture arrived:

“Those bugs were not in the apartment before the furniture arrived, it’s a brand new unit,” she said.

JoDean asked Rent-A-Center to pick up the furniture but the company refused, saying an insurance adjuster would have to inspect the furniture first, and if JoDean moved it herself she would be held liable for any damages.

“You just want to scratch your skin until you bleed,” JoDean said. She moved her mattress outside, but she says the bugs in her bedroom are still there.

Though Rent-a-Center claimed they inspected the furniture and found it bed bug-free before delivery, the Aurora store is paying to have Orkin treat Persichetti’s home for bed bugs.

Rental furniture is at risk of picking up bed bugs in one home, and having them carried to another. In addition, items not infested with bed bugs might become infested while being carried together with infested items in a truck.

I believe all furniture rental companies should be taking steps to ensure without a doubt that their stock is bed bug-free. Possible methods for doing so include professional thermal treatment and/or vikane (sulfuryl fluoride) gas fumigation of trucks full of stock.Similar Posts:

KRDO in Colorado Springs: some misleading advice regarding bed bugs

nobugsonme — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 01:31:56 +0000

The KRDO article posted at this link is innocuous enough, but do click and watch the video. There is some misleading information there.

First, Colorado Springs Code Enforcement Officer Ken Lewis tells KRDO viewers that

“If you sleep in a bed that had bed bugs, you probably won’t see the bed bugs, or feel the bed bugs, but you’ll wake up with the little red bites all over you in the morning.”

This is rather misleading, since we know that many (and some would say most) people do not have any reaction to bed bug bites and so would have no idea they were bitten by bed bugs.

In the Pest Control Presents #23 podcast linked below, Jerome Goddard tells us that 70% of people do not have a skin reaction to bed bug bites (no mark, no itching, nothing). The other 30% have varying reactions to a bed bug bite (from small bumps to large inflamed welts).

With this in mind, city officials should not be implying that members of the public will know they slept in a bed with bed bugs, because they will get a reaction to bed bug bites.

But that’s not the only misleading statement in this newscast.

Reporter Tak Landrock ends the report by saying that,

“You will have to get rid of your bedsheets, your pillows, even your mattress, in order to get rid of them.”

This is not so.

Most entomolgists tell us that discarding mattresses is usually not necessary, and in fact, can help spread bed bugs around buildings, neighborhoods, and cities. Mattresses and box springs can be carefully encased in encasements carefully desgined and tested to keep bed bugs in, or out.

Moreover, bedsheets need never be discarded, since a hot wash and dry (or even a hot dry alone, on clean dry items) will serve to kill all bed bugs and bed bug eggs present.

If the Code Enforcement Department and the news media in Colorado Springs want to help halt the spread of bed bugs in that city, they would do well to give news audiences the most accurate advice about avoiding, detecting, and getting rid of bed bugs.

Update: the journalist who wrote this article updated it on Friday to correct the information about discarding mattresses and sheets. Please see the first comment below for details.

—————————————–

This is the source of the statistic that 70% of people do not react to bed bug bites:

Gabcast! Pest Control Presents #23 – 10 Questions With Jerome Goddard, state medical entomologist for Mississippi

Dr. Jerome Goddard, the state medical entomologist with the Mississippi Department of Health in Jackson, Mississippi discusses the potential for bed bugs to spread diseases.

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German couple surprised by bed bugs in Cortez, Colorado hotel

nobugsonme — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 04:59:23 +0000

Some tourists come to Colorado looking for the “Wild West.” However, I don’t think bed bugs are what they have in mind. The Durango Herald, in Durango, Colorado, reported Tuesday on a recent bed bug encounter in a Cortez, Colorado hotel:

German tourists Billy and Helga Held didn’t travel to Cortez to have a close encounter with bedbugs, but that’s exactly what they got.

In the wee hours of Aug. 18, before they were to visit Mesa Verde National Park, the couple awoke at 1:21 a.m. to discover bugs in their bed at the Comfort Inn.

“At first I was in a panic,” said Billy. “My bedsheet was completely full of bed bugs. My wife was crying.”

Helga stripped the sheets and took them straight to the reception desk.

“The boy at the front desk took them and just put them in the washing room,” she said. “He said, ‘Do not make a big deal of this – you can move to a new room.’”

Oh that’s very reassuring! Customer service these days…

In fairness, the hotel did call out a pest control operator, and refunded the couple’s room costs.

Comfort Inn Owner, Ryan Griglak, said their hotel has tried to be as proactive as possible in controlling bed bugs – by employing Orkin to spray as well as relocating the people to another room.

Griglak said after Orkin inspected all the rooms, they found the only two infested were the two where the German family had been.

They were moved to a second room, and these two rooms were the only ones found to be infested!

Let this be a warning to hoteliers who simply move people to the next room, without attempting to help them decontaminate their belongings first.

The article also reports that the branch of Orkin in Cortez has had a 50% increase in bed bug calls in the past year. You can read the rest of the article here.Similar Posts:

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25 Grant Street in Denver, Colorado: bed bugs for two years

nobugsonme — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 18:43:26 +0000

This MyFox Colorado article claims that this beleaguered building in Denver at 25 Grant Street has had ongoing bed bug problems for two years.

Denver’s Environmental Health Department says they have had complaints about bugs there for more than two years.

The property is owned by Shockor Management and is telling tenants they will spray once again this week. But the bugs don’t seem to be going away.

That has prompted many to move out, leaving many of their couches and bedding in the garbage.

Former tenant Jackie Howe moved in two months ago not knowing there was an ongoing bed bug problem. She’s now had to flee.

Renting units in bed bug infested buildings without notifying prospective tenants should be illegal.

The City says they know about the history of complaints and says that every time the owners are citied (sic), they comply and spray as they will again this week.

What is unanswered is why the spraying isn’t killing the bed bugs.

It isn’t clear what kind of bed bug treatment follows these citations, however, if treatments are not aggressive enough (approximately every two weeks, in every unit with bed bugs, until every last bed bug is gone) it would begin to explain why bed bug problems persist.

Tenants discarding possessions as they flee the building, some of which are surely being reclaimed by other tenants, are probably another contributing factor.

While pesticide resistance may be a factor, these other two considerations are even more obvious problems, and should not be discounted.

I hope Denver’s Environmental Health Department will work on more comprehensive solutions to fighting bed bugs in Denver (which we know are not just a problem in this one building). They should consider what actions are required by landlords and tenants once infestations are detected, ways of collecting bed bug-infested refuse to keep it from infesting other homes, and a public education campaign to help educate all of Denver on how to recognize, avoid, and fight bed bugs (once detected).

The same types of considerations should be undertaken by cities and counties and other authorities elsewhere.

Ordering landlords to treat once bed bugs are detected is too vague and simply not enough to get rid of bed bugs permanently.
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bed bugs in Greenpoint (NYC), Stamford (CT), Glenwood Springs (CO), and the Internets (.com)

nobugsonme — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 11:27:17 +0000

Slightly delayed news round-up:

newyorkshitty.com » ‘Tis The Season: Don’t Let The Bedbugs Bite!

miss heather of newyorkshitty.com shares a current photo of suspected bed bug refuse at the Astral Apartments in Greenpoint, and shares an article from exactly 121 years ago, decrying the need for “quality affordable housing”, free of vermin.

Glenwood Springs Post Independent – Valley News (Colorado)

“Tom Cornwell, president of the Colorado Pest Control Association, will be speaking to representatives from hotels and motels, … and public and housing personnel from 11 a.m. to noon Friday, Dec. 7.” Public education is the key to beating bed bugs.

Stamford, CT: The Advocate – Flooding and failing health leave residents seeking help (flood evacuees get bed bugs in hotel)

“During the spring nor’easter, a Stamford senior housing complex was flooded, and residents were forced to move to a hotel temporarily. Upon returning home, residents discovered their building was infested with bed bugs.”

Some Crazy Garbage: Away, ye critters

A blogger’s first-hand account of a Pest Control Operator’s visit. Yes, google alerts sends me multiple such posts a day from various “newbites” around the world. But this one was entertaining to read, even as it conveyed the tale of woe you have come to expect.

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More from Cincinnati: senior housing complex

nobugsonme — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 18:00:38 +0000

According to Channel 12 WKRC in Cincinnati (doesn’t Howard Hesseman work there?), residents at the Hillrise Apartment building, which is owned by Cincinnati Business & Professional Women’s Retirement Living Incorporated, are suffering from various issues including bed bugs.

Calvin Merritt’s problems at Hillrise Apartments are pretty simple.

“Mostly bugs, roaches and all that…”

The “all that” is bed bugs. Dead ones were easy to find under Calvin’s mattress, and piles of them behind the bed. When exterminators come in to spray here, their work’s easy to see, pesticide stains run down Calvin’s walls. Calvin pays 313 dollars a month for this one bedroom…what little furniture he had was mostly pitched, because it was infested.

Calvin Merritt, Resident: “I done lost everything got here, my couch, my other chairs, all the stuff I had was new, I had to get rid of all of that.”

At the other end of the hall, Jeanette Jessie doesn’t have any bedbugs, but she worries about them just the same.

Jeanette Jessie, Resident: “They just spread them from one end of the building to the other, this is crazy, get this place cleaned up, spray it at one time and get rid of this mess.”

It sounds a bit like the Phyllis Wheatley YWCA in Washington DC, Halcyon House in Denver, and Warren Towers in East Moline, Illinois. Elderly people, disabled people, and anyone in low-income housing is being dealt a raw deal when it comes to getting rid of bed bugs. Let’s face it, bed bugs are expensive to treat. They’re also a rather sudden problem no one was expecting and no one has budgeted for.

Bed bugs are difficult to treat, too. Traditional treatments require multiple pest control visits at short intervals. Residents must prepare for treatment, which can be a lengthy process and costly too (especially for those on a fixed income).

However, make no mistake: non-aggressive treatment (treating only some of the infested units, treating at too-long intervals, or not coming as many times as needed), waiting for tenants who might be unaware they have bed bugs to report them, and not providing assistance with preparation costs and physical labor–all of these reactions from landlords and housing managers mean that bed bugs will be around longer, spread into more units, and cost much more to get rid of.

It just does not make sense on any practical level to not be aggressive, thorough, and quick to treat bed bugs in a building you are responsible for. It is simply a display of ignorance about the nature of this beast.

We can’t entirely blame landlords for this ignorance; none of us were expecting bed bugs. But we need to educate the public about the signs of bed bugs, and we need to educate professionals in all walks of life (from those who provide housing, to hospitality services, to health care, education, and on and on) about the need for a bed bug protocol which includes both proactive searching for signs of bed bugs, and swift reactions to any bed bug signs or sightings.

Too many people seem to be hoping they’ll just go away. Good luck with that. In the meantime:

Channel 12 reports,

Officials from the Cincinnati Health Department tell us they’ll soon be taking a closer look at conditions in the apartments.

I love the Cincinnati Health Department. But you knew that.Similar Posts:

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