Interestingly,

The bed bug infestation came to light last week after the Pinellas County Health Department received an anonymous call about the problem.

So do call those health departments to report bed bugs in public spaces, or your workplace, people.

Even more interestingly,

Unlike roaches, which can be spotted easily, bed bugs hide, so “we don’t even bother looking for them,” said Charles Minor, a supervisor with the health department’s environmental division. “If we get a complaint, we assume that they’re there. We focus on getting rid of them.”

We’ve heard some pest control operators treat bed bugs the same way, even though in many places, it’s illegal to treat without evidence. Yes, bites are a form of evidence, but they can come from other sources, and so don’t definitively indicate bed bugs.

Still, I appreciate the Pinellas County Health Department’s enthusiasm for treating bed bugs.

PEMHS stopped taking new patients, moved those in the facility elsewhere and tented the building for fumigation, said Erin Gillespie, a spokeswoman for the Department of Children and Families, which oversees PEMHS. The building remained closed until Monday when employees and residents began moving back in.

It sounds like the building was treated with vikane gas fumigation. The facility may wish to educate employees and clients about bed bugs, since we can assume the bed bugs may have both been brought into the center from someone’s home, and may have been taken home by others, infesting their homes.

If employees or clients have bed bugs at home and do not get proper treatment, the facility can easily become reinfested.

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• Rockford, IL: half of Red Roof Inn shut down due to bed bugs

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Of course, bed bugs are everywhere; we know that. But word spreads slowly, article by article, city by city, town by town.

• Hotel Pennsylvania Settles Bedbug Suits for Nearly $100,000 | The New York Observer
• This is bad: bed bugs crawling everywhere. Video at 11.
• Bed bugs in homeless shelters, casinos, hotels, apartments: Waynesboro, Atlantic City, Greenpoint, Toronto
• The NYTimes is back on the bed bugs story

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Which brought us to the host, developer Donald Trump. “The building is going to be something the likes of which has never been done before,” he said of the soaring, sailboat-style glass tower, which recalled to this reporter the Cooper Square Hotel now looming over the Bowery.

Donald Trump Jr., meanwhile, suggested the posh accommodations would be “very comparable to the best you have in New York, and vice versa.”

Any fear of bedbugs in Dubai? (See The Observer’s Summer Phobias report on page C1.)

“Everything’s brand new out there, so I’m sure they don’t have bedbugs,” his lovely wife, Vanessa, interjected.

“Most of it didn’t exist five years ago, so there’s probably not too much of an issue with bedbugs—and certainly not the places we’re staying,” the younger Mr. Trump said.

“No, you won’t have any—I promise,” Trump père said with a wink.

Phew!

They probably don’t have any right now, if the place is brand new. But then people move in and in time, even in the poshest environment, someone is going to bring in a bed bug.

As for the future, hopefully Mr. Trump has his bed bug prevention and management plan ducks in a row.

Meanwhile, over in the Culture section of the same issue:

Among NewYorkers’ summer phobias such as public urination, lightning, and bolting carriage horses, the Observer identifies a fear of picking up bed bugs:

Speaking of Duane Reade, my girlfriend and I were there on a recent Saturday afternoon, buying a can of Pronto bedbug-killing spray. We’d just scored a couple of end tables at a sidewalk sale, and despite the fact the sellers lived in an immaculate brownstone, we couldn’t help shake the thought that any secondhand goods purchased in or around New York might be a vessel for those tiny, blood-sucking vermin that have induced psychological terror across the five boroughs.

How did it get to the point where some of us can’t even go to a flea market without worrying that it might have, well, actual fleas?

Um, well, maybe because it’s now true that they might have bed bugs!

Picking up bed bugs in an end table from a Park Slope stoop sale is not an irrational fear, and has got to be much more likely than being run down by a runaway horse in Central Park.

(If it were not so, you would be reading horsecarnage.com).

The article goes on to try and reassure us with the latest HPD statistics:

According to Neill Coleman, a spokesman for the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, it’s hard to assess the true threat. He said there’s been an increase in the number of bedbug complaints and violations over the past several years (in fiscal year 2004, HPD had 537 complaints, versus 8,840 complaints and 4,243 violations so far in fiscal year 2008, records show), but he also noted that bedbugs make up only a fraction of the more than 500,000 violations the department issues each year.

There are over 16 times as many official bed bug complaints as there were four years ago, and nearly half result in violations. It seems like bed bug cases are multiplying fast.

Of course, for those who assume someone with bed bugs would call 311 to report them as a housing violation, those numbers might seem “manageable.” My own observations suggest the vast majority do not call 311.

But the Observer clearly thinks there’s no cause to adjust your behavior in order to avoid bed bugs.

Still, people like Emilia Rich, 28, of Greenpoint aren’t taking any chances. Her phobia started last year when two small red bumps appeared on her arm, and a co-worker suggested they could be from bedbugs (false alarm). Now she gets freaked out whenever she sees mattresses on the curb on garbage night, so much so that she walks to the other side of the street. As for furniture, she’s sticking with IKEA.

“Buying furniture at a stoop sale?” Ms. Rich said. “That’s not even an option!”

Smart thinking, Emilia.

You don’t have to live in a state of constant panic, but avoiding New York City stoop sales during the current bed bug crisis is probably a good idea.

Not having bed bugs when you think you do is good luck, but it hardly means you should not have some concerns about picking them up.

• Eliminating Bed Bug Phobia - yeah, right
• Hotel Pennsylvania Settles Bedbug Suits for Nearly $100,000 | The New York Observer
• Columbia Spectator on bed bugs, again with the HPD statistic soup
• Lexington, KY vs. New York, NY: a tale of two bedbugged cities

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According to the Carroll County Times,

Jeff Degitz, director of the Carroll County Department of Recreation and
Parks . . . . said letters have been sent home to the parents of all the campers who are staying at Hashawha this week, and parents of anyone who stayed at the center since June 1 are also being notified.

That’s good news: parents of recent campers should be notified so they can inspect their homes and have them treated if necessary. (I would personally go back more than 2.5 weeks and also notify earlier guests, however.)

I hope parents were also given some information about searching for signs of bed bugs, and what to do if they’re found.

The description of treatment in the infested cabin raises some questions for me:

Since the discovery, Degitz said, an exterminator has been to the cabin and treated the area with pesticide.

The cabin will be closed until July 6, and all of the mattresses with bed bugs on them have been thrown away, Degitz said.

We are told that it’s very difficult to get rid of bed bugs in one pesticide treatment. Bed bugs often infest rooms, not just mattresses and bed frames. I hope the room has been carefully inspected.

Also, throwing away mattresses is not necessary and not really a good idea. Doing so doesn’t necessarily remove bed bugs from the location, and mattresses can be salvaged with a good encasement.

Not tossing out the mattress also saves the camp’s neighbors from becoming infested, since someone will inevitably pick that mattress up for re-use or sale.

People who run camps (like hotel and hospital managers) need to devise a system for inspecting for signs of bed bugs. Visitors will bring bed bugs to camp, and other campers will bring them home.

And nobody wants to go to Camp It-Chee-Scrah-Chee.

—————————————————–

Update: The Baltimore Sun says eight “affected” mattresses were removed. The Baltimore Sun also clarifies why only those families whose kids stayed in the camp’s five cabins since 6/1 were notified:

The Carroll County Health Department, which inspected the cabin two weeks ago and found no bedbugs at that time, was notified of the insects’ presence, according to the news release.

I wonder if this was a routine inspection?

Finally, this second article tells us:

Campers were advised to wash all bedclothes, including sleeping bags, in hot, soapy water, and dry them in a hot dryer for at least 20 minutes, according to the news release. Temperatures of at least 140 degrees kill the bugs.

Not bad advice, except that a sleeping bag is a very thick item. Twenty minutes in a dryer is unlikely to kill bed bugs in a wet sleeping bag (maybe not even in a dry one).

• Gianaris’ Bedbug Legislation Passes
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• Need help? Tales of Bed Bug Woe 2.0

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According to the state legislature’s website, these are the details of the Bill, sponsored by Representative Dale Mallory:

A BILL

To enact sections 3701.136, 3701.137, 3701.138, and 3701.139 of the Revised Code to establish the Bed Bug Awareness, Education, and Prevention Program and to make an appropriation.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF OHIO:

Section 1. That sections 3701.136, 3701.137, 3701.138, and 3701.139 of the Revised Code be enacted to read as follows:

Sec. 3701.136. As used in sections 3701.136 to 3701.139 of the Revised Code:

(A) “Hotel” means every establishment kept, used, maintained, advertised, or held out to the public as a place where sleeping accommodations are offered to guests, in which five or more rooms are used for the accommodation of such guests, whether the rooms are in one or several structures.

(B) “Residential dwelling” means a building used or intended to be used as a personal residence by the owner, part owner, or lessee of the building, or any person authorized by such a person to use the building as a personal residence.

Sec. 3701.137. The bed bug awareness, education, and prevention program is hereby established in the department of health with the assistance of and in consultation with the research office of the division of travel and tourism of the department of development.

Sec. 3701.138. (A) The department of health shall make available on its web site information on the increasing incidences of bed bug (cimex lectularius) infestation and post notices that bed bugs are a public nuisance dangerous to public health. The director of health shall do all of the following:

(1) Educate hotel owners, residential dwellers, and citizens of this state on the difference between bed bugs and similar types of vermin so they can be easily recognized and treated accordingly.

(2) Encourage hotel owners and residential dwellers to closely monitor floors, carpets, and bed linen and mattresses for signs of infestation to facilitate effective, timely treatment to prevent the spread and incidence of infestation.

(3) Assist in and promote the development of safe and effective treatment methods or options to eradicate bed bug infestation in hotels and residential dwellings.

(B) The department of health shall adopt rules as necessary to implement this section. The rules shall be adopted in accordance with Chapter 119. of the Revised Code.

Sec. 3701.139. The department of health shall make available to the public a toll-free telephone number for any person seeking to report an incidence of bed bug infestation or to request information. The department may make the toll-free number available by maintaining a toll-free telephone line specifically for accepting calls regarding bed bugs or by using a toll-free telephone line that the department maintains for accepting calls regarding other matters.

Section 2. All items in this section are hereby appropriated as designated out of any moneys in the state treasury to the credit of the General Revenue Fund Group. For all appropriations made in this act, those in the first column are for fiscal year 2008 and those in the second column are for fiscal year 2009. The appropriations made in this act are in addition to any other appropriations made for the FY 2008-2009 biennium.

[Details of the appropriations are included, which –if I am reading it correctly — appear to constutute $335,000 in fiscal year 2009.]

The bill continues,

Within the limits set forth in this act, the Director of Budget and Management shall establish accounts indicating the source and amount of funds for each appropriation made in this act, and shall determine the form and manner in which appropriation accounts shall be maintained. Expenditures from appropriations contained in this act shall be accounted for as though made in Am. Sub. H.B. 119 of the 127th General Assembly.

The appropriations made in this act are subject to all provisions of Am. Sub. H.B. 119 of the 127th General Assembly that are generally applicable to such appropriations.

Section 3. The sections of law contained in this act, and the items of which they are composed, are not subject to the referendum. Therefore, under Ohio Constitution, Article II, Section 1d and section 1.471 of the Revised Code, the sections of law contained in this act, and the items of which they are composed, go into immediate effect when this act becomes law.

The key points here appear to be: requiring the Department of Health to educate the public about bed bugs, and the provision of a hotline where residents can call to report an incidence of bed bugs or call for information about bed bugs.

The requirement that the DoH:

Assist in and promote the development of safe and effective treatment methods or options to eradicate bed bug infestation in hotels and residential dwellings.

… seems a bit nebulous as written, but like the rest of the bill, only seems like it can help.

Ohio residents should write to their State Representatives and voice your support for this bill. You can look up your representatives here, then follow the links to email them or look up phone numbers or snail mail addresses. It is worth taking 5 minutes to send an email and help your state get better legislation to support those dealing with bed bugs now and in the future.

• New bed bug legislation: House Bill 565 from Ohio on bed bug treatment
• Update on New York State bed bug legislation (parental notification re: bed bugs in school)
• Nashua, N.H. laws may change in part based on recent bed bug cases there
• California fights bed bugs: good news from the golden state

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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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• New Jersey’s laws designed to spread bed bugs in rental housing

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Carolyn Sistrunk, executive director of the Danbury Housing Authority, said Monday the complex had a problem with the bugs in 2007 and spent about $17,000 to get rid of them.

“They were here in the fall,” Alex Sixbey, one of the tenants at Ives Manor said Monday. “It took a lot of work — by the exterminators and by me — to get rid of them.”

But Sistrunk said the bedbugs returned. While last year’s outbreak was confined to Ives Manor’s fourth floor, they may have popped up elsewhere in the building.

“We’re going to treat the entire building,” she said.

It does not sound like the bed bugs were necessarily completely gone. While it’s possible they were and the building was reinfested, it is also possible that some units had bed bugs and the tenants were unaware and/or not reporting them.

Many times, visual inspections will turn up nothing, especially if there is a small infestation. In time, however, it would explain bed bugs springing back.

Carolyn Cutler, who has lived in city housing for about 20 years, moved to Ives Manor more than four years ago and lives on the fourth floor. Last fall, she said, the pests showed up in her apartment.

In recent weeks “I found one on my sheets,” she said. “I’m changing my sheets twice a day. I’ve never seen them before. I don’t want to put up with this.”

Sistrunk said Ives Manor hired Amtech, a local exterminating company that is getting increasing experience in fighting bedbugs, to do the work. The company has even purchased a beagle trained to sniff out bedbugs to help its staff find the vermin.

The initial contract for the work is about $9,000, Sistrunk said.

And with a sense of great foreboding, but no great sense of surprise, I present this PCO soundbite:

Richard Monastero, Amtech’s president, said Monday for the foreseeable future people should consider bedbugs an ongoing problem, not a one-time thing.

Ugh.

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• New Haven: another housing complex has bed bugs

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Teresa Bayliss, who has lived in her third-floor apartment for nine years, said the residents have been battling with the insects for more than a year. “Basically, this apartment building, since last May, has had problems with bedbugs,” she said. “I would say since like Easter, things are getting worse.”

That’s far too long to suffer with bed bugs.

One resident took a dangerous and extreme measure:

The problem at the apartment building was so bad that a resident recently decided to take matters into his own hands. Following the advice of a friend, he burned charcoal in his third-floor apartment. But because of the fumes, the building had to be evacuated.

“We were upset, but if you saw the bites on that man, who could blame him?” said Bayliss.

The man got bad advice and did something very unsafe. Looking back, what would have been a safe and rational reaction, instead, is if someone from the building had notified city officials.

According to the article, Warren Blunt, director of environmental health for the city’s Health Department, said,

The department was not aware of the bedbug problem at Ellsworth before last week’s incident, he said.

When the agency does receive complaints, Blunt said, an inspector goes out to confirm that there are bedbugs in the building. “The owner is basically responsible for the establishment. The owner is responsible for hiring an exterminator,” Blunt said. “We allow them up to two weeks. But in this case, we would make a recommendation that they begin immediately,” he said. Criminal penalties may be pursued if a landlord does not act to remedy the problem, Blunt said.

So one lesson here is that residents of Bridgeport with bed bugs should call the Health Department to notify them of the problem, so they can inspect and order treatment. It’s unlikely that residents were aware of this recourse, or someone probably would have called. I hope the Health Department will attempt to advertise this more widely.

Some treatments have already occurred. So far,

Bayliss said the treatments do not appear to be helping. “They had Orkin [pest control company] coming in spurts. I’ve had Orkin come to my apartment once. Other people aren’t getting treated at all,” she said.

But the article says the management is currently ripping out everyone’s carpet and the building supervisor seems to be saying the whole building will have to be treated at least twice. (I would not be surprised if it took more than two treatments spaced no more than two weeks apart.) I hope this treatment is aggressive and thorough and comes swiftly for the tenants, who have suffered for such a long time.

Officials quoted in the article remind us that tenants have to cooperate with preparation and treatment:

The problem is more challenging when tenants are not able, or refuse, to keep their apartments clean and orderly. Bedbugs can travel on people’s clothing or find their way into the apartment next door.

“There are agencies that will offer to come out, that will do the cleaning,” said Blunt. But if people don’t cooperate with the pest eradication efforts, “that’s what makes this compounded, makes this complex.”

As odd as it may sound, we often hear of badly infested buildings where one or more tenants simply don’t want to be inspected. In cases such as this, where the whole building is being inspected, it would not be surprising if the same tenants were not cooperative with preparations or treatment.

This hurts everyone else — both fellow tenants and management.

Those with physical or financial limitations absolutely need help and support in preparing for and undergoing bed bug treatment. But refusing or being non-cooperative is a serious problem: keeping your bed bugs is not an option.

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• More from Edmonton bed bug evictions case
• Vikane Fumigation Successful in New Jersey
• Bed bug notice: East Village, NYC, January 2008

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According to the state’s order, health department inspectors found violations of law “which constitute an imminent danger to the health, safety and welfare of the facility’s residents.”

The order says the building’s flat roof needs replacement, and that leaks have caused “severe structural degradation” and that the ceilings of six rooms have partially collapsed, plaster walls are peeling or bubbling, adjoining rooms and halls have water damage and steel ceiling support struts are rusting.

The order says “a foul smell of mold permeates the air. Water stains, mold and a generally moist environment are present,” and protection against the elements is “substantially compromised.”

As you likely suspect by its mention here, yes, the conditions included a bad infestation of bed bugs:

On May 2, inspectors found live and dead bedbugs and bedbug eggs in 40 beds. Inspectors saw several residents with bedbug bites, who reported complaining to the adult home’s staff for months about the problem. No corrective action has taken place, the DOH said.

The Health Department order suspends Monticello Manor’s operating license, and the state is preparing an order to permanently revoke the license and impose civil penalties on the operator, Charles Benson.

All seventy residents are being relocated. Forty beds contained “bed bugs and bed bug eggs”.

As in the case of Evie Kelly, complaints about bed bugs were made and not acted on for some time (in the case of Monticello Manor, this went on for “months”).

And only “several residents” complained about bed bug bites.

Managers of adult residences (such as this one), dorms, senior housing, and other facilities need to be more proactive about bed bugs. It is not sufficient to wait until large numbers of people come to complain.

This story reminds us that they won’t.

A few people will come, and they will often represent huge numbers of people who may not be aware what is causing their problem, or may not be aware they have one, or who may fear repercussions for complaining about bed bugs.

The complaints of those who do step forward must be taken seriously. Bed bugs should be searched for aggressively, whenever someone comes forward to complain. Because in so many of these cases, those complaints represent a fraction of the people affected by bed bugs.

More on Monticello Manor’s closing here.

• Bed bug news round-up: Waterbury, Connecticut; MIT
• A tale of another city: Monticello, NY low-income tenants 1, slumlord 0
• Rockford, IL: half of Red Roof Inn shut down due to bed bugs
• Bed bugs in hotels: how to report (and check up on) bed bug infestations

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As if falling and not being found for nearly a week was not enough of a horror story,
this news article in the Sun focuses on the bed bug-infested state of her room.

EMS paramedics who responded were required to wear full-body suits to prevent contamination when they removed her from her room in the Baxter Hotel, a single-room occupancy hotel at 160 Beach 116th St.

It is highly likely that other units in the building are also infested.

[Building Superintendent Shawn] Reeder said he had not heard complaints of other infestations in the building. The owner of the building did not immediately return a call requesting comment.

I hope that Ms. Kenny is feeling better soon.

And I hope the Baxter Hotel gets a careful inspection–room by room. And careful treatment where needed. Bed bugs can happen anywhere, to anyone, of any age, but no one should have to live with them.

• 80% of Single Room Occupancy units in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside are infested with bed bugs; also Rensselaer Polytechnic’s dorms
• Virginia Beach hotel sued over alleged bed bug attack
• 25% of hotel rooms have bed bugs? I don’t think so.
• Nashua, NH Health Officers on prowl for bed bugs

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