A new article from Baltimore’s City Paper is troubling.

Landlords in Baltimore who rent out single-family homes are not responsible for treating for bed bugs in those homes, even if the “single-family home” is a kind of unofficial rooming-house with fifteen or more residents. As you may guess, the residents may also lack the funds to treat their homes for bed bugs. (Owners of multi-family units are responsible for treatment for bed bugs, though many are finding this extremely challenging, both financially, as well as because bed bugs are just really hard to get rid of.)

Many people in Baltimore, including Mark Adams, who is profiled in this article, attribute the “cause” of bed bugs to their neighbors’ Latino/a ethnicity. And this is where it starts to get ugly.

The bottom line is that if your neighbors have bed bugs and do not get proper treatment, you will probably get bed bugs, and you will not be able to get rid of them.
This is true whatever your neighbors’ ethnicity, country of origin, religion, or economic class.

The real problem here is that no one is required to treat these single-family homes for bed bugs.

Edward Ericson, Jr. writes for City Paper, that

in the southeastern Baltimore City neighborhoods of Butchers Hill, Upper Fells Point, Fells Prospect, and Highlandtown, the [bed bug] trouble has often attached itself to and spread out from de facto rooming houses filled with extended families and working men.

And

The Baltimore City Health Department itself acknowledges the correlation, though not the causation, in a “Bed Bug Response Plan” it quietly released on April 20. “Pest control companies and the Hispanic Apostolate noted the pronounced bed bug problem in the Latino community, perhaps due to travel and frequent relocations,” the plan notes.

Asked during a June 8 phone conversation to expand on that observation, three Baltimore Health Department officials say nothing for several seconds. “I think that’s where we’ve seen a fair amount of our complaints coming in,” Interim Commissioner Olivia Farrow finally says, speaking of the Latino community. But she and others stress, bed bugs are not confined to the Hispanic population.

“Bed bugs don’t discriminate,” says Sarah Norman, chief of the city Lead, Asthma and Injury Prevention bureau. “All they care about is whether you’re alive.”

Anyone who doubts this should spend some time on our Bedbugger Forums. Although most posters are anonymous, you do get a sense of the diversity of ethnic, national, and socio-economic backgrounds represented.

However, let’s leave aside habits of “travel and frequent relocations,” for a moment and consider the fact that the residents of this single-family row-house are likely unable to pay for their own bed bug treatment. They may lack information about bed bugs and how difficult they are to treat. They may not know where to get help (if, indeed, there is anywhere to get help.)

The city rightly acknowledges that the bed bug blame game does not work:

In a four-way telephone conversation on June 8, city health officials explain that fixing blame for a given infestation is effectively beyond the ken of local government. “We do get a lot of bedbugs going from place to place,” Sarah Norman says. “The difficulty is verifying. Do they have some evidence?”

“You have to get into both properties,” Olivia Farrow adds. “It’s a lengthy investigation.”

Add to that gaps in the city’s laws that make the owners of multi-family dwellings responsible for pest eradication, but don’t obligate the owners of single-family houses to fumigate, no matter how many people are living there, and code-enforcement appears to be a non-starter–at least where the Health Department is concerned.

“So the real thing is education,” Norman says. “What we do is we knock on the door and we really try to create a relationship with the neighbors.”

The Health Department is currently trying to snare federal grants that might, if they come through, help at least some of the city’s low-income families shoulder the cost of eradicating bed-bug infestations. “We are hoping to make a national model about how this kind of thing can be done,” Kasameyer says at the June 16 community meeting.

(Emphasis mine.)

That’s good news. Please make it happen quickly.

The bottom line is that — since the cost of bed bug treatment in Baltimore lies with them — single-family home tenants and small-scale multi-unit landlords may need help in paying for treatment. They also need to educate residents and enforce treatment of those single-family homes.

Baltimore clearly needs affordable, effective pest control to be available to everyone.

And when bed bugs are spreading from row-house to row-house, it really could soon be everyone who has them.

Be sure to check out the article, and the interesting link to a map of bed bug infestations reported to Baltimore’s 311 since 2006.

Update (7/2):

Compare this story from ABC: “Southeast Baltimore Infested with Bed Bugs”

What a difference it makes when the focus is on neighborhoods.

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We are happy that Renee of New York vs Bed Bugs alerted us to the news that Baltimore is now implementing a bed bug control strategy, which includes

• bed bug inspections,
• training for Baltimore City Health Department Healthy Homes Division staff in detection and control of bed bugs,
• development of English- and Spanish-language educational materials, as well as several Spanish-language outreach campaigns, and (as Renee writes)

training Baltimore City public housing maintenance and management staff and, apparently, impressing upon them “the need to immediately respond to bed bug complaints.”

For more, see Baltimore’s Bed Bug Response Plan.

Baltimore City Health Department has a bed bug page, which lets readers know what to do in case they suspect bed bugs.  Unfortunately, at this time it only mentions what “homeowners” should do.

It is crucial, in my mind, that local fact sheets direct renters as to what they should do when they suspect bed bugs.

Also, the fact sheet advises:

Avoid “insecticide bombs” and “foggers” in your home. These products can spread hazardous chemicals throughout your home.

It is correct that people with bed bugs should avoid “bombs” and “foggers” when treating bed bugs.  But the reasons are not just related to the spread of chemicals.  In some cases, they are a fire hazard.

But as important is the fact that entomologists tell us bombs and foggers can disperse bed bugs and drive them deeper into our homes.  They’re specifically a bad idea with bed bugs for this reason.

Still, we are very glad Baltimore has a bed bug page and that they’re taking coordinated action to reduce the spread of bed bugs, and help citizens learn how to identify and get rid of the problem.

The bed bug page also provides links at the top to download PDFs of the press release, Baltimore’s bed bug plan, the EPA bed bug fact sheet in English and Spanish.

Update (4/27): and now the Baltimore Sun catches up with New York vs. Bed Bugs, reporting about the new Baltimore bed bug plan and website.Similar Posts:

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According to the Baltimore Sun (10/8/2008), most of the 64 students evacuated from the Dulaney Valley Apartments because some students had apartments infested with bed bugs were moved to a local Sheraton.

Now WBAL TV in Baltimore reports that some of those students have encountered bed bugs in the Sheraton:

A room at the Sheraton Hotel North in Towson has been affected by bedbugs, displacing two of the students, school officials said. Some students staying at the Dulaney Valley Apartments were moved to the hotel after bedbugs were found at that location in both July and September.

Goucher College officials said the Sheraton will have the rooms examined and the hotel will take the necessary measures to rid the room of bedbugs.

While it is certainly possible that one can encounter bed bugs anywhere (including any hotel room), it is also true that bed bugs are easily carried from place to place. This chain of events raises the question of whether Goucher students were instructed to and assisted in making sure they did not move bed bugs with them to the Sheraton. This article describes ways in which Stanford University attempts to halt the spread of bed bugs when students are evacuated from dorm rooms due to these pests.

I want to stress that it is impossible to know from the article whether students brought bed bugs to the Sheraton, or whether they encountered bed bugs already at the hotel. But the potential of moving bed bugs is something colleges should consider when evacuating students under such circumstances. The students’ experience also highlights the need for people to learn to search a hotel room for bed bugs before settling in.

Although people often come on the Bedbugger forums asking how they can move without transporting bed bugs, it is not an easy process. Some people will have their possessions treated with sulfuryl fluoride (such as Vikane[TM]) or thermal processes, at great cost, in order to avoid moving bed bugs.

Bed bugs can crawl into a person’s luggage or other items, or even crawl into clothing and be moved from place to place. Bed bug evacuees must take precautions when fleeing to hotels or other locations, in order to avoid infesting them.

Our FAQs on travel offer suggestions on not moving bed bugs from place to place.Similar Posts:

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Student paper The Quindecim reports that although only three units in the Dulaney Valley Apartments were confirmed to have bed bugs, additional apartments are suspected to have them based on students presenting with apparent bed bug bites.

All 94 students living in the complex are being moved to alternate accommodation (66 of them to a Sheraton). Goucher College is located in Towson, Maryland.Similar Posts:

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• University of Central Missouri (and other Missouri colleges) vs. bed bugs

Bed bugs at summer camp? It’s that time again!

Hashawha Environmental Center, a retreat center and camp in Maryland, is dealing with a bed bug infestation. One cabin has been found to contain bed bugs.

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).Similar Posts:

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More information about the Bracken County Schools bed bug situation. A new article from WCPO.com news says T&M Pest Control is treating Bracken County schools for bed bugs this weekend.

Terry says, “A pest control program for bed bugs is very detailed. You’ve got to get all the crevices. We are doing a little more than we really need to, but it’s to make sure we don’t have a problem in the future.”

That means Terry’s son, Tony, has to bag contents of every locker in the school, and then spray those contents with an insecticide.

Tony and his mother are wearing only gloves now, but when the heavy fumigation gets underway, they’ll be wearing face masks, too.

I am interested in these methods, since I have not heard PCOs here talking about spraying into bags of belongings. Perhaps a PCO would tell us what this might be.

I initially thought it was a good thing that Bracken County Schools were taking bed bugs seriously after finding a bed bug in school, since cities like New York City are so slow to take action against similar situations. My initial positive sense was based on Bracken County’s willingness to treat schools for bed bugs. I thought that their treatment of every school in the district was based on a sense that bed bugs must be more widespread than in just this one school.

Now, however, I am becoming more concerned about the community’s response, especially their apparent obsession with pinpointing its source. It betrays a lack of education about bed bugs and their behavior, which appears to be a prevalent problem elsewhere too.

Parents in Brooksville are divided about the schools closing an extra day just for bed bugs.

Elizabeth Aulick, a mother of two Bracken County students says, “Yeah, it does concern me, but the letter I got said they only found one bug. If it’s one bug isolated to one child, keep him home for a few days.”

A mother of three Bracken County students, including one at the Middle School says, “I guess it’s a little unexpected. I never expected something like this, but I guess it’s a good thing. Just to be on the safe side. It didn’t both me, I said, ‘Well, that’s fine.’”

The school fumigation in Bracken County is getting the full support of the county health department there.

I am glad the health department in Bracken County recognizes bed bugs as a concern, since many don’t. However, I have to say that what’s being said about the child in this case is absurd.

People in Bracken County must not associate the schools’ bed bug issue, if they indeed have one, with this one student who may have had the bed bug on his things or on his clothing. Bed bugs can live and breed in schools or in school buses or public transportation, and they can crawl onto students at any of these locations (as well as many others). As we have taken pains to explain in the past, the presence of a bed bug on a person or their things absolutely does not prove the person brought the bed bug in.

All parents, including those of the child who was bitten by the bed bug, must search at home and have a qualified PCO inspect if anyone is complaining of bites or if they see any bed bugs or possible signs. However, it is crucial that parents and school officials realize that bed bugs are not lice, and do not live on people. They crawl on, feed, and run away. If a bed bug is found on a person in a school, it does not mean the person brought the bed bug to the school.

I would assume the Bracken County School officials know this, since they are treating every school, and not just the one the bed bug was found in. And yet it does not sound like the parents or media have been picking up on that fact.

If the child did indeed have had an infestation at home and brought them into the school, then his family, too, caught them from somewhere. They spread easily. And everyone should be alert. Everyone should be asking where this family might have picked up bed bugs: parents’ workplace? YMCA? School? Bus? Motel? Because where they got them, you can get them too.

However, the child should not be blamed, nor should he be kept home. People with active infestations need to take some steps to avoid spreading bed bugs. Treating the child himself as if he were contagious is an ignorant mistake. Similar Posts:

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You can click here to see a map of the last 90 or so visitors to the site. It will look different from what I describe below, because I am writing about what I saw there about 4-5 hours ago. Now it’s almost midnight in New York, and the Aussies are starting to surf in.

For those of you who don’t know, webpages can tell where you’re coming from (though not very specifically). They know the location of your ISP. For most people, this comes up as somewhere near where they live, though it’s not always precise and sometimes it’s just the country. It also tells the webmaster what internet browser you use (Go Firefox!) and whether you like Macs or Windows machines. No, I do not know your name, or where you live, don’t worry!

This may all seem very “meta,” so far, but we know that our readership consists of four kinds of people:

a) People who have, or think they have, or recently had, bed bugs.
b) People whose work makes them concerned about bed bugs (pest control professionals, entomologists, politicians, landlords, hotel managers, social service agencies, government officials, are just some sectors that I have heard from).
c) People who have heard about bed bugs and are concerned, and want to know more.

I think that group (a) is in the majority, and although most people don’t comment, most commenters fit in group a. In any case, the Bedbugger.com readership is a map of bed bug concern, and you’d be pretty safe betting its a map of where bed bugs are popping up–with the caveat, of course, that our site pops up more in US search engines than those abroad, and also that our readers are overwhelmingly English-speakers, though we have dreams of breaking down those linguistic barriers!

This is where the last 89 readers were reading the blog (circa 6:30 this evening):

1. San Diego, California, United States
2. Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom
3. Walden, New York, United States
4. Long Island City, New York, United States
5. New York, New York, United States
6. Plattekill, New York, United States
7. Hull, Quebec, Canada
8. Durant, Iowa, United States
9. Miamiville, Ohio, United States
10. Gibraltar
11. Calgary, Alberta, Canada
12. Boston, Massachusetts, United States
13. Humble, Texas, United States
14. Germantown, Maryland, United States
15. Rowland Heights, California, United States
16. New York, New York, United States
17. New York, New York, United States
18. Hadley, Kentucky, United States
19. Buffalo, New York, United States
20. Hveragerði, Arnessysla, Iceland
21. Pine Falls, Manitoba, Canada
22. Livonia, Michigan, United States
23. Bayside, New York, United States
24. Woodhaven, New York, United States
25. Denver, Colorado, United States
26. New York, New York, United States
27. United States
28. Waterloo, Quebec, Canada
29. Los Angeles, California, United States
30. Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
31. Santa Maria, California, United States
32. Beamsville, Ontario, Canada
33. Kansas City, Missouri, United States
34. Corona, New York, United States
35. Barker, Texas, United States
36. Readville, Massachusetts, United States
37. Palo Alto, California, United States
38. Salt Lake City, Utah, United States
39. Mill Valley, California, United States
40. Ridgewood, New York, United States
41. Mehama, Oregon, United States
42. San Francisco, California, United States
43. Feeding Hills, Massachusetts, United States
44. Swedesburg, Iowa, United States
45. Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
46. West New York, New Jersey, United States
47. Lancaster, Blackpool, United Kingdom
48. New York, New York, United States
49. Miami, Florida, United States
50. Anaheim, California, United States
51. Harrow, Harrow, United Kingdom
52. Wilsonville, Oregon, United States
53. Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom
54. Forest Hill, Ontario, Canada
55. Wayne, New Jersey, United States
56. Kecskemét, Bacs-Kiskun, Hungary
57. Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada
58. Short Hills, New Jersey, United States
59. Seattle, Washington, United States
60. Jackson, Mississippi, United States
61. Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States
62. Secaucus, New Jersey, United States
63. Long Island City, New York, United States
64. United States
65. Tranbjerg, Arhus, Denmark
66. Naples, Florida, United States
67. San Francisco, California, United States
68. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
69. Gainesville, Florida, United States
70. Edmond, Oklahoma, United States
71. Hempstead, New York, United States
72. Everett, Massachusetts, United States
73. United States
74. United States
75. São Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
76. Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
77. Bismarck, North Dakota, United States
78. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
79. Downers Grove, Illinois, United States
80. United States
81. Bend, Oregon, United States
82. Henderson, Nevada, United States
83. Montréal, Quebec, Canada
84. Sunnyvale, California, United States
85. Arlington, Texas, United States
86. United States
87. New York, New York, United States
88. Fairfax, Virginia, United States
89. Rochester, New York, United States

You might expect that most of these people came from the bed bug hot spots. We get lots of readers from Chicago, Boston, NYC, San Francisco, Vancouver, Toronto. So it’s surprising that 89 people came from such a wide variety of places:

68 from at least 33 states (only 12 of these from NYC, San Francisco or Boston);
11 from 5 provinces in Canada;
4 from 4 cities in the UK (none of them London);
1 person each from: Hungary, Ireland, Denmark, Brazil, Iceland, and Gilbraltar.

In New York state, 10 of the 17 visitors were from NYC. And of the 10 in NYC, 60% were in Queens, where, unlike Staten Island, Brooklyn, the Bronx and Manhattan, each neighborhood has its own name used for the purposes of the postal service: Ridgewood, Corona, Long Island City, Woodhaven, Bayside, New York, are all in Queens, and part of NYC. Remember the Queens Gazette speculating that Queens was the “ground zero for NYC’s bed bugs? Well, I am still not sure it’s true, but it seems plausible: we certainly have a lot of Bedbuggers in Queens.

I peeked at the traffic report for the site because I have a geeky side and I find it interesting to know where you’re coming from. However, looking at it can tell us something about the bed bug problem. This is not a scientific study, but just a snapshot of our site’s traffic does tell you who’s worried about bed bugs (and, we can assume, many are worried because they have bed bugs).

Most of those cities were not capitals or the biggest cities in their regions or countries. A small percentage are from those places you think are hot spots. It should serve as a warning sign that bed bugs, like Bedbuggers, are everywhere, and way more spread out than you thought.Similar Posts:

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WJZ tv news in Baltimore reports that an entire apartment building in Bel Air, Maryland is being treated by pest control operators. One tenant was quite distraught that thy would be disrupted for a three week treatment (I suppose that’s one or two follow-ups?), but I only hope that does it. The garbage bags in use were not fully sealed, and the tenants were shown pulling bugs off a mattress, so this may be a large infestation. The tenants complained at not being moved; soon, I hope journalists will start explaining that this is not always such a hot idea anyway. For every tenant relocated, you’d probably have another building infested.

I note, once more, that the descriptions in TV news reports and news articles are getting better. We no longer see as many articles which say people should throw their mattresses away; this reporter is wise to bed bugs crawling on pipes between rooms. The knowledge is spreading, though perhaps not yet as fast as the bed bugs.

On the other hand, Preston Today Business, from Lanchashire (UK), demonstrates that some people still confuse dust mites with bed bugs. NYC’s own NY1.com had a video reporting on the City Council Hearing on Bed Bugs last fall which made the same mistake, talking about bed bugs with a huge blow-up photo of a dust mite. People, we only wish we had dust mites, around here!

And, finally, here’s a warning from a by-gone age:

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A new article today The Frederick News-Post. This is the typical bed bug news article we’re seeing from around the country. It begins with the childhood rhyme, which is quoted in every article on the vampires. And then it mentions the latest local outbreaks:

Bedbug infestations have been reported at Overlook Manor in Hillcrest, Woodlawn Village and Brookside apartments.

And there was also a poll (which pre-dated this article):

Last week, the News-Post asked readers, are you worried about bedbugs?

Of the 123 people who voted, 25 percent are concerned about bedbugs, 73 percent are not and 2 percent aren’t sure.

73% are not, yet.Similar Posts:

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