According to WCPO, Hamilton County has issued guidelines to schools regarding bed bugs, which include:

training staff to identify bed bugs; discretely removing a child from the classroom for an inspection; bagging and sealing belongings that have bed bugs; and notifying parents when their children have bed bugs.

I am troubled by the language suggesting children who “have” bed bugs carry them around on their bodies, which sounds like a description of lice.

It is possible that a person could be covered in bed bugs, but it’s important to remember that bed bugs can crawl onto or off of a person (or their belongings) at any time. They do hitchhike on clothing or in bags, but they do not live on people. They generally feed for 3-10 minutes and then flee. If a bed bug is found on a child in school, it does not mean the child brought the bed bug into school.

Places, not people, are infested with bed bugs.

The WLWT video shows Greg Kesterman of Hamilton County Public Health reminding parents to “regularly check your child” and the child’s bed for bed bugs. Not bad advice, though bed bugs could be elsewhere in the home.

I am glad that Cincinnati’s school employees and parents are thinking about bed bugs and being told what to do when they surface. I am especially happy Hamilton County parents will hear from the school if bed bugs are found there. I just hope the message is made clear to parents that bed bugs are a different kind of communicable pest, and if anyone “has” them, they have them in their home (or schoolbus, or car, or school), not “on” a kid.

• Warning to Bracken County, KY: don’t get caught in the bed bug blame game
• Schools in Bracken County, KY shut down due to bed bugs
• NYC Bedbuggers: time to have some local politicians over for a bite or two
• Waterbury, Connecticut: let’s try less shame, and better information about bed bugs

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The new system could increase efficiency and help control the vermin and bedbug problem that sanitation workers often face. It is based on other automated systems in cities such as Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Lexington and Louisville.

The proposal would add $17.30 a month to a resident’s water bill, or $207.60 a year. It would add $19.90 monthly to a small business’ water bill, or $238.80 a year.

Some are not convinced this is a good idea.  Cincinnati City Councilman Chris Monzel is one:

Monzel said the system is a good one but that the cost should not fall on residents. He said City Manager Milton Dohoney should search for other services and programs that can be cut to finance it, although he didn’t offer any suggestions.

“If we are looking for efficiency by using this system, I think it’s a great idea,” he said. “But to go through and build this whole system and charge the citizen to pay for it is ridiculous.”

I have to say, from the perspective of people with bed bugs — many of whom suffer deep financial losses due to bed bugs —  the idea of more costs is a daunting idea.

But it’s easy for me to say:  I’m not the one who has to find some other programs or services to cut.

I do think that Cincinnati needs to focus funds on helping people fight bed bugs, and on helping them get and pay for necessary treatment, since we hear from many in that town who can’t afford pest control services and are trying to use products sold in the drugstore to fight their own bed bug infestations.

Because collecting bed bug-infested furniture may be an important part of the solution to bed bug problems in Cincinnati, but proper bed bug treatment for all citizens is even more crucial.  

You can cart off all the bed bug-infested mattresses and dressers you like, but as long as people do not get good, aggressive bed bug treatment, they will still have bed bugs.

• Cincinnati police, firefighters may be getting help with bed bugs
• Cincinnati government discovers bed bugs are not easily treated, news at 11
• Cincinnati: awareness spreading, funds needed to fight bed bugs
• Urgent: if you’re in Cincinnati…

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A law student has sued one of downtown Cleveland’s chicer high-rises, contending that bedbugs drove him from two apartments — and flying gnats from a third.

In his lawsuit, Joshua Bobrowsky said the blood-sucking vermin in three Reserve Square apartments left him with painful welts and months of psychological and emotional distress. He seeks $142,000 in damages.

“I couldn’t sleep,” Bobrowsky, 26, of Pittsburgh, said in an interview Tuesday. “It was just a very horrible experience. Life isn’t enjoyable anymore when you think that everything you own is infested with parasites.”

A few questions:

1.  It is very easy to move bed bugs from one unit to another.  Could this account for Bobrowsky’s second apartment in the building having bed bugs?

2.  The “chicest” high rises in Cleveland charge $1650 for a 3-bedroom?  

(I just heard a rush of Manhattanites and their offspring running through the tunnel to New Jersey– they’re on their way, Cleveland!)

3.  Flying gnats?  Aren’t they a lot easier to get rid of than bed bugs?

Thanks to the Bedbugger who tipped me off to this one!

• Another 23-25 Temple St., Nashua, N.H. tenant sues landlord over bed bugs
• New eco-thriller starring Val Kilmer has bed bug connection
• Infested student apartment building at Wright State University, Dayton
• Bedbugs in the news today: Peterborough, England

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…as a downtown resident, I check my bed and body for signs of the critters daily, given the recent outbreak. They’re been spotted everywhere, as has been widely reported, including 800 Broadway–the county building that houses juvenile court–and the courthouse.

This gets added to the stories of courtrooms possibly infested with bed bugs in West New York, New Jersey, 111 Centre St. in Manhattan, and Livingston St. in Brooklyn.

• HPD expands bed bug seminars
• Bed bug lawsuits, and: bed bugs in another NYC Housing Court?
• 2 workers claim they were punished for asking about bed bugs at work
• Brooklyn woman suing, apparently because of half-a$$ed treatment for bed bugs

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Cincinnati police officers and firefighters who unwittingly bring bed bugs from their jobs into their homes should get financial help to get rid of the pests, City Council says.

All council members signed a motion to order the city administration to immediately begin negotiating with a pest control company to provide a discounted bug eradication service.

This seems like a positive development, but officials need to realize that everyone is in danger of bringing bed bugs home based only on their normal daily activities and through no fault of their own. Teachers, social workers, doctors, nurses, anyone at all can acquire bed bugs at work, on public transportation, or anywhere.

I hope the city will pass this bill but will also work on providing low-cost (or free!) and effective bed bug eradication for all Cincinnati residents.

As long as someone in your city still has bed bugs, you will not be free of them.

• Cincinnati firefighters battling bed bugs in one firehouse after another
• News round-up: UK’s Daily Telegraph on bed bugs; Cincinnati’s finest are working to avoid bed bugs
• Jersey City legislators push to make landlords pay for some bed bug treatments
• Cincinnati officially classes bed bugs as “vermin”

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On your way over there, have a look at the PDF of the brochure which Hamilton County Public Health is distributing.

• Toronto and Cincinnati/Hamilton County bed bug updates
• Bed bug legislation in the U.S. House and in the Ohio House
• Urgent: if you’re in Cincinnati…
• We love Dr. Susan Jones, Entomologist

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• We love Dr. Susan Jones, Entomologist
• Cincinnati firefighters battling bed bugs in one firehouse after another
• Urgent: if you’re in Cincinnati…
• New York vs. Bed Bugs on Hamilton County’s bed bug plan

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Because she’s one of those entomologists who’s telling it like it is, to public officials who want to ignore the bed bug problem. The Columbus Dispatch quoted Jones Tuesday as saying,

“If you bury your head in the sand, you’re going to get bitten, and it’s just going to get worse and worse,” said Susan Jones, an entomology professor at Ohio State University.

And because she’s trying to convince public health officials that bed bugs are a health problem, something many health officials don’t seem to get:

“The question is: Is it a public-health issue or not?” Columbus Health Department spokesman Jose Rodriguez said. “Bedbugs are really looked upon as a nuisance issue.”

OSU’s Jones, however, said scabbing, secondary infections and the anxiety caused by fearing your own bed are serious health concerns.

Amen. It’s not just about the bed bug bites, for crying out loud.

Those alone are often more than a nuisance, but the loss of sleep, anxiety, and loss of money due to treatment or preparations for treatment (which can mean people do not get the food, health care, or other resources they need) can have even more serious health consequences for many.

Susan Jones is involved with the Cincinnati/Hamilton County Joint Bed Bug Task Force.

Code enforcement handles individual complaints, but Jones recommends a centralized master plan.

She suggested a task force that combines the expertise of pest-control, health, code-enforcement and housing agencies. Trends would be easier to spot with all the complaints and treatment numbers in one place, and a task force also could coordinate a publicity campaign to tell people how to stop the spread of bedbugs.

People should seal infested furniture in plastic before disposing of it; travelers ought to check hotel beds for pests; and exterminators need to know that bedbugs are harder to kill than most insects, experts said.

Jones works with a similar task force in Hamilton County. The group was launched after the Cincinnati Health Department received 737 bedbug complaints in 2007 - the same number as for mice, rats and roaches combined.

I wonder how New York City’s bed bug complaints stack up against our complaints for mice /rats / roaches?

The article’s basic focus is on how Columbus / Franklin County, Ohio need to step up their own response to bed bugs.

Well, you know what they say: admitting your city or county has a bed bug problem is the first step towards solving it.

• Last week’s Town Hall Meeting in Cincinnati
• Urgent: if you’re in Cincinnati…
• New York vs. Bed Bugs on Hamilton County’s bed bug plan
• Minneapolis has a bed bug task force?!?

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Imagine having your home burn down (due to arson, no less), evacuating, and then having to deal with bed bug bites and a second evacuation?

I hope the Mathis family is now bed bug free in their current accommodation, and ever after.

• Jersey City hotel closed due to fire safety and bed bug violations
• Do not watch this if you have an active bed bug infestation
• an honest hotel?
• Bed bugs in another women’s shelter in Charlotte, North Carolina

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An anonymous caller told the Middletown Health Department on Thursday morning, Sept. 4, that bedbugs had been discovered at the shelter, Middletown health inspector Janay Mourer told the Middletown Journal:

Hope House confirmed Thursday that exterminators had been at the shelter recently, and that the health department had notified them Thursday, said the Rev. Mitchell Foster, the pastor of Tried Stone Baptist Church and an adviser to Hope House who is running daily operations.

“We’ve already taken care of it … we dealt with the issue, and it’s under control,” Foster said.

Asked when exterminators were at Hope House, Foster said he was “not absolutely sure, but I know the problem is taken care of.”

Carla Ealy, a supervising sanitarian for the health department, said she spoke to Foster and was satisfied that the situation was being handled. Foster also said the shelter has ordered new mattresses.

Although it sounds like the management are on the case, I would not be so quick to declare the problem “taken care of.”

The anonymous tip-off about the bed bugs was made on Thursday morning and this article was online as of 1:00 am Friday. The only way to have eradicated the problem this quickly would be if the entire structure were heat treated or gassed with a fumigant like Vikane.

Traditional pest control methods (sprays and dusts) do not work that fast or that effectively. They must be given time and re-treatments are likely needed in the next two weeks.

Bed bugs can be very persistent, especially among a population that may be being exposed and re-exposed to them off-site.

Hopefully the shelter will educate staff and guests about how to avoid and detect bed bugs, and hopefully the shelter will be getting follow-up treatments (which are almost always necessary) and regular inspections.

• Bed bug news round-up: Waterbury, Connecticut; MIT
• More on bed bugs at the Montana Rescue Mission in Billings
• Bed bugs in another women’s shelter in Charlotte, North Carolina
• Bowling Green Towers: another infestation in elderly and disabled housing

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