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Bed bug on Sardinia, Ohio second grader: child sent home, school “cleaned”

nobugsonme — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 20:49:33 +0000

A bed bug was spotted on a second grade student at Sardinia Elementary School in Ohio. It’s a brand new school, and the school responded by sending the child home with information for her parents about what they needed to do.

Officials then had the school “cleaned” thoroughly, removing carpets and steam-cleaning in classrooms. WKRC Local 12 in Cincinnati reports:

The superintendent says the precautions are necessary to make sure other students and staff are not affected. The superintendent says cleaning crews removed carpet and used steam cleaners in classrooms. Busses were thoroughly cleaned as well.

“One was spotted and that was enough we wanted to make sure we got in front of it In the afternoon the students’ book bags and backpacks which is what could carry the insect, they put those all in clear plastic bags and gave a handout to the parents to notify them of what had happened and how they’re supposed to handle that.”

Steam can effectively kill bed bugs but if they are harboring on the premises, multiple treatments with steam as well as residual pesticides and dusts may be warranted.

I have a serious problem with several things here:

1) Just because a bed bug in the school is spotted on a particular student does not mean that student brought the bed bug in. A bed bug could crawl from the school itself, from another student’s desk or bag, and so on. The bug could have been picked up in a school bus or other transportation, or at any location in the school. Even in a brand new school, as the story stresses in this case.

2) A recent study showed nearly 1 in 6 people in Cincinnati had had bed bugs. A really high number of Ohio residents have them right now. Any student, teacher, or staff member could have brought that bed bug in, and so banning the student from school while her parents carry out certain steps is not warranted in my mind. Perhaps it would be if we had confirmation that the family did indeed have a bed bug infestation. But I would guess any number of people in that school have an active bed bug infestation right now, and it’s unfair to single out the person caught with a bed bug on them.

3) “Cleaning” does not eliminate bed bugs reliably. Even steam cleaning, which will kill bed bugs if done properly, needs to be repeated in most cases and augmented with other treatment methods. I hope this school is getting good assistance from experts who know their bed bugs.

You can watch the Local 12 news video here. I did not embed it because it’s one of those annoying ones that does not wait for one to press the “play” key, instead simply loading as the page loads. Similar Posts:

PCT Online on Ohio’s Propoxur Section 18 label exemption request

nobugsonme — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 19:40:25 +0000

Brad Harbison has a new article in PCT Online with more background on Ohio’s EPA request for a Section 18 label exemption request for Propoxur, the process it went through, its current status (“wait and see”), and the prognosis for other states following suit, should it be successful.Similar Posts:

Ohio’s EPA emergency exemption request for Propoxur

nobugsonme — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 19:45:01 +0000

The Ohio Department of Agriculture has asked the EPA for a public health exemption which would allow it to use the carbamate insecticide propoxur to treat bed bugs (with a 14-day retreatment period). (We mentioned this back in November. And New York vs. Bed Bugs discusses how Section 18 exemption requests work here.)

Propoxur is no miracle cure for bed bugs, but it is potentially a good tool for fighting bed bugs, especially strains resistant to pyrethroids. It would be a big help.

The Environmental Protection Agency is now accepting comments on the request (deadline 1/21/2010).

The following is an excerpt from the EPA’s notice [EPA–HQ–OPP–2009–0856; FRL–8802–9]

Propoxur; Receipt of Application for Emergency Exemption; Solicitation of Public Comment

Under section 18 of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) (7 U.S.C. 136p), at the discretion of the Administrator, a Federal or State agency may be exempted from any provision of FIFRA if the Administrator determines that emergency conditions exist which require the exemption. The Ohio Department of Agriculture (DOA) has requested the Administrator to issue a public health exemption for the use of propoxur on indoor residential single or multiple unit dwellings, apartments, hotels, motels, office buildings, modes of transportation, and commercial industrial buildings to control bed bugs. Information in accordance with 40 CFR part 166 was submitted as part of this request.

As part of this request, the applicant asserts that an emergency exemption is warranted because of the prevalence of control failures with other existing labeled insecticides, in part due to pyrethroid resistance in the bed bug population. Bed bugs are parasitic, blood-sucking insects that prefer humans as a host and tend to inhabit human dwellings. For several decades, pyrethroids have been used to manage the bed bug population in the United States. Since the late 1990s, bed bugs have begun making a comeback, largely due to their development of extremely high levels of resistance to pyrethroid insecticides. Thus, these parasitic insects have been growing rapidly and have re-emerged as a major pest in many towns and cities in Ohio. The ODA states that currently available insecticides are inadequate for the control of bed bugs and resulted in a crisis that poses grave economic concerns, quality of life issues, and potential health risks to the residents of the state. The ODA claims propoxur is one of the few insecticidal ingredients showing excellent activity against bed bugs and would provide an effective
insecticide in a different chemical class for bed bug control.

The Applicant proposes to make applications year-round with a 14–day retreatment restriction. Three propoxur products will be used (all containing 1% propoxur):
• Prenbay 1% Oil Solution (EPA Reg.
No. 655–546) manufactured by Prentiss
Inc.
• Invader HPX (EPA Reg. No. 9444–
186) manufactured by FMC Corp.
• Prescription Treatment Brand 250
Propoxur (EPA Reg. No. 499–501)
manufactured by Whitmire Micro-gen
Research Lab. Inc.

These products would be applied as a crack and crevice or spot treatment to indoor residential single or multiple unit dwellings, apartments, hotels, motels, office buildings, modes of transportation, and commercial industrial buildings. Application of the products would be applied in quantities sufficient to manage the bed bug infestation in Ohio.

This notice does not constitute a decision by EPA on the application itself. The regulations governing section 18 of FIFRA require publication of a notice of receipt of an application for a public health exemption proposing a use of a pesticide which was voluntarily
canceled under section 6(f) of FIFRA, and which poses a risk similar to the risk which was voluntarily canceled under section 6(f) of FIFRA.

The notice provides an opportunity for public comment on the application.

The Agency, will review and consider all comments received during the comment period in determining whether to issue the public health
exemption requested by the ODA.

You can download supporting materials here (PDF), including a letter from Dr. Susan Jones, Ohio State University entomologist, and draft labels for the products.

You can read the full notice here, or download a PDF.

And you can submit your comments before 1/21/10, identified by docket identification (ID) number EPA-HQ-OPP-2009-0856, at the Federal eRulemaking Portal.
Similar Posts:

Ohio fighting to get Propoxur for residential bed bug applications

nobugsonme — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:11:20 +0000

The Ohio Department of Agriculture has asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for an emergency exemption to allow the use of the pesticide Propoxur in residences; more than a dozen additional states are supporting this request, The Columbus Dispatch reports.

The pesticide is currently in use for crops, on flea/tick collars, and in commercial applications. This would simply be an emergency extension of its use inside residences.

Why Propoxur?

As Doug Caruso reports for The Columbus Dispatch,

In tests at the University of Kentucky, the chemical killed 100 percent of the bedbugs exposed to it within 24 hours and kept on killing after eggs hatched, Beal said. That compared with a 16 percent kill rate after 72 hours for a commonly used household insecticide against one strain found in Cincinnati, and 40 percent in another strain.

Make no mistake: while safety to humans and pets is an important factor when decisions are made about which pesticides are legal for which use, political and financial interests do factor heavily. The Columbus Dispatch notes,

Introduced in 1959, Propoxur was removed from home use in the 1990s under a law that sought to reduce people’s exposure to insecticides. When manufacturers decided which uses to allow, [Matt Beal, assistant chief at the Ohio Department of Agriculture] said, they kept the chemical for application to crops and commercial buildings because they sold more of it for those purposes.

[Emphasis mine.]

It will be interesting to see if the exemption is granted, and whether this helps us in our battle against the red menace.

Update (11/12):

Is it just me or is the New York Times trying to put a spin on this issue with their headline,

“Ohio Wants to Use Industrial Poison on Bedbugs at Home.”

[Emphasis mine.]

Eek! Industrial poison! Oh no!

(Meanwhile, the people with bed bugs are saying, “yes, please!”)
Similar Posts:

Yet another person tries to self-treat for bed bugs and sets building on fire

nobugsonme — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:17:04 +0000

Cincinnati.com reports that fourteen people living in a Hamilton County, Ohio apartment building were displaced overnight by a fire caused by someone spraying alcohol-based pesticides while smoking:

Fire investigators have determined the blaze was started by a resident spraying for bed bugs while smoking, said Capt. Steve Conn, spokesman for the Colerain Township Fire Department.

“They were spraying for bed bugs, and it had alcohol in it,” Conn said. “One of the residents lit up a cigarette, and it basically flashed and started the room on fire.”

[Emphasis mine.]

This is very dangerous, obviously, and it is a good thing no one was seriously injured, and that most of the residents have been able to return home.

This Hamilton County Public Health document (click for PDF) reminds residents who rent that

If you rent a home or apartment within Hamilton County (excluding cities of Cincinnati, Norwood, Sharonville or Springdale) and you think you have bed bugs, please contact the Hamilton County General Health District at (513) 946-7832. Health District sanitarians will work with your landlord to eliminate the problem.

Self-treating for bed bugs is often ineffective and can be dangerous, as this story reminds us. And this is not the first fire caused by attempts to get rid of bed bugs.

People in Hamilton County have other options for bed bug treatment; what about tenants and low-income homeowners living elsewhere who don’t?Similar Posts:

18-story Dayton apartment building infested with bed bugs to be treated with Vikane gas

nobugsonme — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 17:16:42 +0000

On August 22nd, an entire 18-story apartment building in Dayton, the Biltmore at 210 N. Main St., is being treated for bed bugs with Vikane (sulfuryl fluoride) gas fumigation. Residents will be evacuated for a week (to friends’ homes, or to a local hotel).

The Dayton Daily News reports that this process is only being undertaken after two years of unsuccessful spraying of individual units:

Because the infestation has resisted floor-by-floor fumigation for two years, [Denver-based building owners] Aimco said, the building-wide attack with the deadly gas is now the only option.

Aimco spokeswoman Cindy Duffy said residents should be ready to return Aug. 30. She had no cost estimates for the project, but said the money for the fumigation and relocation would come from Aimco’s operational budget.

Interestingly, last October, AIMCO evacuated a Philadelphia building for thermal treatment. We have not heard any follow-up on that case; it would be interesting to know why Vikane was chosen in the Dayton case.

It’s important to note that when an entire building is treated, residents, management and staff will likely need to be educated about how to avoid bringing in bed bugs again — because if they can be brought in to the building once, they can be brought in again, and again.

Management should also have some continued inspection policy. Some PCOs might want to use additional treatments such as a mechanical dust to nip future infestations in the bud, and methods like caulking to help prevent future infestations from spreading.

However, nothing is more important than making sure residents and staff know how bed bugs spread, how to avoid and spot them, and that they will suffer no repercussions for reporting them swiftly in future.

Future reports of bed bug bites or sightings must be met with swift attention — and not just attention to the unit where the complaint was made.

The Dayton Daily News also notes that

The Biltmore, which receives Department of Housing and Urban Development Section 8 subsidies, isn’t the only apartment building in the area with bedbug problems.

(Incidentally, you may recall that a few weeks ago, HUD told a landlord in Florida that tenants did not have to pay to treat their bed bugs, as the building owner was insisting.)

The Dayton Daily News also illuminated the details of the spread of bed bugs in Dayton:

Tom Hut, a supervisor with Public Health — Dayton & Montgomery County, said he’s receiving a dozen queries a day, mostly from apartment dwellers, about bedbug infestations. That’s a jump from a dozen queries per week in 2008, he said.

This is troubling: if we assume Hut is only getting calls about bed bugs Monday-Friday, that’s still five times as many bed bug queries per week now as in the prior year.

Dayton needs to take bed bugs very seriously.

See the full story in the Dayton Daily News: Bedbug war to empty downtown apartments.

Note: as bbbites and cilecto pointed out in a thread on this story in our Bedbugger Forums, be aware that there’s some odd advice in the Tips for Avoiding Bed Bugs inset, for example, “Regularly launder bedding in very hot water, especially when coming back from a trip.” Unless you travel with your own bedsheets (which we do not recommend), this does not make much sense. For more detailed travel advice, see our Travel FAQs.Similar Posts:

A tale of two bed bug-troubled cities: Cincinnati, Columbus

nobugsonme — Sat, 23 May 2009 05:12:56 +0000

My report about the Hillrise Apartments in Cincinnati the other day highlighted what can happen when local officials stop inspecting rental units based on bed bug complaints.

As you’ll recall, funding was cut at the end of 2008 for the Cincinnati Health Department’s bed bug inspection program.

Here’s another story with bedbugged tenants, this time in Columbus, Ohio, where the Franklin County Board of Health is able to inspect homes based on tenant complaints.

NBC4i reports that some residents of The Pointe Apartments on Harrisburg Pike, fed up with bed bug bites, have evacuated their homes for hotel rooms:

[Tenant Chris White] called officials after an exterminator hired by the property managers didn’t show up May 6.

The property manager wasn’t immediately available for comment.

Neighbors are helping each other look for bed bugs in their cushions and mattresses.

“It’s not my responsibility to do this. It’s the apartment complex. I’m helping friends out,“ he said.

Residents received a letter from the complex officials saying that exterminators would arrive on May 6, but residents said the exterminator never showed up.

Franklin County health officials went door-to-door inspecting apartments.

For the second time since last fall, health officials are issuing orders for pest control as soon as possible.

[Emphasis added.]

Obviously, if there are inspectors who can come in and issue pest control orders, this does not mean bed bugs will necessarily be eradicated quickly and fully.

However, tenants who can call upon such services stand a much better chance than those who can’t. And of course, they are able to call again, if the problem persists, as it did in this case, and the inspectors can become involved again.

Note: the Franklin County Board of Health (this is their bed bugs page) is part of the Central Ohio Bed Bug Task Force, a group that stepped up, according to this article in the Columbus Dispatch last September, when local officials started to become aware of the problem and its effects in Cincinnati.Similar Posts:

Towels under the door: when cities abandon tenants with bed bugs

nobugsonme — Thu, 21 May 2009 18:10:55 +0000

This is what happens when local authorities cannot help low-income tenants get help and treatment for bed bugs.

WLWT in Cincinnati reports that the Hillrise Apartments for Seniors in College Hill still has a serious bed bug problem. Cincinnati, you’ll remember, did not fund its Health Department’s bed bug inspection program in their last budget, and ceased doing bed bug inspections in January 2009.

The Cincinnati Health Department had to cease inspecting for bed bugs even though requests for assistance had gone from 70 requests in 2007 to 750 in 2008.

The residents at Hillrise Apartments appear to be living without proper bed bug treatment, claiming they’ve had bed bugs for years. In fact, we ran a story on Bedbugger about bed bugs in the Hillrise Apartments back in October 2007, when they were already said by tenants to have “spread from one end of the building to the other.” And that was over nineteen months ago!

The video linked below shows senior citizens attempting to ward off bed bug bites with 91% isopropyl alcohol (a contact killer if sprayed directly on a bed bug, this won’t prevent bed bugs from biting) or attempting keep them out of apartments with a towel stuck under the door. The video shows bed bugs crawling and fecal traces in the corners of a room that must have had bed bugs for a very long time.

WLWT notes that many residents have sought medical help for the bed bug bites and

The problem is so bad that local hospitals have actually called the Health Department looking for help for Hillrise residents.

The Cincinnati Health Department says landlords are responsible for treating to get rid of bed bugs, but as as we noted above, the Health Department no longer sends inspectors to identify the problem and educate residents about treatment options:

The Health Department said it did have a program that would check for bed bugs and then educate residents on their options, but that program was cut months ago when the city slashed its budget.

Please go to Seniors Battle Bed Bugs At Infested Apartment Complex – WLWT Cincinnati to read the full story and watch the depressing video.

And think long and hard about what happens when local public officials have good ideas about fighting bed bugs, but no funding to implement them.

And before anyone asks, yes: I get that the economy stinks. However, it’s more expensive to treat bed bugs when an infestation is allowed to get very bad. And obviously, the longer it goes on, the more citizens will get bed bugs (increasing treatment costs exponentially).

We’re talking about a city in which a recent study found one in six people had had bed bugs. One in six, according to the Spring 2008 Greater Cincinnati Health Survey conducted by the University of Cincinnati Institute for Policy Research.

And that was in Spring 2008; I do expect that number to grow.

If infestations are allowed to go on for years, with insufficient or no bed bug treatment, not only do the residents suffer, but bed bugs also continue to spread to others and infest more people’s homes, causing more suffering, costing more money.

I wonder how many more people in Cincinnati and the surrounding area have bed bugs as a result of this particular infestation being allowed to go on for years. Similar Posts:

Interview with Paul Wenning of The Central Ohio Bed Bug Task Force

nobugsonme — Tue, 05 May 2009 17:08:20 +0000

Renee Corea of New York vs. Bed Bugs has another new interview — this time with Central Ohio Bed Bug Task Force (COBBTF) Chair Paul Wenning of the Franklin County Board of Health

New York vs Bed Bugs: We are very impressed with the task force and understand it’s a volunteer organization?

Paul Wenning: We’ve known it was just a matter of time before bed bugs became a large problem in Greater Columbus. I had a series of conversations with officials from Cincinnati and Hamilton County (Greater Cincinnati) in the early autumn of 2008, and the astronomical rise in the number of cases there over a five year period convinced me that we had to take action and quickly. I began conversations with Dr. Susan Jones, from the Ohio State University Extension Office, who is also a leading expert on bed bugs. We quickly created a Bed Bug Summit, to which representatives of the City of Columbus, the suburbs, and County agencies were invited. It was well attended, and at the end of the program, I asked for volunteers to help establish a Bed Bug Task Force for Columbus and Franklin County. We held our first meeting in November, and I set forth a series of goals and objectives for the group to discuss.

I know you’ll want to read the rest:

The Central Ohio Bed Bug Task Force: an interview with Paul Wenning — New York vs Bed Bugs.Similar Posts:

Bed bugs in two patient units of a Columbus, Ohio children’s hospital

nobugsonme — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 04:10:53 +0000

A Columbus hospital has recently had bed bugs in two patient units, according to the Columbus Dispatch. Misti Crane writes:

Bedbugs found in two patient units at Nationwide Children’s Hospital prompted aggressive cleaning and the relocation of patients, according to a statement issued by the hospital.

It said the problem, which has been eliminated, was not due to poor sanitation, nor was it a health threat.

The hospital has hired a pest-control expert and is using a specially trained dog that can detect the presence of bedbugs. The hospital has many units of varying sizes, but officials would not say which units or how many rooms were affected.

“We will continue to take whatever measures are necessary to address this issue, which has unfortunately become chronic in central Ohio,” the statement says.

It’s not the first hospital to become infested with bed bugs, and it won’t be the last.

Bed bugs are hitchhikers: they come into hospitals with people, and other people may then leave the hospital with bed bugs too.

It’s important for hospitals to have a plan for this eventuality, so they can immediately take the necessary steps to get rid of the problem.

via The Columbus Dispatch : Hospital takes action against bedbugs.Similar Posts: