There’s a little bed bug consciousness-raising going on in this post from Megan McArdle on her Atlantic.com blog, and even more in the active discussion which follows.

MacArdle writes:

Craigslist springs up to facilitate low cost transactions between individuals: good!

The market for used furniture booms, allowing people to furnish their houses more nicely/cheaply, while giving a little extra cash to those parting with unwanted furnishings: good!

The boom in used furnitures spreads bedbugs, leading to a quasi-epidemic in some areas: eeeeeeeeeeeeeek!

McArdle suggests that due to used furniture alone, the more the economy bites, the more the bed bugs bite.

Well, bed bugs were doing just fine spreading before the recent market plunges. After all, they also get to spread nicely when we spend lots of money to travel and stay in hotels, hostels, and rental houses, ride on planes, trains and buses, or go to college and home again.

Still, I don’t doubt for a minute that the recession can indeed help bed bugs in so many ways (we go for secondhand furniture and other items, we can’t afford treatment or encasements, and so on). We have commented on the potential (and reported) spread of bed bugs via Craigslist, freecycle, and other methods before.

The comments thread is even more interesting than the post itself, IMHO. I was glad to see all of this happening in the mainstream blogosphere.

I encourage you to check it out!Similar Posts:

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According to the Stamford Advocate, that city’s health department expects last year’s 85 reported cases of bed bugs will be surpassed this year. (Remember, those are just the cases that get reported to the health department):

“It’s going up and it’s going to continue to go up,” said Mike Kraynak, director of health inspections.

As a New Yorker, I am intrigued to hear a public official express concern that the bed bug problem is growing, though it so obviously is.

And here’s the law in Stamford:

If a bed bug case is reported in rented housing, the city requires landlords to exterminate until the problem is resolved, Kraynak said. First, a resident must find a bed bug and take it to the city as evidence. If a lab worker confirms it is a bed bug, the city sends an extermination order. Usually, if the apartment is six units or less, the city requires the entire building be treated. In larger complexes, the city requires treating only the affected unit and those surrounding it.

I haven’t heard of other cities which invite residents to bring a sample in.

In New York, in stark contrast, we hear inspectors (if they turn up to inspect following a bed bug complaint) like to see them harboring in the “natural habitat” of your home (in daylight, of course, and in plain view). Oh, and we’re told they often expect the resident to be able to find them. As you can imagine, the wily bed bugs don’t always cooperate.

Stamford has some other things going for it, too:

Kraynak said residents must report a bed-bug problem, but a few preventive measures are in place. [City Health Inspector Amy] Lehaney works to educate neighborhood associations. And the health department provides information, including examples of the insects, at its front desk in the government center.

For those who don’t have a problem, Kraynak recommends caution.

“Don’t pick up a mattress from the sidewalk,” he said. “It’s against the law to sell used mattresses. And when you go into a hotel room, check the bedding and make sure you don’t see signs of an infestation.”

So Stamford is educating residents, helping walk-ins learn to identify bed bugs, and it’s also illegal to sell used mattresses in Stamford?

Good news!

In New York, officials turn a blind eye as the used mattress trade works overtime. There sure are a lot of mattresses on the curbside right now. I’m sure it saves New York City a lot of money in terms of garbage collection when those scavengers come and pick them up for re-sale.

I could not find anything about bed bugs by searching on the Stamford Health Inspections website at this time, but it sounds like they have some good policies in place so far. Let’s hope they do even more to fight the spread of bed bugs in Stamford.Similar Posts:

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Or so it would seem.

Earlier this week, there was the bed bug bill in the U.S. Congress.

And yesterday, an article in the Maine Switch (a website for those in Greater Portland) about the city’s yearly trash pick-up of bulky trash items. Not surprisingly, the day is a yearly impromptu festival for bargain hunters and curb-crawling small-time entrepreneurs:

Just like spring flowers, the sprouting of ratty recliners and beat-up toys on the sidewalk is a sign of the changing seasons in Portland. These cast-off belongings cluttering the grassy strip between the pavement and the sidewalk represent the city’s annual bulky waste pick-up. And like a siren song, yard sale buffs, bargain-hunters and freegans can’t resist this annual opportunity to turn trash into treasure.

I’ve known people who’ve practically furnished their whole apartments with curbside finds. One of the best was the gorgeous sleigh bed a friend found a few years ago. One of the worst was a couch covered in cat hair (and god know what else), which, thankfully, only made a brief appearance in another friend’s apartment.

But the main point of the article, discussed at length, is the dangers of bed bugs lurking in used items.

Oh, but beware those mattresses. Should you haul one home (like one hapless Craigslist poster did recently), you may gain some unwelcome roommates.

“If you’re picking up a mattress or other pieces of furniture, you need to be conscious that they may have bed bugs,” says Doug Gardner, Portland’s director of health and human services. “There’s no way to tell with 100% accuracy.”

That is until you install your lovely find in your home and begin to wonder why you’re suddenly covered in little red bumps.

Unfortunately, unlike Doug Gardner, the author mostly fixates on “mattresses,” whereas any used items might potentially bring bed bugs to your home. Although to her credit, the author later notes wooden furninture is also a problem, I’d stress that other items are also potentially infested. Many, many people throw out everything they own, even though it’s almost never necessary (and they’re not usually acting on the advice of bed bug experts). Throwing everything out can cost you lots of money, won’t get rid of your bed bugs, and will spread them to neighbors and others.

The article has two other Bedbugger points of interest.

First, because of bed bugs, Portland started giving their refuse collectors Tyvek suits last year for the annual bulky trash pickup day. Unfortunately, the city isn’t itself attempting to warn trash pickers about bed bugs, for example here, or here on this PDF flyer. Even a brief one-line warning would help. I understand from this article that they don’t want to seem to be condoning the practice of trash picking during the bulky trash days, but warning against it would not do so and would be germane to avoiding further spread of the problem.

Second point of interest: if you have bed bugs and rent in Portland, the article notes that your landlord does need to get rid of them. If not, you can call the city inspections department:

If apartment renters find themselves assaulted by bed bugs and can’t get their landlord to respond, [city inspections director Jeanie] Bourke’s office fields the complaints. Her team of inspectors then makes sure the landlord hires a pesticide company to spray the place down and that the residents follow a tightly regimented routine requiring the washing of everything and the sealing of clothes and mattresses in plastic.

Thanks to the Maine Switch for focusing readers’ attention on the dangers of trash picking in 2008.

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I thought it was bad that companies were carting away used mattresses alongside new ones in their delivery trucks. But some mattress sellers go even further in their attempts to spread bed bugs.

A Canadian mattress store called Sleep Country has a program of “charity” for those in need. When a person buys a new mattress and returns their old one, the used mattress is given away to a person in need. The Edmonton Sun recently ran a story detailing one woman’s story: as the recipient of this charity, she had to have her home treated repeatedly for bed bugs.

Prospective mattress recipients are supposed to inspect the mattress and determine its safety. This woman’s mattress actually had black streaks on it and she did not know about bed bugs. However, it should be stated that even without obvious signs, a mattress with small tears or gaps can harbor bed bugs.

For its part, Sleep Country says it has had few complaints about the donation program, which provided 40,000 people with beds last year.

Dean Ritchey, the company’s vice president of operations for Western Canada, said it’s up to the person taking the bed to inspect it.

“We let the consumer determine if it’s a product they’re comfortable with,” he said.

Sleep Country is being seriously negligent if they expect people to know the signs of bed bugs. This is a really bad idea, and the practice of giving out used mattresses should be stopped at once. The bed bug epidemic is serious, and Edmonton has had many outbreaks. People on low-incomes do not benefit from a bout with bed bugs.Similar Posts:

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A lot of the bed bug stories we see from around North America and the UK are the same old stuff: from the local subject, surprised to find he had bed bugs, to the “Be careful while you travel” box of tips, to the “Don’t let the bed bugs bite,” closing, it can be a pretty redundant genre of news journalism.

However, this isn’t one of those stories. This is new news.

The Charlotte Observer reported Sunday that inspectors found 600 unsanitized mattresses at Advanced Hotel Services on Sugar Creek Road, Charlotte, N.C., a used hotel furniture store, during monthly spot checks in 4 months (October through January). “Used hotel furniture” is sounding like such a bad idea right now.

Some mattresses had fake tags that indicated they were sanitized when they were not. The inspectors do not know how many mattresses were sold in that condition.

Two different owners each say they never sold any, though an inspector was told by workers in January that some mattresses were set to go to a motel chain.

After failing to clean the mattresses following four inspections, the state ordered Advanced on Jan. 22 to destroy 374 mattresses on its sales floor, a state inspection report said.

Workers cut the mattresses, but an additional 200 or so in the store’s stock room were not destroyed because an owner said he was dumping those, Anderson said.

N.C. law requires sellers to sanitize used mattresses, couches and recliners at 230 degrees for two hours to kill bacteria and bed bugs, Johnson said.

Used bedding also cannot have stains, and sellers must glue on a yellow label that says the items are used. Sellers must sanitize even relatively new bedding — such as mattresses returned after a 30-day trial, Johnson said. The law does not apply to private, individual sales.

Most of us did not get our bed bugs from unsanitized mattresses, but they’re certainly a way in which bed bugs may have been spread initially. Especially if they’re making their ways into hotels. Or (in the case of other resold mattresses) the homes of our neighbors and co-workers.

My own city’s officials balked at a ban on reselling mattresses because of a sense that the poor really needed to save $50 by buying a used mattress.

Back in September, the NYTimes reported that

… Andrew Eiler, director of legislation for the city’s Department of Consumer Affairs, expressed uncertainty about the [proposed NYC] bill [to limit the re-sale of used mattresses]. A twin-sized mattress without a box spring can be bought for $40 from the Salvation Army, or about $50 less than a new mattress. “While $50 may not appear as a significant difference to some, it may be an unbridgeable gap to consumers with limited incomes,” he said.

I am sorry, but that’s bull. The poor really do not need bed bugs. I spent several years sleeping on a 3″ futon (not the futons most people in the west use, but the thin ones). It was immensely comfortable. I was somewhere between a cheap new mattress and a reconditioned mattress for cost, and I’d sleep on one forever rather than have bed bugs.

Shame on these foolish, foolish businessmen. And shame on the system:

After failing to clean the mattresses following four inspections, the state ordered Advanced on Jan. 22 to destroy 374 mattresses on its sales floor, a state inspection report said.

Workers cut the mattresses, but an additional 200 or so in the store’s stock room were not destroyed because an owner said he was dumping those, Anderson said.

If they can be given four months, four inspections, and still have the mattresses in the back room, maybe the inspections system is faulty.

Ever bought something special from the backroom of a store? In this case, it was no bargain.

And the article says that the majority of used mattresses sold elsewhere are also unsanitized:

About 60 percent of the mattresses inspected at stores and flea markets have not been sanitized properly or at all, Anderson said.

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Now we’re getting somewhere.

For years, when they mentioned bed bugs at all, which was rarely, the press was talking about people with bed bug infestations needing to do some laundry, throw out a mattress, maybe move. (All insufficient and/or not helpful, as we know.)

Some news outlets are still at this level. Their refrain: it’s a nuisance: spray the college dorm once, send the kids to do laundry, no problem. (Wrong!) Be glad you don’t live in a shelter, where this is such a problem. The tone of these recent articles is not much of an improvement over 2003’s example: “Those silly hipsters in Greenpoint: it looks like trash-picking mattresses can lead to pesky problems.”

Just weeks ago, we started seeing reports that took it to the next level: admitting things are getting out of hand in isolated places (like residential apartments for seniors in Boston, Single Room Occupancy apartments in NYC, low-income housing, and so on). Those media outlets that have made it to this level are pointing out that it’s more than a nuisance. That tossing furniture is spreading the problem, and that the poor and moderate income citizens can’t afford this experience (who can?)

And now, the Toronto Star has taken it to another level:

Pest control experts predict bedbugs are their new cash cow, and that within five years, they will be more common than mice, roaches and carpenter ants.

You have to read on, though, and read between the lines to see that eradicating bed bugs is nowhere near as easy as eradicating roaches, mice, and rats.

The Star does note that the poorest are the hardest hit (as they are when any force of nature or man-made disaster hits). But the words above are astounding: what person has not once had roaches, mice or ants invade a dwelling? (Many, of course, have had more than one of these, or had one again and again.) House-holder, rich, famous?

Not immune.

The article spells this out: In 2003 1/2 of Toronto bed bug victims were householders; only 1/4 were in apartments.

It goes on,

To rid a home costs between $300 and $650 for the first treatment, with $65 a month for re-treatments until the pests have been eradicated. Apartments are less expensive, costing between $200 and $300 but treating them there is more difficult.

One suite in an building can spray their space diligently, vacuum their mattress daily, cover belongings in plastic, steam-clean the upholstery, dryclean clothes and replace bedding. But if the suite next door has neither the time nor the finances to do so, the space will be re-infested within days. It’s a problem Dancyger knows too well. In April his apartment was sprayed. He was free of the bugs for only two days before they came creeping back.

The Star also does a nice job of outlining the lack of government response, one we’re seeing elsewhere too:

Toronto Public Health won’t say there’s a problem.

Except for City Assemblywoman Gale Brewer, New York City officials are not taking on board their responsibilities. This will be a huge problem and is growing daily. And yet at a recent City Council Hearing on bed bugs in NYC, another city official from the Dept. of Consumer Affairs argued that poor people needed the right to buy reconditioned (=used) mattresses (to save a whopping $50).

That’s ignorance of what this pest can do to the child sleeping on that mattress, and her family, her neighbors, landlord, and so on. This can spread from one bed to a whole neighborhood: from bed to subway station bench to workplace to school, and then home with anyone who uses any of those. These sound like paranoid thoughts, but at the Bedbugger yahoo group, we’ve heard multiple stories of people who moved from their homes with the utmost care, taking every precaution, going so far as to ditch virtually all their belongings, and nevertheless, somehow, “moved” their problem with them. They spread easily.

Would a public official who knew the threat he was dealing with say such a thing? No. And there are plenty of entomologists and pest control operators who can tell us how bad this is, let alone the sufferers. We know. Listen to us.

Nice work, Toronto Star: you raised the bar on bed bug stories in the news. I hope we see more reports that are designed to wake people up.

And I want to hear more about the middle class and upper-middle class sufferers. We know they’re out there, but they’re ashamed (just like the poor people). I know this is especially bad in SROs, shelters, low-income housing, but until we’re seeing rich people on Fox news talking about how they had to throw away their prized posessions and live like monks, sitting on metal chairs and sleeping on air mattresses– until we see rich people crying because they unwittingly spread bedbugs to a sick elderly parent, who is really suffering– until then, some people are going to be stuck on the “it’s just a problem for the poor” idea. And they are so wrong.Similar Posts:

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