A brief report from KOMO in Seattle on Thursday’s NPMA Bed Bug Symposium.

It was interesting that the reporter noted that attendees who run hotels and buildings do not want to be filmed. They feared people would think their buildings have bed bugs, and they’d lose customers.

Since bed bugs can infest any multi-unit building, or any hotel, I would personally prefer to rent an apartment from a property manager (or a hotel room from a hotel manager) who attended educational events such as this one, and learned how to prevent, detect, and get rid of bed bugs in their property. I am sure many would agree with me on this.

One concern I have based on the KOMO news video alone is the reporter’s claim that bed bug sniffing k9 April “can come to your house and right away, let you know if you have a [bed bug] problem.”

Bed bug sniffing dogs can be a useful technology in the fight against bed bugs. But they are simply a tool: they alert to the presence of bed bugs; a diligent and careful search by the human handler is required to verify the presence of bed bugs.

Ideally, the dog’s alert is part of the process, not the entire procedure, but many dog handlers apparently don’t confirm the presence of bed bugs after an alert. I am not sure customers are generally knowledgeable about this — and news reports about the bed bug k9 industry are often misleading about how dog inspections should be carried out. In her discussion last night with David Letterman, Mary-Louise Parker also focused on the bed bug sniffing dog’s alert (”the dog sits!”) rather than the actual confirmation of the alert by a handler.

Perhaps Sean Rollo (of the Bed Bug Resource) or others who attended the Seattle symposium will share some highlights or other comments?

Similar Posts:

• Bed bug sniffing dogs abound
• Seattle Housing Authority, you are smart about bed bugs
• Milwaukee Housing Authority purchases bed bug sniffing dog
• Apartment Therapy on bed bugs, bed bug sniffing dogs
• Mary-Louise Parker talks to Letterman about her current bed bug scare

There’s a nice recap of Tuesday’s National Pest Management Association 2009 Bed Bug Symposium in Newark, NJ on the M&M Buzz, PCO M&M Environmental’s blog.

Another NPMA Bed Bug Symposium today (8/27) in Seattle.  Anyone attending?

We welcome your comments on the Newark or Seattle NPMA Bed Bug Symposiums below!

The bed bug war?  It’s all about education, you know.Similar Posts:

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Stop Bedbugs DC is tomorrow.

As Renee Corea says in her post Leadership and hope: Stop Bedbugs DC on the New York vs. Bed Bugs blog,

If you care about bed bugs in the District, this is the only ticket in town on Friday.

As Renee also notes,

Consider that agenda for a moment. Anything you can think of, they have it covered: legislation, enforcement, education, data collection, exploring a bed bug task force.

I could not have said it better myself.

The cooperation between the Norwood Tenants Association and city agencies is wonderful to see.  The NTA blog notes,

The goal of the summit is to learn about bedbug biology, bedbug control, and to establish a DC wide task force that will address enforcement, education, data collection, and legislative approaches. Presenters will include Dr. Dini M. Miller, Associate Professor, Dodson Urban Pest Management Laboratory at Virginia Tech, Ray Lopez, the 2008 recipient of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Community Health Leader Award for his innovative approaches on controlling bedbugs without using pesticides, as well as representatives from the pest management industry who will share the latest industry approaches. The summit will take place on Friday, March 27, 2009, at 441 4th Street NW, Room 1107 from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM.

The NTA also thanks (among others) Renee Corea, as well as Jessica Kevan of Chicago vs. Bed Bugs.  Inter-city bed bug advocates are networking.

It sounds like the winds of change are blowing.

The Washington City Paper also has a story on this event here.

We look forward to reports from anyone who attends.Similar Posts:

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The Seattle Housing Authority (SHA) is buying a bed bug dog to sniff out public housing buildings for bed bugs.  NWCN reports:

In Seattle Housing Authority low-income buildings over the past three months the problem has exploded. The critters are becoming resistant to insecticides.

Now the SHA is spending $35,000 to take control.

Smart thinking — because we’re told many (if not most) people do not react to bed bug bites.

If you don’t react, and you don’t see bed bugs, you do not complain.  And so your apartment stays infested with no one the wiser.

A pro-active inspection program is a great idea for any apartment building. No, bed bug dogs are not 100% effective in sniffing out bed bugs, but they do a lot better than most humans, I’d venture.

Done properly — with a well-trained bed bug k9 and a knowledgeable trainer — this detection method can be effective.  And less time-consuming than having an experienced PCO search (which, many tell us, takes more than an hour to do properly, in a not-very-big apartment).

The SHA is also investing in thermal remediation technology (ThermaPure Heat).  And the SHA will be educating residents on how to spot bed bugs.

But one of the best things they can do is keep that bed bug k9 “Bugsy” circulating around and around the units of SHA buildings, before anyone complains about a single bite or sighting.

Combining an effective and pro-active detection method with an effective bed bug remediation method?

Smart, Seattle Housing Authority.  Smart.

Go to NWCN.com to see the video.Similar Posts:

• Milwaukee Housing Authority purchases bed bug sniffing dog
• University of Central Missouri (and other Missouri colleges) vs. bed bugs
• Brief report on Seattle NPMA Bed Bug Symposium; bed bug dog awareness among customers
• Apartment Therapy on bed bugs, bed bug sniffing dogs
• San Diego State University: don’t wait for students to show you a bed bug

• Official Norwood Tenants Blog asks “Would you pay $200k for an apartment with bedbugs, no heat, and no working elevator?”
  Tenants of the Norwood Apartments at 1417 N St. NW in Wasington, DC: complain their landlord is neglecting rental apartments with mold and bed bugs, while pitching $200K condo conversions.
  (tags: bedbugs landlords tenants DC washingtonDC washington norwood nov2007 2007)

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According to Channel 12 WKRC in Cincinnati (doesn’t Howard Hesseman work there?), residents at the Hillrise Apartment building, which is owned by Cincinnati Business & Professional Women’s Retirement Living Incorporated, are suffering from various issues including bed bugs.

Calvin Merritt’s problems at Hillrise Apartments are pretty simple.

“Mostly bugs, roaches and all that…”

The “all that” is bed bugs. Dead ones were easy to find under Calvin’s mattress, and piles of them behind the bed. When exterminators come in to spray here, their work’s easy to see, pesticide stains run down Calvin’s walls. Calvin pays 313 dollars a month for this one bedroom…what little furniture he had was mostly pitched, because it was infested.

Calvin Merritt, Resident: “I done lost everything got here, my couch, my other chairs, all the stuff I had was new, I had to get rid of all of that.”

At the other end of the hall, Jeanette Jessie doesn’t have any bedbugs, but she worries about them just the same.

Jeanette Jessie, Resident: “They just spread them from one end of the building to the other, this is crazy, get this place cleaned up, spray it at one time and get rid of this mess.”

It sounds a bit like the Phyllis Wheatley YWCA in Washington DC, Halcyon House in Denver, and Warren Towers in East Moline, Illinois. Elderly people, disabled people, and anyone in low-income housing is being dealt a raw deal when it comes to getting rid of bed bugs. Let’s face it, bed bugs are expensive to treat. They’re also a rather sudden problem no one was expecting and no one has budgeted for.

Bed bugs are difficult to treat, too. Traditional treatments require multiple pest control visits at short intervals. Residents must prepare for treatment, which can be a lengthy process and costly too (especially for those on a fixed income).

However, make no mistake: non-aggressive treatment (treating only some of the infested units, treating at too-long intervals, or not coming as many times as needed), waiting for tenants who might be unaware they have bed bugs to report them, and not providing assistance with preparation costs and physical labor–all of these reactions from landlords and housing managers mean that bed bugs will be around longer, spread into more units, and cost much more to get rid of.

It just does not make sense on any practical level to not be aggressive, thorough, and quick to treat bed bugs in a building you are responsible for. It is simply a display of ignorance about the nature of this beast.

We can’t entirely blame landlords for this ignorance; none of us were expecting bed bugs. But we need to educate the public about the signs of bed bugs, and we need to educate professionals in all walks of life (from those who provide housing, to hospitality services, to health care, education, and on and on) about the need for a bed bug protocol which includes both proactive searching for signs of bed bugs, and swift reactions to any bed bug signs or sightings.

Too many people seem to be hoping they’ll just go away. Good luck with that. In the meantime:

Channel 12 reports,

Officials from the Cincinnati Health Department tell us they’ll soon be taking a closer look at conditions in the apartments.

I love the Cincinnati Health Department. But you knew that.Similar Posts:

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This article from Walla Walla, Washington’s Union-Bulletin, offers the standard “local story on bed bugs.”

It begins with Al Grable, local Pest Control Operator (PCO):

While there have apparently been no official bedbug complaints lodged against any Walla Walla county motels, local residents can’t rest easily.

Al Grable, owner of Agreeable Pest Control in College Place, knows better. The pest expert has treated apartments, homes and motels throughout the area. And, although he declined to name the hospitality facilities, one was severly infested, he found. “And it was one of the better ones.”

When it comes to bugs, Grable gives legs to his profession. He taught entomology at Walla Walla College for 28 years and has vanquished pests for 15 years since retirement from teaching. He is certified with the Entomological Society of America and a member of the National Pest Management Association.

His first case of bedbugs came about four years ago, catching him by surprise, Grable remembered.

Clearly, local motels do have bed bugs, and Grable is treating them. But not one customer has called the local health department to complain about this. That may be because it doesn’t occur to travelers to do so.

Those planning travel in Washington can get some help, said Shannon Walker with the Washington state Department of Health. Her office inspects and oversees lodging businesses throughout the state.

With the increased publicity about bedbugs, her desk is crawling with requests for hotel and motel inspection reports. People want to about any multi-legged guests before making a reservation, she said from her office in Olympia.

Many consumers are unaware they can get such information or lodge their own complaint with the state, Walker said. “I’ll take a complaint in any way. They can call me, they can e-mail, they can fax it.”

No one will make a pest out of themselves in doing so, she promised. “I love it when people call me.”

FOR YOUR INFORMATION

If you encounter bedbugs while lodged in Washington, the state Department of Health wants to know, at (800) 633-6828, by fax at (360) 236-2901 or at shannon.walker @doh.wa.gov.

There is no centralized location for such information in Oregon; travelers must check with each county health department.

This article focuses on the Washington State Health Department as a place to report hotel bed bugs, as well as a place to check whether a hotel has bed bugs before you stay there. (Don’t assume that a hotel with no bed bug reports is bed bug free, though, since obviously everyone does not yet know to report them in this way.)

We haven’t really seen local health authorities inviting the public to enquire about bed bugs, or report bed bugs, in this way. But now that I read this, I am inclined to think that anyone who has experienced bed bugs in a hotel or motel should not only report them to the hotel or motel, but also to the county and/or state health departments.

If you encounter bed bugs in a Washington State hotel or motel, call the health department listed above. If you encounter them in another state, find out what county you are staying in, and google the county health department, as well as the state health department, to notify them of your experience. Doing so is not about revenge. It’s about letting others know where bed bugs lurk. And with the government, it’s about letting them know how bad the problem is–so we can all get some help with this. The government needs to know our concerns.

Travelers should also post a review on tripadvisor.com which details their experience in the particular hotel. This warns others of your experiences. I always check tripadvisor before I book a hotel, and I follow up once in the hotel by carefully searching the room for bed bugs (the CBC video gives a detailed demonstration).Similar Posts:

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This Associated Press story from last week, from Columbian.com in Clark County, Washington, is in many ways a typical “now we have bed bugs here” story, found in all regional papers.

But it ends with a PCO’s anecdote about the difficulty of discovering where bed bugs were hiding in a hotel room:

“Finding them is usually the biggest issue,” [Cindy] Mannes [of the National Pest Manegement Association] said.

For example, bedbugs often are found on luggage racks in hotel rooms but can crawl as far as 100 feet in search of food.

Eradication includes professional laundering of linen and drapery, thorough inspection for eggs and bugs under carpets and in bed and picture frames, and application of steam to kill the critters.

“We treated this room and treated it very well. We even pulled the headboard off the bed. We were sure we got rid of the infestation,” Warneke said.

Even so, the customers called back to complain of bites within three weeks.

On returning, Warneke dismantled the expensive headboard, removing the outer cloth and the inner foam, then prying apart the pieces of plywood on the inside.

“It was like a sandwich of plywood,” he said. “I pried the glue apart. Inside, there were bedbugs. There was no way materials or steam could have gotten to them.”

While we’re usually told most items can be treated, and that it is not a good idea to just throw your furniture away (it’s usually unnecessary and it also spreads bed bugs to others), this is an example of a case where a PCO might recommend destroying and tossing something–even without dismantling it. A cloth-covered headboard sounds like a nightmare, and I know several people have written “cloth-covered headboard” stories here on Bedbugger.com.

Consider also that if they can hide that well inside a piece of furniture, a home with lots of cracks is equally suitable for hiding your bed bugs from sight.

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A new article on bed bugs Monday, from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s Laura Geggel.

Most interesting was their “tips” section:

TIPS

If you think you have bedbugs, do not move your sleeping location. You may unintentionally move the bugs and start a new infestation.

* Try to catch the insect so you can show it to pest control. That will confirm you do indeed have bedbugs.

* Do not throw away furniture or linens before consulting with a professional.

* Be prepared for multiple treatments; there should be a 48-hour and a 15-day follow-up.

* When traveling, check the bed for bugs. When you get home, vacuuming your suitcase can help safeguard against transferring a bedbug.

This is the first I’ve heard a 48-hour and a 2-week follow-up recommended.

I’d love to hear from PCOs if this is common practice, and also what the PCO might do at the 2-day follow-up.

Of course, we know it often takes more than one 2-week follow-up (or 10-14 days, to be precise), if there is still any sign of bed bugs, their leavings, or bites.

There was also an interesting discussion in the article of the difficulty of eradicating bedbugs.

Homeowners may find bedbugs hard to treat on their own unless they know exactly where to look. [Steve] Warneke [of Orkin] related the difficulty of eliminating bedbugs.

“We treated this room and treated it very well. We even pulled the headboard off the bed — we were sure we got rid of the infestation,” Warneke said. Orkin Pest Control Services checked back on the home 48 hours later and found no foul signs. But within three weeks, their customers called back, complaining of bites.

Warneke decided to dismantle the expensive headboard into four pieces. First he removed the outer cloth and the inner foam. Then he pried apart the pieces of plywood on the inside. “It was like a sandwich of plywood,” he said. “I pried the glue apart. Inside, there were bedbugs. There was no way materials or steam could have gotten to them.”

Bedbugs can go almost a year without eating. And if people leave the home for a year?

“When they come back, boy, that bedbug is hungry,” Warneke said.

Perhaps Orkin is doing the 48-hour follow-up and then 2 weeks later; I also wonder what “foul signs” they might have found after 48 hours. In any case, I am glad to hear PCOs mention to the press how stealthy bed bugs can be. Because we often hear readers say, “the PCO inspected and saw nothing and would not treat,” and later hear of bed bug sightings in the same homes.

It certainly isn’t the PCO’s fault they can’t always find bed bugs right away or on a follow-up, but it’s worth remembering this does not necessarily mean the customer has another problem besides bed bugs, or that (in the case of follow-ups that turn up no evidence) they’re suffering some kind of lingering skin problems brought on by previous bites.

My hunch is that some of us are allergic enough to bed bugs to react to even a very small infestation, and that in the bed bug’s case, some homes offer such perfect hiding places that they are able to escape detection better than in other surroundings.

But as I always say, “there’s always poo.” If you have bed bugs, there will be something. It’s a matter of knowing what to look for, and looking very carefully. (And, if you’re a customer, not cleaning away all the evidence!)

Geggel also references Sean’s helpful Bed Bug Resource. Similar Posts:

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Yet another journalist gets bed bugs.

When I spoke to Meredith May of the San Francisco Chronicle, I told her I knew of one journalist who’d gotten bed bugs (months after a story s/he wrote, and with no suspected connection between doing the research on them and catching them, in case you’re wondering, as I was). Last Tuesday, we read of the plight of Jennifer Holland, an AP journalist who also had bed bugs, and wrote about it. Only a day later, another such case comes to light: Barry Link writing in last Wednesday’s Vancouver Courier [note: link updated to archives version, 6/2009]. In this Op Ed, Link describes the unpleasantness of bed bugs, the paranoia of going to bed knowing you’ll be bitten, the stigma, the unpleasant reactions from others, and the range of bites he’s gotten.

But I’m not sure if all or any of the itching is related to a real bite. The paranoia is what gets you. It’s no fun when your bed is a buffet table and you’re the buffet, and it’s distinctly creepy to wake up in the morning and find little brown spots on the sheets where they’ve fed and-this is gross-excreted. And having bedbugs is like having leprosy. Friends and colleagues have been overwhelmingly sympathetic. They also take a slight step back from you with a look of thank God it’s not me. My boss says, jokingly, that with an apartment that’s a hot zone, I can say goodbye to dating for the next while. He’s not far off. Soon after I discovered the bugs, I was gently de-invited from a party. I understood.

I’m fighting back. This past weekend I called in an exterminator, whose obvious sympathy for my plight was disturbing. Five years ago, he said, bedbug calls were rare in Vancouver. Now they’re a major part of his job and in every kind of neighbourhood. He also noted they’re hard to get rid of, which is why he’ll return in two weeks for a second spray. It won’t be soon enough.

That I hired someone to douse my home with chemicals to kill God’s creatures on Earth Day was not lost on me. If I could convince the bedbugs to go away by holding a benefit concert for endangered rainforests, I would. But I suspect these nasty, little bits of nature would find a reason to stay. They’re freeloading off my circulatory system. Life is good. And also, I hope, very, very short.

Me too, Barry Link, me too.

And I still want to know why the AP story was only apparently carried in the CentreDaily (PA), The Seattle Times, and spokane7.com. When the country’s newspapers had access to this AP story, why didn’t more of them publish it?Similar Posts:

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