The Los Angeles Times Show Tracker gives a rundown on this week’s “30 Rock” (”Audition Day,” Season 4 Episode 4) which featured a bed bugs sub-plot.

While everyone else was on the lookout for new talent, Jack had his own mission: A quest for acceptance. With a nasty case of bed bugs (otherwise known as “chew daddies” or “Mugabe’s concubines”), Jack is rejected by everyone at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. He’s even banned from riding his company car, and must resort to taking the subway. We see him on board the subway (a real one, I might add), begging for mercy from strangers. I only wish I had been on the F train that day. Sigh. By the end of the episode, he’s feeling so dejected that when a robot mime reaches out and shakes his hand, making him feel like a human again, Jack insists that Liz hire him for the show. (Broadway nerds, help me out: Was the robot just Cheyenne Jackson in silver makeup?) It was Jack’s very own version of “A Christmas Carol,” and dare I say it, it was almost touching. On “30 Rock,” it’s all relative.

You can watch this on hulu.com. There’s also a discussion on the forums on this one.

Meanwhile, in the last few weeks, there was an episode of FX’s “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” (Season 5 Episode 6, entitled “The World Series Defense”) which also featured bed bugs in the storyline.  You can also watch this episode on hulu.com.

Thanks to the two anonymous tipsters who mentioned these to me.

Once you’ve had a chance to watch one, or both, what do you think about how bed bugs were presented?

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Parakeets helpfully recommends this upcoming bed bug educational event being run by Mass Housing on 11/17 in the Boston area. She tells us it costs $40, and directs you to the full information (and registration details) in this PDF.

Bed Bugs: A Team Response

An infestation of bed bugs can be very costly in terms of treatment and the impact on your housing community. Find out what you should know about bed bugs and how the Property Manager, Maintenance Supervisor and Resident Services Coordinator can work together as a team immediately and effectively. Learn the steps to take when an infestation of bed bugs is suspected, how to engage a pest management company and prepare for extermination. Gain an understanding of the roles of manager, maintenance staff and residents when addressing the issues.

Instructors: Jonathan Boyar, Watch All Pest Management and Thomas A. Stokes, Beacon Communities

Date: Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Time: 8:45am-1:00pm
Location: The Pines, 469 Pine Grove Drive, Brockton
Parking: Street parking or in visitor spots in lot.

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The Safer Pest Control Project is holding an educational event about bed bugs on Weds. Dec. 2, 2009.  It’s not for everyone — the cost is $125!  But it may be of interest to people who run housing and other services and need to learn how to plan to prevent and detect bed bugs.

Consider slipping a flyer to your management company, coop board president, etc.

(The image below links to the sign up page.)

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A taste of Alan Good’s latest Global War on Bed Bugs column in McSweeney’s:

It is necessary to explain a biological fact before revealing the list of people I would bite if I were a bedbug: a bedbug partakes of five blood meals in its nasty journey from egg to adulthood. Consequently, your hematophagous narrator could only dine on five of his enemies. If I name more than five people, assume some of them are backups.

(Note, reader, that there are a few people, not mentioned here, whom I’d rather save for when I’ve moved far enough up the karmic ladder to be able to return as a brain-sucking alien.)

I know you’ll want to read the rest.Similar Posts:

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Some Louisville tenants are trying to get their landlord’s attention, claiming their apartment building has many problems, including bed bugs. They’ve gotten 50 people from their building to sign a petition against the landlord.

A photo included in this story from WHAS 11 news shows tenants hanging a banner in their window prominently proclaiming, “these apartments have bugs!!!”

(Note: we’re not sure of the legal ramifications of hanging such a sign in your window.  Another recent victim of bed bugs in San Francisco used the discarded furniture note as another means of warning passers-by.)

WHAS 11 in Louisville reports that

WHAS11 first told you about the issue Sunday when Jesse and Jaqueline Evans hung a sign outside their home saying “this apartment complex has bugs.”

Since then, they’ve been busy collecting signatures from other residents reporting problems.

By Monday afternoon, that list grew to more than four dozen names.

Another recent article on bed bugs in Louisville, from WAVE 3, says that if you have bed bugs in Louisville,

For the most part, it’s the property owner’s responsibility to get rid of them, if there’s an infestation in multiple units. If your landlord won’t, you can report it to 311.

WHAS 11 notes some tenants had already had a visit from the housing inspectors:

Upstairs, in a nearby unit, Zachary Costantino says he’s also had problems with bugs.

He says when he tried to shampoo them out of his carpet, blue dye from the carpet got sucked up.

In another nearby apartment, Jesse says there’s black mold and a potentially dangerous wiring issue.

WHAS11 saw an I.P.L. inspector at the complex when we were there Monday.

Three weeks ago, the same inspector confirmed a pest infestation and other problems the apartment complex only has a week left to fix.

It’s worth noting that the tenants claim the building has problems with mice, bed bugs, and roaches (and let’s not forget mold); the petition in the WHAS 11 video embedded above shows different tenants have differing complaints — it is not clear how many are complaining specifically about bed bugs.

That the article and the I.P.L. inspector’s report refer to “bugs” and “pests,” rather than to specific pests, is not very helpful.  The sign, too, says “bugs” but it’s clear from the articles and video that the Evans are referring to bed bugs.

Zachary Constantino implies to reporters that he thinks the landlord dyed his carpet dark to hide bed bugs (presumably to hide bed bug fecal stains).

As the first article notes, the Evans and their property management company are are scheduled to go to court.Similar Posts:

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Rightfully Pissed Off

Originally uploaded by Social Interloper

The sign reads,

“No THANKS to Shi**y Apartments City Apartments AKA Prime Apartment Properties I, LLC This Couch HAS BED BUGS.”

Another find from San Francisco’s amazing Social Interloper.Similar Posts:

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Aaron Schalk told Channel Four in Nashville (see: Bedbugs Infest Family’s Sofas) that his pest control operator suspected sofas from an unnamed furniture rental firm brought bed bugs into his family’s home:

Schalk said the pest control worker asked where the couches came from.

“She said, “Did you get them from a rental place?” We said, “yeah.” She said, “Those bugs came in on those couches.”

Schalk’s fiancée, Alma Arroyo, was making payments on rent-to-own furniture; but whether the bedbugs came in with the couches is the subject of some dispute.

The furniture rental company confirms the couches were used, not brand new, but says they were treated in the store in accordance with store procedures. A spokesman for the store said, “We are confident we are not the source of the infestation.”

[Emphasis mine.]

It would be interesting to know more about what the unnamed company Schalk hired was doing to ensure that bed bugs were not in the items he rented before they entered his home.

One way to ensure bed bugs were removed from furniture might be to properly use proven thermal technologies to kill bed bugs in items between rentals.   Equipment, once installed, could be used by the company’s employees.

Another option would be chamber treatments of rental items with Vikane gas (sulfuryl fluoride).  That would probably be pricier because it would require licensed experienced fumigators and lots of piecemeal treatments.

Remember that items would have to be treated upon pickup from prior customers, before being returned to the store or warehouse (to avoid infesting the storage area), and the delivery truck would have to be treated after every pickup, to ensure it was not harboring bed bugs and infesting subsequent deliveries.

(Note that this is not a problem which is isolated to rentals, but is instead something that can happen to new furniture: many mattress companies will cart your used mattress off after bringing you a new one, potentially infesting the truck and subsequent deliveries.)

One idea would be to have pickups done by trucks with thermal heaters installed. At the end of the day, the entire truck could be heated to 140 F and left for long enough to ensure all the items inside reached core temperatures of 120 F or so. Done properly, this could help keep the pickup vehicle and the warehouse bed bug-free.

Deliveries of fresh items would have to be made in separate trucks to avoid cross-contamination.

We heard a rumor years ago that some rental firm was employing heated trucks, but we do not know the details or the firm.

Back in July, the Tennesseean reported that a Nashville woman named Evangela Cowan was suing a local Rent-a-Center, alleging they delivered bed bugs with rental furniture.  (The full article is no longer available from the site, but you can find an abstract here, and here’s another article on the same case from UPI.)

A spokesman for the company said in the July Tennesseean article that they “use a number of agents to sanitize the equipment” once it’s returned and that they visually inspect items before and after they are rented.

It’s also worth noting that the laws regarding sanitizing of rental items may not mandate treatment guaranteed to remove bed bugs.  UPI cited the Tenneseean article regarding Cowan’s case in July:

The Tennessean said Tuesday that Rent-a-Center declined comment on the lawsuit but stated that company policy is to aggressively sanitize its merchandise in accordance with state regulations.

[Emphasis mine.]

State and local regulations unfortunately are not always sufficient.

You’ll recall that it’s perfectly legal to spray “sanitize,” recover and resell used mattresses in New York City.   The local regulations permit it, for now.  But by no means does it mean bed bugs are removed from the mattress during this “sanitizing” process.

Keeping rental furniture stock, stores, and trucks bed bug-free sounds like a very challenging business.Similar Posts:

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Caution Bed Bugs Ahead

Originally uploaded by Social Interloper

Another shot from San Francisco’s Tenderloin:

Flickr photographer Social Interloper says in the caption,

Bed, Duct Tape, plastic cover, and a freaking caution cone, this picture says it all.

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Wicked Local Cambridge (Massachusetts) reports the following in a brief recap of  last night’s Cambridge City Council meeting:

Councilors voted to look further into bedbug extermination protocol and ways make the associated costs for residents more affordable.

I had some trouble with this video of the meeting, but the relevant part is item five and begins about 2:16.

(This is a paraphrased account of what I heard): the Cambridge City Council asks the Public Health Department to work with Cambridge Housing Authority and other agencies to address the bed bug problem.

Councillor Craig Kelley speaks briefly but eloquently, suggesting the city needs a one-stop place to go to find out about bed bugs, and an education program so people will learn (for example) not to pick up discarded furniture. According to Kelley, the problem is partly one of various agencies not knowing what to do, what best practices are.

(Again, that’s a rough paraphrase of what I could catch. My computer did not like the video format.)

These are problems that sound very familiar to me and will probably sound familiar to others in New York and elsewhere.

We look forward to hearing more about Cambridge’s attempts to do more about bed bugs.

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Drew University recently alerted its students that bed bugs were found in a student’s room.  The student was moved temporarily while the room was treated and furniture and mattresses were replaced.

A campus-wide e-mail was sent out on Oct. 15 letting students know that two bed bugs had been found. Student response to the e-mail was mixed.

“It’s disgusting! Bugs and I get along just fine as long as they aren’t in my bed,” Whitney McClees (’12) said.

“They’re bugs. Unless they’re going to kill me in my sleep I don’t care,” Dana Sumner-Pritchard (’12) said.

“It made me really glad I don’t live on campus,” commuter student Alexandra Kiely (’12) said.

“It was kind of gross but I wasn’t really worried. That was the first I heard of it,” Arielle Sorenson (’12) said.

“Our interest is in making sure the population [of bed bugs] doesn’t spread. We’re being overly cautious,” [Drew Chief Communications Officer Dave Muha] said about the University’s goal in dealing with the bed bugs and the reason for the campus-wide e-mail.

[Emphasis mine.]

A prompt response to a single bed bug case is a good thing.

Bed bugs did not just magically appear in this room. They were either brought in by the student, other students, or employees, or they were delivered in some manner (the old “bed bug Trojan horse”), or they walked over from another space which has a bed bug issue that is as yet undetected.

Since students are vocalizing that bed bugs are not a big deal (”Unless they’re going to kill me in my sleep I don’t care”), I hope Drew will follow up by educating students, staff, and faculty about bed bugs, how they spread, how to detect them, and why they everyone needs to be concerned about and alert for them. Similar Posts:

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