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

ShareThis

News Channel 8 showed you the critters up close, then management was flooded with complaints. Bella Vista is an apartment complex with many elderly residents, many of which are subsidized. And, News Channel 8 has been told, some are afraid they’ll be evicted if they complain.

The management company says absolutely no one will be evicted for complaining. But, the company only spoke to residents after our first story aired even though they knew there was a problem here. And, that has some residents very upset.

Marilyn Watstein learned about the bed bug problem at the Bella Vista apartment complex in the Elm City from a News Channel 8 report. “I happened to catch the end of it last week,” she said.

In my last post on the Bella Vista’s bed bug problem, I suggested the building would do well to inspect every unit in the building and treat all vertically and horizontally adjacent units to the ones known to be infested, regardless of whether bed bugs were found in the adjoining units.

After all, the knowledgeable officials in Boston made that a city policy for buildings where bed bug violations were found. It’s considered a good practice.

It’s worth remembering that the City of Boston is not a business which stands to benefit from making landlords pay for such inspections and preventive treatments. They’re trying to help landlords and tenants resolve bed bug problems quickly and completely.

If landlords are not forced to undertake such an action, and do not choose it on their own, it is nevertheless the standard practice in the industry to at least inspect all units that are adjacent — horizontally or vertically — to an infested unit.

Most knowledgeable and reputable Pest Control Operators — the ones who know how bed bugs get around, and who want their customers to have a successful outcome — won’t treat for bed bugs in a building unless the landlord agrees to the inspection of adjoining units (above, below, all sides).

That’s right: business people will walk away from the job rather than treating a single unit for bed bugs without inspecting those connected to it. They consider it that important to bed bug treatment.

Is the management of the Bella Vista going to have those adjacent units inspected, let alone treated?

Nope.

[Carabetta Vice President Bill Stetson] says they will now be sending out an informational flyer to everyone. But, they refuse to inspect every apartment and will only exterminate when a resident complains.

“It’s not a question of cost for us, it’s a question of doing the right thing and getting rid of the problem as quickly as possible,” Stetson said.

Good luck with that.

Of course it’s a good thing the management is now going to inform all residents that the building has bed bugs (you know, in case some of them don’t watch Channel 8 news or don’t interact with their neighbors often).

But this act alone is hardly going to bring about a resolution to the Bella Vista’s bed bug problem “as quickly as possible,” which is what Stetson claims to be aiming for.

Click here to view the video.

• Piecemeal inspections and treatment: no way to rid an apartment building of bed bugs
• Bed bugs in Hamilton, Ontario: lessons for landlords and local governments
• Bed bugs in North Jersey
• Bowling Green Towers: residents organize to demand proper bed bug treatment in low-income building

ShareThis

Now the Guilfoid (apparently a student gossip blog at Guilford College in North Carolina) claims to have heard two bed bug reports at the school in 24 hours.

The GW Hatchet (an independent student paper at George Washington University in Washington D.C.) also reports that bed bugs had been detected in several residence halls there, including 2034 G Street:

University spokesperson Tracy Schario said only one student was confirmed to have been bitten by the insects, but about a dozen may have been exposed to them. The freshmen were part of a School of Engineering and Applied Sciences retreat in the woods before the start of school.

University administrators and students need to remember that not having visible, itchy bite marks does not mean you were not bitten by bed bugs.

If bed bugs are present in a space, the people living in or frequenting the space are likely also being bitten. If I were among the “dozen,” I would take steps to make sure my possessions and room were bed bug-free.

Some may develop reactions to bed bug bites in time. (One PCO told us he was bitten by his colony for months before reacting — seemingly all at once.)

Others may never react to bed bug bites. And that’s why everyone should learn the visual signs of bed bugs, and inspect for bed bugs regularly and especially in a new home or rented or borrowed room.

• Spring break bed bug warnings!
• bed bugs at University of Bridgeport
• Harvard dorm treated for scabies–but what was it really? Also, bed bugs at Columbia?
• Are the bed bugs bigger in Texas? University of Texas at Dallas students infested with bed bugs

ShareThis

I suspect Tripadvisor.com regulars would be among the more informed travelers, hence the greater awareness of and concern about bed bugs.

It may seem improbable that 8% claimed to have encountered bed bugs in a hotel.

However, one study showed 0.6% of hotel rooms were infested in a three-year period.

It would not take many trips or hotel stays for 8% of a group of fairly-frequent travelers to encounter bed bugs at least once.

The first key to avoiding them in the room (and ultimately, to avoid taking them home): learn to search your hotel room for bed bugs. This FAQ provides more tips.

• Disney guests paid off to keep quiet about bed bugs
• FAQ: How can I avoid bedbugs while traveling?
• 25% of hotel rooms have bed bugs? I don’t think so.
• Bed bugs in hotels: how to report (and check up on) bed bug infestations

ShareThis

If it works, it would allow people to put suitcases and other items inside, and the heat would kill bed bugs. You could see the potential for other items (e.g. books) that some Bedbuggers go to some lengths to treat in sometimes dangerous ways.

I would like more information: how hot does it get? And has it been tested to prove that first instar nymphs cannot escape from the corner where the zipper closes? (The video linked above shows the cord coming through the corner with the zipper end stop.)

Apparently Sean of the Bed Bug Resource has one and is testing it. Stay tuned. It’s good to see inventors working on bed bug solutions, finally. But I am going to hold off on getting too excited until we hear some reports.

• New mattress encasement comparison test data
• New Yorkers: Lou Sorkin on the radio Tuesday at 10:40 am
• Bed Bug Helloise with “exciting” XL Ziploc bag news
• Dissolvable laundry bags!

ShareThis

One of the strongest messages coming from the discussion is that, in the UK at least, bed bugs were declining in the 1930s — well before DDT was available — due to better management of infestations:

. . . regarding DDT, this is often claimed as being responsible for the demise of the bed bug in the late 1940s and 50s. However, here in the UK, bedbug infestation levels were declining fast in the late 1930s, some years before DDT was introduced. This decline coincided with the introduction of the Public Health Act 1936, which gave local authorities (i.e., local government organisations) powers and responsibilities to deal with vermin, including bedbugs. To me this suggests that effective bedbug control is as much about organisation and management, as it is about using high performance insecticides, although of course they help.

This should give us a lot of hope as to the possibility of getting a handle on bed bugs again — just by dealing with them in a smarter, more organized way.

To this end, Boase makes recommendations that will come as no surprise (and I am paraphrasing here): detecting infestations early (which requires a pro-active, not reactive stance), the availability of good pest control to everyone who needs it, laws that support access to dwellings to carry out necessary treatment, getting residents to fully participate with treatment, aggressive treatments to eliminate (not just reduce) bed bug numbers in a dwelling, and, finally, follow-up inspections, to make sure bed bugs are really gone.

While, as I say, these recommendations are no surprise, they nevertheless elude us at this time. From where I stand, most bed bug eradication activity is reactive and comes after someone complains (and generally only to the someone who complains).

We need to get to a place where that complaint leads to careful inspections (and possibly treatment) in attached or adjacent units. And where that treatment is routinely followed up by treatment and inspections ensuring the problem is entirely gone.

I strongly recommend everyone read this New York vs. Bed Bugs article in its entirety.

And after you’ve done so, New Yorkers, join our NY vs. Bed Bugs campaign. Because without government support, I can’t imagine us getting to the solutions Boase describes.

• Bed bugs in hotels: how to report (and check up on) bed bug infestations
• New Jersey’s laws designed to spread bed bugs in rental housing
• Council bed bug treatment in the UK: rates going up
• Bridgeport, Connecticut tenants have had bed bugs more than a year

ShareThis

So, this is sort of silly. I’m a junior at NYU, and I live in NYU’S Broome Street Residence Hall. My room/my mattress is infested with bed bugs. I’ve been bit on my arms and seen a health care professional, yadda yadda yadda. I reported the problem two days ago to NYU and their facilities office, but nothing happened. Tonight, I spent about two and a half hours going back and forth with them about getting someone to come assess the situation and take care of the problem, and NYU has told me that they won’t even come check it out until Tuesday, and then after that, it could take days.

Bed bugs can pop up in any college dorm room (hotel, apartment, etc.). It’s what you do when they raise their ugly heads that matters.

Stanford sets a nice example for other colleges to follow, in terms of timely and appropriate bed bug responses. Texas A&M, U of Florida and UC-Berkeley (both mentioned in the article linked above) seem to be up to the challenge too.

You can read lizzzzzbeth’s full post on LiveJournal here.

• Bed bugs under discussion at university housing officers’ conference
• Stanford still fighting bed bugs
• Stanford bed bugs: university fights back
• How to avoid bed bugs, according to Texas A&M’s student paper

ShareThis

The deadling for votes is in mid-October. Bedbugger has been nominated for

Best Health Blog
Best Animal Blog

and a few others. But those are the ones I think we have the best shot at.

As far as I know there’s no real prize here, but it will mean people hear about the site who aren’t interested in bed bugs, and so it’s a great way to make people who don’t have bed bugs more aware of this issue.

Please click on the buttons below (which are permanently in the sidebar here and in the forums). When you click the button, the Blogger’s Choice Awards will ask you to create an account so you can vote. It really only takes a minute. Last year 20-some readers voted, and it was much appreciated. But if everyone who reads this article were to login and vote, it would probably be enough to win.

Please click one link below, sign up and vote, then click the other link to vote in the second category. You can vote in as many categories as you like, but it would be great if you vote for Bedbugger for these two slots.

Thanks for your support, and thanks for reading Bedbugger!

• Do you love Bedbugger? Prove it!
• Welcome Bedbuggers!
• Bed Bug Helloise is shocked…
• Do not adjust your set

ShareThis

Don’t be put off by the fact that Matt Lauer opens the segment by dropping the nursery rhyme bomb.

Watch the video below, and pay special attention to the system senior pest control technician Wayne Walker is using at the University of Florida: baking bed bug-infested items in a “makeshift styrofoam oven” constructed inside the room. Of course, the room itself also needs thorough treatment.

Please do not try this at home. But let’s all hear it for imaginative and creative professional bed bug killers!

Wayne Walker also stresses the need to educate students on how to avoid bed bugs.

We also hear that The University of California at Berkeley is using heat, cold, and pesticides to fight bed bugs.

Matt Lauer talks to Rick Cooper, who brings in a sample “mattress” with fecal stains, and talks about mattress encasements, how students bring bed bugs into their homes (and parents’ homes), and the difficulties of bed bug treatment.

(Bonus: watch Matt Lauer giggle in embarrassment at the phrase “fecal stains”!)

Along with other segments appearing in the print and tv news in the last week or so, I’d say this year marks the most back-to-college bed bug coverage we’ve seen yet.

• Back to school: news media focuses on bed bugs in college dorms
• bed bugs in the media: the Today Show, Tuesday morning
• Forget black mattress stains, bed bugs, shells, and eggs: NMPA press release tells consumers to look for “blood spots”
• Bed bugs lurk in hotel rooms, says ABC news

ShareThis

The reasons given: more competition, including not just students, but from people who buy and sell used items, and also young professionals who are into the environmentally positive effects of used furniture.

Bed bugs were also mentioned, and rightly so. Boston has a serious bed bug problem. The Boston Globe reports,

Competition isn’t the only challenge facing students seeking freebies. There’s also the bedbug threat, particularly in the transient Allston and Brighton neighborhoods. This year the city has received 210 requests to inspect for bedbug infestations, 46 of them in “student-heavy” neighborhoods, said Dion Irish, assistant commissioner of Boston’s Inspectional Services Department.

Because bedbugs have an affinity for mattresses, the city is dispatching inspectors to the area over Labor Day weekend to slap orange warning stickers on mattresses and other cast-off items and to spray-paint wooden furniture where the bedbugs could be hidden.

The bedbug problem has had a chilling effect on students like Darius Wilsey, a Northeastern University junior. Last year his roommate brought home two mattresses from the street only to discover, too late, there was a reason they were there in the first place. “They were infested with bedbugs,” Wilsey said. “Our place became uninhabitable. We had no place to live. I had to live on people’s couches for three weeks.”

Bed bugs not only have serious negative economic, emotional, and social effects on the people who bring the used furniture or mattress home. They also easily spread to neighbors, friends, and relatives, costing them a lot in terms of money, time, and sleep.

Bed bugs also, it must be stressed, have a negative effect on the environment. The amount of plastic bags and pesticides involved in one bed bug infestation may well offset the environmental (and economic) benefits to those young professionals mentioned above, and other budding freegans.

Nevertheless, the Globe reports,

. . . none of this has put an end to Boston’s thriving underground free furniture industry.

Well, that’s kind of a shame.

Maybe, instead of “First come, first served,” the article should have been called, “First come, first bitten by bed bugs.”

Just a reminder to everyone in Boston: just because the item you find on the street does not have an orange bed bug warning sticker, does not mean it isn’t infested with bed bugs.

You can read the full article by Linda Matchan here.

• Eastern Nazarene College: students cannot bring in ANY used furniture
• New York City is behind in the bed bug wars
• Some recent press about bed bugs
• Boston and bed bugs: Mayor Bloomberg in NYC could learn a thing or two

ShareThis