I’m not sure what you mean? The bed bug task force — which is now not called a task force but a bed bug advisory board, and whose members haven’t been appointed yet, not sure what the holdup is — is going to be 5 appointees and 5 NYC agency people. Their job will be to make recommendations for the City Council and for the Mayor. These recommendations will be around prevention, education, garbage rules, tracking infestations, etc. They are supposed to write a comprehensive report making specific recommendations. The appointed members of the task force will not get paid.

About overscheduled technicians, I guess I would agree on that. One of the things we want to see — but something the industry is very resistant to — is specialized training of technicians and pest control operators, so that they learn about bed bugs and how to inspect and how to treat for bed bugs. As you must know, not everyone knows what they’re doing. Because things are so bad, everyone must know what they’re doing. It’s not a matter of simply hiring the good companies, which is what the industry thinks people should do. It’s about making sure there are as few unforced errors as possible.

Renee

The EPA conference will be announced, with instructions on registration, in the Federal Register: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/fr/browse.html

This should happen sometime this week, I expect, but don’t really know.

I wasn’t really supposed to post the news, so for now treat it as gossip and the official announcement should come any day now.

I’ll post an update when I see the notice in the FR.

I guess the short answer would be no, I don’t think they care.

However, when it comes to politicians, (I’m told) they care about what their constituents tell them to care about, most of the time. Based on this premise, we think that if New Yorkers, in sufficient numbers, demand that action be taken on the issue of bedbugs, they will have no choice but to take action, no matter how much they wish they didn’t have to, because the issues are so complex and a reasonable policy can’t possibly be advanced without money.

That said, I would lie if I didn’t say that I’m not so sure anymore that this will happen. I’m losing confidence that there will be sufficient outcry to force their hand.

Still. We’re not giving up on this perhaps quixotic effort. We’re hoping to get lucky. And doing something feels better than doing nothing.

Thanks for your comment. Please, ahem, write to your council person.