Welcome to New York vs Bed Bugs. Did you land here looking for a review of NYC landlord/tenant law? Please see this post: Bed bugs and the law in New York City.
Sharon Heath of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene will speak at EPA’s National Bed Bug Summit on April 14. It’s a portion of the session titled “How Public Health Agencies View Bed Bug Infestations,” with Mike Herring from CDC, Dr. Camille Jones from the Cincinnati Health Department and Sarah Norman from Baltimore City Health Department.
This is what we have always wanted, for our city and the city’s Health Department to show leadership on the bed bug issues. We have met Ms. Heath (we really like her a lot) and it’s very encouraging that she will participate.
EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs has made the meeting agenda (PDF) available. Topics include bed bug basics, impact on public and private housing, control methods and challenges and the government response to bed bugs.
This is the page at OPP to access all summit information.
The morning speaker session on Tuesday, April 14, will be broadcast via webinar, instructions here (PDF). No Macs, however.
The work groups in the afternoon session on Tuesday will focus on the following objectives:
Tasks:
Identify most significant factors contributing to the problem
Identify and discuss options and solutions & workgroup recommendationMajor Topics to Consider:
Research
Role of Government
Consumer Education and Communication
PCO Education and Training
Role of Property Owners & Property Managers
The next day’s morning session will report the discussions.
I wonder what this will look like?
We have the highest hopes, but this is surely going to be difficult work.
Consider this summary of the bed bug workshop at last year’s International Conference on Urban Pests (ICUP) in Budapest which recently appeared in Pest, a new UK industry magazine. The article by Clive Boase, Bedbugs fascinate in Budapest (PDF), provides an interesting glimpse into the types of disagreements that may emerge in a discussion about what direction to take to control bed bugs in our society. You should take a look; you will likely find something to strongly agree or disagree with.
In a section on “customer oriented solutions,” Boase writes about the views expressed in discussion on the question of responsibilities:
Clarification of the individual responsibilities of the municipality, landlord, tenant and homeowner to deal with infestation, was also seen as important. If responsibility for identifying, reporting and controlling bedbugs was clarified, then a legal requirement for properties to be certified as free-of-infestation could help address the problem. This was felt to be particularly true for rented properties which can act as reservoirs of infestation.
And on training needs:
In terms of the quality of bedbug control work and the training necessary to carry out effective bedbug control, both manufacturers and academics thought that there had been a decline in the quality of practical bedbug control compared to earlier decades and that standards needed to improve.
Note: We listed the bed bug papers presented at ICUP Budapest here. There’s another bed bug article in this first issue of Pest, by the way, on David Cain and his bed bug survey presentation last year. So, we have one more publication to watch for bed bug stuff, great. There’s a preview of the next issue.
These pages may be of related interest:
- EPA’s National Bed Bug Summit April 14-15: announcement and conference details
- EPA makes available National Bed Bug Summit summary recommendations
- Pete Grasso live-blogging the EPA bed bug summit
- More EPA summit documents: in lieu of the webinar, the presentations
- Stop Bedbugs DC: a bed bug summit to start the dialogue to end the bed bugs
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I believe that through research with chemicals there will be found a cure for this growing problem which is now being talked about nationally. Until everyone decides whose responsible for what legally speaking, the problem continues to grow. What it comes down to is poor people cannot afford to fight it no matter if the lot falls on them or not so it will continue. They barely have money to put food on the ttable and a roof over their heads so they will co-exist with these pests as with any pest which they have no control over. They will find ways to sleep at night and not get bitten, I know I have. However, until bans are lifted on the DDT that we all know will destroy this pestilence then we will continue to talk about it, share about it, and meet about it, until we finally realize there is no other solution or there is a miraculous breakthrough in the use of a safer chemical someone might discover. People are dying in Africa because DDT has been banned. I think we need re-address the use of this treatment to rid ourselves of this national and no doubt international problem. Otherwise we will simply co-exist. Just like any other tough choice that needs to be made, there will have to be compromises along the way to serve the greater good. The majority of people would benefit from this even though some environmental groups would not like it at all. What it comes down to is what should take priority; animals or people? I believe that if there was some world-wide pestilence problem among the animal kingdom, we would address with more compassion than we do with our own species. I’ll stop there because we could easily go into discussions that would not help the situation at hand.
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Thanks for your comment, April. I’m sorry you are going through this.
The role of DDT in the eradication of bed bugs is one of the great misconceptions, unfortunately. A bit more accurate reporting in the media would help. DDT was extremely effective, for a brief but significant period in our history. When it stopped working against bed bugs, because they developed resistance, other pesticides took its place. These other pesticides are also no longer with us, malathion, lindane… I think through the 70s and 80s, there was still something around that worked. And I’m not really sure when pyrethroids, the pesticides that are currently used against bed bugs, stopped working, but they’re certainly a problem today. The bottom line for us when it comes to DDT: bringing back DDT would probably not help. Bringing back other more recent pesticides that are no longer approved might help. A good pesticide review program for bed bugs at the national level would do a lot of good. Let’s hope we get rational pesticide policies.
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My question is as follows: If a pre-school teacher finds a bed bug on a child does this have to be reported to the department of health?
I have been looking through the web but have not found the answer. What is the policy, if any.
Thank you
Hi Virgen,
The telephone number you can call at DOE for instructions is (Pest Management) (718) 707-4493. The specimen collection kit and instructions are described in this PDF. You should talk to your principal about these concerns. DOE has a bed bug protocol and they handle bed bug reports and treatments in-house.
Best wishes.
“My question is as follows: If a pre-school teacher finds a bed bug on a child does this have to be reported to the department of health?
I have been looking through the web but have not found the answer. What is the policy, if any.”
A story like this made the headlines recently, I’m certain that this will become a common occurance over the next 12 months now people are more aware.