From the monthly archives:

June 2009

One more letter

by Renee Corea on June 26, 2009

in Bed Bug Task Force

Do you remember our old bed bug task force letter writing campaign?

Would you write one more letter?

The City Council Speaker has a contact form that you can use to send a simple (and polite) note asking her to appoint the members of the bed bug advisory board without further delay.

If you are up for it, would you also write to the Mayor’s Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, to Mr. Eddie Bautista, at this address:

Eddie Bautista, Director
Office of City Legislative Affairs
253 Broadway
14th Floor
New York, NY 10007

And/or by fax, (212) 788-2647.

Thank you for your help. I’m not entirely sure that this will help, but I’m asking anyway.

I will update this with my own letter to Mr. Bautista.

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So, what now?

by Renee Corea on June 25, 2009

in Bed Bug Task Force

John Raimonda, Director of Operations of Liberty Pest Control, wrote today in response to the NH Bedbugs post and I have his permission to share his email with you:

We’ve been hearing about other states but what is the status for New York as far as landlord or Mgmt Company responsibility re: accountability—cost/advising other tenants etc.
Many of our customers are asking these questions and are self treating or using inferior services due to cost and the process of extensive preparation.

John

This frustration is understandable, and familiar.

In my response to John I explained the contours of the situation (nothing is happening; the city is vetting the would be appointees to the bed bug advisory board but has not made any announcements and appears, to this interested and biased observer, to have no intention of acting with the appropriate seriousness and alacrity that the situation demands). And I of course told him that if his customers need to complain to HPD or bring their landlords to court they should find basic how-to instructions and advice from the various non-profits and tenant advocacy groups whose sites are listed in our resources page. There is nothing, however, to compel landlords to adopt sound bed bug management strategies. Nothing to compel them to inspect adjoining apartments and, as far as my knowledge and understanding extends, nothing to compel them to advise other tenants of infestations. In practice, landlords can get away with hiring spray and pray merchants, if that. To be sure, as we’ve noted before, bed bugs can be an unaffordable burden to small landlords.

There is no such thing as easy solutions and I don’t really believe in villains. Well, actually maybe there are people and organizations that are up to no good, exhibit A: the New York Association of Realty Managers extraordinary “Afternoon of Bed-Bug Awareness Training on Long Island” on June 1.

A bed bug seminar (PDF) to end all bed bug seminars, indeed.

I don’t think I told you about this:

1:30 to 4:00 pm Seminar The Crossroads of Warrant-of-Habitability &
Pest Infestation SPECIFICALLY, BEDBUGS How can Building
Management prove they got there? Dealing with the conundrum
of who should rightfully end up paying for their elimination? Ways to eliminate Bedbugs. Other Pest Infestation Issues.

That almost defies comment. Underlined text in the original. And yet, it is what it is. This is what is happening in our city. While people struggle with bed bug infestations, property managers schedule an afternoon of golf and advice from lawyers about a certain bed bug conundrum.

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The Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association (ONPHA) has produced an educational video about bed bugs. It is the first in a planned series for tenants and site staff; the second video will cover preparation and treatment.

I think the video does a good job of hitting the necessary points—although I’m sure we all would select, emphasize and deemphasize different things if we had the chance; for example, I could do with less footage of advanced infestations as I think it’s prejudicial in basic awareness materials.

It is always humbling to see organizations doing their jobs and taking on the essential and difficult tasks. Our city is now so woefully far behind, far behind is no longer descriptive.

Sam Bryks of Housing Services Inc. sent us the link and says that subtitled versions in four major languages in the Greater Toronto Area are being planned. Housing Services is providing technical assistance.

From ONPHA’s website:

There are almost 1500 non-profit housing providers in Ontario. They can be found in 220 communities, and range in size from 4 units to over 58,000 units. They own and manage shared houses, townhouses, small apartment buildings and high-rises in cities, towns and rural areas.

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The NH Bedbugs project

by Renee Corea on June 24, 2009

in Action Plans - Other Cities

Nobugs has a nice post taking note of the remarkable news from New Hampshire of a new organization that will begin its work by taking on the eradication of bed bugs from a Manchester building as a community project.

My comment got lost in the spam filter but it was about this New Hampshire Public Radio story a year ago about bed bugs in a Manchester building, not identified in the story but managed by the same management company as the Langdon Mill Apartments, the building in the present community eradication effort. They spent $15,000 then on a protocol of emptying the contents of the apartments and fumigating them (perhaps it was not true fumigation but conventional treatment). The infestations persisted.

I hope the cycle of loss and bed bugs for these families, and for this building, will now end.

Congratulations to the organizations and volunteers of NH Bedbugs for an awesome undertaking.

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I’ve been looking at the literature concerning other blood-sucking pests as it is rich with insights and information that have not yet been investigated in bed bugs—and perhaps will not be any time soon because the clever bed bug does not vector disease organisms. (I want to tell you what I’ve found but I want to understand it better first.)

So I came across this description of surveillance activities for the Chagas vector Triatoma infestans, where the presumptive blood test known as the Kastle-Meyer test was used successfully, and it makes me wonder why this isn’t used more to exclude fecal trace evidence by people trying to ascertain the presence, or continued presence, of bed bugs. Lou Sorkin has mentioned this test to us before and I know some people have used it, but it’s certainly not used or recommended widely.

The authors describe the Kastle-Meyer test as 100% sensitive to black or dark brown fecal spots as old as 4 years:

Overall, 100% of black or dark brown triatomine-like dejecta from three species of laboratory-reared or field-collected triatomine bugs, mosquitoes, and cimicid bedbugs tested positively by the phenolphthalin test, regardless of the age of feces. All feces from cockroaches, which can be easily confounded with those from triatomine bugs, and from other arthropods tested negative. Therefore, the test very likely will give positive results in dark brown or black fecal smears (having heme residues) from other hematophagous arthropods.

Gürtler, R. E.; Oneto, M. L.; Cecere, M. C.; Castañera, M. B.; Canale, D. M. (2001) A Simple Method to Identify Triatomine (Hemiptera: Reduviidae) Feces in Sensing Devices Used in Vector Surveillance Programs. Journal of Medical Entomology. 38(2). 147-152.

You can read about the Kastle-Meyer test and find the kits and procedures by googling presumptive blood test kit.

The authors simplified the protocol for their purposes:

Trials were carried out to simplify procedures for testing samples in the field. Square pieces (7 by 7 cm) of filter paper were folded twice, and one of the corners was pressed onto the fecal spot and then unfolded. The smeared portion of the filter paper was wetted successively with one drop of ethanol, the Kastle-Meyer reagent, and hydrogen peroxide. Whenever the dejecta gave a positive reaction, a fuchsia color appeared in a few seconds and the filter papers were discarded. When color development was slow or abnormal, or faded very quickly, the sample was regarded as suspicious.

Perhaps the best way to find bed bugs is with a pair of well-trained eyes, which is exactly what most people do not have. I now feel very strongly that this is what people must be taught, especially in our city given the prevailing business practices, how to inspect for bed bugs and how to evaluate evidence of infestation, so that they can rely on themselves. The cavalry ain’t coming.

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1960, New Jersey, #4

by Renee Corea on June 22, 2009

in DDT,History

Time to put away the old DDT nostalgia. This should be the last DDT post. I should have ended on the good stuff, but apparently can’t leave well enough alone.

Guess what I found, an old top 10 pest list from from a Rutgers survey of New Jersey Pest Control Association members:

Top Ten List NJPCA 1960.png

Top 10 pests, Rutgers NJPCA survey, Pest Control, May 1961

Kirby, J. 1961. Termites Rank No. 2 with PCOs in New Jersey. Pest Control. 29(5): 69-71

The New Jersey Pest Control Association is now the New Jersey Pest Management Association, and Pest Control is Pest Management Professional. I wonder if Rutgers or NJPMA did surveys in other years?

Anyway, what is interesting is the commentary from John Kirby, Rutgers extension entomologist:

It was somewhat of a surprise to me that bed bugs were mentioned on 11 of these 17 questionnaires and on this basis gained fourth place in the problem rating. A couple of years ago, bed bugs didn’t seem to be very much of a problem but now they appear to be popping up more often. Perhaps the proven resistance of Cimex lectularius to DDT in other areas of the United States is also a factor in New Jersey. Although such resistance has not been definitely established in New Jersey, PCOs have generally switched from DDT to lindane for bed bug control.

The bed bug, habitual popper-upper. Always causing surprise too—why do you think that is? Bed bugs?

Wonder if we’ll ever stop acting surprised.

Say bye-bye, DDT.

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UF heat research (and a 1924 detour)

by Renee Corea on June 18, 2009

in Research

University of Florida researchers have published their study of heat treatments to control bed bug infestations (free PDF). What distinguishes their approach from other published accounts is the DIY character of their method and materials: space heaters, fans, polystyrene boards, thermometers. All of $300.

As opposed to whole-room or chamber heat treatments, which necessitate expensive specialized equipment, their aim was to use heat to economically treat infested furniture by creating a heat envelope, an area within a room where, with the aid of inexpensive insulating materials, temperatures could rise to lethal levels—moderately high temperatures are sufficient—and then to use residual treatments in areas outside the envelope where heat could not penetrate. This point is important to understand and stands as my only caveat; bed bugs placed in control vials in closets or areas away from the heat definitely survived.

(It’s no secret that desperate bed bug sufferers do desperate things. Others have noted the ineffective and counterproductive measures frequently taken. Given the possibility that you might rush off to Home Depot without thinking things through, I worried about having to say many responsible things, but you can read for yourself.  If you’re capable enough to pull this off on your own, good for you. If you’re not but think that you are, then no warning from me is going to deter you.)

This is the article and at the moment it’s available as a free download here.

Pereira, Roberto M.; Koehler, Philip G.; Pfiester, Margie; Walker, Wayne (2009) Lethal Effects of Heat and Use of Localized Heat Treatment for Control of Bed Bug Infestations. Journal of Economic Entomology. 102(3). 1182-1188. doi: 10.1603/029.102.0342

For the purposes of these experiments, the fact that the heat did not penetrate areas outside the envelope was judged an advantage:

Despite generating temperatures well above the lethal levels for bed bugs (41–49°C) within the treatment envelope, the heat treatment did not elevate the room temperature to temperatures >32°C (Table 3). Maintaining the room temperature at comfortable levels for human activity is very important because the heat treatment is intended to supplement a residual pesticide applied to the baseboard and other potential resting areas for bed bugs. Such treatment could be applied while the room furniture is exposed to heat treatment.

I’m not sure how much it helps to kill the bed bugs in the sofa (even if they might be the hardest to kill of all) but still have bed bugs under the window sill, but if a war of attrition is all there is against these bugs, so be it.

I appreciate the discussion of what failed and I hope those of you interested in this solution will study this closely.

The bed bugs placed in different locations during the treatments had 100% mortality for all but two trials: the first trial (room D) and the initial trial in room Yb, both in rooms with tile floors. The initial treatment trial never produced lethal temperatures for the bed bugs in any location where temperature was measured. The maximum temperature reached was 41.5°C after 6.3 h, and the total treatment period was 7.3 h, indicating that the temperature in the treatment envelope did not rise during the last hour. This stabilization of the temperature was due to the excessive heat loss through the plastic tarp and the tile floor. Once polystyrene sheathing boards were used as the insulation around the treated furniture, the heat loss was significantly reduced and temperatures continued to increase throughout the treatments.

Yet more interesting are the boundaries of what was investigated:

These results demonstrate that short exposures to temperatures above 41°C will cause temporary immobilization of bed bugs, even when lethal levels were not reached. Once the bed bugs’ exposures to high temperatures were interrupted, some insects were able to survive. We did not test long-term survival of the heat-exposed bed bugs and did not determine whether survivors’ fitness was compromised. Bed bugs that survived exposures to nonlethal temperatures have been shown to have reduced fitness (Janisch 1933, 1935, cited by Johnson 1941). Sublethal effects of high temperatures are documented for several insects (Neven 2000, Mahroof et al. 2005). However, thermal wounding by sublethal temperatures may be as deadly, but without obvious effects that lethal temperatures cause (Denlinger and Yocum 1998).

These experiments were conducted in University of Florida dorms and campus housing, a convenience that has been exploited before.

1924

In 1924, at the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Mississippi, bed bugs were successfully treated by simply turning on the dormitory building’s steam heat in the summer (average high temperatures of 115.8°F produced 100% mortality).  This of course has nearly always been regarded as impractical.

The question of sublethal effects is an interesting one.  In the Mississippi experiments, monitor boxes containing live bed bugs were placed in some of the rooms. Here’s an account of the fate of those bed bugs in one room:

In another room, most of the bugs were alive at 8 A. M. of the first day when the temperature had reached 108 degrees. At 1 P. M., with the temperature at 111 degrees, a few were found paralyzed; at 5 P. M., with the temperature at 114 degrees, all were apparently dead and the box was then removed. Several days later, the contents of the box was re-examined. At this time, 6 nymphs and 5 adults were dead but 3 nymphs were found to be alive, though paralyzed. Twelve days after removing from the heated room, the contents of the box were again examined and all were found to be dead, the paralyzed nymphs having failed to recover.

Dead, recovered, dead again. Nice.

Harned, R.W., Allen, H.W. (1925) Controlling Bedbugs in Steam-Heated Rooms. Journal of Economic Entomology. 18(2). 320-331.

While we’re here visiting the 20s, there’s a small joke in this article that we may as well examine for what it reveals of the polite bed bug fictions of the day (making me wonder what our own are today).

The authors describe the dormitory as one where many rooms “were found to be heavily infested with living bugs.” The paper must have been presented and a portion of the discussion transcribed with the article as there is a brief Q&A at the end:

MR. L. O. HOWARD: [...]

I have never been at the Agricultural College of Mississippi, but I had the pleasure of meeting a group of Professor Harned’s former students a year and a half ago at Gulfport at a dinner, and I saw the extraordinary love and admiration that they have for him. But it seems to me, assuming that this large dormitory could not have become naturally infested by bedbugs, that it must have been a part of a large experiment of introducing bedbugs in which the whole student body was concerned. From that point of view, it strikes me as one of the most extraordinary pieces of cooperation on record. (Laughter.)

UF’s research showcase

The University of Florida has a showcase document for their research, a bed bug manual of sorts that is well worth a look. You get to see useful pictures of the heat experiments, lots of information and recommendations on fumigation (Vikane), the armed forces’ technical guide on bed bugs included, plus a PCT article on the UF bed bug management method, Fumigation, Steam, Dusting and Labor, Walker et al. and a number of interesting slides.

If perhaps you’ve always wondered how fast bed bugs may crawl, or what exactly is meant about their missing tarsal pads, wonder no more. Here’s a link to the PDF and this is the page at the University of Florida. (The PDF is a large file, 100 pages.)

Further heat reading

There are also two 2008 PCT articles about heat trials if you wish to read further and compare notes, one from University of Kentucky researchers, Bed Bugs, Heat and Hotel Rooms, Potter et al. and another from a UC Berkeley group, Hot House, Getty et al.

Update: Doug Summers in a comment notes a safety caution:

I would like to caution anyone who is thinking about using this approach to consider using a proper commercial heater, instead of the residential style 1500 watt portable oil units that were utilized in the study.

The issue is fire safety… If you enclose the heater with insulated panels then you have voided the warranty… There was an extensive recall of this style of heater a few years ago… They were causing fires due to a faulty override switch that should switch the heater off at 130 degrees F.

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3 months

by Renee Corea on June 18, 2009

in Bed Bug Task Force

Today is June 18, three months exactly since the Mayor signed the bed bug advisory board bill. (At least one generation.)

There have been no appointments.

At this point I’m no longer wondering at the delay but rather well into the strange realization that perhaps there will be no appointments.

New York vs Bed Bugs was created with a singular purpose. We focused on appealing to the city government. What extraordinary and desperate inexperience.

This is the bottom line: the City of New York does not currently have a bed bug control strategy and appears to have no intention of formulating one. In some sloppy corners of the media, New York City is said to already have a bed bug task force, never mind the distinction between a task force and an advisory board. Maybe that is all that was intended, to create the impression that something is being done, that attention is being paid. And then let it drop.

This week I have been on the verge of asking you to write letters. Again! What a horrible waste.

And yet, would you?

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No bed bugs

by Renee Corea on June 15, 2009

in Signs of the times

McBrooklyn, funny:

New York City is finally talking tough to bed bugs. As part of its nine-step program to eradicate the pests, they have installed signs in bus shelters warning bed bugs that they are not allowed in the shelters or on buses.

If only.

No tough talk. No board.

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The challenges in 1941

by Renee Corea on June 15, 2009

in History

We’ve talked a bit about J.R. Busvine, a British medical entomologist, before. Bed bugs held Busvine’s attention on occasion and I consequently try to read everything of his I can find, but his unambiguous association of bed bugs with sanitary standards is something to deeply regret, because it is so clear and so apparently influential. I find other scientists citing him on this as late as the 1990s.

Here is Busvine writing in The Lancet in January, 1941:

Under present conditions people’s standards are bound to suffer, and one result is likely to be a spread of bed bugs. This unpleasant pest has only to be carried in the bedding of a few people to the large shelters to establish itself.

Busvine, J.R. (1941) Control of the bed bug. The Lancet. 237 (6124). 55-56. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(00)95030-X

The context here, beyond the Blitz, is that bed bugs had featured in the pre-war public campaigns to transform housing in Britain and, as we know, were the subject of some rather extraordinary government-funded research. There is much that is interesting in that housing history which we should look at at some point, especially an item of inspiration to New York vs Bed Bugs, but first we should check out this Busvine article for anything it can teach us about bed bugs, although perhaps it is nothing more than the more things change…

Busvine continues:

The extermination of bugs is greatly affected by circumstances. If infested furniture is moved to a new house it can easily be disinfested by fumigation in a specially constructed van, and this is the method adopted by certain borough medical authorities in their slum-clearance schemes.

He proceeds with a description and notes on some fumigants and liquid insecticides.

On fumigants:

It is often impossible to be sure of exposing all the bug population to an overwhelming dose of fumigant, so that it is essential to know at which stages in its life-cycle the bug is most resistant. The resistant stages are not the same for every fumigant; the eggs, for example, are relatively susceptible to hydrogen cyanide and ethylene oxide, but they are much more resistant than other stages to sulphur dioxide, chlorpicrin, trichlorethylene or chloroform. Resistance seems to be less capricious in other stages of the life-history; usually resistance increases throughout development and shows a slight decline in adults. The state of metabolism also affects the resistance of bugs to fumigants; under warm conditions they are far more susceptible than cold. Starvation augments their resistance to ethylene oxide and sulphur dioxide. (Busvine 1938, Gough 1939).

Nothing ever simple, we knew that.

On liquid insecticides:

Bugs live in crevices by day which makes it difficult to use liquid insecticides against them. Even if cracks and corners are carefully sprayed large numbers will escape direct contact.

On powders:

The long distance travelled by bugs and their erratic habits make it difficult to ensure that they will come into contact with insecticidal powders. Since the insect only feeds on blood the possibility of poison baits is ruled out. For these reasons little attention has been paid to powder insecticides for bugs. In experiments carried out more than twenty years ago pyrethrum was found to be one of the few effective powders (Blacklock 1912, Castellani and Jackson 1915, Scott et al. 1918). General experience, however, shows that it must be used fresh or oxidation will lower the toxicity. Some of the materials found to be ineffective in this early work were sulphur, tobacco powder (containing over 5% nicotine), quassia, hellebore and various inorganic salts (calomel, borax, & c.). There is a brief reference to the use of derris against bugs by de Bussy and his colleagues (1935), and that is unfavourable.

Long distances, eh?

On A.L. 16 and 63:

My colleague Mr. H. S. Leeson allows me to report results of causing bed bugs to walk on cloth powdered with insecticidal powders known as AL. 16 and 63. [A footnote indicates the formula cannot be revealed.] The dose of powder was 0.1 g. on 40 sq. cm., in an open vessel with vertical sides, to prevent escape of bugs. At 32° C. both powders kill all bugs, whether nymphs or adults, in from three to ten days. In a room in which the temperature fluctuated from 17°-24° C. all were killed in from five to twenty-five days. At a still lower temperature, 8°-15° C., some adults survived apparently unhurt for at least three weeks, but nymphs always died whenever they happened to moult.

On trapping:

It has been suggested that intermittent trapping is an indifferent palliative only worthy of primitive societies. The idea has been applied to modern life, however, in the form of a permanent trap described by Kemper (1931) and Mossop (1940). This consists of a metal check-band let into the wall of the building liable to infestation and contains some form of trap or harbourage which can be disinfested from time to time. According to Mossop’s account this method requires elimination of natural harbourages below the band and periodic disinfestation of the trap harbourage, if it is to be successful.

This is intriguing but hard to picture. I don’t suppose anyone has seen one of these artifacts?

On heat and steam:

Bugs are readily destroyed by heat: the adults die within an hour at 44° C., while the eggs require 1° C. higher (Mellanby 1935). It would therefore appear a simple matter to disinfest houses by superheating as, indeed, was recommended in Canada and the United States twenty-five years ago. Unfortunately, it is surprisingly difficult to ensure penetration of the lethal heat into the crevices where the bugs hide, especially those near the floor. The treatment has to be very long for this reason (one day at 60°-70° C. or two days at 50° C.) and cannot be recommended where other measures are available. A blow-lamp can sometimes be used for local heat treatment; of iron bed-frames, for example. Kemper (1929) has described a hand instrument which projects steam superheated electrically to 300° C. This is claimed to deal efficiently with cracks and crevices, and polished or glued articles are said not to be injured.

Hot portable steam as early as 1929. Nothing new and all that.

The secret compound A.L. 63 was a combination of derris and naphthalene and was used by the British army as body lice powder from 1940 until 1944, when DDT powder came along. The inventors had their original paper suppressed for security reasons and published after the war to reclaim their place in history, DDT no doubt overshadowing all.

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