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Laundry and the motivating power of the bed bug web: Q&A with Richard Naylor

by Renee Corea on February 16, 2010

in Featured, Interviews, Research

First, the study.

Naylor, R. A., and C. J. Boase. 2010. Practical Solutions for Treating Laundry Infested With Cimex lectularius (Hemiptera: Cimicidae). Journal of Economic Entomology 103 (February): 136-139. doi:10.1603/EC09288.

In keeping with our recent interest in the first line of these research abstracts, here is this one:

The common bed bug, Cimex lectularius (L.) (Hemiptera: Cimicidae) is known to become associated, from time to time, with clothing or linen.

From time to time…

The author surveyed 100 websites offering information on bed bug control in 2007, and found specific, practical information lacking.

Washing

3.2 kg dry weight of laundry, about 7 pounds, washed at 30°C/86°F, 40°C/104°F and 60°C/140°F in a 90-minute cycle wash (that’s the standard cycle in the UK) with a standard laundry detergent. Bed bugs (10 adults, 10 third instar nymphs, 10 eggs) were placed inside clothes pockets, in cotton pouches and sealed with a sandwich bag clip.

The 40°C/104°F cycle killed all adults and nymphs, but 75.6% of the eggs survived.

The 60°C/140°F cycle killed all stages.

Tumble drying

7 pounds of laundry (dry) in dryers set to “hot” and “cool” for 10 minutes and 30 minutes.

The temperature in the “cool” cycle never got above 30°C/86°F.

The 10-minute “hot” cycle did not kill all bed bugs, probably because it took more than 15 minutes to get above 40°C/104°F. (The authors reference the published thermal death point from previous work in the 1930s-40s in the range of 40-45°C/104-113°F.)

30 minutes in the “hot” cycle killed all life stages.

Here is a graph of the temperature logged during these drying cycles. The 40-45°C zone is the (previously published) dead zone, but it took more than 15 minutes.

temperature change over time, hot (A) and cool (B) drying cycles.jpg

temperature change over time, hot (A) and cool (B) drying cycles - Naylor & Boase 2010

Cold soaking

7 pounds of laundry in about 15°C/59°F tap water, without detergent.

Almost nothing dies if soaked for two hours. But, interestingly, all adults and nymphs died when soaked for 24 hours.

The eggs, however, survived. All of them.

Dry-cleaning

Professional dry cleaning with perchloroethylene.

100% kill of bed bugs and eggs.

Freezing

A laundry bag of 2.5 kg (about 5 and a half pounds) in a freezer drawer of a standard household freezer with a minimum temperature of -18°C/-0.4°F — a separate test was done with bed bugs placed in pouches in the freezer for two hours at -17°C/1.4°F.

2 hours at -17°C/1.4°F killed all bed bugs and eggs when placed directly (not in clothes) in the freezer. But when a bag of laundry was placed in the freezer, it took about 8 hours for the temperature at the center of the bag to reach -17°C.

The researchers advise caution about the regional differences in laundry equipment:

[T]here are regional differences in the operation and performance of domestic appliances that stress the importance of understanding the local situation when making recommendations. For example, washing machines in Europe typically heat their water to the user-selected temperature, whereas washing machines in the U.S. and Australia tend to use the household hot water supply and are therefore limited by the temperature of the water coming from the boiler. Furthermore, wash cycles in the U.K. typically last 90-120 min, whereas in the U.S., wash cycles of 20-30 min are much more common (Procter 2000). As Tables 1 and 2 demonstrate, differences in temperature and duration may make the difference between success and failure in terms of clothing disinfestation. These differences emphasize the need for caution when considering adopting advice generated in one country, for use in another.

For comparison of these results with some American laundering tests reported by Potter et al. in 2007, see this PCT article.

Q&A

Richard Naylor is a doctoral student at the University of Sheffield (UK). Take a look at his bed bug photographs here. I particularly like this one:

bedbug cimex 6 - Richard Naylor University of Sheffield.jpg

Bedbug. Copyright Richard Naylor.

He generously answered our questions via email.

New York vs Bed Bugs: Your group regularly produces some of the most fantastically interesting research about bed bugs and yet I have to say it is a joy to ask you about something as simple as laundry. Because in fact it is not so simple… so it is wonderful that you took an interest in this subject. I like that your study shows that people have options (e.g., you can disinfest clothing even if you don’t have access to a dryer), but you note that regional differences in laundry equipment are important to consider. So, with that in mind, if we were to make judgments based on temperature and time (in places where one doesn’t really know the temperature of washers and dryers but can use, say, a household thermometer for some limited testing), what would be a useful rule of thumb? Often people are confused by thermal death points, especially because they seem not to be stable in the literature and have much to do with method and duration of exposure.

Richard Naylor: The important thing does seem to be the temperature, whether washing or drying. 40 degrees [Celsius] seems to be the magic number. In simple terms this is about the temperature of a nice warm bath, so it doesn’t need to be scolding hot. Some washing machines don’t heat their own water and so the maximum temperature they can achieve is the temperature that the boiler is set to. If your hot tap produces water that is slightly too hot to hold your hands under for any length of time, it is probably fine for killing bedbugs. Unfortunately one can’t get round having to know something about their washing machine if they plan to use it for treating bugs. Perhaps it would be simpler to fill the bath with hot water. As long as it is a bit too hot to hold your hands in it should be fine. Hot water penetrates the fabric much quicker than hot air, so time isn’t really a factor as long as all the air is pummeled out of it.

New York vs Bed Bugs: Did you really read 100 bed bug fact sheets on the internet? I am honestly impressed by that diligence because that sounds like torture to me. Did you find great variability in the practical information on offer?

Richard Naylor: Yes I did. A lot of the sites offering advice were run by local councils. The advice wasn’t particularly variable because people just republish the same “knowledge” over and over again. I just kept a tally of every mention of “hot wash”, “tumble-dry” etc. and worked my way down a google search. Every now and then you stumble over a blinder, involving a bloody steak and a roll of sellotape, which keeps the motivation up! I keep a folder on my computer of all the best bedbug misinformation I can find on the web!

New York vs Bed Bugs: Can I ask you what you are working on? What are some of the interesting questions in need of answering?

Richard Naylor: I am currently interested in their ecology and dispersal. We actually know a lot more about the ecology of swallow bugs than we do of bedbugs, simply because when an infestation is discovered, it is normally treated straight away. People don’t want to wait a few weeks for studies to be made and experiments carried out. The solution I have come up with is to build about a dozen 3 meter long arenas complete with blood feeding station and around 200 bedbugs in each. I am trying to understand how they behave in an infestation and to figure out what factors are important in driving their dispersal.

New York vs Bed Bugs: I once saw what looked like a carved wood panel of mating bed bugs at your university’s website (can’t seem to find it again)—I am curious about just how old that is? Is it an artifact of the current interest in bed bugs or is it from much earlier? It is beautiful and I wonder if you’ve always had it.

Richard Naylor: Well spotted. We (though not me) started studying bedbugs at Sheffield University about 15 years ago. Mike [Siva-Jothy] used to be particularly interested in sexual conflict, which is the idea that males and females of a species are purely out to do the best for themselves as they can, often at the expense of the opposite sex. Bedbugs are a prime example, as males will mate with females much more often than the females require to stay fertile and as a result the females live about 25% less long than they would otherwise. We believe that traumatic insemination arose out of sexual conflict as a way of males preventing females from exerting choice over paternity.

Anyway, the carving was commissioned about 6-7 years ago and is made up of lots of images from old books and photographs around the department. The bedbugs are copied from an electron micrograph that we had done of some of our bugs at the time.

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What’s working for bed bug control in multifamily housing: a new report from NCHH

by Renee Corea on February 15, 2010

in Featured, Issues and Challenges

The National Center for Healthy Housing, with funding from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Pesticide Programs, has published a report on the actual practice of bed bug control: What’s Working for Bed Bug Control in Multi-Family Housing: Reconciling best practices with research and the realities of implementation (PDF).

The report is authored by Allison Taisey and Tom Neltner. It is intended for an audience of “health professionals, housing professionals, and pest management professionals seeking to plan for or respond to a bed bug infestation in multi-family housing. It is not a best management practices document” — this is important to understand I think. Practices are evolving and there is so much that is not known.

Don’t miss the case studies.

You can find other resources on the Healthy Homes Training website of the NCHH: Pest Control in Affordable Housing – Integrated Pest Management.

bed bug control in multifamily housing - National Center for Healthy Housing.jpg

click to download PDF

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Bed bugs make the home page of the NYC Department of Health

by Renee Corea on February 5, 2010

in Featured, Issues and Challenges, News

You have to see this.

The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has published a new bed bug guide, Preventing and Getting Rid of Bed Bugs Safely (PDF), available in English as a printed booklet by calling 311, and in Spanish (PDF) and Chinese (PDF) on the web.

This guide is a part of the Health Department’s Healthy Homes guides. It uses spare and easy-to-follow text and drawings like this one:

getting rid of infested items graphic from DOHMH bed bug guide

Infested with bedbugs - graphic from DOHMH Healthy Homes bed bug guide

Not to understate things but you must realize that this is a vast improvement on the city’s previous bed bug fact sheet.

Here are some key messages that I like in this new publication:

  • It tells you one of the most important things you should know about bed bugs:

Some people do not react to bed bug bites.

  • It tells you that bed bugs are not your fault:

If you have bed bugs, you shouldn’t feel ashamed. Anyone can get bed bugs. Notify your landlord and neighbors. The sooner everyone responds, the more successful everyone will be.

  • It tells you not to use foggers and bombs in the only language that will mean anything to you in your desperate state:

Do not use pesticide bombs or foggers to control pests. They can make conditions worse.

  • It tells you that your efforts will help but does not lie to you and doesn’t shame you for not being able to get rid of bed bugs solely with a vacuum cleaner (like so many others do):

Cleaning and disinfecting will help to reduce bed bugs and their spread but may not get rid of them totally.

  • It recommends to landlords that they:

Notify tenants, and inspect all units adjacent to, above and below apartments found to have bed bugs.

If you’ve been around the bed bug block, I know exactly what you are thinking. I do. So here are some suggestions for you.

If you think the guide leaves out important information, or you have specific tips to share, take out a red pen! Call 311 and order a copy of the guide and then annotate it with your best tips and information before you give it to your friend, neighbor, acquaintance down the street. But please do share it. If you know there are bed bug problems in your neighborhood, share this guide with others. Spread the word and be a part of the solution and all that.

Now there is finally a city publication that can serve as a basic guide both to build awareness and to help the newly exposed.

Please share and build upon this effort. We’re all in this together. (Okay, I’ll stop before I tell you how moved I was to see this on the Health Department’s website.)

Please note that this guide, like the HPD bed bug course, was not developed by the Bed Bug Advisory Board. The advisory board is not a task force, remember?

Still, this is such important progress. You have no idea. Or maybe you do, and so I hope you will appreciate what this represents.

Here’s a screenshot of this I-never-thought-I’d-see-it development:

bed bugs on DOHMH's home page

New bed bug guide on the city's Health Department website - February 5, 2010

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The active spread of bed bugs in buildings: the stakes for cities

by Renee Corea on February 4, 2010

in Featured, Research

A new article in the Journal of Economic Entomology should have important implications for policy making—if we are smart enough as a society to appreciate the stakes.

Wang, C., K. Saltzmann, E. Chin, G. W. Bennett, T. Gibb. 2010. Characteristics of Cimex lectularius (Hemiptera: Cimicidae), Infestation and Dispersal in a High-Rise Apartment Building. Journal of Economic Entomology 103(1):172-177 DOI: 10.1603/EC09230

First let me get this out of the way. Check out this first sentence from the abstract:

Bed bugs, Cimex lectularius L. (Hemiptera: Cimicidae), are a fast-growing urban pest of significant public health importance in the United States and many other countries.

Significant public health importance. I think of this phrase every day. May it one day mean what it says, yes?

Dr. Wang and colleagues studied a bed bug infestation in a 233-unit building for low-income elderly and disabled tenants in Indianapolis. The infestation is believed to have started with one tenant moving in, but it had already spread to more than 10 apartments by the time building management learned about it. Bed bugs spread in this building between 2006-2008 and a variety of treatments were tried, including educational efforts and treatments by the researchers themselves in 24 apartments from 2007-2008.

From December 2008 to April 2009 the researchers conducted inspections of apartments with reported infestations and interviewed the tenants. Bed bugs were counted and removed and Climbup Interceptors were installed. Adjacent apartments were then inspected and, not surprisingly, there were a number of apartments that could not be inspected.  Apartments across the hall were also inspected:

After an apartment was identified as having bed bugs, the two adjoining units and the two units immediately across the hallway from the infested unit were also inspected. If no bed bugs were found, the apartments were inspected again 1-3 mo later to confirm the absence of bed bugs. Residents from ≈ 15% of the apartments declined the inspection services, citing their belief that bed bugs were not present.

Across the hall dispersal

The researchers found a way to test their across-the-hall dispersal hypothesis by placing two interceptors baited with a chemical lure outside five infested apartments. The article addresses the question of using lures in these traps thus:

Although chemical lures were used in the interceptors to detect bed bug dispersal, a separate study in nine apartments indicated that the presence of lures did not significantly increase the number of trapped bed bugs (our unpublished data). Thus, we considered the counts from interceptors placed at entry doors or in the hallways to be random catches of bed bugs that were passing through those areas.

bed bug traps outside apartment door

bed bug interceptors outside apartment door - Wang et al. (2010)

In any case, management objected to the traps in the hallways and so they were removed after 7 days. They were then placed behind the front doors of eight infested apartments:

Three of the five pairs of interceptors placed in the hallways trapped two bed bugs per pair after 1 wk, supporting our hypothesis that bed bugs used hallways as a route for dispersal. The mean visual counts from these five apartments before placing the interceptors were 196.4 ± 58.7 per apartment. The average number of bed bugs detected at entry doors over 4 wk period was 6 ± 2 (n = 8 ) and the maximum was 42. Among the 138 bed bugs examined that were caught at entry doors (dispersing), 30% were nymphs, including first instars. Some of the first instars were from eggs laid by trapped adult females as evidenced by the presence of empty eggs in interceptors. The difference between the proportion of nymphs at entry doors versus under furniture indicates that adult bed bugs were 9 times more likely to disperse than nymphs.

It’s not all active dispersal though—who would have thought one could write that after all these years—because standard mechanisms of the spread were observed too, including an infested wheelchair used in common areas, the introduction of infested furniture, “not wrapping infested furniture in plastic before removal from the building” and visits by residents and “guests harboring bed bugs on their clothing or belongings.”

The characteristics of a building-wide infestation

The facts gleaned about this infestation in this building:

  • three years after the first suspected introduction, 45% of the building’s apartments were known to be infested, 101 apartments as of April 2009
  • in the apartments visually inspected, there were 53 identified infestations; of these, 53% were adjacent apartments on the same floor and 45% were apartments across the hall
  • in 40 apartments with a history of reported infestations, only 12 residents were aware of bed bugs; of these 40 apartments, 24 were still infested
  • of 40 residents surveyed, 50% received bed bug treatments provided by the building management, 40% tried to control the infestation on their own with chemicals, 35% threw away furniture and 20% used store- or internet-bought pyrethroid-based sprays or foggers. Otherwise, alcohol, bleach and boric acid were used—as well as laundering, covering cracks with tape, placing blankets under doors and using mattress encasements

Information gleaned from interceptor traps in 20 infested apartments:

  • while there was a 77% reduction in bed bug counts, after 12 weeks there were still bed bugs in 11 of 20 apartments
  • 78% of the trapped bed bugs were nymphs
  • 89% of trapped bed bugs were in the outer well of the interceptor “suggesting movement into the trap from the room” and that “most of the bed bugs missed by visual inspections were not on the furniture”
  • more than 98% of trapped bed bugs were already dead when counted

This last item is interesting but I’m not sure what to make of it because, in fact, one of the conclusions of this study is that pest control efforts in this building were ineffective at eradicating the bed bugs. This may simply be that elusive line between mitigation and eradication. Unless they’re dying of fright? (Sort of joking but sort of serious—is there any possibility that being trapped makes them, well, not spry let’s say.)

Prospects

The researchers underscore what to me is an astonishing fact, that 50% of residents in infested apartments were unaware of their own infestations, this despite each tenant receiving a bed bug educational brochure and having the opportunity to attend a seminar.

This is in part what I believe this means: education alone will not solve the problem of bed bugs in our cities. Even assuming a significant investment in educational resources (an insurmountable if at present), there will not be a way to reach everyone.

At some point, you have to have access to all infested locations and then you have to kill all the bed bugs, with something—whatever it is, it must be inexpensive and widely deployable.

Impossible?

What else does this study show us?

This is what the researchers say:

Several of the surveyed apartments in this study were infested for more than two years. The active and passive bed bug dispersal mechanisms observed during this study and the rapid spread of bed bug infestations suggest an urgent need for more effective bed bug monitoring and intervention programs to curb the exploding problem of bed bug infestations. Without such efforts, bed bug infestations will continue to spread in our society and likely become much more widespread in low-income housing in the years to come. Bed bugs cause more than discomfort and pain. Bed bug infestations have economic, social, and legal ramifications (Potter 2006). Thus, it is critical to act early to prevent bed bug infestations from becoming chronic and incurring much greater health and economic consequences.

These are the facts on the ground. From people who know what they’re talking about, not wishful thinkers or would be social engineers.

Clearly, I believe that while many are beginning to recognize the need to act, no one really wants to. It will just take too much money.

But what happens then if we continue on this particular bed bug road?

_______________________

Active dispersal is an intriguing topic that is near to my heart. Here are some other posts on this subject:

And here are previous posts about the research of Dr. Wang and colleagues:

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Letter in support of the Community Integrated Pest Management Program at Cornell

by Renee Corea on February 3, 2010

in Featured, Issues and Challenges

Below is our letter in support of the Community IPM Program — links added in this online version. Please take a moment to review the appeal (PDF) by Dr. Donald Rutz, director of the NYS IPM Program, and please consider writing a supportive letter to save the program. As always, many thanks…

February 3, 2010

The Honorable Antoine Thompson
Chairman
Senate Environmental Conservation Committee
Legislative Office Building, Room 902
Albany, New York 12247

Dear Senator Thompson,

I am writing to you in support of the Community Integrated Pest Management Program at Cornell University.

As a co-founder of New York vs Bed Bugs, a policy advocacy organization in New York City, I have worked closely with an IPM Specialist at the Community Integrated Pest Management Program, Dr. Jody Gangloff-Kaufmann, most recently on the New York City Bed Bug Advisory Board which Dr. Gangloff-Kaufmann chairs.

Bed bugs are rapidly spreading in New York City, as in other North American cities, causing extraordinary physical, psychological and financial distress wherever they appear; and severely straining the budgets and resources of families, property owners, social and health services providers, business owners and government agencies.

Current bed bug control methods and practices are variously difficult, ineffective and, crucially, unaffordable. There are no programs or resources available to the majority of New York residents who are affected by bed bug infestations. It is particularly troubling that the most vulnerable populations are at higher risk for suffering entrenched bed bug infestations.

In a period of deepening economic austerity, the prospects for bed bug control in New York City are realistically bleak. In this challenging landscape, therefore, the work of the Community Integrated Pest Management Program at Cornell University is vital. The Community Integrated Pest Management Program at Cornell University has worked to develop and deliver educational resources to combat bed bug infestations in New York City and New York State. In 2008 it produced Guidelines for Prevention and Management of Bed Bugs in Shelters and Group Living Facilities, a publication that has had a significant impact far beyond its intended audience, becoming an extremely valuable resource for all affected New Yorkers. The Program has a comprehensive website about bed bugs and delivers bed bug management education and advice through various channels, including innovative tools such as informational wallet cards [PDF] targeting the needs of travelers and college students. This combination of attention to an emergent public health pest problem and concerted effort at producing useful guidance and educational materials, especially for underserved populations, is a critical response that is singular in the state, with no other organizations taking on this task.

I urge you to restore the Community Integrated Pest Management Program at Cornell University to its historic funding level of $400,000. Please take steps to preserve one of the few pest management education resources available to New York residents at a time when they are ill-equipped to cope with an unprecedented resurgence of bed bug infestations.

Respectfully,

Renee Corea
New York vs Bed Bugs

cc: Donald A. Rutz, Director, NYS IPM Program

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Bed bug treatment specs from ONPHA

by Renee Corea on January 26, 2010

in Featured, Issues and Challenges, Toronto

The Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association has posted bed bug management specifications which were developed in collaboration with hsi solutions. This is a great communication and education tool for their residents and property managers — but there’s also generosity at play here for the rest of us who can now read this example of clearly thought-out bed bug treatment contract specifications.

The items are:

From the warranty:

Warranty for Unit Treatment

The warranty for unit treatment, planned or demand, shall be three (3) months from the service date. The warranty is also dependent on specific factors that may compromise the service effectiveness, such as adjacent infestations and other factors such as extremely heavy infestation, or conditions requiring further services. Unless such factors are identified by the Pest Control Service Provider (PCSP) to the Housing Provider before or at the time of treatment, the warranty shall be in force for the period noted.

From the expected service levels:

Adjacent Unit Inspections

Units immediately adjacent to the treated unit on the same floor shall be inspected at the same time as the treatment of the unit is undertaken. This will require preparation and advance notice to the tenant by the Housing Provider.

I think there are IPM contract recommendations out there but I have not seen one specific to bed bugs, so I hope this is helpful for those of you who are considering your own RFQs or negotiating contracts.

ONPHA also has a bed bug list-serv for their member property managers. Very cool.

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An evening of bed bugs, cont’d

by Renee Corea on January 23, 2010

in Events, Featured, Issues and Challenges

Lou Sorkin began his lecture at last week’s special meeting of the New York Entomological Society by recounting a few choice tales of insect gourmandism—like the one about the tarantula tempura served at one of The Explorers Club’s annual banquets. Someone forgot to pluck their urticating defensive hairs and a call from the health department ensued. I heartily wish I could share much more with you (no, really) but I think I busied myself with some papers at Lou’s mention of the depilatory quality of cooked tempura batter. Don’t serve Lou mealworms is the only advice I can muster; unlike urticating hairs, mealworms make him sick!

Lou Sorkin

The Great Lou

Lou is famously exacting about public education materials about bed bugs. We are all better for his insistence over several years on highlighting the differences in appearance between the life stages of bed bugs. He spent considerable time on life stage drawings and photographs (beware the missing instar) and showed us (approvingly) Stephen Doggett’s update to his famous bed bug life stages (which you can see on page 16 of the latest draft of the Code of Practice) which was produced by photographing each bed bug individually and referencing the immature stages descriptions in Usinger for each instar. Lou clearly believes—and continues to persuade many of us—that accuracy and comprehensiveness in these matters is key in public education messaging.

He showed us innumerable photographs of bed bugs and bed bug harborage sites in all their glory, from the expected to the unexpected, his words and choice of photos cautioning in so many ways against the sort of received wisdom we have been exposed to for years (not 5 eggs a day, not only nocturnal, not just clover-leaf inspections…). Alert-looking bed bugs next to dead bed bugs, numerous barely-distinguishable immature bed bugs next to one or two adults (“you are not close enough”), heartbreaking advanced infestations, across-the-hall dispersal, the limited effectiveness of vacuuming—for both eggs and bed bugs, noting that he often plays with bed bugs and paint brushes (Lou!) and often they do not budge. I am so grateful for Lou touching on all these subjects, even if it was to a roomful of pest control pros. I wish more of you had come.

It was an interactive evening of bed bugs

Lou gave each person in the audience a loupe as a gift (like the one he gave me recently). And he had these for everyone to practice on:

live bed bug display boxes

Live bed bug display boxes

You all know about the value of a notched MetroCard as an inspection tool:

notched metrocards

Notched MetroCards - a Lou Sorkin bed bug inspection trick

“Grade School Bed Bug Project?”

These are two slides from Lou’s presentation which describe inexpensive monitoring ideas that you can use at home:

folded paper passive bed bug collector

Folded paper passive bed bug collector - click for larger image

Improvised sticky traps:

examples of sticky tape monitors

Examples of sticky tape monitors - click for larger image

Materials: “blue painter’s tape and 2 kinds of double-sided carpet tape plus using the backing of the tape as a cover.”

Vajra Kilgour

Vajra Kilgour is Vice Chair of Metropolitan Council on Housing and associate producer of WBAI 99.5 FM’s Housing Notebook. (Both Lou and Catharine Grad appeared on the program on January 4 to discuss bed bugs—read Bedbugger’s take and recap here.) Ms. Kilgour spoke about Met Council’s hotline (Q: “My landlord says I brought them in and I’m responsible.” A: “Your landlord is lying.”), Met Council’s bed bug fact sheet which she is personally working on developing, and legislative work. She noted that “laws can make a difference; there is less lead poisoning in NYC.”

She suggested that in the hard struggle to persuade landlords to do what they are legally required to do—maintain apartments in habitable conditions—the strongest action that tenants can take is to organize. She talked about the desperation of people who suffer from bed bugs—housing court litigants that are “bitten from head to toe”—and the people who simply cannot afford to heat-dry all their clothes, much less afford dry cleaners or throwing anything away.

The value of a strong tenant association is one important take-away message from Ms. Kilgour’s presentation.

Catharine A. Grad

Catharine Grad (Grad & Weinraub, LLP) spoke about the rights and responsibilities of landlords and tenants. She said that “a landlord has the obligation to eradicate bed bugs in a building; that is the law.” However, she urged the PMPs in attendance not to casually tell people (tenants) to move out or break their leases.1 “You have to show that the situation is intolerable to move out,” and “if the situation is being treated, you can’t break the lease—it’s a question of magnitude.”

Tenants are obligated to provide access to their apartments and risk eviction for their refusal. She recognized that when landlords provide inadequate pest control services, tenants must still provide access and “work with” even incompetent pest control professionals or risk becoming part of the problem.

When pressed about alternatives to going to court by a member of the audience who had spent thousands of dollars in litigation, Ms. Grad said that court is “a blunt tool, far from a perfect tool” that takes a long time, but there are effectively no alternatives (“the alternative to court is to get a consensus in a community that is strong enough to compel landlords and tenants to act responsibly”) and so landlords and tenants should not wait. Landlords who cannot gain access to infested apartments should begin court actions as soon as possible, and the same goes for tenants who cannot get their landlords to act responsibly.

She said it would be helpful for landlords and tenants to have “more specific directives” about how to proceed with infestations.

Megan Quenzer

Megan Quenzer’s perspective was precisely that of a tenant receiving inadequate bed bug pest control in her building. A new PMP who apparently knows what he’s doing has improved the situation, but the infestation in the building remains and Ms. Quenzer believes the bed bugs are simply moving from apartment to apartment through the walls, returning to apartments where they were thought to be eradicated.

She stressed the need for community education, for landlords as well as tenants (“everybody needs to be educated”), and expressed the hope that the city will track infestations and regulate bed bug services. She spoke of the efforts in other cities, particularly in Boston, and held her ground in the face of some persistent questioning by some in the audience about the futility of control efforts in the face of tenant introductions. It was also interesting, and sad I suppose, that some in the audience urged her to simply move out.

I am always seriously impressed by people who overcome the stigma of bed bug infestations (or are simply impervious to it) and speak publicly about their own experiences. I think Ms. Quenzer reached the pest control professionals in the room.

An audience of PMPs

The audience as I said was mostly from the pest control community, but I was happy to see Council Member Gale Brewer and Sharon Heath from the Department of Health. Some of the industry folks in attendance were Cesar Soto (Freedom Pest Control), Tim Wong (M&M), Natalie Raben (M&M), John Furman (Boot A Pest), John and Sue Russell (Action Termite & Pest Control), Todd Lorah (Action Termite & Pest Control), Kitty Lee (Residex), Gil Bloom (Standard Pest), Rick Cooper (Cooper Pest), and many others.

Killer Who?

Killer Who?

A note, however. The fact that the audience was overwhelmingly from the industry created an interesting dynamic when the guest speakers (a tenant advocate, a tenant lawyer and a tenant!) spoke in the second half of the evening. It’s useful to understand things as they really are and so I will quote one thing said by an anonymous PMP at the meeting:

“People go on the internet and become geniuses.”

Well.

Guess what, though, surprisingly, there was little back and forth about dogs! Or maybe I’m conditioned to expect the arguing about dogs that in any case did not materialize.

Bed bugs will not go away on their own

During his presentation Lou showed us this public education poster developed by WoodGreen Community Services in Toronto that I think would be a fitting way to end this post:

bed bug education poster

Bed bug education poster, WoodGreen Community Services

Source: All About Bed Bugs: An Information Guide (PDF)

Please tell someone about bed bugs.

Finally, I want to share what one person who was in attendance said. His reaction to what he heard during the meeting was, “this is so depressing.” Yes, it is in so many ways. But please remember what Dr. Stephen Hwang told us recently, because we truly can afford neither complacency nor hopelessness.

Heartfelt thanks to Lou. For more Lou, check out our interview from last year.

  1. This caution about giving improper advice to tenants cannot be stressed enough. I think that it is extremely important to understand that withholding any part of the rent and other actions such as breaking the lease, especially when undertaken without proper legal advice, expose the tenant to the risk of being sued by their landlords. Tenants can and should take their landlords to housing court instead. “HP” proceeding for repairs, I learned at a legal clinic offered by the West Side SRO Law Project recently that I have been meaning to tell you about, do not expose tenants to this risk and should therefore be recommended first. [↩]

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kdr pyrethroid resistance widespread in U.S. bed bug populations

by Renee Corea on January 21, 2010

in Featured, Interviews, News, Research

The University of Kentucky announced yesterday that knockdown resistance (kdr-type) mutations, conferring resistance to synthetic pyrethroid pesticides, are widely prevalent in U.S. bed bug populations. The study, forthcoming in Archives of Insect Biochemistry and Physiology, finds that one or two of two previously identified genetic mutations (briefly discussed here) are present in a majority of U.S. bed bug populations.

From the press release:

Fang Zhu, a post-doctoral fellow at UK along with fellow UK entomologists Mike Potter, Ken Haynes and Reddy Palli and several students, analyzed 110 bed bug populations from across the United States and found 88 percent of them had one or two genetic mutations. These mutations produce what is known as knockdown resistance, meaning the insecticide is not able to kill bed bugs.

[...]

“We need alternative insecticides to fight this bug,” Potter said, “Unfortunately today’s products are not as effective as ones we had previously. Non-chemical measures are important but are seldom completely effective and can be laborious and expensive. History has taught us insecticides are a crucial part of the bed bug solution.”

Data from this study will help pest management professionals make future decisions.

“The methods and primers developed by this group could be used to tell pest control professionals whether or not pyrethroids work on certain bed bugs by looking for these genetic mutations in the bugs’ DNA,” Palli said. “If it’s a target-site mutation, like the majority of these, spraying probably would be ineffective, but if it has another type of resistance, we could possibly add synergists to the current insecticide to help fight them.”

kdr-type mutations cause resistance at the pesticide target site via a mechanism of nerve insensitivity. (For an accessible explanation of pesticide resistance, I refer you to our interview with Dr. Alvaro Romero last year.)

For organochlorines and pyrethroids, these target sites are nerve sodium channels. Thus, DDT resistance can lead to pyrethroid resistance, as both pesticide classes act on the same target site.

As this study is not yet available, I reached out to the University of Kentucky researchers for clarification of the potential meanings of these findings.

New York vs Bed Bugs: Your study shows that the two mutations identified by Yoon et al. (2008) in a NYC population are actually widely prevalent in the United States?

Reddy Palli: Correct, more than 80% of populations showed the presence of one of these mutations.

New York vs Bed Bugs: In the press release you indicate that pest management professionals might use this information to determine a course of action. Can you confirm if UKY’s NYC and Cincinnati bed bug populations are among those with kdr mutations in your study?

Mike Potter: Some of the populations we tested from Cincinnati had one or both mutations while a few others did not (both of the latter still showed high resistance to pyrethroids in bioassays, however, suggesting that other resistance mechanisms may be involved). As far as the NYC populations we tested, all (12) had one or both mutations for pyrethroid resistance.

New York vs Bed Bugs: Are kdr mutations predictive of cross-resistance with other pesticide classes? I note that DDT conferring resistance on modern populations is stated as a possibility (but does this require further investigation?), but what of other possible cross-resistance possibilities?

Reddy Palli: Insecticides (eg. DTT, BHC) that use sodium channel as a target site likely show resistance. As you say, this requires further investigation. Insecticides (eg. Phantom and Propoxur) that work through target sites other than sodium channels may work fine on these resistant populations.

Mike Potter: Unfortunately, we just don’t have too many of these presently that have residual activity as a dry deposit other than products like Phantom (chlorfenapyr), desiccant dusts (e.g., silica gel, DE), and to a degree, the IGRs. Propoxur would be another but the decision to grant it a Section 18 emergency exemption is up to EPA.

New York vs Bed Bugs: I think the public may misinterpret this study as confirmation that “pesticides don’t work” — which is not really the case.

Mike Potter: I think it may be a bit too strong of a statement to conclude that pyrethroids “don’t work” on most of the bed bug populations in US, as we often do kill a percentage of the individuals we test in the laboratory, especially when they are contacted directly with the wet spray deposit. Dry residues typically kill far fewer and we know this to be important for optimal performance of products in the field. Reports from many pest control firms further indicate the pyrethroid products are not performing as well as they would like. Some companies continue to believe that they are working ok, but generally these companies are also incorporating additional treatment measures such as the use of contact killers (Sterifab, Bedlam, Phantom aerosol, etc.), steam, encasement of beds, etc., making it hard to know what specifically is working.

__________________________________________

I thank Dr. Palli and Dr. Potter for so kindly taking the time to answer my questions.

This is most definitely bad news; however, we have been expecting as much and indeed researchers at the University of Kentucky have been warning of widespread pyrethroid resistance for years. Having this confirmed, on this scale, is still a blow. The urgency of having options to enable the most basic resistance management countermeasures should be obvious.

Perhaps I should remind you that today is the last day of the public comment period for Ohio’s Section 18 propoxur exemption request under consideration by EPA.

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The New York Entomological Society presents “What Do You Really Know About Bed Bugs?”

by Renee Corea on January 11, 2010

in Events, Featured

WHO: Everyone’s favorite NYC entomologist, Lou Sorkin

WHEN: Wednesday, January 20, 2010 – 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM

WHERE: Kaufman Theater, First Floor, American Museum of Natural History, 79th St. and Central Park West

DETAILS: What Do You Really Know About Bed Bugs?

FREE!

Other speakers to be announced.

NYS continuing education credits for pest control professionals are to be confirmed. (The meeting notice requests RSVP if attending for credits.)

Details are forthcoming but you can expect bed bug identification, biology, and pest management to be discussed. And, because it’s Lou, there will be great photos and videos.

I will be attending and hope to see you there.

…you and your friends, your landlord, your neighbor, your sleep therapist, your manicurist, got it?

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Teasing out the bubbles: Gerry Wegner shares a neat idea

by Renee Corea on November 18, 2009

in Featured, Interviews

Take a look at the photograph of a bed bug display vial accompanying this news story out of Columbus last week.

Pretty neat, yes?

For one thing they’re dead, but still look pretty good, and there they are, all stages, clearly visible! An elegant educational tool, simple and, one can hope, inexpensive.

Dr. Gerry Wegner is technical director and staff entomologist of Varment Guard Environmental Services Inc. in Columbus, Ohio. He very generously answered our questions.

New York vs Bed Bugs: I think this is very, very cool. How is this made?

Gerry Wegner: Sometime back one of our company technicians brought me an open bottle of Dial hand sanitizer that had fruit flies suspended in it and they stayed perfectly preserved since that time. I checked the ingredients and found that hand sanitizer is @ 65% ethyl alcohol, which is great for preserving most insects and spiders. However, I actually place live specimens in 75–80% alcohol to allow body fluids, waste and visible contaminants to be expelled and then I transfer the fixed specimens to display vials filled about 2/3 way with hand sanitizer.

Next, I remove air bubbles with a fine-tip dropper. Then I place the fixed specimens into the vials and situate them in the position I want using long, fine-tip forceps. I add more hand sanitizer as I go. I top off the vials and remove the last of the bubbles, slide a printed label along the inside wall of the vial and seal it with a tight-fitting cap. More air bubbles sometimes appear over time; but they can be removed with the dropper and the cap replaced. Vials can be purchased from BioQuip (www.bioquip.com).

New York vs Bed Bugs: What is your experience of people’s reactions to seeing bed bugs?

Gerry Wegner: Lots of folks get grossed out over bed bugs’ appearance but they want to see them anyway so they’ll know how to recognize them. Having specimens dead in hand sanitizer helps calm folks’ fear of contact. I keep a live colony for display and research as well.

New York vs Bed Bugs: Do you think we’ll get a handle on this bed bug problem, Dr. Wegner?

Gerry Wegner: In my opinion, we’ll always have bed bugs surviving somewhere in the U.S., sort of like background noise, no matter how diligent the general population becomes with caution/prevention and remediation or IPM technology advances.

____________

Background noise. We’re there, sadly. I know people in the city who are already quite used to bed bugs.

Check out Dr. Wegner’s article about this technique:

Wegner, G. S. (2004) A Surprising New Medium for Specimen Preservation and Display American Entomologist 50:4, 220-221. (free PDF download)

The bubbles—an issue in display aesthetics only—can be teased out using a probing instrument or will rise to the surface over time.

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