New York vs Bed Bugs » Signs of the times

“Die Bettwanzen und ich”

Renee Corea — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:01:01 +0000

I found this video strangely sad. (Don’t see it if you’re distressed about bed bugs.)

How many did he miss I wonder?

Wherever they fit

Renee Corea — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 04:28:57 +0000

The New Yorker’s Book Bench wonders about bed bugs in books.

Lou Sorkin’s answer:

“Bedbugs will be wherever they fit,” he said. “I’ve found them on wood, metal, plastic surfaces, electronics, electric clocks, laptops, cell phones, stereos, clothing, bathroom tile, grout, cracks in wooden floors, inside chandelier bases, seams of shoes, soles of shoes, etc. People have used vacuuming, freezing, Vikane fumigation, No-Pest Strips, and heat for book treatments.”

Grout? I thought bed bugs hated moisture and damp.¹ I suppose if there is a cardinal rule… never put anything past them.

Actually, there’s an early NYC (and books) bed bug story—from perhaps the middle mark of our present troubles—in a Talk of the Town. Maybe you’ll appreciate the sanguine hope of a New York City PMP in 2005:

This summer, we’re going to hit a plateau.

From Night Visitors, The New Yorker, April 4, 2005.

Lou has new photos up if you are in need of a wherever visual aid.

Here is archaeologist Paul Buckland talking briefly about the absence of bed bugs in peat-fired houses. I had to look up peat too.

The New York Post losing its touch?

Renee Corea — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:26:42 +0000

I’m impressed by the nearly sober headline: Bedbugs in the Court!

What happened to the blood bug invasion of old?

The latest bed bug casualty in our city is one beautiful building indeed.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

M&M interviews Brewer and others

Renee Corea — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:10:08 +0000

Bed bugs are a booming business. We all know that. The little local stimulus plan that no one wants to tout. (Before this is over we’ll have to talk about what we can do when we don’t have five, let alone two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The answer can’t be that it sucks to be us, can it?)

So business, booming.

And yet, here’s the thing, I will never forget that Tim Wong of M&M Environmental supported all legislation considered by the City Council in February. It was a small thing, but meant everything to me.

So here is M&M Environmental, in an interesting marketing strategy for a pest control company—in itself a potent sign of the times we are living—taping interviews about the bed bug issues with New Yorkers on the frontlines.

M&M wants to promote their business by being a part of the public conversation about bed bugs? What we’ve always wanted is for everyone to engage.

Also they, unlike me apparently, can get an interview with a lawyer. So there you go. (Am I bitter? Never. ;) )

Here’s the interview with Council Member Gale Brewer:

There are interviews with a co-op board president and with bed bug lawyer Timothy Wenk, in two flavors, for tenants and landlords.

“Menace in the Mattress” (chow time, really)

Renee Corea — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 16:22:52 +0000

The Entomological Society of America (ESA) is featuring a bed bug video on its YouTube channel:

As you can see, it’s one prolonged “boo.”

Nevertheless, there are opportunities to notice things about bed bugs everywhere really. I first played this video without sound, and perhaps that is the best way to view it. It reminded me of the observations of Aboul-Nasr and Erakey (Mssrs?): “The process of cleaning the antennae and proboscis with the fore legs may then follow.”

So it’s not that they don’t groom themselves, they don’t groom themselves with their mouth parts.

One further observation, Usinger quoting Hase:

“The bug secures itself with its claws on the skin, with the forelegs reaching quite far forward, in order to have leverage when introducing the stylets. In starved bugs there may be an intense vibrating movement before piercing. First the beak is touched vertically to the surface and the skin is tested repeatedly with its tip… The antennae are no longer pointed forward, but rather backward on a line level with the eyes. At this point—while the insect makes rather energetic pushing movements with the head and the entire body may be brought into sway with the abdomen moving up and down—the introduction of the stylets begins.”

Emphasis added. From Hase, A. 1917. Die Bettwanze (Cimex lectularius L.): ihr Leben und ihre Bekämpfung quoted in Usinger, Monograph of Cimicidae, 1966, p. 23. (Their life history and ~~control~~ eradication? Hase had plenty interesting things to say; unfortunately for us, if we don’t have German, we can only get at them second-hand.)

No bed bugs

Renee Corea — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 08:30:47 +0000

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.

NYC DOH?

Renee Corea — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 14:14:57 +0000

I’ll have to stop being surprised at these.

Dan Kass tells WNYC Radio that the New York City Department of Health is committed:

The city health department for years said bedbugs were not a public health problem, because they are a nuisance but do not transmit disease. Kass says his agency now is committed to assessing the problem thoroughly and helping property-owners, tenants and exterminators work together more effectively.

Maybe it’s not all gloom. Maybe.

The story is about DOH at the National Bed Bug Summit. You can read more about that here.

Turning a corner

Renee Corea — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 06:50:38 +0000

Dan Kass, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Assistant Commissioner for Environmental Surveillance and Policy, on the Goddard/deShazo article:

The report “does reconfirm feelings that bed bugs are miserable creatures that make everyone’s lives worse,” said Kass. “It’s easy to get anxious about this.”

A statement like this from DOHMH was unthinkable just a few months ago.

Thank you, Mr. Kass.

Now, Mr. Mayor, Madam Speaker, respectfully, where is our bed bug advisory board?

Also of interest, DOITT provides 2008 and YTD 311 stats (these numbers are a new presentation of the complaints stats and include not only HPD complaints but the total number of 311 calls about bed bugs):

There were 22,218 calls for bed bug-related information to New York’s 311 information line in 2008, compared with 13,322 in 2006. There have been 6,128 calls in 2009 to date, said Nick Sbordone, spokesman for the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunication in New York, which oversees the service.

Interesting. Needless to say, those thousands of people who call 311 must be disappointed, as there is very little information for them. This has to change. It will change.

I do have notes on the JAMA article I’ll post this week. Turns out that there is another recent bed bug bites article that complicates matters a bit. I think we’re hardly in a position to state much about bed bug bites with any confidence. As for disease transmission, the public health importance of bed bugs does not derive from their competence as vectors. Why is this not fully understood? I’ve been thinking about this all week, and we’ll have to do a better job if we have the likes of Jerome Goddard framing the boundaries of the public health interest.

NYC DOH?

What is he talking about?

Renee Corea — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 05:36:37 +0000

This article by entomologist Dr. George Rotramel has been burning a hole in my head since I read it.

Now that I’ve re-read it, it may not be as bad as that depressing first read, but it’s still not very encouraging.

Redefining failure and collecting bed bugs so that you can later say they are different bed bugs seems so CYA-ish to me.

Is this what modern bed bug management is about?

And this business of identifying populations by sight?

KNOW THE OLD FROM THE NEW. Even though your treatment eliminated the original infestation, a new population of bed bugs may have been brought into areas that you didn’t treat and/or into areas where the residue from your treatment is no longer effective. To address this problem, collect and label dry samples of bed bug adults, nymphs, eggs, cast skins and egg shells from every account before you make your initial treatment and then take samples of live bugs and live eggs from areas in which you are going to make a retreatment.

An expert often can tell different populations of the same species of bed bugs apart based on the shape and sculpture of their eggs and the size, shape and distribution of the hairs on their bodies. These samples also can be used to determine how many different populations are involved.

Emphasis decidedly mine.

Surely, “to address this problem” is not a meaningful phrase in this context.

March 18, 2009: Dr. Rotramel responded here.

No related posts.

Ray Lopez recognized with Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Award

Renee Corea — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 02:53:59 +0000

We missed this fantastic news last fall: Ray Lopez was named a 2008 recipient of the prestigious Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Community Health Leader Awards.

Ray is a hero in our small NYC bed bug advocate community for helping the families of East Harlem cope with bed bug infestations as part of his Environmental Health Program at Little Sisters of the Assumption Family Health Service.

This is a short quote from the press release:

He visits disadvantaged families tormented daily by mold, rodent and insect infestation and other environmental health problems festering in their homes. Lopez empowers families by educating them on the root causes of their environmental health issues and teaching them firsthand the skills to resolve their hazardous situations. In-turn, families often lend their newfound expertise to neighbors facing similar conditions – multiplying the number of poor households receiving needed help.

We are so proud to count Ray as a friend to our cause and so very happy for him; it’s so just a recognition of Ray’s extraordinary work.