New York vs Bed Bugs » Toronto

Bed bug treatment specs in TCH’s July 2009 RFP

Renee Corea — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 03:09:29 +0000

If you want to see an example of bed bug treatment specs within the context of a full RFP, see Toronto Community Housing’s Integrated Pest Management Services Request for Proposal from July 2009.

Pest treatment specifications for bed bugs are in appendix B-4.

Please note that the PDF has a wayward dot—you may need to rename the file (add a .pdf extension) in order to open it.

See also previously: Bed bug treatment specs from ONPHA. (The ONPHA specs are substantially the same but the warranty is specific to bed bugs and other details have been elaborated upon. Highly recommend that you check them out.)

Bed bug treatment specs from ONPHA

Renee Corea — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:59:51 +0000

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:

Bed Bug Pest Management Services;
Expected Service Levels and Treatment; and
Minimum Warranty (PDF).

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.

Toronto schools bed bug policy

Renee Corea — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 21:29:04 +0000

The Toronto District School Board has published a bed bug procedure as a standard for all schools, outdoor education, child care and administrative facilities.

The policy provides for mandatory notification of “signs of bed bugs in any teaching area or work site” to the principal or site manager, whereupon:

(b) If signs of bed bugs are confirmed, the principal or site manager shall promptly notify:

(i) Head caretaker/family team leader

(ii) Manager, Occupational Health and Safety

(iii) Superintendent of education

(iv) Toronto Public Health

(v) Organizations leasing space in the school

Source: Toronto District School Board Operational Procedure PR599 (PDF)

Treatment would then trigger additional notifications to parents, staff and organizations that lease space on the site.

Additional documents:

Form 599A: Signs of Bed Bugs Reported (Notification Letter)

Form 599B: Students Sent Home from Outdoor Education Site (Notification Letter)

Form 599C: Signs of Bed Bugs; Continued/Resumed Use of Facility (Notification Letter)

Toronto Public Health Bed Bug Fact Sheet

The New York City schools bed bug kit (PDF) for comparison.

Thinking through procedures and notification policies as bed bugs prove themselves to be extremely challenging in schools is absolutely necessary. Schools are in a very difficult position because the root of the problem is elsewhere, in the homes of children and staff who are affected. However, schools are also uniquely positioned to disseminate good bed bug information and, well beyond that, to actually educate their communities, especially those who do not have access to professional pest control services, about mitigation strategies.

I wonder for how long actual eradication will continue to be beyond our reach.

2nd ONPHA video in planned series: bed bug treatment preparation

Renee Corea — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 06:59:43 +0000

The second Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association (ONPHA) video is up:

See previously: Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association bed bug awareness video.

ONPHA also has a bed bug resources page.

I was surprised to find that it links to a section on Landlord and Tenant Board cases, some of which are more interesting than they should be, like this one (PDF) concerning a tenant claim against a landlord:

I find on a balance of probabilities that the female Tenant brought the bedbugs into the unit by bringing a bedbug infested headboard into the unit. This headboard was discarded by the resident of unit 807, which was treated for bedbugs on January 18, 2008. The Tenant salvaged the headboard from the garbage collection area. The Tenant did not dispute that she brought the headboard into the unit, but contended that it was not the source of the bedbugs because she cleaned the headboard and used it on the balcony of the unit. I find the Tenants’ theory of causation wanting.

Nonetheless:

Although the Tenants brought the bedbugs into the unit, the Landlord is still responsible for treating the unit as part of its maintenance obligations and to prevent other units from infestation. In this regard, the Tenants alleged that Ms. H informed the Landlord’s agents, the superintendent and assistant superintendent, of the bedbug problem on March 18, 2008, and that they told her to deal with the problem herself.

Bed Bugs Are Back: Are We Ready? available from WoodGreen

Renee Corea — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:11:22 +0000

Bed Bugs Are Back: Are We Ready? (PDF) — the new Toronto report from WoodGreen Community Services, Habitat Services and Public Interest is now available for download at the website of WoodGreen Community Services.

~~[To be updated.]~~ Sorry, I’m still reading this extraordinarily ambitious work. It is simply a must read and you should spend some quality time with this report yourself. We’ll examine it in full in another post.

The researchers conducted an amazing number of interviews with people in Toronto and the world over. Bed bug world people, stakeholders in Toronto, landlords, social and health services workers, sufferers, everyone. Imagine an intelligent interviewer asking the important questions and getting at the essence of the bed bug problem.

I think excerpts don’t do this report justice and I wish you will read this yourself. From a bed bug sufferer profile, page 35:

Most importantly, I became so isolated. To be honest, until you go through it, you have no idea just how horrifying it really is. It is just natural for you to become paranoid; you lose sleep, you end up dreaming and thinking about bed bugs—they just consume every fibre of your being. I had to isolate myself from my family and friends; I did not want anyone coming over. I was too afraid that they would bring bed bugs home. This was very difficult for me because you need someone to talk to because it is awful … very awful. There were many days that I did not see an end in sight.

I do want to share one more thing for now. Some resourceful researcher at Public Interest got the full walking bed bugs story straight from Permakil’s Erich Hardebeck! Remember this? Page 11:

While bed bugs are known to travel unit to unit, they are also known to walk from building to building in severe and exceptional cases. Eric Hardebeck of Permakil, an American pest control company, reported bed bugs crawling through an alley in broad daylight, climbing up the sides of a building and crawling along telephone wires to enter into an apartment building adjacent to the alley. Bed bugs were found running out into the street, and some had been run over by cars. The bed bugs had survived in mattresses discarded in the alley and by feeding on homeless people who were using the mattresses. The infestation had reached such high levels that the bugs were mobile outside during the day.70

Mercy. That may be the bed bug story to end all bed bug stories.

Reports from Toronto, including new Toronto Bed Bug Project updates

Renee Corea — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 03:18:39 +0000

There’s news from Toronto today, the presentation of a new report titled “Bed Bugs Are Back: Are We Ready?” commissioned by the city of Toronto and the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care according to this news report. Here’s another story with a video segment.

So, I can’t find it! Do send a link if you know where this report is available. We’ll discuss it when we can read it, yes?

Nonetheless, don’t go away, because it turns out that the Toronto Medical Officer of Health has issued a follow-up report on the Toronto Bed Bug Project to be presented at the November 16 Board of Health Meeting.

There are three components and you can download them and read them with me. For now some brief highlights:

Toronto Public Health’s Response to Bed Bugs – Staff Report, from the conclusion:

Over the last two years, it has become clear that the bed bugs in Toronto are a complex and costly problem, requiring labour intensive interventions for effective management.

Toronto Public Health is not adequately resourced to undertake this task and the realignment of staff to work on this issue is not sustainable in the long term.

Bed Bugs in Toronto – Developing an Effective Response (October 2009) (PDF), a report from the Toronto Bed Bug Project Steering Committee, from the executive summary:

The High Cost of Doing Nothing: The longer left alone and untreated, the more the bed bugs will multiply and migrate. When colonies reach a certain size, some of the bed bugs begin to break away and migrate, moving further into adjacent units or traveling on belongings into new spaces, creating multiple infestations.

Letter from Toronto Community Housing entitled “Pest Management Program” (PDF), on the effect of sealing apartments:

Sealing of unit cracks and crevices has been found to be a very successful method of reducing the spread of bed bugs to neighbouring units. From 2007-2009, staff have sealed approximately 6,394 units portfolio-wide through the Unit Refurbishment Program. As well, approximately 10% of Toronto Community Housing units are sealed per year during turnover of units. Where units have been correctly sealed, staff have noticed an up to 60% decrease in infestation rates.

In addition, you can read the detailed agenda for the board of health meeting (PDF), on the financial impact:

The TPH Bed Bug Unit in 2009 has been supported by three Public Health Inspectors and two Public Health Nurses who have been re-assigned to this work from the Health Hazard and the Vulnerable Adults programs. These resources will continue to support the Bed Bug Project in 2010 and the estimated cost of continuing this project is $500,000 gross and $125,000 net which will be absorbed within TPH 2010 Operating Budget. TPH will continue to work with TESS and SSHA in the delivery of this program in 2010.

The Toronto Bed Bug Project is surveying residents about bed bugs

Renee Corea — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:23:21 +0000

Check out the online survey:

Anyone can get bed bugs! Bed bugs can cause anxiety, allergic reactions, and financial hardship.

The Toronto Bed Bug Project is working to develop strategies to manage bed bug infestations.

Did you buy any over-the-counter products to deal with bed bugs?

This is so encouraging.

“A continuous and sustained effort”: Q&A with Dr. Stephen W. Hwang

Renee Corea — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 18:38:39 +0000

Dr. Stephen W. Hwang is a research scientist at the Centre for Research on Inner City Health, the Keenan Research Centre in the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael’s Hospital, and Associate Professor of Medicine and Director of the Division of General Internal Medicine, University of Toronto. He is lead author of the influential 2005 Toronto bed bug infestations study. Dr. Hwang graciously answered our questions about the recent anemia case report in the Canadian Medical Association Journal which has deepened our understanding of the health effects of bed bugs on vulnerable populations.

New York vs Bed Bugs: Can you tell us about the severity of the patient’s condition and why it was caused by bed bugs? This was a life-threatening condition?

Dr. Stephen W. Hwang: The patient had severe anemia (a very low level of red blood cells) because he had an extensive bed bug infestation in his apartment that had gone untreated for months. This man was losing a substantial amount of blood on a daily basis to the thousands of bed bugs living in his bed and mattress, to the point that he became iron deficient. His blood levels reached a very low level that could be described as potentially life-threatening, although fortunately he did not suffer any permanent damage to his health. As we describe in our report, we are quite certain that the bed bugs were the cause of his anemia because an extensive series of medical investigations did not reveal any other source of blood loss or an alternative explanation for his anemia. In addition, his anemia went away and did not return after his apartment was treated for bed bugs.

New York vs Bed Bugs: The patient’s bed bug infestation has been abated but not eradicated. Presumably he is still at risk should the infestation grow to previous levels. Have you any indications of the prevalence of persistent bed bug infestations in the vulnerable populations which are the subject of your research interests? And what are the implications for the care of individuals who are at higher risk for chronic bed bug infestations? What would you recommend to health care providers?

Dr. Stephen W. Hwang: We have not done a follow-up study to find out if bed bug infestations are more common than before among vulnerable populations such as people living in homeless shelters or residents in low-income housing. In my experience as a physician caring for patients who are homeless, I would say that the problem of bed bugs has become even more prevalent over the last 5 years. Although many people complain about bed bug infestations, and rightly so, I think that the main point of our case study is that we should be keeping our eyes open for those individuals who have bed bugs in their home and are not complaining about it, for whatever reason. I suspect that people who have severe mental illness, addictions, or cognitive impairment (such as dementia) are at highest risk of developing overwhelming bed bug infestations. Health care providers need to familiarize themselves with the symptoms of bed bug bites and infestations, and be prepared to give advice on how to deal with this problem.

New York vs Bed Bugs: Aside from severe allergic reactions, there is little evidence in the medical literature for any of the potential health risks that have been suggested for bed bug infestations. It’s an open question, however, whether there is awareness and capacity to detect effects. In the years since your Toronto survey of bed bug infestations, what has been the interest in and perception of bed bugs in the medical and social services communities?

Dr. Stephen W. Hwang: Over the last 5 years, I think bed bugs have changed from being a new and unfamiliar problem to one that many health care and social service providers are very accustomed to seeing. Since this is a problem that shows no sign of going away, we need to prepare ourselves for a continuous and sustained effort to improve the control of bed bugs, rather than expecting to “defeat” or eliminate them. The risk is that we can’t afford to become either complacent or hopeless in this ongoing struggle. I also believe that we need to devote more resources to ensure that people who don’t have the capacity or resources to deal with bed bug infestations in their home can get the assistance that they need.

Publications:

Pritchard, M.J. & Hwang, S.W., 2009. Severe anemia from bedbugs. CMAJ, 181(5), 287-288. doi:10.1503/cmaj.090482

Hwang SW, Svoboda TJ, De Jong IJ, Kabasele KJ, Gogosis E. Bed bug infestations in an urban environment. 2005. Emerging Infectious Diseases 11(4), 533-538. http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol11no04/04-1126.htm

Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association bed bug awareness video

Renee Corea — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 02:06:15 +0000

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.

Multi-unit housing IPM: a Q & A with Sam Bryks

Renee Corea — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 06:37:53 +0000

Entomologist Sam Bryks is the Manager of Environmental Health Services at hsi solutions in Toronto. He has been in the pest management field for nearly 30 years, and managed the first Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program in public housing in the largest housing authority in Canada for 17 years. He is the author of the 1999 IPM manual, Integrated Pest Management in Housing, written for the Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association (ONPHA) and available for download at the University of Toronto’s website. And he has advised the Toronto Bed Bug Project, Toronto’s inter-agency bed bug task force.

Sam Bryks showed us great kindness in answering our questions and sharing his expertise with us via instant messages, and even greater generosity in refining his responses via email. We are deeply grateful.

New York vs Bed Bugs: Why is Integrated Pest Management so poorly understood? I have struggled with this myself.

Sam Bryks: That is a tough one, Renee. For a time most pest control firms talked IPM, as it was a bit of a catch phrase, and there are still lots of proponents, such as IPM in schools as a legislated requirement in some states in your country. Various organizations offer certification in IPM but I, and some others in the field, know that real IPM practice is rare. People say it and give it all kinds of descriptions such as using different methods, and I even heard a talk in which “green” was substituted for an excellent rodent IPM program, but I know that very, very few actually understand what it means.

New York vs Bed Bugs: What are some of the misconceptions?

Sam Bryks: That using different methods of control is IPM. It is not, even if that is part of IPM. Or that low toxicity products mean IPM, though IPM does strive to use least toxic products.

New York vs Bed Bugs: Is IPM primarily an anti-pesticide philosophy?

Sam Bryks: IPM is definitely NOT anti-pesticide. Using pesticides is often part of the total IPM practice. IPM was derived from the agricultural setting when it was found that pesticides alone were losing effectiveness in controlling certain pests due to resistance. Crop yields were not increased in that case, and cost of the pesticides was an additional expense without benefit… so in the fifties and early sixties a system based on information was developed. This was based on knowledge of the pest, of its life cycle, of vulnerable stages, of when best to treat, and to get away from using pesticides against a pest when it wasn’t there at the moment. It really was about understanding the pest ecosystem. This was adapted to the urban model. In the agricultural setting they speak of the economic threshold of treatment… when it is cost effective and, for a time, they talked of the Aesthetic Injury Level for urban pests. In other words, when someone went YUK… funny… but really in the urban setting, I say that in a home one is one too many when it comes to the pests that infest such as roaches, or mice or bed bugs or food infesting pests. The occasional outside insect getting in the house is really of no consequence. Every home likely has some insects somewhere.

But the essential element of IPM is that it is AN INFORMATION BASED SYSTEM that utilizes knowledge to apply a variety of approaches in control, including prevention and use of the least toxic and minimal amounts of pesticide when necessary to control the pest.

New York vs Bed Bugs: First time I hear of aesthetic injury level—bed bugs would have to take that prize by default. But is reduction in pesticide use its primary reason for being?

Sam Bryks: No, that is not the primary goal, but it is an outcome, though in the urban setting it is definitely a very significant goal. In the agricultural setting it was originally based on cost effectiveness, not increasing costs by useless applications that were expensive, but of course the reduction in use of pesticides was a very beneficial outcome for the environment and for people. The impact of our industrial society is greater than one imagines. I live in an area where there is a parkland that extends over about 40 acres. When I was a boy, we saw frogs and toads and certain non-poisonous snakes and lots of other critters including bird species that we now do not see at all. The area became lawn space and the use of pesticides and other challenges basically eliminated all those species.

New York vs Bed Bugs: And now, in institutionalized IPM programs, is pesticide use reduction a first obligation?

Sam Bryks: This is a very, very important aspect that was long not considered. I once had a case of a family in which the idea of roaches was so repugnant that they bought diazinon and were spraying the home on a weekly basis to the point when I walked in, my eyes were burning. I was called because their small child was sick all the time and it was not surprising because the place was heavily contaminated from the repetitive spraying. I advised the mother that she had to stop doing this and reassured her that we would ensure that she didn’t have roaches in her home. She was nearly in tears realizing that her spraying had affected her child, but we kept our promise and got rid of the roaches using other methods.

This was because of the fear of having an infested home… that is an extreme case, but at one time one of the standard solutions was to spray entire buildings for roaches once a year. In some housing organizations, spraying units four times a year was not unusual. That was whether infested or not as a preventive approach… wow!!!

New York vs Bed Bugs: And this did not achieve control, needless to say?

Sam Bryks: Not really. Insects will try to avoid pesticides and if the cure is worse than the pest…? Also, if no one takes any actions about highly infested units that we call focal infested units (meaning that infestation comes from this focus point of high infestation). This changed in the early 80s with the advent of baits especially hydramethylnon baits, but that is another story… Getting back to IPM, the whole idea is to achieve control, limit spread, eliminate through common sense approaches relating to the pest species. For example, people would spray for spiders indoors out of fear when most indoor spiders are harmless and control is achieved by vacuuming, by glue boards and, amazingly enough, by looking at the environment. Incandescent lighting draws flying insects and spiders hang out where there are, so change of lighting can have a huge impact. I once investigated an ant problem in a hospital day surgery and it was traced to lighting that attracted insects and the ants fed on dead insects, so part of the IPM approach was to change the habitat, not just treat for the ants by spraying as was the routine by most firms. “Ants… oh, let me spray them,” and then spray again and again because without looking at the cause, you can’t find a cure. Changing the lighting reduced the risk by changing the local habitat. This also applies to bed bugs by reducing risk of spread by common sense approaches.

New York vs Bed Bugs: So, do you want to take a definitive stab at a definition of IPM; we see so many and they don’t particularly illustrate what is behind the concept?

Sam Bryks: Yes, there was a great definition by Marcos Kogan… I don’t remember it by heart, but I can get it for you. It says that IPM is an information-based system utilizing a variety of methods including pesticides when needed with focus on impact on producers and the environment. Applied to the urban area, it is stakeholders instead of producers.

New York vs Bed Bugs: Stakeholders meaning?

Sam Bryks: Means everyone impacted in society. Tenants, landlords, workers, property management people, municipal people, social workers and care givers, health departments, pest control service providers. It is really society at large in this case. No one wants to have them and the stakeholders each have roles in enabling prevention and control. It goes to the heart… family doctors, nursing home operators, hotels….

New York vs Bed Bugs: Okay, so, what of our friend, the bed bug? Specifically with regard to an emergent pest outbreak such as bed bugs, are there limitations and challenges inherent in an IPM approach? Or are the challenges to do with the bed bug itself?

Sam Bryks: First is understanding how this happened. Clive Boase really got it right. Of course we look at the underlying reasons such as change in use of pesticides and the way they spread but close up it has to do with unresolved infestations from which the insects are spread. If you have one hotel with a bad infestation, it will spread that infestation through guests to their homes, and to other hotels, and from there to other people as well. These are called reservoirs of infestation. And these reservoirs can be ONE UNIT in a building, or a range of other locations, but it has to do with high turnover of people. This is why homeless shelters are vulnerable, as well as university residences, and any kind of multiple dwelling housing as it involves many people living under one roof.

In order to truly bring this pest under control, we need to eliminate it from everywhere. And the more infested places not resolved, the more it will continue to spread. We have seen that happen in the last ten years DRAMATICALLY.

So part of IPM is understanding that fact. This is part of the biology of the pest. Further to that it is understanding how it behaves and what we should do and what we should not do to limit spreading things.

The toughest thing about the IPM approach is to get people to actually take the responsibility to solve the problems, not blaming others. Landlords being blamed by tenants, tenants being blamed by landlords… Of course, the bug itself is a huge challenge. These critters were in low numbers for nearly 50 years, and they have made an amazing comeback.

People like Michael Potter, Stephen Kells, Richard Cooper and especially Clive Boase have contributed a lot to knowledge of bed bug behaviour and looking at the problem holistically and understand how very difficult it is. Stephen Doggett in Australia put together a bed bug policy for the entire country focused especially on the hospitality industry. I have also appreciated contact with Joe Barile, Technical Director at Bayer, who is a great resource to the industry.

This is definitely not an easy pest to control. Baits don’t work of course and the bed bugs are very resistant to current products. And as you have said, it is expensive, very expensive to treat even one home. So the IPM idea is to use our intelligence and information to do the best we can do.

New York vs Bed Bugs: But can this approach scale? In a large building, which is your area of expertise?

Sam Bryks: For example, before 1999, we never publicized an infestation in an apartment unit. We had it treated discreetly and those products worked fairly well… not much spread when we had those products. I am not saying that removing those products was wrong, not at all. There is a great concern about exposure of children to pesticides. And you probably know that New York State and a couple of others had sued HUD for not enforcing IPM programs by their clients. Notwithstanding this, we know HUD does support IPM very strongly. The rationale was the cost to society of children’s allergies and asthma caused by roach infestations. I remember years ago reading a study which looked at the differences in pesticide residues in single family dwelling and in non-profit housing in three states in your country. The results were dramatic. The non profit housing units had far higher residues of pesticides. Not surprising for that time.

New York vs Bed Bugs: Can you name the formerly effective products you are referring to?

Sam Bryks: Well, things like diazinon and dursban, and baygon. Trade names for two organophosphates and one carbamate, and before that a relative of DDT, chlordane, which was banned more than 20 years ago… For roaches, the bait products changed this dramatically, but don’t want to digress… the story was not a final one… insects are amazingly resilient genetically.

I am not a scientist who researches the effects of pesticides in detail, but when they remove a product it is because of concerns about long term effects… I think if we look at the risk/benefit idea, that is, one weighs risk against benefit. It is like a cancer patient having chemotherapy which is very, very tough to endure, and no one would want to take chemotherapy if they didn’t have cancer, so the risk of death outweighs the difficulty of chemotherapy, and of course doctors do their best to minimize those negative effects. With pest management it is like that. No one wants to use a very strong toxicant if they can do it some other way with a less toxic product. I remember reading about fluoride-salt based roach baits… wow!!! I think it was sodium fluoride. Long before my time. That material was very, very dangerous, and I am sure its use was restricted, but a product that can kill people is not desirable of course. Now it is about more subtle long-term effects, not about short-term effects though the organophosphates and carbamates are neurotoxins.

I know that there are still people on the side of pesticide use who revile Rachel Carson and her landmark book “Silent Spring” but she basically said, be careful, use wisely and don’t poison the environment. She didn’t say DON’T EVER USE. She was noted as one of the 100 most influential people in the 20th century by Time Magazine. She basically gave the alert about environmental impact, but she had a common sense approach and was not anti-pesticide, rather she was pro-common sense. It was equivalent to the current debate about global warming.

New York vs Bed Bugs: Let’s turn to issues of application. What are the specific problems in the implementation of IPM in large, multi-unit buildings? What are the ‘moving parts’ that need to be coordinated and where are the vulnerable points? And how do you measure results?

Sam Bryks: With bed bugs we are now facing an epidemic of infestation with very expensive treatment that doesn’t always work. So what to do? We, at my company, have taken the process of IPM to a new focus. That is Chain of Accountability. We promote that to do IPM properly, we need all stakeholders involved, each doing their part… so we need to educate tenants to report infestation and to treat them with respect and not stigmatize them. As I said, in past we kept it very quiet, we changed that and advised that property managers post alerts about infestation.

Got some backlash on that from tenants who felt their homes were being labelled. So we advised to post alerts discreetly. This is also critical from a legal perspective. If a landlord doesn’t alert tenants, then they could be sued. I have seen this happen as a matter of due diligence. The tenant is responsible to let the landlord know so that things can be handled, and to prepare the unit, but the landlord is really responsible for the building, and part of that responsibility is to advise other tenants of the risk. When we had few cases, we didn’t do that because it was so rare and we managed to eliminate them, and no one wanted to stigmatize a particular tenant, but things have changed – it happens a lot now and it can happen to anyone.

New York vs Bed Bugs: This is very interesting, the ever-present stigma. I should like to ask your thoughts about what we can do about the stigma; for example, what exactly is a discreet bed bug alert? Why can’t we treat bed bugs as if they were termites?

Sam Bryks: I am laughing. Termites eat wood. Bed bugs eat PEOPLE. And there is a whole fear factor. People are afraid of taking them home. I have heard of really terrible reactionary attitudes about infestation… not allowing people into offices, and advising staff not to go into their homes but meet in a coffee shop. I wonder what the coffee shop owner would think if he knew someone was shifting this risk to his business. I am asked to give training to caregiver agencies so that their staff do not have to be afraid, and can deliver their services but also protect themselves. This is so important. We have heard of work refusals because of bed bugs. If a caregiver finds an infestation because they have been educated in this, then they can not only protect themselves with reasonable precautions without fear but also alert others when there is a problem.

New York vs Bed Bugs: Yes, but how do we leave these attitudes behind? Is it not imperative to do that, now that we have this extraordinary outbreak? Do we not see the impotence and the invalid reasoning behind all of this?

Sam Bryks: It is really education. If an organization creates anxiety by policies, then they are doing themselves a disservice and creating negative attitudes towards clients. We need to give staff assurance and make them feel safe. Can it happen? Yes of course. But if you advise staff how to reduce risk and then tell them that if it does happen, they will get help, this makes all the difference. The whole idea of our IPM Chain of Accountability Program, is that kind of education. I too am revulsed by the idea of taking bed bugs home. What a nightmare that could be… but using common sense is the way to approach this. I remember the first major infestation I encountered, I came home and went downstairs and took off all my clothes to my underwear and put into the washer. Family wondered why and I didn’t tell them. See… me too!! But from that experience, we develop common sense practices for staff. The next one I went to which was reported to be severe, I had tyvek disposable coveralls and it was easy to take off and dispose of. I don’t have any at home… yet.

New York vs Bed Bugs: Can you say how many cases of bed bugs were treated year in, year out, before the current bed bug boom?

Sam Bryks: I worked for a large pest control firm and during eight years I never saw or heard of even ONE case. At that time these were historical pests. If any firm had specialized in that, they would have gone broke very fast. I have heard of techs in the business who prior to about 1997 had never seen one infestation after 20 years of service work. The bed bugs were out there, but in very small numbers. I know that in the former MTHA, the provincial housing agency in Toronto, the rate was perhaps about 4-6 jobs annually out of nearly 30,000 units. That is a very, very low rate. It is actually a percent rate of .0003 %. For roaches in a private detached home we estimated a risk of about one newly imported infestation in about 20 years with some variance on where people shop and so on. This would mean about 10 new cases per year in a 200 unit building. That is a new infestation rate from outside of about 5%. Still fairly low, but if each infestation is not resolved, and then spreads… well it rapidly increases to much higher levels in a building.

I don’t want to guess the rate of newly imported infestation for bed bugs, but I would say it is probably in that range now.

New York vs Bed Bugs: Yes, but now those 4 annual jobs, once they could not be effectively controlled, and discreetly controlled, morphed into the situation we have now, which is essentially unabated spread.

Sam Bryks: No, those four treatments were handled because the products were more effective then. Simple reality. We had few callbacks. Sometimes I think there may be a bringing back of products, but I don’t think anyone thinks this is likely. We hope for better products designed to take advantage of bed bug behaviour.

Poor control results in increase of resistance… if you don’t succeed in killing all of them, then survivors are often the ones who have some resistance… but also there were some bad practices. People using spray products — often aerosols that may have killed some bed bugs but actually dispersed them or pest operators asking tenants to lift mattresses and boxes as part of preparation so they don’t have to do that. This can result in dispersion of some to less accessible hiding places or an unresolved infestation that spreads from sheer population pressure.

Bed bugs have nasty mating habits you know.

New York vs Bed Bugs: Yes, we’ve heard, but then, aren’t rats the same? It’s the prerogative of vermin, I suppose.

Can we strategically bring back some of these products, to control this epidemic?

Sam Bryks: Not for me to say. I don’t see that happening. Though there could be huge pressure to do that. I think that use of the IPM approach to prevent and limit spread is the answer. Not so bad if you have to treat a few units, but pretty bad when you have to treat an entire building at about $300 each per unit. That adds up for a large site. We are talking hundreds of thousands of dollars and the problem will return lickety split if nothing else is done. I know of cases just like that.

Not so different with rats. I would rather control rats than bed bugs. Much easier, but you know that rat infestations are largely the outcome of poor practices in managing garbage. In both Toronto and New York this has been traced to poor garbage handling in the inner city. Rats take advantage of that.

And IPM works with rats as well. It is about habitat and strategies of control.

But getting back to bed bugs. With IPM… educate all stakeholders as needed.

New York vs Bed Bugs: Pity there isn’t a fundamental reason for bed bug infestations, like garbage is for rats.

Sam Bryks: There is a fundamental reason. That is the existence of unresolved infestations. That is the first reason and it follows, spread by a variety of means including between units and by poor disposal of infested items, especially bedding.

Education of all stakeholders. Early warning and notification of infestation. Keeping track of infestations… which units? Doing adjacent unit inspections or even block inspections. Hiring good companies to do the work… the lowest price is usually the worst job.

With IPM, everyone is involved. And if there is a case that needs special attention, it means that the special assistance MUST be provided by some means. A bad infestation that is avoided with the idea of evicting a tenant, who can’t help self, is a pretty poor approach. Some activist lawyers here in Toronto would sue a landlord if they tried to evict a tenant for that reason. Handicap or inability to prepare a unit is not a valid reason for eviction by Human Rights standards. A tough one, because landlords are not social workers, but along the lines of the IPM CAP model, we need to define what they need to do and can do to handle these issues as part of their accountability for the entire building. Not so easy, but fortunately in our society, we value compassion for others.

New York vs Bed Bugs: And yet, the costs, the incredible costs, how do we eradicate infestations that are so expensive to eradicate? What readjustment of priorities must occur?

Sam Bryks: IPM includes tracking and monitoring and it includes looking at how the treatment should be done. Is anyone monitoring what the contractor is doing? I mention in the workshops I give that some experts say that a one bedroom apartment should take 3 hours to treat and that for smaller units, the absolute minimum time would be 1/2 hour if it were a new infestation, but a very focused half hour and attendees both tenants and building staff often tell me that their contractor was doing units in less than 15 minutes… Now, 3 hours is a long time and expensive, and I am not sure if always needed, though to be honest, I can’t say it is not needed. I think that early detection and treatment along with some common sense approaches can reduce the time a lot with a reasonable prospect of control with two treatments, but once it is a heavy infestation, it can take hours and hours to get under control.

People are looking at heat treatment, but currently it is very expensive. Hopefully it may be modified to enable, but I am not encouraged by this at the moment. It works very well, but the set up to do it is not easy. It may very well become the method of choice for the wealthy.

New York vs Bed Bugs: The last question is: If you had to design a training program for bed bug management in a multi-unit housing/urban setting, that took into consideration all the stakeholders and the challenges we know about, what would you worry about?

What is critical?

Sam Bryks: Well, we have developed exactly that. We start with educating the key management people. At the level of directors and contract managers. We had a CEO drop in to support the program, but all the other directors and contract managers sat in a four hour overview of IPM.

Tenants need to know that the management is committed to do what is necessary. And if the key management are educated in this formally, lights go on in their heads that were closed doors before. Tenants need to know what they can do to help prevention and to know that they can report problems without fear of being blamed. Tenants need to know what they can do, etc. But I have found that if the management does not get involved in very real ways, credibility is not there among staff. I once had occasion with a colleague to visit a hospital that had been experiencing roach issues. We found the cause that another pest control firm had missed, but the Housekeeping Manager was totally disinterested though we were doing this at his request as a courtesy. A few months later we saw him at a 2 day workshop put on by our firm because his job was on the line as he had failed in this area, and he hired our firm. The bed bug issue is so hot that executives must be involved in very practical ways. The people who are in charge of maintenance services must have a solid understanding of this, not just a perspective of who does it cheapest.

I have been invited about a half dozen times to train care givers from agencies so they know what to look for and how to protect themselves but even more so to enable them to act in a supportive role for their clients.

And the industry needs to set some reasonable standards of what should be done… Right now it is either over the top for those who can afford it, and not enough for those who cannot.

New York vs Bed Bugs: What of the role of building staff?

Sam Bryks: Everyone has to buy into the same goals. I hate when I hear a firm has done a building and then they step back and away and wait for new work when it recycles. IPM is proactive not reactive. When things happen that need reaction, it is there, but the idea is to do everything possible to prevent problems before they happen rather than have to react after they happen. I just heard of a case in Toronto of a major grocery store being shut down due to rats. When I hear this, I am hearing a failure caused by a non IPM program. A good simple example of an IPM kind of accountability is sanitation in large food warehouses. The best programs give responsibility for cleaning to fork lift operators who are usually not seen as being cleaners, but the responsibility is to clean up if you spill rather than “oops, the cleaners will do it”… This dramatically reduces the actual incidence of spills by the operators. With bed bugs, this is easier because if you show building staff that the things they can do will reduce risk for them as well, and there is appreciation for this, people will look at it differently than just horror and call the spray man.

Building staff are also educators in support of tenants. Boston Housing Authority actually trains tenants to be IPM Educators and work with other tenants to address housekeeping issues. We have also dealt with hoarding issues, and I saw a program on this recently on TV. It is not a one time thing to help someone who hoards. It is an ongoing support program because a hoarder may tolerate bed bugs in horror so not to face the shame of their cluttered home. I speak to people in that situation with honesty and respect. I respect their need to keep possessions and try to encourage them to find ways to manage this reasonably – ways for them reduce the volume. This works in time. Negative reaction and judgment (Oh my god!!! how can you live with so much stuff!!!) just injures. The person usually knows their situation very well, and if they are sort of stuck in it, one can help get them unstuck by respect and by getting special help.

An example of a really wonderful program in Toronto is that of Seaton House, the largest shelter. I was asked to visit some years ago and I gave my overview then as well as I could. The shelters were experiencing major problems. One of the staff who has a social work background, Richard Grotsch, decided to use the men in the shelter to attack the problem as part of their looking after themselves and he developed a process of non-chemical treatment and prevention that knocked the problem down amazingly and then, he worked like the devil to get support for those guys providing services to others. They are called the Bug n’ Scrub team and they do fantastic work in helping clean up units in preparation for bed bug treatment. They are very busy.

New York vs Bed Bugs: We’ve heard of them and are so intrigued. We need more of such projects, but of course, they start with committed and visionary individuals.

Sam Bryks: He gives those guys meaningful employment and helps others. We need more of that kind of tenant involvement and that too is part of IPM. IPM is also like a quality assurance program, it involves checking to see if things are working, keeping up with the latest technology, and above all else, two things, education and also focus on use of information to look after things. Where, what, how, why. Good data collection. Our program involved pest control guys documenting on handheld input devices time in and out. Access, housekeeping rating, pest type, degree of infestation, preparation…

When you have that data, you can see how many cases, on which floors, how badly infested, and what is needed in action.

New York vs Bed Bugs: Very reminiscent of the rat control program currently underway in NYC (under the leadership of a rodentologist). They’re “indexing” rats in one borough.

Sam Bryks: Probably Bobby Corrigan. He did his PhD in that at Purdue. I have spoken to him in past. He is the rodent man in the U.S. He does classical IPM. Study the problem. Collect data. Then plan strategy of control that includes a preventive aspect and sometimes it has to have a regulatory element. That is as true of bed bugs as of rats.

Reminds me… in Alberta Canada, they take pride in being a rat-free province. I am skeptical of that reality, but they have very few because every sighting is documented and acted on. They work hard to keep it like that. Rats are very costly in an agricultural setting.

New York vs Bed Bugs: Do you think this is the answer for bed bugs? Provided we can come up with the cash (i.e., the will)?

Sam Bryks: IPM, yes… that is the answer. That is the model that is needed. I fear I haven’t explained it here well enough and used too many words. To understand it, one has to understand that it is a process based on good information gathering, on analysis and decision making, and of course, always on education and it includes everyone. And when I say that, the first person I think of is ME… I am constantly trying to learn more from networking. Learn from Michael Potter and from Clive Boase and from Richard Cooper and Stephen Kells, and Joe Barile, and I also share with them what I have learned from my unique job in housing for the last 22, nearly 23, years in doing IPM in housing.

Good to talk to you, Renee. Thanks for the opportunity to get on my soapbox tonight. Congratulations on your new president. We are very hopeful of his positive impact on the world here in Canada. If he were in our business, he would certainly be doing IPM. I am sure of that. I think his message is a lot like our Chain of Accountability. That is thick, but I also think it is true. And I hope it makes you laugh a bit too.

Editor’s note: You can read the Marcos Kogan IPM definition in the Compendium of IPM Definitions at Oregon State University.

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