When I’m contacted by people working on bed bug problems in other cities, I try to reply with a detailed email. Occasionally, I get no response.
NYC HPD now offering bed bug education community classes for non-profits and tenants groups
And they also offer free classes at their lower Manhattan offices on designated Wednesdays from 6:00-9:00 pm at 100 Gold Street, New York, NY 10038. Register for the in-person class online or call 212-863-8830.
An interview with Steven W. Smollens: law and history in NYC
Steven W. Smollens has practiced landlord and tenant law in New York City for 34 years.
Bed bug management policy guide for accommodation providers
From Australian medical entomologist Stephen Doggett, a draft first edition of a Bed Bug Management Policy for Accommodation Providers, “initially developed to assist community housing groups who were experiencing recurrent bed bug problems” but useful for anyone in “the hospitality industry, student and staff lodgings, and/or public housing.”
NPMA/University of Kentucky global bed bug survey
The NPMA/University of Kentucky global bed bug survey hasn’t been published yet (see the NPMA press release that made the news rounds recently) but I came across an executive summary (PDF) via Pest magazine that has a bit more detail.
A pest of significant public health importance, cont’d
With people’s backs against the wall in various cities of the United States, the CDC and EPA pronounce themselves officially on the case of “alarming” U.S. bed bug resurgence: CDC-EPA Joint Statement on bed bug control in the U.S.
So, what will NYC do about bed bugs?
I was as surprised as you to learn that the city intended to release the advisory board report after all and adopt some of its recommendations. It’s tempting to think that interesting things happen when CEOs start writing to the Mayor asking for guidance.
WWII army barracks disinfestation photos
Well, maybe one more history post.
The papers say the city is ready to do battle, more on what that might mean later.
Of course bed bugs have always been a big deal. Eradicating them, a big production. We had a brief respite there in the 20th century with a succession of various effective and cheap (and therefore widely deployable) control methods. Now we get to spend incredible amounts of cash killing bed bugs, and be grateful for it. And the organizational logistics of eradication? Again comparable to what they once were?
All of which is to say, let’s have any excuse to look at some photographs from a bed bug disinfestation protocol at Camp Lee (now Ft. Lee), Virginia in 1943.1
Photos copyright Dr. Eugene J. Gerberg, used with permission, all rights reserved.
Soldiers’ gas masks were “often severely infested.”
- “Bedbug control by fumigation with hydrocyanic acid gas discoids,” private photo album, EJ Gerberg (1943). [↩]
Johnson’s hut, now online
There are so many things I’ve wanted to write about in the time I’ve been away (and not just about historical research, heh).