New York vs Bed Bugs » NYC

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Renee Corea — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 16:51:13 +0000

click image to see larger size

It’s important to think of the problems that arise in bed bug control — as it is actually practiced every day in this city — honestly, without idealism and without any unwarranted do this, do that, success! affect.

Not everything is as simple as the dog decisions above. The thornier problems (what can you do when HPD doesn’t write a violation because there were no bed bugs on your mattress?) yield pretty complex decision paths: all the choices are grim.

All of which is to say, a follow-up on this soon.

Short takes 2/2

Renee Corea — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 23:51:28 +0000

This most recent iteration of the blog at New York vs Bed Bugs is near the end. I am writing one additional post that deals with landlord/tenant issues. A good way to be alerted to the last few posts is to subscribe to the site feed or subscribe to receive posts via email.

In the meantime, some links.

–This article in The Villager, “NYCHA officials say 6 percent of units hit by bedbugs,” about the two-evening bed bug forum that took place on January 18 and 19 (briefly noted) is important among other reasons because it reveals an essential problem with our current conception of bed bug education:

The councilmember [Council Member Rosie Mendez] said that while she was “very happy” with the city’s participation in both forums, it was unfortunate there wasn’t a greater showing by residents.

Emphasis added. I’ll try to gather my thoughts about this subject in another post.

–The Associated Press reported that the NYC Council sent a letter to EPA and HUD asking for assistance. The internet is not obliging with the text of this letter; do you have better luck?

–Journalist Theresa Braine has been writing an excellent series about her personal bed bug experience at BrickUnderground. I’m sorry I have missed it until now. It’s a great personal story, entertainingly delivered and packed with instructive episodes. This is the first installment.

–NPMA released bed bug management best practices. The presentation of these guidelines may be a bit confusing. Go directly to this link for the full guidelines in the form of an outline.

–And finally for a tiny bit of fun on an icy day, the tale of a bed bug gadget inventor, via. (No, no clue about how this could possibly work. My bet would be no, but really, what do I know? Made a cursory search for relevant research; here’s a 2005 technical publication if you are really interested. Think of the “debates” on verifying electronic alerts, à la canine scent detection!)

A one-sheet for communicating with your neighbors

Renee Corea — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 09:59:18 +0000

I hope you are not organizing your building to fight bed bugs all by yourself. But I know that you may be.

As a follow up to the letter to building management discussed recently:

Here is a bed bug information sheet to leave with neighbors (PDF) as you go knocking on doors and inviting them to a tenants meeting to hash out the bed bug situation in your building.

The sheet says “bed bugs have been spreading in our building” and is meant to help you figure out what to say in your own building. Free to use as is or adapt to your (non-commercial) needs.

When you knock on doors, be ready to write down names and phone numbers and email addresses as well as make notes about what is discussed. This is a simple thing but easy to forget. (The building discussed in the previous post used a simple ruled list: apartment number, tenant name, email address, cell phone, and one-letter abbreviations to be circled as appropriate for willingness to join tenants association, attend the tenants meeting, and of course bed bugs: A – M – B.) It can be a very short conversation if you get contact information to follow-up.

If this is useful, other possible versions of this flyer to follow, as well as what to be sure to discuss in tenant meetings and some of the questions that may be asked.

Remember that you can download many advanced guides and resources, call 311 to order copies of the health department’s bed bug guide (the English-language version; other languages available only as downloads), and ask HPD to come speak to your tenants association meeting.

Hunger folds and a reminder about the law

Renee Corea — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 07:39:03 +0000

Updated below.

Last night the Museum of the City of New York hosted a bed bug program. I’m very grateful to the museum and especially its director of public programs, Ryan J. Carey, for thinking of this problem and asking us to participate in discussing it. But unlike last year’s lecture at the NY Entomological Society, I don’t think I can offer a good recap (participation not being a good vantage point for observation). What I remember distinctly is that Lou talked about the hunger folds of bed bugs (conveniently expandable for taking in lots of blood), and that a certain gentleman from London said something terrible: that “whoever brought them in” should be responsible for eradicating them.

For the record, the landlord is legally responsible in New York City for the eradication of bed bugs. One can go on at length about all the ways that landlords need help in fulfilling this responsibility, and how there is no hope of success when the tenant is not cooperative (or when the pest management professional is not diligent) but, as far as the law, it’s difficult to conceive of the wholesale disaster that bed bugs would be in this city if it were otherwise.

Update: I just recalled that there were some questions in the audience about basic resources — a collection here, but some basic ones specific to the city:

a NYC Health Department guide on how to select a pest control company (PDF) — see also
also from DOHMH, a basic bed bug guide, in English and 6 other languages
and, because the above guide does not include photographs, Lou’s photographs of bed bugs

Update 2: I should say that I like and respect David a lot (exhibit A, B, C, and D), but we ~~have our disagreements~~ like to argue from time to time. He never forgets to remind me that we only became friends after a strong initial disagreement, about something or other long forgotten.

And here’s commentary about the evening from BrickUnderground. Please note, however, that I am not aware of any new law requiring inspection of adjoining apartments. There is only a stated intention from the Health Department, announced in the summer when the bed bug advisory report was released, to hold landlords (and tenants) to “enhanced expectations” that would specifically involve additional inspections. There have been no further details about the development of such a policy. But we should all be on the lookout for news on that front (and dare we hope, actually press the city about it), as it is very promising.

Update 3: Here is another writeup from Woman Around Town.

Fines for Article 151 violations and a new player

Renee Corea — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 10:00:08 +0000

Remember Article 151, the revised pest prevention and management section of the New York City Health Code?

The Environmental Control Board, an administrative tribunal, will handle hearings for pest violations. I came across this proposed rule to set fines (PDF). This is interesting and a bit puzzling in places.

This is from the statement of purpose:

To better protect the public health, ECB is adding penalties for violations under Article 151. The separate charges will help inform the public of what needs to be done to prevent pests and other rodents. These violations include:

Failure to comply with DOHMH orders

Maintaining or failing to correct nuisances

Violations relating to rodents, bed bugs and other pests

Maintaining conditions conducive to pest harborage

Failure to develop and maintain pest management plans

Here are some of the proposed fines:

NYC Health Code 151.02(a)
Failure to properly and thoroughly eliminate conditions conducive to pests and to the presence of pests other than rodents or mosquitoes.
Penalty: $300
Default: $600

NYC Health Code 151.02(c)
Failure to comply with Department or Commissioner’s Order; pest management plan not complied with; no inspections and/or exterminator visits documented.
Penalty: $1000
Default: $2000

NYC Health Code 151.02(c)
Failure to comply with Department or Commissioner’s Order; pest management plan not complied with; no notice to tenants posted or provided.
Penalty: $1000
Default: $2000

NYC Health Code 151.02(c)
Failure to comply with Department or Commissioner’s Order; pest management plan not complied with; pests and/or conditions conducive to pests, access and harborage not eliminated.
Penalty: $2000
Default: $2000

NYC Health Code 151.02(e)
Using pesticides alone in the management of pest infestations.
Penalty: $300
Default: $600

I am told, by someone knowledgeable about the new policy, that the proposed fines are approved, though the final rule is not available so it’s not clear if any changes were made after comments were received. And, yes, this will be used as a potential tool to correct bed bug violations.

This confirms two things: one, that the New York City Department of Health, however reluctantly and sparingly perhaps, intends to use Article 151 for bed bugs, and two, that there may be something after all (however tenuous for the moment) to their expressed intention, announced last summer, to hold property owners to “enhanced expectations.”

The Health Department hopes to increase efficiency with Environmental Control Board hearings, which is good, but when I asked about the proposed fine for “using pesticides alone” the response is that they will not fine people for using pesticides alone but that the goal is to have a comprehensive approach for managing pests and reduce and eliminate the use of pesticides when possible. And yet there it is, a proposed fine for using pesticides alone! Perhaps it has been deleted, or else it is a tool to be held in reserve. I am frankly amazed by it.

Anything can be done badly, but we have strongly advocated the use of Article 151. I hope it makes a difference, where and when it is used.

Obviously, in order for HPD and the Health Department to identify a property as a candidate for the supervisory tools of Article 151, they have to become aware of its problems. But I would not expect the Health Department to become involved with bed bug-distressed buildings except in severe cases, due to resource constraints. To underscore, it seems likely that a building would not come under the elevated scrutiny of the Health Department via the authority of the NYC Health Code unless and until a significant number of residents report bed bugs in that building. In what numbers? No thresholds of number of complaints for a property to be so identified have been announced, and so this tool remains something apparently to be used at their discretion, but the frequent problem of residents who are reluctant to file formal complaints — something that is often a significant obstacle for other tenants in the building — seems an obvious challenge here.

What role ECB hearings could have in alleviating the pressures on housing court then seems a premature question.

This could be a step forward nonetheless.

Community bed bug forum in Council District 2

Renee Corea — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 05:19:03 +0000

A friend of New York vs Bed Bugs has forwarded information about another bed bug event that is scheduled for January 18. Council Member Rosie Mendez and HPD are offering an educational session on January 18. This is the same day of the Museum of the City of New York bed bug program. I’m very sorry for the conflict, but it must be a sign of changing times that there are two bed bug public events on the same day in NYC. Unthinkable in the recent past.

Whichever program you attend, I hope you learn useful things.

The forum is at 6 pm on January 18 at Health Professions High School Auditorium, 345 East 15th Street. Call 212-677-1077 for more information. See additional details here. There is a second forum for public housing residents the next day.

January 18: bed bug panel at the Museum of the City of New York

Renee Corea — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 17:48:48 +0000

Brief notes here.

There is a bed bug event in NYC in January! The Museum of the City of New York is hosting a panel — please see their announcement below. I am very pleased to be able to join Lou in participating in this public conversation about bed bugs in our city. The museum is offering a discount as noted below when you mention New York vs Bed Bugs. The discount is available when reserving by phone, not through the online reservation system. As details become available about the other panelists, I will update this post.

Final update 1/14/11: Program description with final panel revised below. Note the NY Entomological Society’s monthly meeting announcement about this event and a separate community bed bug forum also taking place on January 18.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011 at 6:30 p.m.

Plague! Bed Bugs: Myths and Realities

Bed bugs, it seems, are all over New York City. In your mattress, your couch, that futon in the free pile at the end of your block. What is worse, they may have overrun your newspapers and even your TV screen. What’s hype and what’s reality? How big a problem are bed bugs, really? What is the city doing to stop them, and what can you do before they take over your apartment? Moderator Dr. Amy L. Fairchild, Center for the History and Ethics of Public Health, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, heads a discussion that includes entomologist Louis Sorkin of the New York Entomological Society; Gale A. Brewer Council Member from District 6; Renee Corea, former Director of New York vs Bed Bugs; David Cain, Managing Director of Bed Bugs Ltd, London; Yasmine Hecker, CEO of Prep 4 Bed Bugs, and Ray Lopez, Little Sisters of Assumption Family Health Service of how the recent plague of bed bugs is affecting city life and culture. Co-sponsored by the New York Entomological Society.

Reservations required: 917-492-3395 or e-mail programs@mcny.org.
$6 museum members; $8 seniors and students; $12 non-members
$6 when you mention New York vs Bed Bugs

Museum of the City of New York
1220 Fifth Avenue at 103rd Street
New York, NY 10029
www.mcny.org
212-534-1672

Even a flat with B.B’s is HOME if you are there, Old Sweetheart.

Renee Corea — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 23:07:10 +0000

Wilbur A. Sawyer was an American tropical disease specialist. His wife, Margaret, was a bacteriologist who left her own career in medicine when they married. The family was relocating to New York City in the fall of 1924 but Dr. Sawyer was still in Alabama.

The following two letters are from his papers at the National Library of Medicine.

An excerpt of the first letter, to his wife, October 1, 1924:

Your letter has not increased my love for New York. If I had picked out the flat I would not dare to come home. As it is I feel more and more like buying a steamer ticket and deferring the agony of finding a home and cleaning it up, and then wasting one third of one’s usable daytime in trains or underground tunnels.

Dr. Smillie lived near Princeton when he was stationed in New York. He liked it there.

[...]

I have no more faith in short-cut methods of removing bed-bugs than you have. There ought to be bed-bug specialists in New York to fumigate flats that are infested. It ought not to take much sulphur in such small closed spaces to make the bed-bugs cough themselves to death. But what would the family do in the meanwhile? Anyway, you have the piano and victrola and “Old Black Joe” to gladden the occasion, and there will be enough people in each bed to keep them all warm this winter. And it will take only three quarters of an hour to go to the office through the mole burrow,

[...]

Answer me one question. Why do things cost about twice as much in New York as here? Enclosed are three vaccination certificates. If they will not do I will try again after getting home. Even a flat with B.B’s is HOME if you are there, Old Sweetheart.

[...]

You and Freda will have to trip around a bit while the rest of us take care of the flat. I can still boil eggs, and fry French toast; and you will need a vacation from the flat.

We are having a northerly wind and cold weather. It must be quite chilly in N.Y., but then these flats are said to be always overheated!

Did you know that the black belt of Alabama was named after the color of the soil? We crossed it this afternoon. Also did you know that your new Howe sewing machine was named after the American inventor of the sewing machine, Elias Howe?

Good night, Sweetest,

Wilbur

P.S. Did you know that “Sugar” was outrivaling “Honey” as a term of endearment. It may be “Sacharin” next. W.

And this is his letter to his daughter, Peggy, about the same date:

Dear Peggy,

It is chilly to-night even in southern Alabama, and I have lit the fire in my room. The pine wood here is full of pitch and hardly needs any paper to light it. In the woods men cut the sides of the trees and let the pitch run out, just as they get rubber in Ceylon. Then they put the pitch in a still and the turpentine comes off first leaving the resin behind. The turpentine is used by painters and the resin by violinists and acrobats and such. That’s why acrobats don’t have to spit on their hands any more.

It’s too bad that mother has had to work so hard cleaning the flat. No wonder she has been too busy to write. I can just see her chasing those B B’s with a hammer and smashing right and left.

It must have cheered her up immensely to hear you and the victrola singing “Old Black Joe” and appropriate hunting songs.

Thank Billy for the beautiful picture he drew. I should have recognized it even if it hadn’t been labeled.

It was nice of you to write such a good letter full of news and to let me know that my nice family had reached New York and was well. I shall soon be home to hear all about everything.

With love to you all,

Papa

I’m not sure why I’m showing you this. Aside from these being wonderful letters, I find reading about other people’s bed bug troubles through the years comforting. It makes it seem like there will be an end to all of this, one day.

Of course, one of the unfortunate consequences of being so aware of bed bugs is the unbidden bed bug thoughts that occur when looking at photographs, art, reading books, anything and everything where one imagines the bed bugs have been elided:

Court of first model tenement house in New York 72nd Street - NYPL Digital ID: 482804 - Berenice Abbott, 1936

Talman Street, no. 57, Brooklyn - NYPL Digital ID: 482809 - Berenice Abbott, 1936

Mattress update

Renee Corea — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 18:04:05 +0000

I have neglected to update the various mattress topic threads that this site explored in the past. There are updates on same pages here, particularly the NYC page, but nothing that has gone over the posts feed.

Briefly then, the City of New York recently began to require the bagging of mattresses and box springs set out for garbage collection. Actual fines begin on January 3.

This is a welcome and totally unexpected development. I offered congratulations to Chief Peter Mckeon who was the Department of Sanitation’s bed bug advisory board member and asked if pallet/shrink-wrap wrapping met the requirements of the new rule, and he said yes. I was especially pleased to see that the commissioner’s statement contained such a nuanced understanding of the problem, and that Council Member Brewer was credited. Particularly fun for me was to email Nicole about this new rule. Her reaction: “Amazing!”

Over the summer, the New York State Governor vetoed a bill that would have ended the exception that allows mattresses returned by consumers after a 30-day consumer trial period to be sold as new. The bill had already been seriously and disastrously weakened by the time it was passed.

Also, the New York State Department of State finally adopted mattress sanitizing regulations. However, the sanitizing mechanisms in the final regulations are inadequate to the task of sanitizing used bedding against bed bugs and (perhaps for this reason) include an untested and ambiguous “permanent, non-permeable covering” option. How this will play in the context of ineffective mattress sanitizing practices already in use by the industry is not yet clear.

“The bed bugs got us”

Renee Corea — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 00:21:55 +0000

This is and isn’t about bed bugs. It’s also sad but hopeful. So I hope it will do as a “happy holidays” post.

In October I had the pleasure of meeting two wonderful New Yorkers who were working on a mattress recycling social enterprise startup. We talked shop. Bed bugs! You know where this is going, perhaps.

Inevitably and sadly their long-nurtured idea was declared not viable. Is this not so telling of the bed bug troubled times we are living in? And of the enormous gifts and contradictions of this city.

You can read about their decision here.

The good news is that the search is on for a new business idea. The formerly named Spring Into Action is sponsoring a contest to find a social enterprise idea they can develop.

I am very sad that they will not be launching a mattress recycling business in New York City (we so very badly need one), or a bed bug business in fact, but I hope you will check out their website and consider participating in their Ideas For Impact Challenge.

Their announcement today:

Late in October, we told you about our decision to shelve our mattress recycling business, ultimately due to the epidemic of tiny terrorists known as bed bugs in New York City. We also said that our passion was unabated for starting a business that would largely employ people who need a second chance in life (i.e. the formerly incarcerated, the homeless, or recovering addicts), and that we were searching for ideas for the right business.

To spur idea generation, we decided to sponsor what we’re calling The $25,000 Ideas For Impact Challenge. We’re excited to announce the launch of our new website (www.ideasforimpact.com) and the opening of the entry period. The site gives a brief history of our journey to date and outlines the rules, criteria, and timing for the Challenge. Please check it out – you’ll find the application is simple to complete.

Keep in mind:

The Challenge is to envision a business that can be consistently profitable in the New York City area, in order to create meaningful employment opportunities for people who need a second chance in life.

We need ideas for a business that:

1. Makes money because it satisfies a market need
2. Requires less than $1 million to break even
3. Creates low skill jobs with career growth opportunities

* The Challenge entry deadline is February 15th, 2011

We’re not asking for money. All we need is a little of your time to think about and send us your ideas. Also, we hope to expand the pool of people thinking about this to the greatest extent possible. It would mean the world to us if you’d send this email on to a few friends who might be interested in what we’re trying to do. You never know – you or a friend of yours may come up with the winning idea.

Thanks in advance for your help! Best wishes to you for a happy and healthy holiday, and everything you wish for in the New Year.

The Spring Into Action Team

Andy Potash, Katie Broadbent, Arthur Maas, and Andrea Potash