12/22/10 USA’s Most Bedbug Infested Cities: Cincinnati Ohio Rank’s Number 1

Going out of town for the holidays? Traffic, blizzards or spending a long weekend with your crazy uncle may put a damper on the holiday cheer, but in your haste to come home make sure you’re not transporting six-legged souvenirs: bed bugs.

A decade ago bed bugs were still the vermin of lore–blood-sucking creepy-crawlies laid to waste by the amazingly effective (and toxic) pesticide DDT.

These pesky insects have made quite the stateside comeback lately.This year bed bug outbreaks have been reported everywhere from homes to office buildings, hotels, stores, schools and hospitals. No less than former president Bill Clinton’s Manhattan offices suffered an outbreak.

Although the exact cause remains a mystery, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency chalk up the resurgence of these tiny terrors to “increased resistance of bed bugs to available pesticides, greater international and domestic travel, lack of knowledge regarding control of bed bugs due to their prolonged absence, and the continuing decline or elimination of effective vector/pest control programs at state and local public health agencies.”

Translation: Bed bugs are great travelers. Every region of the country has been besieged, with bed bugs hitchhiking rides in handbags, the folds of clothes, luggage, planes, trains, cars–even ambulances.

While every major metropolis has reported infestations in 2010 (as well as a rapidly increasing number of smaller towns), some cities have been harder hit than others. We tapped the nation’s two largest pest exterminators, Orkin LLC and Terminix, to find the cities with the worst bed bug infestations. Each company has 400 offices nationwide and compiled a list of the hardest-hit metros, based on the number of calls they’ve received and bed bug jobs performed relative to population. From their lists of the 15 cities with the worst bed bug problems, we then focused in on 13 cited by both.

“This list is based on our experience, and it’s not to say that other cities might not be as bad,” stresses Ron Harrison, Orkin entomologist and director of technical services.

Bob Young, Division Service Manager for the Northeast and Mid-South Divisions at Terminix, explains his company’s methodology like this: “We based it on sheer number of calls that come into our service centers…plus the services that we perform…basically total that and measure the increase that we’ve been seeing, and it’s been growing exponentially over the years.”

The results? Bustling densely populated urban epicenters with high turnovers of tourists and business travelers are among the worst sufferers. Those cities include New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.

The state most afflicted by bed bugs is a bit of a surprise: Ohio. Three of the Buckeye state’s cities–Cincinnati, Columbus and Dayton–are on the exterminators’ bed bug-infested lists.

“At this point we don’t know, nor does anyone know, why cities in Ohio seem to have a much higher influx of bed bugs per capita than larger cities,” says Orkin’s Harrison.

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12/21/10 Bedbugs Discovered In Kentucky Jail: Daviess County Detention Center Officials Say Matter Is Under Control

Bed bugs have invaded the Daviess County Detention Center.

The bed bug pests just recently showed up at the detention center but officials say they’ve got it under control.

Health officials say bed bugs have made a national comeback over the past year. Green River Environmental Health Department Director Clay Horton explains what they are.

“The short way to put is they’re pests. They’re an insect that were pretty common at one time. They were eradicated and now they’ve made a comeback.”

Experts say the age old nighttime creatures do bite, and they like to feed on humans. Bed bugs are normally found in people’s bedrooms, or any type of institution where you have a lot of people staying.

The Daviess County Detention Center has dozens of inmates, and it was an inmate who pointed the bed bugs out to officials.

Jailer David Osborne says they’re not sure where the bugs came from, but says he and his staff took action quickly.

“We immediately contacted a professional exterminator. They have treated the infected areas and they’re coming back two more times to treat those areas. We removed all the bedding either destroyed or sealed it all off. The bedbugs haven’t been seen since.”

Officials say only three inmates have been affected, but they are not in danger since the bugs don’t transmit diseases.

Osborne tells 14 News they’re keeping an eye out for more bugs in the future.

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12/20/10 BedBugs In Jersey City NJ Elementary School #23: Mahatma Gandhi #23 Will Stay Open While Exterminating

Jersey City Board of Education officials have confirmed a bedbug problem at School 23 on Romaine Avenue but say they cannot fully exterminate the building as long as school is in session.

Instead, they are disinfecting areas on a spot basis and trying to confine the problem to the third floor of the schoolhouse.

“But if the whole school is infected, what does that do? Nothing,” said an exasperated parent, George Wendt, when told about the keep-the-bugs-on-the-third-floor strategy.

Wendt’s 13-year-old son spotted the creepy critters in his classroom a couple of weeks ago and immediately alerted the principal, Wendt said.

“My son was scared, so he was taken out of school until the situation could be rectified,” Wendt said.

But after Wendt’s son returned to school last week, the bugs were still in the building. School principal Ana Ortiz-Rivas moved his son to another classroom, he said. Board of Education officials confirmed that the school has bedbugs on the third floor.

“Once a sighting is reported then we follow procedures to clean and disinfect the area,” said Paula Christen, spokeswoman for the Board of Education. “Right now our hands are tied because there are students in the building.”

The maintenance staff is on top of the issue, doing the best they can, Christen added.

“Sterilizing the classroom won’t solve the problem,” Wendt said. “They need to get the building completely cleaned up.”

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12/17/10 Star Trek Actor George Takei Attacked By BedBugs: Forced To Call Exterminators After NYC Apartment Became Infested

Actor George Takei was recently forced to call in the exterminators after his New York apartment became infested with bedbugs.

The former Star Trek star reveals he and his partner Brad Altman were “eaten alive” by the tiny parasites earlier this month, prompting the couple to seek professional help to fumigate their home.

He tells radio DJ Howard Stern, “We were (in New York) last month and nothing happened, and then this month, I’ve been eaten alive.”

And Takei is convinced they picked up the bugs during a trip to the theatre: “Brad and I go to the theatre a lot, and I think they must have been in the seats. There’s no other way we could have gotten them.”

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12/15/10 Bedbugs Invade Hofstra University: Add To List Of Affected Places On Long Island Including Avalon Garden Nursing Home In Smithtown

Two dorm rooms at Hofstra University have been treated for bedbugs, the nuisances that have made a dramatic comeback in recent years, university officials have confirmed.

“We prefer to call them biting insects,” Hofstra spokeswoman Karla Schuster said of the bugs that were found in the Constitution Hall dormitory last month. She said exterminators treated the dorm rooms and the university sent the students’ clothing out to be cleaned. There have been no signs of the nocturnal biters since their discovery last month, Schuster said.

Bedbugs have been found in a range of unusual places on Long Island. A Smithtown nursing home is under state investigation for a possible bedbug invasion, and libraries Islandwide have been treated for the insects. The bugs have made a resurgence over the past decade after having been nearly eradicated in the United States by an all-out chemical war that began shortly after World War II. By the 1950s, bedbugs were considered a nuisance of a bygone era.

Hofstra, however, is not the only university where bedbugs have found their way into a dormitory. Numerous universities across the country have reported bedbug invasions, including Harvard University.

The bugs can hitchhike on clothing and be ferried from one place to another, often without the carrier’s knowledge.

Bedbugs do not carry infectious diseases. When they bite, they emit an anticoagulant to prevent blood from clotting and ensuring their meal will flow freely. Their bites also have anesthetic properties, which means victims do not initially feel the bite.

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12/15/10 How Charity Is Helping BedBug Victims: Pest Control Companies Pitch In To Assist The Neediest

Charlette Luna knew she was taking a chance when she let an elderly relative move in to escape a bedbug-infested home. “But I couldn’t let her get eaten alive,” said Luna, whose fears soon were realized.

One day, she spotted a bloated little bug — “like a blown-up tick, but with legs,” she says — on a chair in her New Jersey home. She sprayed the chair, uncorking a gusher of bugs and sending Luna on a search for help that earned her one of the season’s oddest holiday gifts: a free bedbug treatment.

With money tight, bedbugs biting from coast to coast and treatments costing a few hundred to several thousand dollars, entomologists with BedBug Central, an information clearinghouse about all things bedbug-related, last month invited the needy and infested to submit essays explaining why they should get a free service.

The letters, including Luna’s, poured in, their opening lines ranging from horrifying to heart-wrenching, from desperate to dignified.

“PLEASE HELP!!!!!” “We need a miracle!” “My daughter needs her mom back!” “Living in turmoil!”

One man included a photograph of the tent he had pitched in his living room, where he and his fiancee sleep to try to avoid being gnawed on at night. “We are all getting bit, especially the poor cat (Shadow),” lamented a woman named Sheila. “My story is somewhat of a Nightmare on Elm Street horror remake,” wrote another woman, launching into a tortured tale that included the image of her struggling to sleep on an air mattress with her husband and three children.

This is the second year that BedBug Central, working with pest control companies nationwide, has offered the free services, which began Dec. 4 in suburban New Jersey.

Jeffrey White, a research entomologist with BedBug Central, dreamed up the charity idea last year after witnessing a financially strapped family facing a bedbug infestation.

“There really are no affordable treatments when you have someone struggling to make ends meet,” White said.

Rarely does one treatment eliminate a bedbug problem.

“It requires several, usually, but this is intended to reduce the problem for the holiday period, so people can focus on what’s important to them,” he said while showing Mary Jo Welch and Keith Willoughby of Interfaith Furnishings in Randolph, N.J., how to kill bedbugs that might creep in with the furniture they collect for the needy.

Using insulating material, thermometers, space heaters and fans, White and BedBug Central Vice President Rich Cooper built a small enclosure, moved several mattresses, chairs and other items inside, then sealed it shut with tape. A thermometer slowly ticked upward, past 120 degrees, the temperature at which Cooper said any bedbugs soon would die.

Interfaith submitted one of 230 applications received nationwide, compared with about 20 last year. The increase reflects the increased publicity of this year’s campaign as well as the growing bedbug problem, which has no single cause. Entomologists say factors include changes in pesticide use, public ignorance of bedbugs and their habits, and the growth in global travel. Cooper picked up bedbugs on a business trip in Las Vegas, despite his hyper-vigilance.

Calvin Allen, a BedBug Central spokesman, said that reading the essays and choosing winners — if anyone with bedbugs can be called that — was “brutal. So many people need help.”

Eventually, 27 free treatments will be offered, most in the New York area but some as distant as San Diego, if pest control companies in the area are willing to donate services. Interfaith Furnishings, operating out of a large donated space, and Luna were among the first to receive their gifts.

Interfaith has never had an infestation, but Welch said the risks were so great that they had to stop accepting donated mattresses, even though they are the No. 1 request of people in need.

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12/15/10 Federal Government To Hold BedBug Summit: To Be Held February 1st and 2nd 2011 In Washington DC

The Federal Government is convening the second national bed bug summit on February 1 and 2, 2011. The goal for this summit is to review the current bed bug problem and identify and prioritize further actions to address the problem. The objectives of the summit are as follows:

12/14/10 How To Avoid Bedbugs When Traveling: 7 Travel Tips For Bedbug Phobia

• Prepare before you leave and don’t overpack. You will need to wash everything when you return from your trip. Nothing goes back into your closet unwashed.
• Before you accept your room remove the sheets and pillowcases and check the mattress and box spring for black stains along the piping of each. Blood dries black. If you see stains request a new room and repeat your inspection there.
• If the bed is movable, move it away from the wall and check behind the headboard and baseboard for stains or insects.
• If the bed is attached to the wall check the corners of the frame and headboard. Remember these insects are drawn by carbon dioxide, so check thoroughly near the headboard.
• If you are traveling for fewer than three nights keep your clothes in your suitcase and as far away from the bed as possible, preferably near the door to your hotel room. Do not put the bag on chairs or couches. Also, do not lay out or keep clothes on the bed or other furniture in the room.
• Bring an extra plastic bag with a drawstring for all dirty laundry (or if you’ve forgotten one most hotels have a plastic dry cleaning bag you can buy.) Place your dirty laundry in the bag and keep it closed and away from the furniture.
• When you return, remember that bedbugs can get into your luggage — so use travel bags that can be washed after each trip. If your suitcase can’t be washed, empty and wash the clothes and store the suitcase in the attic (or as far away from the bedrooms as possible.) Never store suitcases in bedrooms. Remember bedbugs can live a long time between meals so be sure to leave the bags fallow for a while.

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12/14/10 Self Storage Owners Look At BedBug Problem: Operators Think How To Address Customer Concerns

Concerns about bed bugs, especially in urban areas, continue to rage throughout the United States, and the self-storage industry is no exception. This week self-storage operators have taken their own as well as customer concerns about bed bugs to Self-Storage Talk, the official online forum of Inside Self-Storage.

On a thread titled ”Bed Bugs,” forum member jaywontfly posed the questions, “What do I tell my customers about bed bugs?” and “How do I keep them out?” For jaywontfly’s facility, a couple of other facilities nearby have had tenants report bed bugs, but they remain unscathed—so far. How would a facility’s staff know if they had bed bugs until someone reported it?

To track whether bed bugs have been reported in your area, use Bed Bug Registry, recommended by SST member Madman. The same member suggested making sure the entire staff has been through awareness and prevention training, not only for actual bed bug prevention but for sales situations in which customers ask what you do to prevent the pests.

Member shaekirk points out that bed bugs don’t just attack mattresses, they attack anything that has had regular contact with human skin including boxes of linens, towels, blankets, perhaps even clothing. Member DebT suggests upselling tenants with plastic mattress and linen covers to put on all of these items before they’re stored.

Do you have ideas on how to thwart the bed bug revolution? Log into SST and post your suggestions. You must be a registered member to post; if you aren’t registered, you can do so for free. The process is easy and takes only a few minutes.

Live and growing since 2008, SST is the largest online forum in the self-storage industry, with approximately 3,800 members, 23 different topical forums, 3,740 discussion threads and 32,200 posts.

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12/7/10 BedBug Prevention For Your Home: Stay Safe This Holiday Season While Traveling & At Home From BedBugs

If you’re a junk collector or you occasionally shop at flea markets, second hand stores or even pull stuff off the curb to repaint, you need to be careful because bedbugs are on the rise. Second hand mattresses and even new products and clothing could be infested with bedbugs.

Another major problem relating to bedbugs? Travel. With the holiday travel season upon us we have to be extra vigilant to prevent picking up bedbugs or inadvertently giving them to a relative. Travel

I recently stayed at a major brand hotel in New York and after pulling the bed sheets off to check for bedbugs I had an unpleasant surprise. Although I didn’t see any live bedbugs the mattress was riddled with what appeared to be fresh red blood stains.

I asked to be moved to another room. Although I didn’t see any blood on that mattress I still had two sleepless nights in that hotel, just the thought of bedbugs had me itching for two days.

I called the headquarters of the reward program to let them know of my disgust and was told to contact the manager of that location. He told me that the mattress had been tested and the spots were chocolate stains. I asked to get a copy of the report, but have not received it as of yet.

Regardless of the cause, the mess is not good for business especially since New York is fighting a war with bedbugs. You would expect them to check each bed carefully when they prepare it for the next guest, but as evidenced by my experience that is not the case.

I was lucky this time and avoided a possible situation. But you must be diligent when traveling or bringing anything into your home because it won’t matter how great your decor is if your home is infested with bedbugs.

Here are a few tips to keep your home bedbug free:

— When traveling, keep your clothes in your suitcase and zipped. Avoid placing your clothes on the bed.

— Always check the bed for blood stains and bugs immediately after you arrive in the room. The most common area to find blood stains are in the seams of the mattress. You should also look on the wall for any signs of blood spots.

— After you return home vacuum your bags in the garage to get rid of any bugs that may have tried to hitch a ride from the airport or taxi.

— Wash all of your clothing in hot water, if possible. Avoid placing the suitcase on your bed. Store your suitcase in a large plastic bag away from your bed.

— Check all of the items you bring into your home to add to your decor or wardrobe. Vacuum everything out, even new furniture, and wash your new clothes and rugs. If you see a bedbug or signs of a bedbug contact an exterminator immediately.

— If you are expecting guests be sure to take the same precautions when they arrive at your home. At the very least vacuum their bags in the garage.

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TOP CITIES WITH BEDBUGS

A recent report compiled by Terminix ranked the top 15 cities with the most bedbugs in the United States in August of 2010.

1. New York

2. Philadelphia

3. Detroit

4. Cincinnati

5. Chicago

6. Denver

7. Columbus, Ohio

8. Dayton, Ohio

9. Washington

10. Los Angeles

11. Boston

12. Indianapolis

13. Louisville, Ky.

14. Cleveland

15. Minneapolis

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