11/20/2011 Boston Struggles With Bedbugs

A growing epidemic of bed bug infestations has left the city of Boston struggling to keep its own housing units pest-free and respond to complaints in private units.

“They bite you on your face. They bite you on your neck. They bite you on your back. Your hands. Your arms,” said Takisha Coles, who has been living with bed bugs in her Roxbury apartment for four years.

The bugs have forced the family to abandon one of the floors of the apartment and cram onto couches and beds to sleep.

She lives at the privately-owned New Academy Estates, where she says years of insecticide treatments haven’t worked. Now she believes the bugs are entering her apartment from other infested units.

“Four years living like this. Scared. They are in your dreams after awhile. Even if they are not there. It is a mental thing for me. Just to hear my kids say mommy, they are biting me,” said Coles. “I’m mentally losing it.”

Records obtained by FOX Undercover show she’s not alone.

Neighborhoods all over the city have been inundated with infestations, records show. The city has received 1,443 complaints in the past five years, and the number of complaints has grown, from 245 five years ago to 380 now.

“We are seeing an increase in the city of Boston. They are very difficult to find and very difficult to eliminate,” said Dion Irish, an assistant commissioner with Boston’s Inspectional Services Department.

After complaints are filed, landlords must come up with plans to get rid of the pests.

“If we don’t get a response from the property owner in the time allotted, our next step is to initiate a prosecution to the Boston Housing Court,” Irish said.

The records show ISD regularly takes landlords to court, including the Boston Housing Authority.

“The Boston Housing Authority is the city’s biggest landlord but they get treated no differently than any other landlord. We expect that a pest-free environment is provided to residents,” Irish said.

FOX Undercover reporter Mike Beaudet asked Lydia Agro, a spokeswoman for the city’s housing authority, about the court complaints.

“It seems a little embarrassing the city having to take its own housing authority to court?” Beaudet asked.

“The housing authority and ISD have a very good working relationship,” Agro replied.

Agro says the housing authority takes bed bug complaints seriously, blaming the court action on a communication breakdown between the housing authority and inspectional services.

“We have 10,000 units in the city. We have hundred of bed bug complaints. We have hundreds and hundreds of complaints on other issues and managers are managing multiple buildings at the same time,” Agro said.

Even when landlords take immediate action, it’s not easy to get rid of bed bugs.

“We have found them in cars, we have found them in ambulances, we have found them in hospitals, movie theaters. They’ve been found in airplanes. Wherever people go, that’s where you can find bed bugs,” said Rich Stevenson, vice president of Modern Pest Services, who is also a member of the bed bug task force run by the National Pest Control Management Association.

“Five-star hotels in Massachusetts have seen bed bugs?” Beaudet asked.

“Oh absolutely. Without a doubt,” Stevenson said.

Jonathan Boyar of Ecologic Entomology, a pest control service, said, ”It doesn’t matter if you are wealthy, if you’re on a limited income or what your life style is, they don’t discriminate. For them blood is blood. Anybody can bring them in and like we said, it’s just bad luck.”

That bad luck is still haunting Takisha Coles.

“Where do I go? What do I do?” she asked. “I can’t afford to move out. I can’t afford to keep them in a hotel. Who do I call when management shuts the door on you. And that’s basically what they say. It’s expensive to spray. And they’ve treated my unit several times. That’s the best they can offer me.”

Since FOX Undercover interviewed Takisha Coles, her landlord has given her apartment two heat treatments. This week, she’s moving into another unit that’s supposedly free of bed bugs.

Bed bugs are not just an issue in Boston. It’s a growing problem everywhere, and experts aren’t exactly sure why. One theory that we’re not using the same harsh insecticides we once did. And that could be making it easier for bed bugs to not only survive, but thrive.

10/22/2011 Todays Bedbugs Are Stronger Than Years Past: Resistance Has Grown To Pesticides Since 1950′s

US researchers have uncovered the genetic mechanism that bed bugs use to resist powerful insecticides, according to a study, leading to the hope of more effective ways to combat the pests.

Bed bugs, which have been largely absent from the United States since the 1950s, have returned in force in the last decade in the US, and notably other Western countries in Europe.

They have, in this time, developed unique resistance to the insecticides that are mainly used against them — deltamethrin and beta-cyfluthrin, both leading pyrethroids.

The genetic research released Wednesday in the journal PLoS One, published by the Public Library, offers new hope to understand their resistance and find new ways to eradicate the blood-sucking bugs.

“Different bed bug populations within the US and throughout the world may differ in their levels of resistance and resistance strategies, so there is the need for continuous surveillance,” said lead author Zach Adelman, associate professor of entomology at Virginia Tech.

Adelman and the other researchers in the study assessed two populations of bed bugs — “a robust, resistant population” found in 2008, and a “non-resistant population” that has been raised in a lab since 1973.

The study determined how each strain succumbed to the pyrethroids, if at all, and determined that over a 24 hour period it required “5,200 times more deltamethrin or 111 times more beta-cyfulthrin” to kill the modern bed bugs compared to the older specimens.

The bed bug’s bite is a little painful rather than dangerous, but many people are scared because the creature mainly attacks when people are asleep.

Continue Reading More:  Todays Bedbugs Are Stronger Than Years Past

7/28/2011 Bedbugs Multiply To More Places At University of Kentucky: W.T. Young Library Now Infested

Possibly as part of what experts in the entomology community are describing as a regional epidemic, bed bugs were discovered on campus for the second time in a week Friday in the W. T. Young Library.

“I was in the library using the computers on the second floor around 3 p.m. or so, when a library employee began asking patrons to finish their business on some of the computers,” UK graduate and Lexington resident Brad Vien said.

Vien said no explanation was given as to why the library employee asked them to leave, but he said some workers began to rope off areas with yellow caution tape.
“I didn’t think much of it until a little later when I saw an exterminator with OPC Pest Control inspecting all of the furniture around the computers,” he said.

UK spokeswoman Kathy Johnson confirmed, in an email to the Kernel Tuesday, that bed bugs had been found in the library.

She said that three bed bugs — “two dead and one live” were found in a “single computer kiosk.”

“One dead bug was sent to the Student Center for identification on Friday while OPC was treating there,” Johnson said. “An OPC official went over to the library right away to determine the situation.” 

Vien returned to the library on Saturday to find the public section of computers on the second floor still blocked off.

Johnson said the OPC official found no other bed bugs in the immediate area and labeled the bugs found there as “drop-off” bugs, meaning they had probably been brought there from another location on a person’s backpack or clothing, as opposed to from a colony or infestation within the library.

This week, OPC will be treating the area in the library were the three bed bugs were found, which is located on the first floor along the wall next to the Rose Street entrance. OPC also will focus on study spots and other areas where people congregate.

Since it is a public terminal, library staff have closed the public terminals on the second floor as well, where Vien was completing work on Friday, Johnson said. The areas will reopen after appropriate treatment and further inspection shows no live bugs are present.

“We’re not planning on using a heat treatment in the library because we just had a sighting instead of the need to do a heat treatment,” OPC President Donnie Blake said. A heat treatment was used on Friday to eradicate the bed bugs found in the Student Center.

“Anytime you have a public building you have the opportunity for introduction,” Blake said. “The key is if you get an introduction or sighting, you immediately do an investigation.”
Blake said bed bugs have been a common occurrence in recent years. Prior to 2003, Blake only remembers treating one bed bug case. Now, he says he and his crew are dealing with hundreds of new cases.

“Unfortunately bed bugs have become a certain product of the social realm today, and this is a common occurrence in public buildings,” Blake said. “It’s a matter of how you handle it and … I’ve never seen a group of folks that are so diligent in trying to make sure everything is taken care of than the folks down at UK.”

Some students in the library on Wednesday expressed concern about the bed bug sighting there.

“I don’t live on campus so it’s not mandatory for me to come to the library,” business management transfer Ricky Hall said. “The idea they’re around is very concerning.”
Others didn’t seem too concerned.

“I didn’t know about it when I came in today,” said Alessandra Wayne, a family science senior. “It makes me feel weird, but I have to get my work done.”

Blake said that while people are nervous about the breakout of bed bugs on campus, UK shouldn’t be viewed as a university with a hygiene issue.

“There are no preventative tools for bed bugs,” he said, adding that the success rate for getting rid of them is in the upper 90th percentile. “It has nothing to do with housekeeping … it’s all about awareness.”

Blake said bed bug cases have nothing to do with how clean a person or facility is because the bugs are attracted to humans, which they feed off of for their “blood meals.”

He has been working closely with one of the top bed bug experts in the country, Michael Potter, an entomology professor at UK, to eradicate the pests. Blake said he hopes he and Potter can create awareness in the community about this issue that has grown massively in the past seven years.

Johnson said a follow-up inspection in the Student Center Friday found no live bugs or larvae in treated areas. OPC is currently inspecting the rest of the Student Center, she said.

A heat treatment was used in the Student Center, which raises the temperature of the area to 135 degrees. According to OPC employee Justin Sells, this kill the bugs, and people can return to the area when it cools down, after about two hours. Blake said, however, that a lot of the times, the area will remain closed for further inspection.

UK’s Physical Plant Division custodial staff members are being trained to recognize bed bugs and evidence of their presence, Johnson said. Staff members are also being trained in procedures for reporting bed bug sightings.

The areas in the Student Center and Young Library will be reopened “after treatment and further inspection shows no live bugs are present,” Johnson said.

Bed bugs have not been found anywhere else on campus at this time.

Johnson said after last week’s incidents and realizing every location on campus could be at risk, UK has recognized a need to extend its contract with OPC. What was initially a contract through housing will now be extended to include all of campus. UK and OPC are currently in negotiations.

Tips for avoiding bed bugs:
—When buying used clothing at a yard sale or other places, launder clothing before wearing or bringing it home.
—Be very, very careful about used furniture. You should know the source. Inspect it for bed bugs and dark spots, which can be leftover feces, and indicate their presence.
—When traveling, make sure you inspect your mattress and box springs. Never throw your suitcase on the bed upon arrival at a hotel or motel. Always place it on the suitcase carrier.
—Notify landlords or appropriate officials immediately when a bed bug is found.

Continue Reading More: Bedbugs Multiply To More Places At University Of Kentucky