1/16/2012 Michigan Cheerleaders Not Cheering For Bedbugs

A cheerleading squad that checked into the Quality Inn in Walker said they found numerous bed bugs and evidence of bed bugs in more than one room.

Friday, they drove six hours to the Grand Rapids area for an early Saturday competition.

“I was getting my hair done when we saw a bug crawl across the pillow right next to one of the girls that was sleeping,” nine-year-old Carrigan Craven said. “[There were] eggs, a nest and dead bugs all over it and a bunch of live bugs all over it. It was gross.”

“So we started thinking about, when there’s bed bugs there’s normally more than one,” Craven’s mother, Angela said. “So we tore the whole room apart and found about five live bugs, numerous dead bugs and we found a little nest that looked just like the internet pictures. It was really disgusting, they were crawling all over the place.”

When they contacted the hotel staff, Angela Cramer told 24 Hour News 8, they were offered a $5 discount. That wasn’t good enough. The parents took pictures and insisted on a refund.

After a few hours of arguing and threatening to call police, they were promised their money back, according to Craven.

“I want hotels to recognize they’re there for customer service,” she said. “If somebody comes to you and says ‘I’m not happy with this, I just want to leave’, you shouldn’t try and fight us or argue about it.”

A Quality Inn staff member told 24 Hour News 8, they checked out the rooms but didn’t find any bugs. She also said an exterminator came into the rooms just in case.

Word spread fast.

By the time a group of Junior Varsity Cheerleaders drove down from Harrison Saturday afternoon, they had heard about the pest problem.

“I was kind of grossed out,” Megan McCarrick said. “I didn’t even know bed bugs were real.”

The group checked their matresses & box springs and requested to be on the second floor (bugs were allegedly found on the first floor).

The hotel staff was so insistent it didn’t have bed bugs, they let a 24 Hour News 8 crew into a first floor room.

After searching the matress they allowed the crew to see, they didn’t find evidence of any bed bugs.

But for Craven and her teammates, the experience and the pictures they took are proof enough.

“I’m just glad we found them before we went to bed,” Angela Craven said. “I don’t know what we would’ve done if we would’ve woke up and our girls had bites all over them.”

According to the Kent County Health Department, if anyone finds bed bugs in a hotel, they should call a county health department right away.

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1/6/2012 Michigan Resident Sues Landlord Over Bedbugs

A Mount Clemens man has filed a lawsuit against his apartment building owner who, he says, refused to clean a bed bug infestation in the building.

Frank Manion, 71, lives in a six-unit apartment building on 38th Street in Mount Clemens. Manion said bed bugs are everywhere in the building. He said he first spotted the bugs a few months ago.

After several tenants complained about the infestation, the building owner had an exterminator investigate. The exterminator said the building was infested.

However, the building owner refused to pay to fix the problem. When Manion refused to pay rent until the bugs were exterminated, the building owner tried to break the lease with Manion and throw him out for complaining.

“I believe it was a retaliatory eviction. My client turned the landlord into the city of Mount Clemens,” said Manion’s attorney, James Galen. “He made a formal written complaint. Shortly thereafter my client is in court for an eviction. My client was not evicted. He prevailed.”

Manion went to court on Thursday where a judge ruled the owner could not throw him out and tenants do not have to pay lease until the problem is fixed.

Manion is retired and battles diabetes. He has had heart surgery and other health problems. Now, he is sleeping on his floor because he had to throw out his bed, chairs and couch.

“(The bugs) have been sucking my blood,” Manion said. “I wake up with sores all over my body from the bites. It has been a horrible experience.”

However, due to the judge’s ruling, an exterminator will be out to the building soon.

“I’m planning on moving, because I don’t think he is going to come through,” Manion said.

Manion said he intends to take the building owner to civil court, too.

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12/17/2011 Bedbugs Lead To Michigan Apartment Fire

A fire started in an apartment as the tenant used a cigarette lighter to chase bed bugs, police told 24 Hour News 8.

No one was injured and the blaze was contained to a bedroom, which sustained fire, smoke and water damage.

The fire was in a second-floor residence at Fox Ridge Apartments, 1400 Alamo Hills Dr. in Kalamazoo.

Members of the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety were dispatched around 6:35 p.m. Thursday and evacuated the building. They then extinguished the flames in 15 minutes.

The resident admitted to starting the fire and tried using a fire extinguisher but had to evacuate as the fire spread.

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9/23/2011 Bedbug Pesticide Illnesses On The Rise: Several States Report Incidents

As more people in the United States are feeling the bed bug’s bite, there has been a spike in illnesses from pesticides used to kill the insects, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC.L reported on Thursday.

From 2003 to 2010, 111 people were sickened and one died from bed bug insecticide, the government agency reported in a study that is the first of its kind in the country.

Nearly three quarters of the illnesses occurred from 2008 to 2010 as the bed bug population in the United States increased.

Pesticide-related illnesses occurred in seven states: California, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, New York, Texas and Washington. Some 81 percent of cases were not severe.

New York City, where there were increasing reports of bed bug infestations, had the largest number of cases at 58 percent. Nationwide, 93 percent of the cases were in private homes, the study found.

Although the CDC said there have not been enough cases of serious illness to suggest a large public health burden, the numbers might continue to increase as bed bugs become more resistant to common pesticides.

Bed bugs are wingless, reddish-brown insects that suck blood from humans and other mammals and birds. They do not carry disease but, according to the CDC, “can reduce quality of life by causing anxiety, discomfort and sleeplessness.”

Illness can result from misusing pesticides to kill the bugs, the CDC said. Two of the most common causes of illness were excessive insecticide application and failing to wash or change pesticide-treated bedding.

Common symptoms included headaches, dizziness, nausea and vomiting, the CDC said.

The lone fatality was in North Carolina in 2010, and the 65-year-old victim had a long list of health problems including diabetes and renal failure, the CDC said.

Her husband applied pesticides in the home that were not registered for use on bed bugs. The woman also applied a bed bug and flea insecticide to her arms, sores on her chest, and on her hair.

The CDC recommends using both nonchemical and chemical approaches to fight bed bugs, including hiring an expert to heat infested rooms or cool them to kill the bugs.

The agency also advises against buying used mattresses and box springs and urges anyone with a bed bug problem to hire only certified insecticide applicators.

“Insecticide labels that are easy to read and understand also can help prevent illnesses associated with bed bug control,” the agency said. (Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Cynthia Johnston)

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5/17/2011 Bedbugs May Cause Anxiety Paranoia & Mood Disorders: New York Langone Medical Center Doctor Evan Rieder Tells MedPage Today

The media frenzy surrounding reports of bedbug infestations in New York may increase acute anxiety and mood disorders.

Although the numbers of cases are few — just 10 in the study reported here — Evan Rieder, MD, of Langone Medical Center, and colleagues are urging colleagues to be aware of the risk associated with the current bedbug outbreak.

“They’ve occurred in patients with a history of psychiatric illness and without,” Rieder told MedPage Today during an interview at his poster at the American Psychiatric Association meeting here.

Among the 10 patients diagnoses included anxiety, depression, and relapse of controlled bipolar disorder. Others were diagnosed with monosymptomatic delusional disorder — imagining that one is crawling with pests, even though no infestation exists.

“If you’re always struggling with seeing the world as an unsafe place, its easy [for something like this] to bolster your delusions,” said Kenneth Silk, MD, of the University of Michigan, chair of APA’s scientific program committee, who was not involved with the study.

Silk relayed the example of working in an emergency department in Michigan the morning after September 11 and seeing a series of bipolar disorder patients — a greater number than usual, he said — with exacerbations of mania: “We felt the event definitely had something to do with the exacerbations of illness.”

As the prevalence of bedbug infestation has risen considerably in New York City and globally in recent years, so has worry about the insects, Rieder said.

Some savvy pest control companies have coined the term “bedbug psychosis” to describe the paranoid feelings that often accompanying a confirmed infestation.

Rieder and colleagues presented detailed review of six of the 10 cases, who ranged in age from 21 to 75. Two of the patients — 21- and 23-year-old women — who relapsed after their bedbug ordeal had controlled bipolar disorder, while a 75-year-old woman had a schizophrenia.

“Any doctor seeing patients [with bedbug infestation and preexisting psychoses] should be on alert,” Rieder told MedPage Today. “These people can decompensate even if they’ve been medically stable for a significant period of time.”

Two others who developed some form of psychiatric illness only had a history of depression or anxiety — including a 39-year-old male patient who developed delusional disorder — and one, a 22-year-old woman, had no prior medical or psychiatric history.

Most of the conditions resulted from increasing anxiety and depression, tied to various factors including greater social isolation and financial distress due to the expense of fumigation, the researchers said.

Rieder and colleagues also conducted a review of the literature and found that bedbug-related psychiatric issues have not been addressed. Thus, more research is needed into the mechanisms underpinning the association, they said.

Rieder speculated that bedbugs create a unique problem compared with other pests such as cockroaches and mice because their effects are felt a bit more personally, as the latter don’t have such a close, physical effect on humans.

Bedbugs are also much harder to detect and exterminate, which could reduce a patient’s ability to feel confident about being secure in their space, Rieder said.

Similarly, he said, the bed is associated with comfort and protection, and not knowing whether the pests are there can undermine that.

“There’s something about the sanctity of the bedroom and the fact that bedbugs are attracted to warmth and blood that violates something that’s really personal,” Rieder said. “Mice and rats aren’t taking a blood meal from human beings.”

Silk agreed, noting that does seem to be a personal intrusion compared with other pests — “especially if it involves a place that you retreat to for comfort.”

It’s also unclear why certain patients develop psychotic symptoms in response to real or threatened infestations, while others do not — an area that also needs further review, the researchers said.

They concluded that physicians who diagnose bedbug infestation or those who treat patients already dealing with an infestation should screen those patients for new psychiatric symptoms.

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4/7/2011 EPA Gives $550k Grants To Fight Bedbugs: 5 Grants To Be Given To State Organizations In Texas, Michigan, New Jersey, Maryland, & Missouri

Targeting social service agencies that serve low-income, minority and immigrant neighborhoods, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded $550,000 in bed bug-control education and prevention grants, the agency announced Thursday.

According to a news release, the five grants will be used in communities where the plague of “bed bug pressures are significant but resources to address the problems are limited.”

Over the next 24 months state organizations from Texas, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, and New Jersey will facilitate programs aimed at helping prevent widespread bed bug infestations.

For example, the EPA website lists the Maryland Department of Health and Hygiene as receiving $142,440. The money will go to develop and provide training as well as technical and material support to residents, service providers and retail firms that combat bed bugs in the 12 poorest ZIP codes of Baltimore and as well as county health offices throughout Maryland.

The grant would include training for the migrant workers of Caroline County, who are extremely vulnerable to bed bugs, the EPA said. The educational outreach programs seek to reach groups that serve transitional housing managers, vendors of second hand goods, healthcare providers, and local pest product providers, the EPA said.

Also listed on EPA website is a grant for New Jersey’s Rutgers University of $99,688. Rutgers will lead a statewide bed bug educational outreach program for low-income communities. The effectiveness of anti-bed bug programs will be measured through monitoring of all apartments in those communities and documenting pesticide usage over one year.

Due to the influx of bed bugs around the United States last year, the EPA hosted a national bed bug summit in early February.

The grants are a step to further educate the public about bed bugs. Last summer in New York several high end hotels, clothing stores Abercrombie and Fitch, Hollister, Niketown, and Victoria’s Secret, as well as an AMC movie theater in Times Square shut down due to a serious invasion of the insects.

The goal is to seek new approaches in managing bed bug problems. EPA spokesman Dale Kemery said, “Lessons learned from the grants will be available for use by other communities.”

Bed bugs, according to the EPA, are brown insects about 1/4 to 3/8 of an inch long that feed on the blood of humans through biting. They are known to live up to a year without feeding.

Typical steps for ridding and preventing bed bug infestations include correctly identifying the bugs, and then physically removing the bugs through cleaning, applying appropriate pesticides, and reducing clutter.

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11/4/10 Michigan Family Sues Waldorf Astoria Over Bedbugs: Family says bedbugs carried to Michigan in luggage  * Waldorf says room tested negative for the pests

NEW YORK, Nov 4 (Reuters) – A Michigan woman filed suit against New York’s Waldorf-Astoria on Thursday, saying she and her husband became infected with bedbugs during a stay at the famed hotel.

Christine Drabicki says she and her husband, David, carried the bedbugs home to Plymouth, Michigan, where they infected their two daughters, one of whom suffered an allergic reaction, according to the lawsuit filed in state Supreme Court.

New York has been hard hit by bedbugs. The United Nations, the Harlem office of former U.S. President Bill Clinton, several retail stores and a movie theater have suffered outbreaks of the infestation.

The Drabickis stayed at the Waldorf-Astoria from May 24-27, and noticed bedbug bites after the first night, Drabicki said. The hotel moved them to another room but did not tell them their luggage might be infested as well, she said at a news conference on Thursday.

The family had to vacate their home for six weeks while the house was exterminated for about $4,500. Also, about 1,000 pounds (450 kg) of clothing had to be disinfected, and much of it was discarded, she said.

“It wreaked havoc on us,” she said.

The family is seeking an unspecified amount as “reasonable compensation” and seeking money for their emotional distress, according to Alan Schnurman, Drabicki’s attorney.

The Waldorf is part of the Hilton Worldwide chain, and a Hilton Worldwide spokesman said in a statement that the room had tested negative for bedbugs.

“The initial room, and the room the family relocated to, both tested negative,” the statement said. “Official inspection reports indicated no evidence or indication of bedbugs.”

“The Waldorf-Astoria takes allegations of bedbugs very seriously as the safety and well-being of our guests is of paramount importance,” it said.

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10/26/10 Infestation Of BedBugs In Detroit Is Nations Third Worst

Spurred by his trainer’s whispered command to “Seek, seek,” Buggsy snuffled his way along three suitcases searching for the culprit.

When his nose found what it was looking for, the 2.5-year-old Beagle mix sat down and looked expectantly at trainer and owner Eric Taylor.

“Show me,” Taylor said. Buggsy sniffed some more and pawed the pocket where a vial containing the triggering scent was contained.

What did Buggsy smell? Bedbugs — the ancient pest that is coming back with a vengeance and giving people worldwide a collective case of the willies.

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