1/11/11 NYC BedBug Complaints Up 7% In 2010: City’s Problems With BedBugs Getting Worse

It’s official: New Yorkers had the bedbug blues in 2010.

Residential bedbug complaints in New York City rose nearly 7% during 2010, according to data from the city’s Department of Housing, Preservation and Development. Nationally, one out of five Americans has had a bedbug infestation in their home or knows someone who has encountered the pests at home or in a hotel, according to the National Pest Management Association, an industry group.

In New York, there are many more infestations than complaints and violations, said Louis Sorkin, an entomologist with the American Museum of Natural History.

“Tons of people that have infestations don’t say anything and, if they are in apartments, the people next door are the ones with a complaint finally. They may not file a complaint, but they may go through the proper channels and tell the landlord or co-op board or condo owner,” said Mr. Sorkin.

In 2010, there were 4,846 violations and 13,472 complaints, up slightly from 4,811 and 12,594 in 2009.

In New York, bedbug complaints are registered with the city’s 311 nonemergency hotline. The landlord is notified of the complaint and the department contacts the tenant to confirm the complaint before making a site visit where a city inspector will visually inspect the home. If bedbugs are found, a violation is issued.

In a national survey, respondents said they were most concerned about encountering bedbugs at hotels, in public transportation, at movie theaters, in retail stores and at medical facilities, according to the National Pest Management Association. The association reports that bedbugs are in every state and that there is no regional hot spot for infestation: One out of five survey respondents in the Midwest and the South had encountered bedbugs, as had 19% of respondents in the West and 17% in the Northeast.

“Fairly evenly across the country, people are having experiences with bedbugs. I think so often people think Manhattan is the only city that has bedbugs,” said Missy Henriksen, vice president of public affairs for the National Pest Management Association.

What’s ahead for 2011? “Each year it’s always a little worse than the year before, because not everyone is on the bedbug bandwagon,” said Mr. Sorkin, adding, “There’s not enough education for people, not a silver bullet and there’s not a cheap insecticide. There’s not an easy way to get rid of bedbugs.”

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12/3/10 New York City: Juicy Couture Store Reopens After BedBug Infestation: 15k Sq Foot Store Closed Since Tuesday For Extermination

New York fashion retailer Juicy Couture reopened its 5th Avenue store in Manhattan on Friday, after shutting its doors earlier this week when employees discovered bed bugs.

“We have taken all the necessary steps to eradicate them,” the company said in a written statement. “The safety and well-being of our customers and employees has been our top priority throughout this process, and we thank everyone for their patience and understanding.”

The 15,000-square-foot clothing store closed Tuesday when employees discovered the insects after store hours, said company spokesman Joseph Assad,

An exterminating company was called, he said, removing and treating all of the store’s merchandise in an effort to eliminate the outbreak — the latest bed bug problem affecting stores and hotels across the city.

Juicy Couture is owned by Liz Claiborne Inc., a New York-based fashion company.

Customers affected by the outbreak may make returns to the store, Assad said. “Our primary concern is to our customers, store employees and their well-being.”

The retailer’s three other stores in the city were also tested as a precaution, but no bed bugs were found at any of those locations, he said.

The average bed bug is a wingless blood-sucking insect that grows up to 7 millimeters in length, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The bugs leave itchy bite marks on the skin, and some people are allergic to them.

Calls to exterminators over bed bugs have increased 81 percent since 2000, according to the National Pest Management Association, which conducted the 2010 Comprehensive Global Bed Bug Study with the University of Kentucky.

Last month, lawmakers and industry leaders met in Washington to discuss the outbreak at the Congressional Bed Bug Forum, hosted by Reps. G.K. Butterfield, D-North Carolina, and Don Young, R-Alaska.

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11/22/10 NYC To Purchase BedBug Sniffing Dogs: City Is Looking For 2 Male Trained Dogs To Sniff Out Bedbugs And Their Eggs

Now hiring: two city inspectors capable of smelling bedbugs. Must walk on four legs.

New York City is moving forward with a plan to purchase bedbug-sniffing dogs for the Department of Housing Preservation and Development. According to a request for information issued Monday, the city is looking for two male dogs trained to sniff out live bedbugs and their eggs.

Most of the funding for the dogs will come from the departments existing enforcement budget, according to an HPD spokesman. The dogs will be deployed citywide and “used to compliment and enhance our existing code enforcement activities,” the spokesman explained.

The city is looking to train up to six dog handlers as part of the initiative. The dogs will be certified by either the National Entomology Scent Detection Association or a similar group.

As The Journal reported in August, there are two major companies that dominate the market for bedbug-sniffing dogs in the U.S., and each one is affiliated with a different certification organization. A trained bedbug-sniffing dog costs about $10,000. Most of the dogs come from rescue shelters.

Pepe Peruyero, the owner of J&K Canine Academy in High Springs, Fla., has about 65 dogs working in the New York metropolitan area. His dog-training company is now affiliated with New York outfit called Bed Bug Super Dogs. Bill Whitstine owns Florida Canine Academy in Safety Harbor, Peruyero’s major rival. Each company is tied to a different certification regime.

Training and certification of bedbug-sniffing dogs has become a hot-button issue within the industry. The National Pest Management Association hopes to release official training protocols for bedbug-sniffing dogs next year.

Jim Skinner, president of NESDCA, said that he has not been contacted by the city. He emphasized that proper training and a strong relationship between handler and dog are essential for successful bedbug detection. If the city is only looking for trained dogs without qualified handlers, Skinner warned that government officials are “going down the wrong road.”

“It’s not about purchasing a canine, it’s about the training that you continue to do on a regular basis. It’s not just, ‘Hey, I got a dog that sniffs out bedbugs’ and you just give them to anybody,” Skinner said. “It’s how that person works with the canine and the relationship they have as a team.”

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11/21/10 Bedbugs On New York City Subways: MTA Fumigating Ninth Street Station In Brooklyn After Recent Siting In Subway Booth

11/17/10 NYC: New Mattress Disposal Rules Aimed At Curbing Bedbugs: Dept Of Sanitation Will Now Require Mattresses On Streets To Be Sealed In Plastic Bags

The city is looking to kick bed bugs to the curb.

Starting December 3, the Department of Sanitation will require city residents to fully seal any mattresses or box springs in plastic bags before leaving them out for curbside pickup.

Failure to do so can result in a $100 fine.

Sanitation Commissioner John Doherty says this will help safeguard workers and stop the spread of bed bugs throughout the city.

The sanitation department will delay enforcing the rule for 30 days until January 3, when full enforcement will begin.

For more information, call 311 or visit nyc.gov/sanitation.

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11/16/10 NYC: Struggling Actors Turn To Bedbug Careers: Great Alternative To Waiting Tables

For struggling New York actors reduced to waiting tables for a living, there’s finally an alternative career path: bedbug hunter.

Ever since the city began suffering from a widespread infestation of the pernicious bugs last year, demand has soared for people to get rid of them. Actors, it turns out, make the perfect bug busters.

“Actors have great personalities and follow directions well,” says Janet Friedman, owner of Bed Bug Busters NY, who employs many people from the theater world to clean up the vermin. She favors entertainers, she says, because they can improvise, work quickly and are used to the drama of a stressful situation.

Meagan Gilliland, a 25-year-old actress who moved from Chicago to New York in September 2009, secured a gig with Bed Bug Busters before arriving.

While she’d rather be acting, she says her new job doesn’t bug her.

On the contrary: Ms. Gilliland says she uses her acting chops while she goes through every inch of a person’s apartment. In a particularly dusty apartment—sometimes clients are hoarders—she puts on a smile trying to “pretend to be OK, like you’re still having a good time with friends and stuff, while you’re choking on a lot of dust.”

“The performance aspect, the training that most of us have in our own fields, definitely helps when you have one of those more difficult places to go to,” she says.

Just as waiting tables in fashionable restaurants gives aspiring actors access to New York’s movers and shakers, bedbug hunting can provide a platform for making connections with “high-up people in the New York scene,” says Ms. Gilliland. To date, she has been offered several babysitting gigs from her bedbug cleaning job.

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11/15/10 Why Are Bedbugs On The Way Back?

THAT’S THE WHY: “Night night, sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite” – it’s a rhyme to entertain kids as you tuck them in, but in recent years the joke is wearing thin, because the insects are apparently experiencing a revival.

It’s not as if bedbugs are anything new – they are mentioned in writings of ancient Greece – but the use of pesticides in the 1950s meant that for a while in certain parts of the world at least, humans could sleep at night with less likelihood of Cimex lectularius burrowing into their skin for a feed of blood.

But in recent years the critters – which don’t generally carry disease but leave itchy welts on the skin – have been on the rise.

The 2010 Comprehensive Global Bed Bug Study , carried out by the US National Pest Management Association and the University of Kentucky, found that 95 per cent of pest control companies in the US had dealt with a bedbug infestation in the last year, up from 25 per cent in 2000.

Pest companies report themselves hopping after bedbugs in other parts of the world too, including Europe, the Middle East/Africa and South America.

So why are these insects staging a bigger comeback than Take That? “Experts are not certain of the cause for the bedbug resurgence,” wrote John Manuel in Environmental Health Perspectives last month.

“The increased movement of people domestically and internationally is thought to be one factor. Another is the resistance bedbugs have developed to pesticides.”

The study also suggested a lack of societal awareness and people not taking precautions – such as inspecting the bed for bugs – as contributing factors.

Don’t know about you, but I’m starting to itch just thinking about it.

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11/8/10 New York City Declares Full War On Bedbugs: Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer Calls For The Eradication Of Bedbugs

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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10/30/10 NYC Bedbugs Scaring Off Tourists

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City’s bedbugs have climbed out of bed and marched into landmarks like the Empire State Building, Bloomingdale’s and Lincoln Center, causing fresh anxiety among tourists who are canceling Big Apple vacations planned for the height of the holiday season.

Some travelers who had arranged trips to New York say they are creeped out about staying in hotels and visiting attractions as new reports of bedbugs seem to pop up every few days. And officials in Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration are concerned about the effect on the city’s image and $30 billion tourism industry.

The discoveries of pests at high-profile places are often not full-blown infestations, or even in public areas. Bloomingdale’s reported finding exactly one bug in the famous department store, the Empire State Building had them in the basement and Lincoln Center’s were in a dressing room.

But those reports, along with bedbug discoveries in movie theaters, hotels and clothing chain stores, are causing skittish travelers to call off trips planned months ago.

Industry professionals — who have privately told city officials that they are nervous about bedbugs hurting New York’s reputation — say publicly that they are not aware of any bedbug-related cancellations. But several would-be tourists tracked down by The Associated Press say they are aborting their trips here because they fear the bloodsucking pests.

“It sounds like you can get them anywhere, any time of day and not know it until you get home,” said Patty Majerik, from Baltimore.

She said she may not travel to Manhattan next month with her children, ages 7 and 10, like they do every year around the holidays to shop, catch a Broadway show and see the Radio City Christmas show.

“I’ve got four people traveling on a train, in cabs, going to stores and theaters, and they could be in any of these places? I hate to say it, but I doubt we’re going to come this time,” Majerik said.

Suzanne Baldwin said she is forfeiting money spent on reservations for a November trip to New York City from her home in Florida. She had already grown accustomed to checking hotel rooms for bedbugs — and has done so in New York before — but she is now overwhelmed at the idea that the bugs have spread beyond hotels.

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