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City Declares War on Bed Bugs
After seeing complaints about bed bugs grow astronomically, the New York City Council voted last Wednesday to create a Bed Bug Advisory Board.
The board’s job will be to develop a strategy to fight the bugs – which are about a quarter-inch long and reddish brown, with oval, flattened bodies -- and educate the public about how they spread. “Bedbugs are back, and for the tens of thousands whose homes have been infested they are no longer an urban legend but a personal and financial nightmare,” Council Member Gale A. Brewer, lead sponsor of the bill, said last week.
Speaking to the Brooklyn Eagle Monday, Council Member Brewer described the plight of one woman who spent $20,000 to rid her apartment of the bugs – and she hasn’t gotten rid of them yet. “It adds up. A good exterminator will tell you to prepare the apartment, put everything in bags, and have at least three different extermination visits over a month,” she said. “In her case, the landlord was not cooperative, and the other people in the building did not acknowledge the problem. She had to move out, so that money includes housing costs.”
While that figure is on the high side, it’s not unusual for infected households to spend thousands of dollars to get rid of the pests – and that doesn’t count the hours lost getting rid of infested possessions, bagging clothing, buying mattress covers and other activities.
Many city workers have found bed bug infestations at the homes they visit as part of their , Brewer said. “I believe the Number One way to fight back is education. A lot of people don’t know – they think you can just call somebody, or put out the wrong kind of pesticides.”
New York City’s Bed Bug Advisory Board puts government at the center of efforts to educate the public, offer guidance, and coordinate the work of health and housing professionals, entomologists, pest control experts, advocates, and residents, according to Brewer.
“The Advisory Board will bring all of us together. There are good ideas out there – they need to be shared.”
Council Member Brewer thanked the Brooklyn Eagle for its recent series of articles documenting the bed bug problem across the city [The Secret Life of Bedbugs and Bedbugs in Brooklyn: They’re Here. Get Used to It.] “We’ve seen your clips come into the City Council. The Brooklyn Eagle is doing a great job – thanks for doing it.”
On the Increase
Council Member Brewer said that the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) received roughly 9,000 bed bug complaints in 2008, while 311 received about 22,000 bed bug-related calls.
“This is way, way up,” she said. “A huge increase.”
Broken down by community district, Bushwick has the unfortunate distinction of being the bed bug capital of Brooklyn, with 550 calls from CD 4 to the City’s 311 line in the first half of 2008. In 2004, the same district recorded only 47 complaints in a whole year.
Community District 14 – including Flatbush, Midwood and Prospect Park South – logged the next highest number of complaints, at 364 for the first half of 2008.
CD 2, covering Brooklyn Heights, Downtown Brooklyn, Boerum Hill and more, logged 64 bed bug complaints, while CD 18, encompassing Mill Basin and Flatlands had the fewest complaints, with only 43 calls during the same time period.
Immediate Measures Sought
“There are a lot of problems in Brooklyn,” Louis N. Sorkin, entomologist at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) and recognized bed bug expert, told the Brooklyn Eagle recently.
Often, people don’t even recognize the bugs, he said. “Unfortunately, bed bugs are usually described as a quarter of an inch long and reddish-brown. But that’s only the s. The newly hatched nymphs are only a 32nd of an inch long — that’s the thickness of a credit card — and whitish in color.” Besides the bugs themselves, signs of a bedbug infestation may include shed skins, bites, drops on the sheets, and dried-up defecated , Sorkin said.
Once you have bedbugs, experts say, immediate measures are called for.
“You need to use integrated pest management techniques, not only pesticide,” Sorkin said.
Weapons in the arsenal include freezing treatments and heat, vacuuming, fine aerosol pesticide application, foam techniques, and the use of a substance called “diatomaceous earth.”
By: Mary Frost
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
The board’s job will be to develop a strategy to fight the bugs – which are about a quarter-inch long and reddish brown, with oval, flattened bodies -- and educate the public about how they spread. “Bedbugs are back, and for the tens of thousands whose homes have been infested they are no longer an urban legend but a personal and financial nightmare,” Council Member Gale A. Brewer, lead sponsor of the bill, said last week.
Speaking to the Brooklyn Eagle Monday, Council Member Brewer described the plight of one woman who spent $20,000 to rid her apartment of the bugs – and she hasn’t gotten rid of them yet. “It adds up. A good exterminator will tell you to prepare the apartment, put everything in bags, and have at least three different extermination visits over a month,” she said. “In her case, the landlord was not cooperative, and the other people in the building did not acknowledge the problem. She had to move out, so that money includes housing costs.”
While that figure is on the high side, it’s not unusual for infected households to spend thousands of dollars to get rid of the pests – and that doesn’t count the hours lost getting rid of infested possessions, bagging clothing, buying mattress covers and other activities.
Many city workers have found bed bug infestations at the homes they visit as part of their , Brewer said. “I believe the Number One way to fight back is education. A lot of people don’t know – they think you can just call somebody, or put out the wrong kind of pesticides.”
New York City’s Bed Bug Advisory Board puts government at the center of efforts to educate the public, offer guidance, and coordinate the work of health and housing professionals, entomologists, pest control experts, advocates, and residents, according to Brewer.
“The Advisory Board will bring all of us together. There are good ideas out there – they need to be shared.”
Council Member Brewer thanked the Brooklyn Eagle for its recent series of articles documenting the bed bug problem across the city [The Secret Life of Bedbugs and Bedbugs in Brooklyn: They’re Here. Get Used to It.] “We’ve seen your clips come into the City Council. The Brooklyn Eagle is doing a great job – thanks for doing it.”
On the Increase
Council Member Brewer said that the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) received roughly 9,000 bed bug complaints in 2008, while 311 received about 22,000 bed bug-related calls.
“This is way, way up,” she said. “A huge increase.”
Broken down by community district, Bushwick has the unfortunate distinction of being the bed bug capital of Brooklyn, with 550 calls from CD 4 to the City’s 311 line in the first half of 2008. In 2004, the same district recorded only 47 complaints in a whole year.
Community District 14 – including Flatbush, Midwood and Prospect Park South – logged the next highest number of complaints, at 364 for the first half of 2008.
CD 2, covering Brooklyn Heights, Downtown Brooklyn, Boerum Hill and more, logged 64 bed bug complaints, while CD 18, encompassing Mill Basin and Flatlands had the fewest complaints, with only 43 calls during the same time period.
Immediate Measures Sought
“There are a lot of problems in Brooklyn,” Louis N. Sorkin, entomologist at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) and recognized bed bug expert, told the Brooklyn Eagle recently.
Often, people don’t even recognize the bugs, he said. “Unfortunately, bed bugs are usually described as a quarter of an inch long and reddish-brown. But that’s only the s. The newly hatched nymphs are only a 32nd of an inch long — that’s the thickness of a credit card — and whitish in color.” Besides the bugs themselves, signs of a bedbug infestation may include shed skins, bites, drops on the sheets, and dried-up defecated , Sorkin said.
Once you have bedbugs, experts say, immediate measures are called for.
“You need to use integrated pest management techniques, not only pesticide,” Sorkin said.
Weapons in the arsenal include freezing treatments and heat, vacuuming, fine aerosol pesticide application, foam techniques, and the use of a substance called “diatomaceous earth.”
By: Mary Frost
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
posted by Can't Bug Me # 2:56 PM 
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