Bed Bug Blog
Bed Bug Blog, BedBug News, Bed Bug Extermination, Bed Bug Elimination, Bed Bug Treatment, Bed Bug Spray, BedBug ProductsWednesday, March 25, 2009
Bedbugs make an unwelcome appearance in Lanman-Wright
Around Valentine’s Day weekend, a student in Lanman-Wright Hall had a visitor in her bed.
The freshman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said she initially thought she was having an allergic reaction. The red blotches on her body — on every surface of her skin that was not covered by pajamas — were a reaction to another culprit: bedbugs.
“I found a friend on my pillow,” she said of the bedbug, which, she recalled, was the size of her pinky nail.
Although the L-Dub bedbug was a seemingly isolated incident, in the month after it was discovered a group of administrators gathered to discuss the problem of bedbugs, Dean of Administrative Affairs John Meeske ’74 said. Old Campus residents were informed of the incident at the beginning of March.
The University decided to re-inspect the affected suite and its neighboring room during spring break, even though the rooms were treated for bedbugs within two days of finding the pest in February. No other bedbugs were subsequently found.
One of the students in a neighboring suite said she was surprised to hear about the microscopic guest across the hall.
“I thought it was something that only existed in nursery rhymes,” she said.
MOVING IN
After seeing the live bedbug on her pillow, the freshman said, she put it in a Ziploc bag and searched for photos of bedbugs on the Internet. After confirming that the brownish insect was indeed a bedbug, she said, her and her suitemates called Yale Facilities, which sent an exterminator to her room.
A pesticide was spread in the room the next day while the s were in class, and their luggage, furniture and other fabric items that could not be moved were inspected for bedbugs. The suite next door, which is connected by a fire escape, was also thoroughly cleaned in order to “quarantine” the bugs, one of the ’s suitemates said. The s had to move out of their suites while it was treated on Friday night and could not return until Saturday evening.
“The school did a great job by preventing its spread so fast,” said the suitemate, who also asked to remain anonymous.
The University paid for the s’ dry cleaning, she said, while she, her roommates and next door neighbors washed other fabrics in hot water. Pierson College reimbursed the affected freshman for the cost of new bedding, she said. They all received new mattresses.
Despite all the cleaning, she said, exterminators told one of the suitemates that the incident was “random” and unrelated to the cleanliness of the room.
“Our room is one of the cleanest dorm rooms I know, which made it kind of ironic on our part,” she said.
‘A RE-INFESTATION’
The single bedbug found in Lanman-Wright Hall was just one of many that have been making appearances on the East Coast.
While bedbugs have been alarming residents in New York City — the New York Times reported last week that the city has established a bedbug advisory board to deal with the problem — their population has also surged in New Haven and its surrounding areas, said Leonard Munstermann, senior research scientist at the Yale School of Public Health and associate curator in the division of entomology at the Yale Peabody Museum.
“Prior to the 1940s, there were a lot of bedbugs in the area,” Munstermann said, noting that they were fairly rare after the 1940s and 1950s. “So it’s kind of a re-infestation.”
John Anderson, an agricultural scientist for the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station who does research on bedbugs, said the increase of bedbugs over the past 13 years has been substantial: In 1996, only one person brought a bedbug to the attention of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station; in 2008, there were over 90 cases reported to their offices in New Haven and Windsor, Conn., he said.
“That’s a good indication that the numbers of bedbugs are increasing rather dramatically in Connecticut,” he said.
There are a number of possible theories for the resurgence of bedbugs. One is that bedbugs were killed when the pesticide DDT was widely used, Anderson said, and now that DDT is outlawed, bedbugs are coming back. Another possibility is that the resurgence is simply cyclical, he said.
A bedbug population can start with one bedbug, Munstermann said. Once a bedbug feeds on human , it lays eggs in the area where it found its “blood meal,” he said. It takes little time for a number of them to reproduce and develop, he said. While digesting, bedbugs like to situate themselves in , crevices or seams in a bed, he explained.
Hotels and dormitories might be more prone to bed bugs since traveling guests and students are frequently exposed to populated living areas that might carry bedbugs, he said. Munstermann emphasized that the spread of bedbugs are not easy to prevent, and can often get into the crevices of luggage.
“The only thing that a bedbug needs is a warm, human body and a place to hang out while digesting a meal,” he said.
Esther Zuckerman
The freshman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said she initially thought she was having an allergic reaction. The red blotches on her body — on every surface of her skin that was not covered by pajamas — were a reaction to another culprit: bedbugs.
“I found a friend on my pillow,” she said of the bedbug, which, she recalled, was the size of her pinky nail.
Although the L-Dub bedbug was a seemingly isolated incident, in the month after it was discovered a group of administrators gathered to discuss the problem of bedbugs, Dean of Administrative Affairs John Meeske ’74 said. Old Campus residents were informed of the incident at the beginning of March.
The University decided to re-inspect the affected suite and its neighboring room during spring break, even though the rooms were treated for bedbugs within two days of finding the pest in February. No other bedbugs were subsequently found.
One of the students in a neighboring suite said she was surprised to hear about the microscopic guest across the hall.
“I thought it was something that only existed in nursery rhymes,” she said.
MOVING IN
After seeing the live bedbug on her pillow, the freshman said, she put it in a Ziploc bag and searched for photos of bedbugs on the Internet. After confirming that the brownish insect was indeed a bedbug, she said, her and her suitemates called Yale Facilities, which sent an exterminator to her room.
A pesticide was spread in the room the next day while the s were in class, and their luggage, furniture and other fabric items that could not be moved were inspected for bedbugs. The suite next door, which is connected by a fire escape, was also thoroughly cleaned in order to “quarantine” the bugs, one of the ’s suitemates said. The s had to move out of their suites while it was treated on Friday night and could not return until Saturday evening.
“The school did a great job by preventing its spread so fast,” said the suitemate, who also asked to remain anonymous.
The University paid for the s’ dry cleaning, she said, while she, her roommates and next door neighbors washed other fabrics in hot water. Pierson College reimbursed the affected freshman for the cost of new bedding, she said. They all received new mattresses.
Despite all the cleaning, she said, exterminators told one of the suitemates that the incident was “random” and unrelated to the cleanliness of the room.
“Our room is one of the cleanest dorm rooms I know, which made it kind of ironic on our part,” she said.
‘A RE-INFESTATION’
The single bedbug found in Lanman-Wright Hall was just one of many that have been making appearances on the East Coast.
While bedbugs have been alarming residents in New York City — the New York Times reported last week that the city has established a bedbug advisory board to deal with the problem — their population has also surged in New Haven and its surrounding areas, said Leonard Munstermann, senior research scientist at the Yale School of Public Health and associate curator in the division of entomology at the Yale Peabody Museum.
“Prior to the 1940s, there were a lot of bedbugs in the area,” Munstermann said, noting that they were fairly rare after the 1940s and 1950s. “So it’s kind of a re-infestation.”
John Anderson, an agricultural scientist for the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station who does research on bedbugs, said the increase of bedbugs over the past 13 years has been substantial: In 1996, only one person brought a bedbug to the attention of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station; in 2008, there were over 90 cases reported to their offices in New Haven and Windsor, Conn., he said.
“That’s a good indication that the numbers of bedbugs are increasing rather dramatically in Connecticut,” he said.
There are a number of possible theories for the resurgence of bedbugs. One is that bedbugs were killed when the pesticide DDT was widely used, Anderson said, and now that DDT is outlawed, bedbugs are coming back. Another possibility is that the resurgence is simply cyclical, he said.
A bedbug population can start with one bedbug, Munstermann said. Once a bedbug feeds on human , it lays eggs in the area where it found its “blood meal,” he said. It takes little time for a number of them to reproduce and develop, he said. While digesting, bedbugs like to situate themselves in , crevices or seams in a bed, he explained.
Hotels and dormitories might be more prone to bed bugs since traveling guests and students are frequently exposed to populated living areas that might carry bedbugs, he said. Munstermann emphasized that the spread of bedbugs are not easy to prevent, and can often get into the crevices of luggage.
“The only thing that a bedbug needs is a warm, human body and a place to hang out while digesting a meal,” he said.
Esther Zuckerman
Staff Reporter
Yale Daily News
Yale Daily News
Monday, March 23, 2009
Police Remove Man Allegedly Infested With Bed Bugs On The 2 Train
It seems the bedbug epidemic that has been building in nyc over the last few years has reached an apex. My roommate Aaron Howell explained he was riding the 2 train last night and a destitute gentleman was covered with little crawling translucent bugs. Himself and others surmised they were bedbugs. At home later, asked if he was sure they were bedbugs, Aaron replied, "no doubt."
An MTA employee riding in the car first noticed the man and bugs, and notified police who then removed the bed bug hotel from the train at 96th St. As if to allay any fears about bedbugs in the train, the MTA employee is reported to have explained that the cars get cleaned every night. They should just dump that one in the ocean to be safe.
In a community forum on bedbugs last year, Edward Brownbear, an official at the Department of Housing, Preservation and Development, declared that bedbugs are known to be present in some subway stations, hiding in benches and other places while waiting for you to sit down so they can hitch a ride home. And City Room spoke with urban entomologist Michael Potter about bedbugs in subway stations, who said, "If you go way back 100 years ago, bedbugs were very common on trains, on buses, in taxicabs, in all modes of transport."
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
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
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Dealing With Bed Bugs On Long Island.
On Long Island, there is a big concern with the increase of bed bugs.
They are tiny and clingy and multipy exponentially and yes bed bugs bite.
"It's a real inconvenience. And it's a really disgusting feeling. Bugs all over you," said Michael Koyles.
Koyles will never forget how his family itched and scratched like crazy after they rented a trailor
Facing a possible bed bug epidemic on Long Island, Nassau County Legislator Dave Majias issued the alert Tuesday, for residents to look for these bugs and get rid of them immediately.
He says bed bugs strike rich and poor wherever there's warm to suck and he believes the bad economy is spreading the problem
"We're seeing people use more second hand items whether it's furniture, suitcases and luggage, even clothes and mattresses as well," said Majias. He adds, " If you do donate or take something second hand make sure you look at it and clean it out".
Perhaps the only positive side to these creepy crawlers, is they don't spread diseases and they can be exterminated, eventually.
"Usually within 30 days bed bug population can be eliminated. When you have a severe problem it can take longer. Bed bugs can migrate into wall void area and can even go from one unit to another unit," said Arthur Katz, with pest control.
ABC7 Online News Team: Lucy Yang
Web Proudced By: Scott Curkin
They are tiny and clingy and multipy exponentially and yes bed bugs bite.
"It's a real inconvenience. And it's a really disgusting feeling. Bugs all over you," said Michael Koyles.
Koyles will never forget how his family itched and scratched like crazy after they rented a trailor
Facing a possible bed bug epidemic on Long Island, Nassau County Legislator Dave Majias issued the alert Tuesday, for residents to look for these bugs and get rid of them immediately.
He says bed bugs strike rich and poor wherever there's warm to suck and he believes the bad economy is spreading the problem
"We're seeing people use more second hand items whether it's furniture, suitcases and luggage, even clothes and mattresses as well," said Majias. He adds, " If you do donate or take something second hand make sure you look at it and clean it out".
Perhaps the only positive side to these creepy crawlers, is they don't spread diseases and they can be exterminated, eventually.
"Usually within 30 days bed bug population can be eliminated. When you have a severe problem it can take longer. Bed bugs can migrate into wall void area and can even go from one unit to another unit," said Arthur Katz, with pest control.
ABC7 Online News Team: Lucy Yang
Web Proudced By: Scott Curkin
Monday, March 9, 2009
The Man Who Lets the Bedbugs Bite
LOUIS SORKIN has been an entomologist at the American Museum of Natural History since 1978, and he is an expert in that most reviled -sucking creature, the bed bug. As bed-bug complaints in the city have skyrocketed in recent years — calls to 311 rose 34 percent, to 9,213, in the past fiscal year — New Yorkers have flocked to him for advice. A mild-mannered man who studied entomology at the University of Connecticut, Mr. Sorkin, 55, works in an office cluttered with vials and jars, a picture of Spiderman, old typewriters and shelves lined with bug-related literature (“The Ants of Ohio,” “Sphecid Wasps of the World”). Tarantulas live in tanks by the office door.
As hundreds of bed bugs crawled inside a jar on the table in front of him, Mr. Sorkin spoke about the insects and about City Council hearings, scheduled for Tuesday, that will focus on bills designed to address the problem. SAKI KNAFO
On a normal day we might receive a package of preserved spiders and insects from Honduras or Nicaragua or Australia. Scorpions are taken out; someone else works on them. Spiders are given to me.
I identify them to the family level or further and label them: wolf spiders, fishing spiders, widow spiders, goblin spiders. Once they’re labeled, they go into the collection. The spider collection takes up four rooms.
There are only a few drawers of bed bugs, but we have species you would normally only see on a bird or bat somewhere.
Around 1989, someone brought in our first bed bug. Most entomologists had never seen a live infestation before. Now, infestations may be approaching the levels of 50 years ago, before DDT was used.
Some of the chemicals used now appear to have similarities to DDT, but bed bugs have developed ways of bypassing the toxicity. Some bugs were recently collected here in New York, and a journal article reported that they were 300 times more resistant than other bed bugs to one of the common insecticides.
That’s why pest control companies do all sorts of things besides using chemicals: heating, freezing, steaming, vacuuming. The hardest part of controlling bed bugs is finding them. Most of the literature out there talks about a quarter-inch-long reddish-brown insect, but a bed bug is a millimeter long when it’s born, about the thickness of a credit card.
I now have two bed bug colonies. They both come from a population that was collected in 1971 in Fort Dix, N.J. The collector, an Army entomologist, was supplying them to researchers. The colonies live in jars. I feed them about once a month. I invert the jars on my arm and the bugs feed through the screening. It doesn’t hurt. The swelling goes down in an hour or two.
A lot of people get very itchy, and if you keep scratching, you can get a secondary infection. But at this point in time there’s no research showing that bed bugs are natural vectors of human disease.
There are about 90 species of bed bug. A few species feed only on certain bats, and at least one feeds only on swallows. Sometimes they live in people’s homes because of the host species there. Sometimes they feed on people.
The chief problem with bed bugs is this one particular species: Cimex lectularius. It seems to prefer people, but it also does well on mice, dogs, guinea pigs, birds and cats.
Sometimes pest-control companies send me insects to identify. Sometimes people will call up and say: “Oh, I found this in my bathroom. I want to know what it is.”
Of course, most the people now say: “I think it’s a bed bug. I’m really worried.” And, of course, it isn’t always a bed bug. One species of spider beetle is commonly thought of as a bed bug. The spider beetle has a big, globular body, so it looks like it’s filled with , but it’s not a -feeding insect at all.
A pest-control company once brought in slippers from an infested apartment. You could see all the eggs that had been plastered onto the soles and all the bugs that were hiding.
I live in Rye Brook, in Westchester County, next to the house where I grew up. I used to collect stuff in the backyard, in the bushes and out in the pond nearby. We’d get frogs, snakes, turtles. We’d watch them and keep them as pets. I had mammals, too — rodents, rats, guinea pigs.
I collected butterflies, beetles, wasps, bees, ants, things that were easily seen. Then, as I grew older, I’d see if I could find smaller stuff. I’d look in leaf litter and under rocks and logs, or in logs. Or bark — I’d take it apart and see what was going on.
I liked watching things metamorphose. If you collected a cicada as a nymph coming out of the ground and you watched it split open and an crawled out, that was very interesting.
I still collect cicadas. I sometimes bring them here and feed them to the spiders. Or I eat them. I put them in a little butter or oil and garlic and quickly sauté them. I’m very interested in entomophagy — the use of insects as food.
I don’t find insects creepy, even bed bugs. I actually find them quite interesting. I’ve never had an infestation myself. Just the jars.
-SAKI KNAFO
The Voice/ New York Times
As hundreds of bed bugs crawled inside a jar on the table in front of him, Mr. Sorkin spoke about the insects and about City Council hearings, scheduled for Tuesday, that will focus on bills designed to address the problem. SAKI KNAFO
On a normal day we might receive a package of preserved spiders and insects from Honduras or Nicaragua or Australia. Scorpions are taken out; someone else works on them. Spiders are given to me.
I identify them to the family level or further and label them: wolf spiders, fishing spiders, widow spiders, goblin spiders. Once they’re labeled, they go into the collection. The spider collection takes up four rooms.
There are only a few drawers of bed bugs, but we have species you would normally only see on a bird or bat somewhere.
Around 1989, someone brought in our first bed bug. Most entomologists had never seen a live infestation before. Now, infestations may be approaching the levels of 50 years ago, before DDT was used.
Some of the chemicals used now appear to have similarities to DDT, but bed bugs have developed ways of bypassing the toxicity. Some bugs were recently collected here in New York, and a journal article reported that they were 300 times more resistant than other bed bugs to one of the common insecticides.
That’s why pest control companies do all sorts of things besides using chemicals: heating, freezing, steaming, vacuuming. The hardest part of controlling bed bugs is finding them. Most of the literature out there talks about a quarter-inch-long reddish-brown insect, but a bed bug is a millimeter long when it’s born, about the thickness of a credit card.
I now have two bed bug colonies. They both come from a population that was collected in 1971 in Fort Dix, N.J. The collector, an Army entomologist, was supplying them to researchers. The colonies live in jars. I feed them about once a month. I invert the jars on my arm and the bugs feed through the screening. It doesn’t hurt. The swelling goes down in an hour or two.
A lot of people get very itchy, and if you keep scratching, you can get a secondary infection. But at this point in time there’s no research showing that bed bugs are natural vectors of human disease.
There are about 90 species of bed bug. A few species feed only on certain bats, and at least one feeds only on swallows. Sometimes they live in people’s homes because of the host species there. Sometimes they feed on people.
The chief problem with bed bugs is this one particular species: Cimex lectularius. It seems to prefer people, but it also does well on mice, dogs, guinea pigs, birds and cats.
Sometimes pest-control companies send me insects to identify. Sometimes people will call up and say: “Oh, I found this in my bathroom. I want to know what it is.”
Of course, most the people now say: “I think it’s a bed bug. I’m really worried.” And, of course, it isn’t always a bed bug. One species of spider beetle is commonly thought of as a bed bug. The spider beetle has a big, globular body, so it looks like it’s filled with , but it’s not a -feeding insect at all.
A pest-control company once brought in slippers from an infested apartment. You could see all the eggs that had been plastered onto the soles and all the bugs that were hiding.
I live in Rye Brook, in Westchester County, next to the house where I grew up. I used to collect stuff in the backyard, in the bushes and out in the pond nearby. We’d get frogs, snakes, turtles. We’d watch them and keep them as pets. I had mammals, too — rodents, rats, guinea pigs.
I collected butterflies, beetles, wasps, bees, ants, things that were easily seen. Then, as I grew older, I’d see if I could find smaller stuff. I’d look in leaf litter and under rocks and logs, or in logs. Or bark — I’d take it apart and see what was going on.
I liked watching things metamorphose. If you collected a cicada as a nymph coming out of the ground and you watched it split open and an crawled out, that was very interesting.
I still collect cicadas. I sometimes bring them here and feed them to the spiders. Or I eat them. I put them in a little butter or oil and garlic and quickly sauté them. I’m very interested in entomophagy — the use of insects as food.
I don’t find insects creepy, even bed bugs. I actually find them quite interesting. I’ve never had an infestation myself. Just the jars.
-SAKI KNAFO
The Voice/ New York Times
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
City trying to get handle on resurgent bed bugs
For more and more New Yorkers, it is no longer possible to sleep tight -- the bed bugs are biting.
As complaints about the tiny suckers skyrocket, the City Council Tuesday took up a package of proposals aimed at curbing the nocturnal nuisances, which many say are rampant.
"I'm petrified to turn the lights off at night," said Mary Pane, 50, of Manhattan, who's had bed bugs for more than a month. "I'm not getting proper sleep, I can't concentrate at work."
Complaints to the city about bed bugs in private apartments and hotels have more than doubled during the past two years, to 9,213 in fiscal year 2008. City officials and advocates for victims say the number of cases is likely higher because a lot of people don't lodge complaints and infestations in public housing are referred to a different agency.
In 2008, there were 22,218 bed bug-related calls to 311, though some were repeat callers or simply people seeking information.
Jody Gangloff-Kaufman, an entomologist at Cornell University, who testified before a joint City Council committee, said bed bugs, once nearly eradicated in New York, have re-emerged in recent years. The banning of certain chemicals, like DDT, is among the reasons for the resurgence, experts say.
"They're nearly impossible to get rid of," said Gangloff-Kaufman. "Our grandparents knew how to deal with it. We don't."
Four bills sponsored by Council member Gale Brewer (D-Manhattan) would create a bed bugs task force, ban the sale of used mattresses, establish training for exterminators and regulate the disposal of infected mattresses.
Dr. Edgar , an exterminator and veterinarian for the city health department, said his agency would support the task force but stopped short of endorsing the other proposals.
Those who have lived with the pests say it often takes multiple exterminations and sometimes thousands of dollars to get rid of them.
"I threw away everything," said Sirajul Laskar, 42, of Jackson Heights, who added that 22 of the 52 apartments in his building have had bed bugs. "They sprayed three times and still bedbugs."
Jason Fink
amNewYork
As complaints about the tiny suckers skyrocket, the City Council Tuesday took up a package of proposals aimed at curbing the nocturnal nuisances, which many say are rampant.
"I'm petrified to turn the lights off at night," said Mary Pane, 50, of Manhattan, who's had bed bugs for more than a month. "I'm not getting proper sleep, I can't concentrate at work."
Complaints to the city about bed bugs in private apartments and hotels have more than doubled during the past two years, to 9,213 in fiscal year 2008. City officials and advocates for victims say the number of cases is likely higher because a lot of people don't lodge complaints and infestations in public housing are referred to a different agency.
In 2008, there were 22,218 bed bug-related calls to 311, though some were repeat callers or simply people seeking information.
Jody Gangloff-Kaufman, an entomologist at Cornell University, who testified before a joint City Council committee, said bed bugs, once nearly eradicated in New York, have re-emerged in recent years. The banning of certain chemicals, like DDT, is among the reasons for the resurgence, experts say.
"They're nearly impossible to get rid of," said Gangloff-Kaufman. "Our grandparents knew how to deal with it. We don't."
Four bills sponsored by Council member Gale Brewer (D-Manhattan) would create a bed bugs task force, ban the sale of used mattresses, establish training for exterminators and regulate the disposal of infected mattresses.
Dr. Edgar , an exterminator and veterinarian for the city health department, said his agency would support the task force but stopped short of endorsing the other proposals.
Those who have lived with the pests say it often takes multiple exterminations and sometimes thousands of dollars to get rid of them.
"I threw away everything," said Sirajul Laskar, 42, of Jackson Heights, who added that 22 of the 52 apartments in his building have had bed bugs. "They sprayed three times and still bedbugs."
Jason Fink
amNewYork
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