By Ann DeMatteo, Assistant Metro Editor
adematteo@newhavenregister.com
Linda Terani, left, a neighbor of Marion Sullivan, looks at the bedbug bites Sullivan received because of an infestion in her apartment in the Davenport-Dunbar Residences senior housing complex in Hamden Thursday. (Peter Hvizdak/Register)
HAMDEN — Though Marion Sullivan, 77, has lost feeling on her left side because of a stroke, she had an uneasy feeling the other night that something was moving.
When getting ready for bed, she picked up one pillow and then another, and saw blood on the pillowcases. A third pillowcase was filled with black spots.
The blood was hers. The black spots? Most likely droppings left behind by blood-sucking bedbugs that crawled on her at night and started chewing.
Although her apartment at the Davenport-Dunbar Residences had been treated for bedbugs, Sullivan said they’re still there, and has the bites on her legs to prove it.
Wednesday night, her daughter, Kathleen Sullivan, arrived to change her mother’s bed linens.
“The sheets and pillows were infested with them,” said Kathleen Sullivan, adding it looked like there were thousands.
Since 2009, Davenport-Dunbar, at 125-135 Putnam Ave., has had a problem with bedbugs. Apartment administrators and the company that manages the complex, Elderly Housing Management of North Haven, said they are doing everything possible to rid the apartments of the pests.
“The entire building has been inspected and treated, the apartments and the common areas,” said Tammy Lautz, director of property management for the North Haven agency.
Since the initial outbreak in fall 2009, an exterminator from Orkin Pest Management comes to the site every week, and the 343 units apartments are inspected or treated on a rotating basis.
Twenty percent to 30 percent of the units had an infestation at the height of the problem in 2009.
“It’s decreased significantly,” Lautz said. Today, 3 percent to 5 percent of units have a problem and are being treated, said Jim Hurley, assistant administrator.
“Once we find out an apartment has a problem, they’ll treat it, wait two weeks, treat it, wait two weeks, treat it again and then reassess,” he said.
That’s little comfort for bedbug victims. “They had a ball on me,” said Barbara Mooney, a resident who was so severely bitten last year that she spent three months recovering in a nursing home. Mooney has multiple sclerosis and couldn’t move when she was being bitten. The apartment is now bedbug-free.
In March, Elderly Housing Management notified all residents by letter that bedbug-sniffing dogs would be inspecting their apartments. Those that tested positive would be treated by Orkin Pest Management. A letter to residents said they needed to properly clean their apartments and package infested items in plastics bags prior to treatment. The letter stressed that cooperation from residents was essential to getting rid of the problem.
“It was a notification to all residents that we wanted to get ahead of the problem,” so that everybody could be helped, Lautz said.
Bedbug expert Gale E. Ridge, an assistant scientist at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven and chairwoman of the Connecticut Coalition Against Bed Bugs, said cooperation among residents and management is crucial. She said she has been contacted by Dunbar-Davenport residents on a regular basis “for identification (of the bugs) and advice.”
The first defense against bedbugs is to make sure the bugs are properly categorized.
“The bugs are the size of an apple seed. They live in little clusters. After feeding, they defecate, leaving brown spots on sheets or in corners, cracks and crevices where they like to hide,” Ridge said.
“They’re often a result of poor coordination of residents and staff in an apartment complex or condos, caused by stigma or anxiety. If people could be more proactive in their behavior,” then the bedbug population could be reduced, Ridge said.
If they’re caught early, it’s easier to clean up and correct, Ridge said. Residents need to allow inspectors and exterminators into their homes.
If dogs are brought in to detect the problem, and it’s determined to be widespread, affected apartments and those adjacent need to be treated, and regular inspections need to be made by a pest control contractor.
Ridge said that most failures in solving the problem occur when a resident doesn’t properly prepare an apartment when it has to get treated. Clutter needs to be removed because exterminators need to get into cracks and crevices. People also must vacuum in advance and wash clothing and place items in plastic bags. Mattresses and box springs need to be encased.
Lautz said the company has been proactive. “Any time anyone has been diagnosed, they are provided with free mattress and box spring covers,” she said. “We’re taking every possible means available to try not to only address the problem, but the staff has tried to reduce the stress level. We recognize the stress it causes residents.”
But in Linda Terani’s mind, management has done nothing.
“They took the baseboards off in my bedroom and steamed my carpeting and I still have them. I’m at the point where I could scream. One bit me so bad I was all black and blue,” said Terani.
Bedbugs feed on necks and ears, parts that are exposed when you’re sleeping, she said.
“Nothing is really being done,” Terani said.
Terani and other residents stressed that their apartments are clean, but the whole situation makes them feel dirty.
“It’s an awful way to live,” said Ann Suffredini, who has been bitten.
Another daughter of Marion Sullivan’s, Eileen Sullivan, said that she called the Quinnipiack Valley Health District Thursday and that an inspector said he would look at heaters and sockets next week. “He said one bedbug can bite a person 500 times. He said they had to throw mattresses and box springs out,” Eileen Sullivan said.
Having to throw out newer furniture or furniture they paid a lot of money for is also a cause of stress for the residents who spoke about bedbugs Thursday.
Terani said that she doesn’t want to move because she wouldn’t want an infested piece of furniture to be brought to a new location.
Marion Sullivan’s apartment will be treated again next week, Hurley said.
But until then, she and other residents say they will have trouble sleeping at night.
Contact Ann DeMatteo at 203-789-5716.
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