New England Bed Bug Forum

Bed bugs attack X Factor contestants in California.

The X Factor is a television talent show franchise originating in the United Kingdom, where it was devised as a replacement for Pop Idol. It is a singing competition, now held in various countries, which pits contestants against each other. These contestants are aspiring pop singers drawn from public auditions. The programes are produced by executive producer Simon Cowell and his company SYCOtv. The “X Factor” of the title refers to the undefinable “something” that makes for star quality. The prize is usually a recording contract, in addition to the publicity that appearance in the later stages of the show itself generates, not only for the winner but also for other highly ranked contestant.

It seems that some X-Factor finalist contestants staying at the Grafton Hotel in LA have been bitten by bed bugs. It is not known at this time what the Grafton Hotel is doing about this but, the X-Factor contestants have been moved to a new hotel that is hopefully bed bug free.

Here is the bed bugs attacking X Factor contestant in California hotel story reported by TMZ.

By Anita Bennett, Dailymail

It’s not exactly the type of welcome they expected to receive in America’s entertainment capital.

Several X Factor USA finalists report they were bitten by bed bugs at a posh Los Angele’s hotel earlier this week.

The blood thirsty insects were said to have feasted on at least four contestants as they slept at the Grafton Hotel on Sunset Boulevard.

Nothing to sing about: At least four X Factor USA contestants were said to have been bitten by bed bugs at a Los AngelE’S hotel earlier this week

X Factor sources tell the Mail Online: ‘It was discovered a few days ago, the contestants saw a doctor and have moved hotels.’

A friend of one of the singers also reports: ‘A few of them were covered in bites, itching on their necks and legs.

We didn’t know what it was at first but we soon worked it out, it was pretty shocking.

‘Now we’ve all moved hotels and everyone’s clothes have been cleaned.’

Mail Online spoke with a manager at the $200 a night hotel, but he refused to comment on the situation.

If you are a building manager, property manager, or landlord this is a good reason to stay on top of any bed bug infestations reported to you by your tenants. If you do not take care of the bed bug problem promptly and in an efficient manner it could hit you where it counts, your wallet.

The Baltimore Daily Record reported on October 17th that the Baltimore City Circuit Court ruled in favor of the plaintiff when former tenant Kristen Saunders sued her former building’s owners and operators for negligence, claiming they did not treat for bed bugs promptly.

Kristen Y. Saunders said it took managers of her apartment building 48 days to fumigate her apartment infested with bedbugs, leading to a plaintiff’s verdict in the first case of its type in Baltimore.

A Baltimore City Circuit Court jury awarded Saunders $40,000 in her negligence suit against the building’s owners and operators. The verdict came last week after a three-day trial.

Saunders, who has since moved to Edgewater, lived in the Hunting Hills apartments in the 4700 block of Sayer Avenue from February 2009 through February 2010.

The Daily Record reports that lawyers for the management refuted Saunders’ claim, and said the management responded promptly after being informed of the bed bug problem.

The paper also notes that the plaintiff’s lawyer, Daniel Whitney of Whitney and Bogris LLP (Towson, MD) claimed that this was the first bed bug trial in the city, and that he currently has eighteen bed bug-related cases waiting to go to trial.

Protect yourself from bed bug litigation and possible monetary losses by promptly trying to solve any bed bug infestations reported to you by your tenants. There are plenty of bed bug management companies and pest control agents that specialize in getting rid of bed bugs. Pick up the phone if you have bed bug issues and make the call. It is not only the right thing to do, it may save you money and time loss in a court room.

There is no way to stop bed bugs from being brought into a
hotel. New guests are arriving every day from all over the world,
and bringing their potentially infested luggage with them. Your
hotel can be bed bug free one day and infested in multiple rooms
the next. So prevention, in the Hotel and lodging industry, is having
an early detection program in place. Bed bugs must be detected very
quickly after they are brought in, hopefully, before they bite someone
and the hotel starts getting complaints about bed bug bites.

To facilitate this early bed bug detection, all hotel employees
should receive some bed bug identification training. This includes
the reception staff, maids, facilities personnel, hotel managers,
event planners, maintenance staff, catering staff, bell hops, cooks,
janitors, and absolutely everyone else. Why everyone? Because
your employees are located all over the hotel, and if everybody is
looking for bed bugs there is greater chance that you will discover
them quickly. Also keep in mind that guests are not the only people
capable of bringing bed bugs into your facility. Staff may also have
a bed bug problem in their homes that they bring into the workplace.

Where do you get bed bug identification training? You may already have
a contract pest management company or bed bug inspection agency
that offers a bed bug prevention program, so they can train your employees.
If your current company is inexperienced in bed bug management, hire an
experienced company immediately. Ask your new bed bug experts to provide your
employees with bed bug identification training. The training may cost you, but the
expense will be immediately recovered when your employees find a bed bug
before your guests do. Have your pest management company give advanced
bed bug inspection trainings to selected members of your hospitality or facilities
staff. The pest management company can help your selected bed bug staff to
draft a monthly inspection plan for the facility, so that your employees
actively scout guest rooms for bed bugs on a regular basis.

Housekeeping personnel who know what bed bugs and their fecal stains look
like can then alert your bed bug inspectors immediately if they think they
see bed bug evidence in a hotel room. This early detection will help to
identify infestations before they get started. The trained bed bug staff members
can also serve as handy inspectors if a guest complains about bites or bed bugs in their room.

Bed Bugs can cause serious negative effects on us but, the effects of having bed bug bites are more mental than physical, but the itchy bites can’t be ignored either.

Some people may have serious allergic reactions to bed bug bites especially if you have hypersensitive skin. Left untreated, bed bug bites can become infected and very unsightly. These bed bug bite marks can become so ugly that people have locked themselves in their home and not wanted to go out into the public.

Some mental effects of bed bug bites are stress and lack of sleep. some people will suffer a bed bug delusions, meaning the bugs really are gone, but you can’t shake the feeling that they’re still there. Even if the thought of sleeping with bed bugs doesn’t keep you up at night, the time and money it takes to get rid of them can stress you out.

Bed bugs can be a public relations nightmare. You’d hope customers would respect a proactive hotel, motel, or landlord who tried to educate them before a problem came in, but that’s rarely the case. Simply the mention of bed bugs can deter customers. Even with this being said, if you are a business, do the right thing, call in the professionals. There are professional bed bug management companies that not only specialize in finding bed bugs and eliminating them, they are adept at how to spin any public relations nightmare into a positive.

If you are a homeowner, you may worry what friends, family, and neighbors will say if they find out you have a bed bug problem. Bed bugs aren’t associated with filth or social status, but many people think they are. If you are getting bed bug bites or think you have them in your home get it taken care of professionally. A bed bug problem taken care of by yourself and not totally wiped out will just come back. Sometimes worse that it was in the first place.

Diseases are not thought to be transmitted by bed bugs. But, then again, it was not long ago that we didn’t know where the West Nile virus was coming from. Could there be a disease out there that bed bugs do spread? It’s possible. Why take the chance with your health or a lawsuit. Get a professional bed bug management company on the line if you think you have a bed bug problem.

Bed bugs are becoming such a problem in the US that they are starting to drain profits from viable businesses.

Who knew bed bugs could be this industrious? We all know they go to work at night as stealthy little blood suckers, wreaking havoc not just in our homes but on our businesses. They can cost thousands to tens of thousands of dollars to eradicate depending on whether it’s an infested residence or a commercial building. Even ridding them from a single room can be costly. Add to that the fact that exterminators often have a difficult time fully killing the pests. DDT is banned, traditional baits aren’t effective since they feed on blood, and it often takes several go-rounds before all the bugs and their eggs are rendered dead. The expenses rack up fast.

Take a look at the US lodging industry, the single largest industry to be affected by the pesky critters. Over the past few years, it’s been battling lawsuits, negative publicity, and decreased consumer confidence. Some of the more famous lawsuits include the one against Leona Helmsley’s Helmsley Enterprises, which paid a $150,000 settlement in 2004 to two customers who claimed that bed bugs at the Park Lane hotel attacked them, then infested their home. Three years later a larger bed bug case involved opera singer Alison Trainer, who filed a $6 million lawsuit against one of the leading global hospitality companies Hilton Hotels (now known as Hilton Worldwide). According to the Associated Press, she claimed to have had 150 bed bug bites after staying at Phoenix’s Hilton Suites, an experience that she said left her losing weight and afraid to sleep in a bed.

In 2010 perhaps the most publicized bed bug victims were not hotels but corporate clothing retailers. Chain stores Abercrombie & Fitch, Hollister, and Victoria’s Secret all had to temporarily close stores in New York City due to reported infestations. While Victoria’s Secret said it had taken “proactive” measures after a bed bug sighting in its Lexington Avenue store, reports came out alleging that Abercrombie & Fitch either initially ignored or was slow to respond to outbreaks in its own stores, namely its South Street Seaport location and at a huge Hollister store in SoHo. Talk about unmentionables.

In 2011 NBC Chicago said mattress manufacturers in Illinois took a hit after consumers began complaining of itchy skin. At least five stores in the Chicago area were said to have sold new or refurbished mattresses containing bed bugs, according to city officials. The stores included Best Mattress Company, Mike’s Furniture, TC Furniture, and Guadalajara Furniture. Other recent bed bug lawsuits have been filed against cruise lines, dry cleaners, furniture rental companies, and schools.

Mattress covers or encasements, the #1 bed bug protection product among consumers, has become so ubiquitous that virtually every major retailing chain, including Wal-Mart, Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, and e-commerce behemoth Amazon.com, each carry different brands.

Expertise in bed bugs as they relate to property law is also a growing practice area for some law firms, according to this Wall Street Journal blog.

With the EPA designating bed bugs a public health concern, the pest control industry is enjoying especially high demand for its products and services in both the residential and commercial sectors. Terminix, the country’s largest provider of pest control services, reports it’s seen an increase in the prevalence of bed bugs in most states over the last year and it expects that trend to continue. Compiling data from 350 Terminix branches across the US, the company reports that the top three bed bug-infested cities for 2011 are New York, Cincinnati, and Detroit.

Developing products and methods for killing these pests is becoming even more urgent as conventional bed bugs evolve into so-called “super bugs.” Medical News Today reports that Canadian researchers found bed bugs from three hospital patients in a downtrodden Vancouver, British Columbia neighborhood to be carrying two types of drug-resistant bacteria, one of which is the stubborn MRSA staph. The study, released by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is small and preliminary but intriguing. Who knows, perhaps the biotech industry will come up with the next big bed bug deterrent.

If you have an infestation in your home or business the first thing to do is to find out where this bloodsucking parasite is residing, so that you may eradicate it.

A California woman says she was bitten dozens of times by bed bugs while staying at a Lombard hotel.

Carrie Lynn Brown, the bed bug victim, is being treated for a painful infection. Brown says doctors caught that infection caused by bed bug bites just in time. If not, she might have lost her right leg.

The Towne Place Suites in Lombard was Brown’s home away from home last week as she visited the area with a friend. But almost immediately she noticed she had little bite marks all over her skin when she woke up in the morning, and they itched.

“It was a slow evolution with these bed bug bites, a couple bites, a couple more bites, then the itching, then the swelling, then the inflamation, then the pain, then I couldn’t walk,” she told ABC7 from her hospital bed.

Brown says she noticed more bites every day. She thought it might have been a spider or mosquito bites, not bed bugs.

Her childhood friend, Karen Guy, with whom she was sharing the bed had no problems with the bugs. Bed bugs will commonly bite one person in a bed and not the other because they focus on carbon monoxide emissions from our breathing, She did, however snap a picture of one of the tiny critters which measured about 3/16 of an inch long.

“I saw a bug and I took a picture of it and showed it to the front desk. He said, ‘oh, I don’t really know what that is, I’ve never seen anything like that,’” said Guy.

Doctors say bed bugs generally come in groups and like warm dark places like beds at night. Their bites usually can be easily treated. But in this case a bite on Brown’s leg became infected.

“That’s what happened to her, she got a bacterial infection of the skin,” said Dr. Pranjal Shah, Good Samaritan Hospital.

Bed Bugs have been know to spread certain staph germs that turn into major infections.

Doctors say bed bugs can be found anywhere regardless of sanitation or hygiene. The women say the hotel’s manager, Mark Paprocki, gave them several letters confirming their exterminator found a bed bug in the room. In response to ABC7’s call, Paprocki issued a statement saying in part, “In the rare instance where bed bugs are detected, our protocols call for, among other steps, the immediate removal of the guest room from inventory and the engaging of a pest elimination expert.”

Brown says before this she never even knew bed bugs really existed. She has learned a lot from this bed bug experience.

Doctors say they expect to release brown from the hospital tomorrow.

“I will never sleep in a bed that’s not known to me or a new bed…I mean I will inspect the bed for any signs of bed bugs.” she said.

The hotel has offered to pay for their room and buy them new clothes and luggage to replace what they had in the room.

Experts say there is really no way to prevent bed bugs from coming into your home or hotel. But if you spot one you should call a professional exterminator to get rid of them immediately.

If you are a property manager, landlord, housekeeper, or maintenance staff you may have run into a tenant that has a hoarding problem. This problem can lead into a major pest problem such as a significant bed bug infestation. It is important to recognize this problem and address it immediately. You may also want to find a pest control company that knows how to deal with mental health issues such as, hoarding, in a compassionate way.

Although most people don’t immediately associate hoarding with pest control or bed bug problems, there are a lot of connections. Pests need food, water and shelter. Bed bugs hitch rides into homes and apartments on used clothing and furniture that the hoarders bring home with them. If a resident’s housekeeping is poor and pests and or bed bugs get in, the pests will likely set up shop—an infestation in a hoarded home can easily get out of hand. A cluttered home makes inspection and bed bug remediation hard. A hoarded home, almost impossible.

Property managers usually inspect each unit at least annually for compliance with housekeeping standards, but regardless of the language in a property’s housekeeping standards and lease, there will be residents who don’t comply. These tenants are grouped into two categories: those who can’t and those who won’t. IN this article we will discuss people who can’t comply with inspections and have issues with pests such as, bed bugs because they have the disease of hoarding.

Hoarding is a complex disorder that is made up of three connected problems: 1) collecting too many items, 2) difficulty getting rid of items, and 3) problems with organization. These problems can lead to significant amounts of clutter which can severely limit the use of living spaces, pose safety and/or health risks, become a breeding ground for pests such as bed bugs, and result in significant distress and/or impairment in day-to-day living.

Collecting Too Many Items:

Too much shopping is the most common way that people who hoard collect items—3 out of 4 shop too much.

Roughly 1 in 2 people who hoard report excessively collecting free things. This collecting of free things such as: used clothing and furniture on the side of the road is where many hoarders run into the problem of bed bugs. The bed bugs hitch a ride into the home or apartment on these items.

The collection can also occur without any effort—for instance, food wrappers or the packing material that comes with new purchases.

Difficulty Getting Rid of Items:

The hallmark of hoarding behavior is not being able to let go of things. Throwing away, selling, giving away, or even recycling are very difficult for people who hoard.
While, to most people, the objects saved may seem worthless or worn-out, in truth, people who hoard usually can’t let go of anything and often have homes filled with otherwise useful items that are buried under the piles.

The reasons for saving are largely the same as the reasons people who don’t hoard have for saving things. The most frequent reason for saving things is to prevent waste, followed by informational content, emotional attachment, and finally, liking the way something looks or feels.

Some people who hoard believe they can get rid of items, but the process is so time-consuming they often give up, leaving the clutter to grow.

Clothes, newspapers and books are the most commonly hoarded items, but the list can include almost anything.

Disorganization:

In addition to collecting too many items and the difficulty getting rid of items, most people with hoarding problems can’t organize their possessions. These problems may be associated with information processing, problems with attention, categorization, and decision-making.

Attempts at organizing usually result in hours of moving possessions from one place to another without any effective result.

The disorganization results in piles of possessions throughout the home that consist of mixtures of worthless and valuable items, complicating attempts to de-clutter.

Recognition of the problem:

Not realizing the seriousness of hoarding is common among people who hoard.

Property managers, maintenance staff, and anyone else working in units should know to report poor housekeeping as soon as it is recognized. Property managers should take action ASAP. Early intervention sends a message property-wide that the development has high standards for cleanliness. It also helps ensure a couple of other things, including the helping to stop the start of a pest or bed bug problem, that the bed bug or pest problem does not escalate or spread to other units or apartments, and to identify if any tenants have a mental health issue, such as hoarding, that may need to be addressed.

Hoarding, as most property managers at HUD-funded properties know, doesn’t just happen on reality TV. In fact, one researcher said that hoarding is 4 times more prevalent in low-income persons than those making over $20,000 a year. Regardless of why a resident with compulsive hoarding and acquiring behavior comes to reside at a property, they deserve to be treated with respect. Don’t think of a hoarder as nasty, think of him or her as someone needing reasonable accommodation. This may take some acting on your part, but it is critical for building managers and staff to build a trust from which therapy can proceed. It is a lot easier to get a hoarder to comply with inspections for pests like bed bugs, any remediation will be easier to do, and they will be more compliant in cleaning up their mess if they feel that you are helping them with their problem and not telling them what to do.

Summer is here and a lot of kids are off at Summer camp. Summer camps are a great breeding ground for bed bugs. It is imperative that you educate your children the signs of bed bugs and their bites when shipping them off to Summer camp. It is also very important to take precautions when your children return from Summer camp that they do not return with bed bugs

Some precautions you may want to take from bringing back bed bugs from Summer camp are to put all your children’s clothing immediately in a dryer on high heat including any bedding or sleeping bags, put luggage in sealed plastic bags, and inspect any articles for bed bugs that may have tried to hitch a ride into your house from Summer camp.

A 10-year-old Detroit girl said she didn’t just come home with summer camp memories this week, but large red bed bug bites.

Patricia Young said she noticed something was wrong on Sunday when she arrived at the Burt R Shurly Camp near Chelsea, which is run by Detroit Public Schools.

“When I was laying down to go to bed, I felt like little people pinching me. I couldn’t fall asleep,” she said.

Patricia’s arms, legs, back, stomach and thighs are covered in bites. She said she was moved Thursday night to another bed.

“They gave me alcohol pads and some cream,” she said. “It helped the itching.”

Patricia’s mother said she thinks the bed bugs were already at the camp and were not something her daughter brought with her.

“I provided everything she took there. And it was all brand new when I bought it,” the mother said.

Patricia said she couldn’t call home so she wasn’t able to tell her mother until the bus dropped her back off on Friday.

“I was terrified. I didn’t know what was going on. I didn’t know if she had an allergic reaction to something or if a certain type of bug bit her,” the girl’s mother said.

The girl was taken to Sinai-Grace Hospital, where doctors told her she was suffering from bed bug bites.

Young said she had 15 other girls in her cabin but only one other girl suffered bites. Bed bugs commonly will only feed on one person in a location because the either like the body temperature or the carbon monoxide emission of the person.

Detroit Public Schools could not be reached for comment.

Property managers and landlords may want to avoid having bad publicity and avoid lawsuits from tenants by acting quickly on any bed bug infestations being reported by their tenants.  They may also want to look into hiring and signing a maintenance contract with a company that specializes in bed bug inspections and exterminations.   Many pest control companies are not yet, offering maintenance programs for bed bugs.  Bed Bugs can become a complex issue to deal with that you really need someone who specializes in eradicating them.

HUNTSVILLE, AL

They are disgusting, tiny, and can be all over the place before you have a clue they are there. They are bed bugs. Residents at a local apartment complex emailed WHNT NEWS 19 to say their homes are infested with them, but they couldn’t get the proper help from their apartment complex.

“Oh, it was creepy. It was seriously scary,” said Patrick Rhodes.

Rhodes recalls what it was like when he first saw bed bugs in his apartment.

“They look like big termites, or overgrown lice,” added Rhodes.

He lives at Garden Cove Apartments with his wife and two children.

“I have to leave my lights on until 6:00a.m. for me to go to sleep. I am tired of it. I can not do it. I don’t get any rest. My wife is scared,” added Rhodes.

Rhodes showed a picture of what his family wears when they go to sleep. They had to throw their beds away. They now sleep next to each other, under the covers, and on the floor.

“That is not right. I don’t wish this one anyone. This is not good. No,” added Rhodes.

The husband and father noticed bugs all over the apartment a month ago.

“As a matter of fact there is one right there crawling. It is one that is alive. It doesn’t have to be dark,” added Rhodes.

He spent two weeks trying to figure out exactly what they were, but finally went to his property manager.

“He has been trying. Lately, there hasn’t been anyone doing as far as trying to get things resolved,” added Rhodes.

Rhodes believes the apartment’s owner is moving too slow.

“I guarantee you if it were one of their managers in one of their houses, it would have been taken care of and resolved by now,” added Rhodes.

His words tell the story.

“The eggs are hatching. They lay lots of eggs. I really do not know how these things operate. I know they bite and it hurts. I am tired of my kids getting bitten,” added Rhodes.

His bites show it.

“My children are getting eaten up and they are landing all over my counters. We should not have to live like this. It is getting ridiculous,” added Rhodes.

The Garden Cove Apartments Property Manager, Coby Giles, issued a statement regarding Rhodes’ concern:

“Management was made aware of a possible pest infestation at the beginning this week and contacted our pest control company to set up an inspection of the unit. Garden Cove provides on-going pest control maintenance to our residents. Unfortunately, bed bug treatment is not offered as part of the annual contract. I am personally taking steps to assure the resident’s issue is resolved as soon as possible. Our company procedures do not make it possible for me to issue payments on-site. The need for bed bug treatments at our property is a new issue which requires advance payment and we are looking at ways to avoid this requirement in the future.”

I don’t think that the chemicals used to treat this apartment complex for bed bugs caused this mans death, but who knows what will happen with any civil litigation afterwards.  Building managers and property managers should protect themselves from potential bed bug lawsuits by using a fully licensed and insured bed bug extermination company.

People living in a bed bug infested apartment complex are reacting after a man was found dead inside a unit full of the bugs. APD said it is still investigating how the man died at Uptown Park Apartments on Indian School near San Pedro on Wednesday. Police said they found the man’s body surrounded by bed bugs.

One man who lives at the apartment just found out about it. He doesn’t want to be identified.

He described how he felt after hearing about the man’s death on the news, “I felt sad about it, I felt bad about it, confusion.”

Over the phone, the Uptown Park Apartment manager said the deceased man’s apartment had been treated for bed bugs and when they sent him a follow up letter, he responded in writing that he had no issues. The manager added that so far they’ve spent $20,000 on extermination at the complex.

The resident agrees, “They’re working hard on exterminating the bed bugs already. They’ve been working hard for months now.”

The apartment manager explained that the problem now is limited to just a handful of apartments, but she’s afraid these little bugs could take down their business.

The city’s Safe City Strike Force also found some code violations at the apartment complex Wednesday. They have been out there several times. They plan to meet with apartment management Monday to take care of the issues.