New England Bed Bug Forum

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.

Early prevention using bed bug dogs could have prevented this bed bug infestation from spreading.  The property managers may be in some litigation issues because of this.

Darlene Taylor is diabetic and 80 percent blind. So she couldn’t see them. But for weeks she felt their biting and the itching.

When her regular nurse’s aide visited her 12th floor apartment last Thursday and lifted up papers on the dining room table, the aide saw them: Bed bugs. Swarms of them.

Now the mattress and box spring are gone. All Taylor’s clothes are wrapped in plastic. Taylor sleeps on the couch and worried what’s going to happen next.

Many of Taylor’s neighbors in apartments at Edith Johnson Towers on Bristol Street between Dixwell and Ashmun are worried, too.

More than 20 of the apartments have been or are slated to be treated for bed bug infestation.

“The unit was infested in a way we’d never seen before: 100 bed bugs per square foot,” said Rafael Ramos of City Hall’s Livable City Initiative (LCI).

Last week Ramos called BCJ Management, the private company that owns and manages the senior tower.

BCJ treated Taylor’s apartment, removed her bed (except the fame), and readied her clothes.

By end of day Friday LCI issued an order to BCJ, delivered by marshal: Bring in a licensed contractor to treat Taylor’s apartment and another found infested on the second floor. The order also called for inspection of the entire building and treatment where necessary.

BCJ property manager Dana Proctor did not return several calls to the Independent to discuss the extent of the bed bug problem at 114 Bristol. She did speak to Ramos (pictured) by phone Friday afternoon.

According to what Proctor conveyed to Ramos, since December ten to 15 apartments have been treated. Currently six more are slated to. That’s close to one quarter of the tower’s 96 apartments.

Since treatment of one apartment usually involves spraying and treatment of the four apartments surrounding it, in effect the entire building is being treated.

“That’s an infestation,” said Ramos.

BCJ, a private company headquartered in Boston, also manages the nearby Monterey Place development for the housing authority.

And that may explain how the situation has gotten so out of hand.

A perusal of the file of complaints to LCI reveals that before Taylor and her daughter called LCI, only one other bedbug complaint from 114 Bristol was on file in the past six months. That proved to be a false alarm.

All the complaints appropriately had gone to BCJ instead of to LCI—and the problem continued.

Asked for comment about the problem, HANH Executive Director Karen DuBois-Walton referred questions to BCJ.

Last week reddish stains were still visible around the legs of the metal frame in Darlene Taylor’s now abandoned bedroom.

“They said put them [all her clothing] in the dryer. It’ll kill ‘em [the bugs],” Taylor said.

On Friday the clothes remained in several large plastic bags by the apartment door pending a visit by the aide or Taylor’s daughters, all of whom work.

“It was only one year old,” Taylor said of the mattress. She said she troubled that no one offered to replace it. She didn’t cause the bed bug problem, she said as she led a tour of her apartment for a reporter and for Ward 22 Democratic Ward Committee Co-Chair Cordelia Thorpe, whom she had earlier contacted for help with the problem.

“It’s been going on since December” at the tower, she said.

While individual apartments have been treated, Thorpe said, “It’s escalating. They don’t have a clear plan in place to solve it” building- wide, she added.

“If they made a plan … I have to depend on other people to see,” added Taylor.

Last year HANH investigated purchase of a mobile “thermal radiation” unit, the technology du jour to deal with the bug du jour. Click here to read that story.

Five people sitting for sun-relief beneath the awnings in front of the building one afternoon last week offered varying opinions—and rumors—- on the problem and on how the management has handled it.

“I know it’s been happening since December,” Sonia Torres said. “As soon as I heard about it, I bought a plastic cover for the bed.”

She doesn’t think she’s been affected yet, but she was concerned enough to move from the seventh floor, where “I was feeling itchy,” to the 11th, she said .

“But do you know what to do [about the bed bugs], Sonia?” asked Thorpe.

“No,” came the answer.

Thorpe said she had been trying repeatedly to reach BCJ to discuss a building-wide approach to the infestation, with no success.

Susan Lemoine has lived at the towers for five years. A former Peace Corps volunteer in the 1960s who has lived in tough conditions, she praised the way the exterminating company had been treating affected apartments.

“The person below me had them, and it was treated. They sprayed and then came back several times, after two weeks, and sprayed again,” she said

She described herself a mad sprayer. To several of the other tenants under the awnings who seemed confused about what to do, she said, “They’re attracted to carbon dioxide [emitted by our breathing] near beds.”

“The residents wonder if [ultimately] they’ll have to move out. They’re doing it [the treatment] on a case-by-case basis. [As a result] the bugs are migrating. The instruction needs to come from management, not Ms. Limoine,” said Thorpe.

Before the weekend began Ramos contacted BCJ again and told Proctor that the order requires a licensed contractor to inspect all units of the building.

Procor told him that one had already been ordered, a canine unit arriving to do the work on Aug.1 and 2. Depending on what the sniffers find, treatment will be provided where needed, she said.

Ramos said that when the work concludes, he wants a copy of the report.

Citywide, he said, LCI receives about eight bed bug complaints per month. Sometimes the bugs turn out to be something else.

Ramos said he wishes he had learned earlier about Taylor’s problem. Noting her blindness, he asked aloud, “Where were the CNAs [the certified nurse’s aides]?”

Using a bed bug dog for an inspection of bed bugs produces quicker and more accurate results which leads to lower remediation costs and the ability to more fully remedy the bed bug infestation.

Bed Bug dog inspection is up to 96% accurate and once a dog “hits” on a bed bug infestation problem, in many instances they can pinpoint where the bed bugs are within three feet.  This means that if you have a bed bug infestation in your bedroom, the dog should be able to tell you if it is in the mattress, closet, clothes, and or dressers.

A bed bug dog inspection can lead to less expensive extermination costs, in that only one or two rooms may need to be exterminated for bed bugs instead of a whole apartment, house, or office building.

It’s Efficient – Targeting the exact location of a bed bug problem eliminates the need to treat an entire home or business.  A property manager that owns or for-seas multiple units can save hugely  by only having to have the units that are infested by bed bugs treated instead of the whole building or facility.

Bed bug detection dogs generate quicker, more accurate results and this leads to lower remediation costs that can be quite substantial.

By using a dog for a bed bug inspection it will help in the reduction of pesticides needed for treating an infestation.  The pinpointing of a possible bed bug infestation by the dog allows your exterminator to target the area with the correct procedure in killing the bugs without having to go overboard with chemicals.  This reduction of pesticides is not only a cost savings to you, it is good for our environment.

Another advantage of having a bed bug dog inspection is that the dogs can find small infestations before they are out of control.  This allows you to end the cycle of bed bug reproduction that can snowball into a major infestation quite quickly.  One pregnant female can become 30,000 within six months

Bed Bug dog inspections cover areas not visible to humans.  A bed bug dogs sense of smell can find unseen bed bugs with up to 96% accuracy, whereas a human is only about 20 – 25% accurate in finding bed bugs in a building.

Bed Bug dog inspections can give you peace of mind that your remediation treatments were successful and that the bed bug infestation was treated in it’s entirety.

Many bed bug dog inspection companies offer proactive maintenance programs that can assure your customers that your facility is diligent in the fight against bed bugs.  This may help if any litigation pops up.

Lastly bed bug dogs are honest.  they do not work for money. All these dogs get as a reward for their diligent work is food and love by their owners and handlers.

According to The Gothamist the holding-cell area in the 120th Precinct station on Staten Island has been shut down as officials grapple with a bed bug infestation that has made conditions there unpleasant for prisoners. A defense attorney tells the Staten Island Advance that for months now bed bugs have been a problem in the holding cells, which are notoriously filthy. You may recall this dump from the story about the licensed massage therapist who was arrested and forced to clean an overflowing toilet at the station house before cops let her go without charging her. Looks like cops need to arrest a couple of exterminators now.

“There were some critters found in the area where the cell attendant works,” one “NYPD insider” tells the Advance. “They’re trying to process as few people as they can through there,” says another source. In a statement issued by the Department of Correction, a spokesperson says, “We are aware of concerns in the Staten Island 120 Precinct regarding bedbugs. DOC will have an exterminator go out tomorrow [Friday] to inspect our Staten Island court facilities [holding pens]. If there is a problem, we will arrange to treat the pens with a combination of steam and chemicals when the pens are empty — over the weekend.”

Bedbugs have previously infiltrated the school system, the United Nations, district attorneys offices, and Howard Stern—so it was only a matter of time before they wound up in jail. But we think the city is going about this all wrong; they should be welcoming the bed bugs with open veins! Let them have the jail. Hell, let them have the whole precinct. Pack as many bed bugs in there as possible, then bomb the whole place back to the stone age. True, they’d probably survive that too, but it sure would feel good, wouldn’t it?

To address the issue, the federal government convened the second annual National Bed Bug Summit in Washington, D.C. in February. Part of the agenda included what states and cities are doing to control the problem and the effective use of heat and non-chemical treatments.

Eleven states are considering bed bug legislation this year. Maine adopted a bed bug related law last year. New York is considering requiring insurers that underwrite property/casualty policies in the state to cover costs associated with bed bug infestations.

Maine’s bed bug law requires a landlord to inspect a unit for bed bugs within five days of being notified by a tenant of an infestation possibility. Within 10 days of determining an infestation is present, the landlord must contact a pest control agent and take reasonable measures to treat the infestation. The pest control agent must carry liability insurance that is current and effective at time of treatment.

In addition, before a unit can be rented, a landlord has to disclose whether a unit is currently infested with or treated for bed bugs. The landlord has to provide, if requested, information as to when the unit or adjacent units were last inspected for and found to be free of bed bugs.

South Carolina enacted the Bed Bug Prevention and Sanitation Act and Hawaii added a bed bug question to the state’s real estate disclosure form.

Larger municipalities such as Detroit, San Francisco and New York City are also reviewing the issue.

This is a good reason why landlords and property managers should take care of any bed bug problems in their properties by a using professional bed bug inspection company and extermination company.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) – A Grand Rapids family under attack by bed bugs will not pay the rent.

“A couple of days ago, we woke up and I’m being eaten alive,” said Cathryn Peabody, a mother of two. “I’ve got bites down both arms, across my legs and across my back.”

The apartment complex, Lighthouse Property Management, has sent an exterminator to the unit three times.

But after a few days, Peabody and her husband insist, the bugs return.

“We informed them we would not be paying May or June’s rent until the bed bug issue was resolved,” Peabody said.

Denisha Popma, a company representative, denied receiving any notice that the rent wouldn’t be paid because of the pests.

In a phone call, Popma told 24 Hour News 8 the family had an issue of not paying the rent — even before the bed bugs showed up.

Lighthouse Management Properties is in the process of filing for eviction, Popma said.

She insisted the management has “been out there numerous times to treat bedbugs … We’ve been out there anytime the Peabodys contacted us.”

Said Peabody: “We want the bug problem to be gone, and obviously, we want the termination of our residency to be revoked.”

Treating bed bugs is a landlord’s responsibility, Cooley Law Professor Curt Benson said.

However, the Peabodys need to leave if they’re not going to pay, he added.

“If they’re going to stay and live there, they may not like it, but they really have to pay rent,” Benson said. “If they want to leave, the law will probably excuse them from paying additional rent, but you can’t have it both ways. You can’t stay and refuse to pay rent.”

The likelihood of carrying the bed bugs wherever they go is keeping the Peabodys from moving out, they said.

Mattresses, chairs and clothes can all be living quarters for the pests.

24 Hour News 8 brought an exterminator to the Peabody home, who found evidence that bed bugs had been in the home, but after looking under furniture and carpet, he couldn’t find any live pests.

“It looks like the treatment has at least helped out,” said Mark VanDerwerp, an exterminator with Rose Pest Solutions. “I don’t know what it used to look like, but I certainly wouldn’t say [the treatment] is going in the wrong direction.”

Lighthouse Property Management has sent an exterminator to fumigate three times in the past month. A company representative said another one was scheduled to come Friday.

According to Medical News Today, bed bugs may be spreading a super disease that will start infecting humans in the inner-cities and may spread throughout the world like the mosquito has done with the malaria virus.  This new information coming out is very distressing and just furthers the need to find bed bug infestations and eliminate them as quickly as possible.

Not only are there more bed bugs about in North America in Europe, but more of them appear to be carrying two types of superbugs – methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (VRE) – bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics and very hard to treat when there is an infection.

Staph infection caused by MRSA is extremely difficult to treat because it is resistant to most antibiotics, including oxacillin, peicillin, methicillin, amoxicillin, and even methicillin.

VRE bacteria are resistant to vancomycin, an antibiotic. They are strains of the genus Enterococcus.

Bed bugs, also known as Cimex lectularius (Cimicidae) are tiny wingless insects that feed exclusively on the blood of warm-blooded animals, including humans. During their evolution they have become common nest parasites, infesting bird nests and bat roosts. Some bed bugs have learnt how to thrive in our nests, meaning our homes, and especially our beds. A baby bed bug is called a nymph and is about the size of a poppy seed. Adults reach about ¼ of an inch in length. They have an oval, flattened shape. Both adults and young are visible to the naked eye.

Bed bugs feed on us when we are asleep. As they feed we feel nothing, the process is painless. They inject a small amount of saliva into human skin while they feed. If they keep feeding on the same human night after night, that person can eventually develop a mild to intense allergic response to their saliva.

The study’s Canadian researchers wrote:

“Further studies are needed to characterize the association between S. aureus and bedbugs. Bed bug carriage of MRSA, and the portal of entry provided through feeding, suggests a plausible potential mechanism for passive transmission of bacteria during a blood meal. Because of the insect’s ability to compromise the skin integrity of its host, and the propensity for S. aureus to invade damaged skin, bed bugs may serve to amplify MRSA infections in impoverished urban communities.”

This latest report informs that the MRSA phenotype found in bed bugs is the same as those identified in many Eastside (Vancouver) patients infected with MRSA.

The scientists believe that the bed bugs probably promote the spread of MRSA in impoverished and overcrowded communities. The study took place in a poor part of Vancouver.

The researchers examined five bed bugs that had been taken from three patients staying at St. Paul’s Hospital – they all lived in Downtown Eastside, a poor part of Vancouver. In that part of Vancouver, MRSA infection incidence and cases of bed bugs had been rising steadily over the last few years. The scientists wanted to determine whether the two were linked.

They examined the bed bugs and found that three samples carried MRSA, while another two had VRE.

We still do not know whether the humans infected the bed bugs or the other way round. Further research is needed to determine where exactly on/in the bed bug the bacteria were – inside them or on their backs.

If bed bugs are able to carry and spread MRSA like the anopheles mosquito spreads malaria, we could be looking at a completely new vector of human disease.

Study author, Marc Romney, said:

“Even though this is a small study, it suggests that bedbugs may be playing a role in the transmission of MRSA in inner-city populations where bedbug infestations are a problem.”

The New York State Assembly has introduced a bed bug bill that deals with insurance companies and their responsibilities in concern to bed bug infestations.
Here is the information on the New York insurance bed bug bill:

Introduced  by  Sen.  KLEIN  -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
         printed to be committed to the Committee on Insurance

       AN ACT to amend the insurance law, in relation to requiring insurers who
         underwrite property and casualty policies in the state to cover  costs
         associated with bedbug infestations in residential buildings

         THE  PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
       BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

Section 1. Section 3407-a of the insurance law, as  added  by  chapter
306 of the laws of 2001, is amended to read as follows:
S  3407-a.  Property/casualty  insurance  contract and policy standard
provisions. No property/casualty insurance policy or contract  shall  be
issued  or  issued  for  delivery  on a risk located or resident in this
state insuring against damage to the insured's real property  unless  it
contains  in  substance  the  following  [provision]  PROVISIONS  or  [a
provision] OTHER PROVISIONS which [is] ARE equal or  more  favorable  to
the insured:

A)  a  provision  that  in the event of a pending claim for damage to
real property, upon request, the insurer shall furnish to the  insured's
representative,  designated  in writing, or if none has been designated,
to the insured, a copy of any written estimate or estimates of the  cost
of  damages  to  real property resulting from the loss which the insurer
has independently prepared for its own purposes, or had prepared on  its
behalf  for  its  own  purposes,  specifying all appropriate deductions,
within thirty days after the request or preparation, whichever is later,
of such estimate or estimates. An  insurer  shall  not  be  required  to
provide an estimate on claims for damages to real property unless it has
independently  prepared  one  or  had one prepared on its behalf for the
insurer's own purposes; AND

(B) FOR INSURANCE POLICIES ISSUED OR ISSUED FOR DELIVERY ON A RISK  TO
PROPERTY  ZONED,  FOR  RESIDENTIAL USE, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, A PROVISION
PROVIDING FOR OPTIONAL COVERAGE WHEREBY THE INSURER SHALL PAY THE  COSTS

        EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                             [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                  LBD08378-01-1
       S. 4926                             2

ASSOCIATED  WITH  THE  TREATMENT  OF  BEDBUG INFESTATIONS AT THE INSURED
PROPERTY, INCLUDING ALL COSTS  FOR  EXTERMINATION  SERVICES;  COSTS  FOR
CLEANING OF THE INSURED PROPERTY AND OF PERSONAL PROPERTY LOCATED AT THE
INSURED PREMISES INCLUDING THE DRY-CLEANING OF CLOTHING AND BEDDING; AND
THE  COST OF REPLACING ITEMS WHICH ARE NOT ABLE TO BE TREATED OR CLEANED
INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, MATTRESSES OR FURNITURE.  ALL SUCH INSURANCE
COVERAGE SHALL BE PROVIDED ONLY AT THE OPTION OF  THE  INSURED
SHALL  BE PROVIDED AT ADDITIONAL COST TO THE INSURED.  THE PROVISIONS OF
THIS  SUBSECTION  SHALL  APPLY  TO  ALL   HOMEOWNER'S,   RENTER'S,   AND
CONDO/CO-OP UNIT INSURANCE POLICIES ISSUED IN THE STATE.
S  2.  This  act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall
have become a law; provided, however, that  effective  immediately,  the
superintendent of insurance is authorized and directed to promulgate all
rules,  regulations  and  standards  necessary for the implementation of
this act on or before such effective date, including,  but  not  limited
to,  determining  procedures  for submission to and payment of claims by
insurers and for determining the extent of a bedbug infestation.

A bed bug lawsuit has been settled out of court for an undisclosed amount.

LOS ANGELES — Three women who sued a Glendale motel after suffering more than 100 bed-bug bites have settled out of court for an undisclosed amount, attorneys said this week.

Attorneys representing the three women — Nichole Eatman, Vera Domini and Regina Martocci — said they met with representatives for Rodeway Inn-Regalodge Motel, at 200 W. Colorado St., and its franchiser, Choice Hotels International Inc., last week, to reach the settlement. They filed a motion Thursday to dismiss the case, according to Los Angeles County Superior Court documents.

One of the attorneys, Lourdes DeArmas, declined to disclose the agreement with operators of Rodeway Inn, but she said the case settled for “an OK amount.”

The motel operator’s insurance company will pay out the settlement costs, she added.

“My clients are happy with the amount,” DeArmas said.

Calls to defense attorneys and Manoj Mapara, president of Rodeway Inn-Regalodge Motel, were not returned Monday.

The trial was set to begin Monday in Los Angeles.

Eatman, Domini and Martocci claimed they had stayed three nights in a motel room that was allegedly infested with bed bugs and their larvae. Domini sustained 167 bed bug bites while staying at the motel, DeArmas said.

The bed bugs varied in size and appeared to be at different life stages, including egg, larvae and adult, according to the lawsuit.

Eatman, Domini and Martocci checked in to the motel on Oct. 5, 2009, when they claimed they began noticing itchy bumps on their bodies, according to the lawsuit filed in June.

Three days later, they pulled off the bed sheets and turned over the mattresses to find “blood-engorged bed bugs,” according to the lawsuit.

The women also claimed to have found other bugs between nooks of the motel furniture.

The motel paid for extermination services four times to get rid of the bed bug infestation, according to court documents.

After discovering the bed bugs, the women left the motel, headed to the nearest Laundromat to wash their belongings, and later returned to talk with managers, who declined to give a refund, DeArmas said.