Category Archives: Bed Bugs Delaware

Richard Atkinson has an been fighting a never ending battle with bed bugs at Luther Towers I. Jerry Habraken / The News Journal

Richard Atkinson pets his cat, Pebbles, in his apartment at Luther Towers in Wilmington. Atkinson is dealing with his fourth case of bedbugs in his apartment and doesn't feel he's getting the help he needs from building management. "I've been homeless before. I'm living out of bags just like I did then," Atkinson says.(Photo: Jerry Habraken, The News Journal)Buy Photo

Shannon Miles once was reduced to tears after visiting a man she called hergrandfather at Luther Towers in Wilmington, where bedbugs crawled on his skin.

When you see them in the carpet and on the walls thats an infestation, said Miles, 40.

While she waited in line to tell the manager, she said, she heard three other residents complain about bedbugs. Miles said she was shocked to hear employees say they take personal precautions, while the unit in Luther Towers I that belonged to her friend Dave Heitwas continually infested.

Richard Atkinson, 68, said he wakes up every nightinhis Luther Towers Iapartment, his sheets bloody from bedbug bites. In the past five months, Atkinson said, his unit has beenfumigatedthree times.

During the past four months, exterminators have sprayed for bedbugs in Luther Towers I180times, city records show.

Atkinson isamong the hundreds of low-income residents who can't escape bedbugs in Wilmington public housing:Luther Towers I and II, Terry Apartments and Ingleside Retirement Apartments have all struggled to contain infestations.

These apartment complexes cater to seniors, with units in Luther Towers starting at $495 a month.

A glass vial holds live bedbugs in 2010 in New York.(Photo: STAN HONDA, AFP/Getty Images)

All have been sprayed hundreds of times in recentmonths. Luther Towers I and Luther Towers II, combined, have been fumigated361times in the past four months, according to city records.

Building administrators andcity inspectors insist these high-rise apartment complexes are fully complying with the lawto resolve the continued infestation.

One of the biggest problems, they insist, isthat not allthe residents properly prep their units for extermination; many refuse to throw outfurniture such as mattresses and upholstered pieces where the bugs can live, breed and hide fromthe spray.

The reason is that most are on fixed income and don't have the money to replace pieces potentially infested.

Dried blood is seen on Richard Atkinson's bedsheets after he was bitten by bedbugs while sleeping. "I see three or four of them every morning, and I immediately kill them," Atkinson says of the bedbugs.(Photo: Jerry Habraken, The News Journal)

I cant afford new furniture," said Atkinson, sitting in a blue upholstered recliner."This chair is brand new. If they want me to get rid of it, they need to pay for a new one.

And even afterbuying new furniture, there is no guarantee the pests wont return, Atkinson said.

Atkinson was a friend of Heit's before he died in his sleep in August. Atkinson said his friend's apartment was still infested with bedbugs when he died.

City records obtained by The News Journal show thatLuther Towers'361treatments since Sept. 1 include full, follow-up and preventative services. Some of the units didn't have bugs, but were sprayed in an effort to prevent the pests from entering, the documents said.Luther Towers I has 226units, and Luther Towers II has 136.

Source: WilmingtonDepartment of Licenses and Inspections

Terry Apartments, a complex with 160 units, was treated for bedbugs 175 times in October, NovemberandDecember. Some units received multiple treatments during that 90-day period, and some were treated as a precaution.

Tenants in the public housing buildings have filedcomplaints about bedbugssince 2015, records show.

Ingleside Retirement Apartments residents complained to the city six times in 2017.The News Journal received Ingleside treatment records only from Nov. 20-Dec.13. Those documents showed a total of 37 treatments, and explained that only vacated units were treated.Ingleside management did not return calls for comment.

Delaware does not have a state law regarding bedbugs. So it's up to counties and cities to pass ordinances related to enforcement violations. In Wilmington, for example, the ordinance says residents have a right to a clean and safe apartment. Enforcement of that ordinance falls to the city's 12 building code inspectors, among their many other obligations.

Richard Atkinson lives out of boxes and bags while waiting for the management at Luther Towers to spray his apartment for bedbugs.(Photo: Jerry Habraken, The News Journal)

In the case of Terry Apartments, they are doing what I require them to do," city inspector Yvonne Davis said. "I have compliance.

Jamie Mack of the state Department of Health and Social Services said the state doesn't have the authority to issue violations or reprimand landlords for bedbug complaints. But the department does get 10 calls a week about bedbugs.

"I can say that we have workedwith residents inLuther Towers and in Ingleside, but there were no inspection reports or violations issued,"he said.

Richard Atkinson has dealt with a bedbug infestation in his apartment at Luther Towers on numerous occasions. Atkinson says multiple residents deal with bedbug problems and don't get the help they need.(Photo: Jerry Habraken, The News Journal)

Some cases are landing in court.Don Gouge, a Wilmington lawyer who has worked on both sides of bedbug cases, said he has seen a big uptick in the number of bedbug-related lawsuits.The cases are usually landlords and tenants determining which party foots the bill for treatments that can cost up to a $1,000 each.

It is difficult to prove where and when the bedbugs became an issue, Gouge said. They dont travel from unit to unit. They latch onto people and things."

Bedbugs are about the size of an apple seed, balloonlike-shaped and brown, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency said the pests spend most of their lives hidden in cracks and crevices like wallpaper and inside bedding, box springs and furniture. Bedbugs feed on human flesh while people sleep deeply. The pests can travel up to 100 feet in a nightand survive for up to 300 days. Researchers have found bedbugs in fossils dated 11,000 years ago. The CDC says bedbugs are not known to transmit or spread disease. Bites can look like rashes, hives or an insect bites.

Terry Apartments,Ingleside Retirement Apartments and both of the Luther Towers are paying for the treatments. Terry Apartments has a one-year contract with an exterminator for weekly treatments.

Laura Zaner, a spokeswoman for Terry Apartments, saidthe complex this January implemented a new strategy to try to breakthe cycle. Exterminators will spray each unit four times a year, using new chemicals and heat treatments.

"It requires continual vigilance," Zaner said. "They are just looking for every possible manner to address this situation."

Management asks residents to refrain from having visitors until the unit has been fully treated.

Some think there should be more and stronger country rules and laws.

Jeff Starkey, commissioner of the Wilmington Department of Inspections and Licences, said bedbug infestations need to be considered a public health issue.

We dont interact with public health officials, but I think it needs to be brought to that level if its increasing," Starkey said. "It needs to become a public health issue.

Dried blood is seen on Richard Atkinson's bedsheets. "I see three or four of them every morning, and I immediately kill them," Atkinson says of bedbugs.(Photo: Jerry Habraken, The News Journal)

One Ingleside former resident, Tish Welsh, said in a brief phone interview that bedbug problems were a major factor in her decision to moveout of that center. She did not respond to requests for more details.

Said Atkinson: "I kill four or five of them every day. It is so frustrating.

Luther Towers said that if a resident reports a case, it is addressedwithin 24 hours. City records show the building is sprayed only on Fridays.

Those who are complaining about an infestation are the ones not complying properly, said John Teoli, the executive director of the complex.

Bedbugs requiremultiple treatments to exterminate, and apartment complexes are breeding grounds for the hitchhiking pests because of the close proximity between tenants.

Starkey said there are so many moving parts to the issue that its nearly impossible to solve, especially in high-rise complexes like Terry Apartments and Luther Towers.

The complexes, which all include Section 8 public housing for seniors, ask residents to bagup their belongings, getrid of food, movefurniture and sometimes throw outmattresses and upholstered pieces. Zaner, of Terry Apartments, said workers help move furniturebecause they realize senior citizens might not be able to do it alone.

Richard Atkinson's bed in his apartment at Luther Towers. (Photo: Jerry Habraken, The News Journal)

Davis, the city inspector who works with Terry Apartments,and Van Blue, the city inspector working with Luther Towers, said failure to correctly prep units for treatments is a major setbackin extermination, as is the perceived stigma of admitting you have bedbugs.

They also believe that people need more education about bedbugs, including how they spread and why it's important to follow prepping instructions.

"They don't get the education that they should," Blue said. "It's incumbent on them to do their part."

Starkeyworries that older residents may not understand what they're being told, and may need to be handled in special ways if there are hearing, reading or memory problems. Thosecomments are confirmed by one Terry Apartments resident, who didn't knowbedbugs could travel from apartment to apartment.

Lucile McManus, the Resident Council president at Luther Towers, said she feels like the complex cant do anything more than it isabout the bugs.

Its like a plague now. They are everywhere, McManus said. They are dealing with it continually, but the stigma of having bedbugs is keeping people from reporting them.

Bluesaid he doesn't see a solution, even though the complexes are trying to solve the problem.

It's going to be an ongoingbattle for tenants and building managers because tenants may travel to other places, such as other contaminated apartments, buses or other public buildings, and bring the pests back to their homes without realizing it.

Luther Towers resident Atkinson agrees that he doesnt see the situationchanging soon.

If I stay here," he said, "I might have to live out the rest of my life in trash bags.

Contact Josephine Peterson at (302) 324-2856 or jhpeterson@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter at @jopeterson93.

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Wilmington seniors live with bedbug infestation

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Hi, Im Rose with ZappBug and in this video were going to cover the use of Diatomaceous Earth to get rid of bed bugs. Diatomaceous earth is a chalky substance made of fossilized sea creatures called diatoms whose bodies were primarily silicon dioxide. Its nontoxic and one of the safest ways we know of to kill bed bugs.

When handling diatomaceous earth theres a couple safety tips to keep in mind. As with any substances be cautious when using it around pets or small children. Diatomaceous earth is non-toxic when ingested, and its actually used for deworming pets, but even so I dont recommend eating it. Prolonged contact with your skin will dry it out but its no big deal. If you experience that you can just use some moisturizer, and maybe talk to a doctor if you have any preexisting skin conditions you feel could get aggravated.

The most important safety tip we have is that you dont want to breathe any in. Always be cautious and use a dust mask when spreading it. Also, make sure youre buying pet or food grade diatomaceous earth, not pool grade. This is a crucial difference: pool grade has much smaller particles and is a lot more hazardous if breathed in. Ive also heard of insecticide diatomaceous earth that comes premixed with pesticides, but I havent seen any brands actually selling that, so keep an eye out and avoid any thats labelled as such.

As you can see, diatomaceous earth is a fine powder, similar to flour. Diatomaceous earth kills bed bugs by acting as a desiccant, which means that it dries out what it comes into contact with. Youll be using diatomaceous earth as a barrier in areas you know bed bugs move around in. When they crawl through it diatomaceous earth disrupts their waxy shell and causes their eventual death by dehydration.

This process is not instantaneous, so keep in mind that after using diatomaceous earth it takes approximately seven to seventeen days for bed bugs to die. The total length of time it will take varies depending on three things: what stage in the molting cycle the bed bug is in, how much of the DE theyre exposed to and for how long. So dont panic if youve spread diatomaceous earth and are still seeing bed bug activity for a couple days that doesnt mean its not working.

The diatomaceous earth were going to be using today is the Thomas Labs three pound jar of pet grade. We really like this version because its pretty cheap, comes with enough to get the job done but not too much, and also the easily re-sealable container. I bought this on Amazon and you can find a variety of different sizes and brands. We also have a link here and in the description if youre interested.

The brand itself doesnt matter. As long as theyre pet or food grade theyre all going to be pretty comparable, and if you need more than three pounds there are larger sizes that are cheaper by weight.

Bed bugs often travel through the walls of dwellings. We see this really often in apartment buildings its one of the main ways that they spread from unit to unit. To prevent them from surviving in your walls youre going to want to put some diatomaceous earth in your electrical outlets. First, just a safety reminder, make sure that you are wearing a mask before you spread any diatomaceous earth so youre not breathing it in.

Next, I recommend turning off the breaker for the room that youre working in, just to be on the safe side. Whenever youre working near electrical systems its always best to be extra cautious.

Now that the breaker is off we can get started. All we need is our diatomaceous earth, a screwdriver to take the switch plate off, and a plastic spoon and duster to help us spread it. First, lets take the plate off.

Now youll just want to spread a thin layer of diatomaceous earth throughout the outlet gap. Depending on the size of the outlet you can use either a plastic spoon or a duster. For this outlet Im using a duster. I bought this on Amazon and have a link in the description below if youre interested. Ive already filled this with diatomaceous earth so all I need to do is put my mask on, put the nozzle back in the outlet here, and press down.

Before we put the face plate back on were going to want to put a little diatomaceous earth on it as well.

We dont need to go overboard here, but we want as much coverage as possible to make sure that were covering all our bases. Youre going to want to do this with all the outlets in your house just so that you know youre covered.

Another great way to use diatomaceous earth is to place it around the edges of your room. We want to do this for the same reason that we spread diatomaceous earth in our wall outlets: to prevent bed bugs from crawling through our walls and spreading even further.

Here you can see the seam in between the wall and the floor where its possible for bed bugs to crawl and hide. Ideally we would want this seam to be calked closed, but thats not always an option aesthetically or practically, especially if youre in a rental unit. So our best bet is putting down enough diatomaceous earth that the bugs either dont want to crawl through it, or if they do crawl through it theyll be exposed to it and die.

This is a really simple process and no real tools are required beyond some kind of spatula or any other flat edged object that you can use to push the diatomaceous earth into the crack. Ive got my handy bucket of diatomaceous earth here and Im just going to use a little plastic cup to scoop out some and place it down along the crack. You can use anything to scoop here, even spoons or measuring cups if thats easy for you, the only thing thats important is getting enough down. Now, Im going to use this spatula to push the dust back into the crack. Its that easy.

If the crack is wide enough you can use a duster like we have here to push diatomaceous earth deep into the crevice. This one isnt, but its the same principle.

One of the best uses for diatomaceous earth is creating what we call a safe zone in your bedroom. The principle behind this is using a much thicker layer of DE than weve used in our outlets and along the edges of our walls. We really want to get a nice, thick line here because we want to try and prevent bed bugs from approaching our bed while we sleep. Were their primary source of food, so theyre naturally drawn to the bed above all other locations. But if the line is thick enough they wont crawl through it at all.

So were going to create a diatomaceous earth perimeter around our bed to establish a safe, bed bug free zone and get a full nights sleep. Now, you may still get a couple bites if there are bugs already inside the perimeter when you place it down, or if a couple bugs violate the perimeter anyway. But this will definitely severely reduce or eliminate the number of bites youre getting. Also, keep in mind that bed bug bites can take a couple days to show up, so seeing bites after you create this perimeter doesnt mean it isnt working.

All we need to do this is, as always, our dust mask, and any kind of scoop for the diatomaceous earth. A couple quick words about the dust mask before we spread this down. It may seem counterintuitive to you that were wearing a mask to spread it, but then youll be sleeping right by it after its down. The reason for this is because diatomaceous earth is nontoxic when its not being breathed in, and as long as theres nothing that will disturb this dust youre going to be totally fine. I wouldnt recommend putting it in front of a heating vent or air conditioner or something else thats going to disturb it.

Now Im going to create my barrier. As you can see Im doing a much thicker amount than I did in the outlets or along the edges of the walls because Im not trying to kill them as much as prevent them from coming near me. But thats all you need to do.

Now were done and youve successfully created a safe zone around your bed. Remember that this step alone isnt enough to kill bed bugs; youll want to follow the rest of our 8-step guide or use one of the ZappBug products to heat treat your belongings. Once youve finished treating your house you can vacuum up the barrier youve created; for more detailed instructions on that please see step one creating a safe zone.

Next well be moving on to step five: sealing cracks and crevices. Please click here or check out the link in the description. You can also look at our full 8-step approach on our website, where we include additional information as well as links to all our videos. Thanks for watching!

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Kill Bed Bugs with Diatomaceous Earth | ZappBug

I highly recommend Simon McIvor and Beyond Bed Bug Control. Simon uses a completely "green" method. The spray and powder he uses are botanical, and completely safe to use around your family and pets. The spray is only for the areas that will not go into his "tent", and the powder is only used inside the wall outlets.The really amazing part of Simon's treatment is The Tent. I have a relatively small living room but Simon was able to set it up and fit the following inside : my 6 foot long high back couch, my Papasan chair, a basket full of blankets, a huge pile of throw pillows, all the clothes from 2 closets and whatever else we could find room for. Then he fired it up and the temperature inside the tent slowly climbed to 120 degrees over the next few hours. Meanwhile, Simon treated our beds. This included quality Bed Bug Mattress Covers with locking zippers. He did his spraying and powdering, and when the right temperature had been maintained inside the tent for the right amount of time, everything was put back and Simon vacuumed my house! He has a special vacuum cleaner he uses to make sure he gets up all the dead bugs and eggs. He also put climb ups under all the beds, and pest strips inside the bags of things we had which could not be washed. We had 14 large trash bags full. Those were to stay sealed up for a week.Simon came back in 2 weeks and reinspected everything, and he will be back in 2 more weeks to check again. So far we have not seen any signs of bugs.As for Simon himself, he's a great guy to have around the house for the day. He does all the work himself and he's prompt and reliable. He is professional and personable. Given the unpleasant circumstances, Simon was able to do his job and keep it light.I feel as though I have a new friend who has a "very particular set of skills", and I can count on him if I ever have this problem again.

Continued here:
The 10 Best Bed Bug Exterminators in Wilmington, DE 2018

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