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Monday, November 30, 2009
Critters' irritating bite makes sleeping tight tough Detroit -- It started in February when Debra Miller, who works as a caregiver, noticed dozens of red welts on the body of a man she cares for in the Griswold Senior Apartments complex. "We didn't understand what was going on," Miller said. "At first we thought it was the soap. Then we thought it was the fabric softener. Finally, I held up a magnifying glass and saw that something was digging into his skin."
It was bedbugs. And the man's apartment was infested with them.
A resident shows recent bedbug bites at the Griswold Senior Apartments in Detroit. Bedbugs have been spreading in Michigan. (Photo by Robin Buckson / The Detroit News; Detroit) The minuscule blood suckers -- once essentially eradicated in the United States -- have made an explosive comeback. Evidence of their return first showed up in coastal cities of New York and Los Angeles more than a decade ago and, since then, they have spread throughout the nation. Living in walls and mattresses, they can go a year without a blood meal. They come out at night, feasting on blood and leaving ugly welts.
The good news is they don't carry diseases, but they're resistant to modern pesticides and are adept hitchhikers, stowing away in suitcases, pant seams or inside the keys of laptop computers. State health officials put together a task force this year because of the growing number of complaints.
"It's the biggest can of worms I've ever set my foot into," said Erik Foster, medical entomologist with the Michigan Department of Community Health. "Education is a huge issue. A lot of people still don't know they're out there and how they're transmitted. By the time they know they have bedbugs, they've got a pretty healthy infestation."
The first guide for residents, apartment managers and health officials on how to identify and treat the problem is expected to be issued in about a month. Foster expects it to be around 70 pages thick.
"The message we're trying to share is it's not a pest anyone should feel embarrassed or any shame about," said Missy Henriksen, vice president of public affairs for the National Pest Management Association. "If people would immediately bring in a trained and licensed professional at the first sign of the infestation, it would really help eradicate the problem."
No community is immune Miller, who lives in the Griswold apartments, has been battling the pests, the apartment management company and sometimes even other residents for months. She's not alone. The bugs are now just about everywhere, said Mark "Shep" Sheperdigian, an entomologist with the extermination company Rose Pest Solutions in Troy. Back in 2002, the company may have received three or four calls, Sheperdigian said. Now, it's in the hundreds. And the numbers continue to grow.
"It's not just the big communities," Sheperdigian said. "Smaller communities as well are starting to feel the pinch. There's no real explanation why they're spreading so rapidly." Increased international travel and the 1972 ban of DDT are considered the two main reasons for the resurgence of the bedbugs, Henriksen said.
"We are hearing of significant bedbug infestation in every state. It's become a prominent global issue as well," she said.
The infestation has led to some creative detection and eradication efforts. High-end New York hotels have brought in trained bedbug-sniffing dogs and their handlers to identify infected rooms.
Heating method works best Last month, the Ohio Department of Agriculture asked the federal government for an emergency exemption to allow the use of Propoxur. The insecticide is used in commercial buildings, on crops and in flea and tick collars for pets. It was removed from home use in the 1990s and can cause nausea and vomiting if swallowed.
Here in Michigan, a few companies are using heat to blast the bugs into oblivion. Heaters brought into rooms raise the temperatures of everything in the room to around 130 degrees -- enough to kill all the life stages of the bedbugs but not hot enough to damage items. The process takes about six hours and can cost $1,000 a room.
It's the eradication method being used at the Griswold and, starting about six weeks ago, at Wayne State University apartment buildings when the need arises.
"We've been successful in keeping them out of the residence halls, but we do have them in our three apartment buildings," said Tim Michael, director of housing at Wayne State University. University officials established a protocol about three years ago involving monthly inspections and treatments.
About two months ago, the university switched from chemical sprays to the heater method of eradication. Michael is optimistic and said the heater method has been 100 percent effective. "It's become one of those things that university housing has to deal with," he said. "We have people coming from all over the country. It comes in their luggage. Everywhere people go, they go with you. We're just battling them."
Apartments and dorms are at the biggest risk for growing bedbug populations, Sheperdigian said. Hotels are too, because of the frequency of travelers coming in and out of rooms.
Proper disposal required Recontamination is common. Miller has seen residents whose apartments were recently treated open up a sealed bag filled with bedbug contaminated clothes and take items back into the apartment.
Wholesale dumping of infected items can further compound the problem. When cases first came up at Cathedral Tower, a Wayne State University-area high-rise, residents' items were thrown out into bins. People would then fish them out.
"The management was just throwing stuff in the Dumpsters," said Ted Phillips, executive director of the United Community Housing Coalition, a nonprofit providing housing-related services to Detroit residents.
"We were begging them not to do that."
"I've seen people take mattresses out of the Dumpster and bring them right back in the building," Miller said.
The coalition works with people such as Miller on rent and housing issues, helping people set up escrow accounts, into which they deposit rent money until management companies address the bedbug problem.
Steve Pardo - The Detroit News November 30, 2009
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