Brooklyn Bed Bug Registry Infestation Maps, Residential and Hotel

About Bedbugs

My Rights Related To Extermination

Issues with Extermination

Methods: What Works, What Doesnt

Bedbugs, the tiny, biting pests that have been tormenting sleepers for thousands of years, have become a common scourge in New York City. Research suggests that bedbugs originally preyed on bats in caves, and that they added human blood to their diet as soon as human beings began to move into the caves. After World War II, bedbugs all but disappeared from New York City, but in recent years, an enormous growth in global travel, changes in pestcontrol measures (the use of baits instead of residual sprays for cockroaches, for example), and the lack of general knowledge about bedbugs and how they spread have all contributed to a huge increase in bedbug infestations in New York and other cities around the world.

Common bedbugs (Cimex lectularius) are small, wingless insects that live on the blood of warm-blooded creatures. Although they cant fly, they can run very fast. From rod-shaped white eggs that are only about 1/32nd of an inch (1 mm) long which is about the thickness of a credit cardtiny translucentwhitish nymphs emerge, hungry for their first meal. Hungry bedbugs are flat seen from the side and oval when seen from above; after theyve fed, their bodies swell up and get longer, and the blood theyve taken in is visible inside their bodies first bright red and then darkening to a brownish color.

The nymphs pass through five stages of growth in which they become larger versions of themselves, becoming a translucent-amber or straw color when hungry and shedding their skins (which are really a waxy outer skeleton, or exoskeleton) as they go; right after molting, they may appear paler and waxier.They need to have at least one blood meal to pass from one stage to the next, and usually reach adulthood in four to five weeks. Adult bugs are about 3/16ths to inch long. Over the course of her lifetime, an adult female may lay 200 to 500 eggs, sometimes at the rate of up to 4 or 5 a day; the eggs hatch in anywhere from 6 to 17 days, depending on temperature conditions. Average bedbug life expectancy is a few months to a year, longer in cooler temperatures though obviously, we the people hope to cut it much shorter.

Modern cities, with their high population densities, controlled indoor temperatures, and infinite number of cracks, crevices, and stuff to hide in, are an ideal environment for bedbugs. Theyve been found everywhere in urban environments in commercial spaces, subways, theaters, cars, and even courtrooms, to name just a few.

Bedbugs are predators rather than parasites, so they do not live on people. They are usually nocturnal, and feed every few nights if they can. If an infestation is very large, they may also try to feed during the day, but because it takes them anywhere from 3 to 10 minutes to get a full meal, they prefer a sleeping host. If theyre disturbed while feeding or arent getting a good blood flow, they may take more than one bite. While theyre biting, bedbugs inject anticoagulants into their victims to keep the blood flowing; most people have an allergic reaction to the anticoagulant, which causes itching welts to appear on their skin. A significant number of people have no reaction to bedbug bites at all, and this can make it possible for a bedbug infestation to grow quite large before its detected so if youre in a relationship and your partner is complaining of insect bites while you remain blissfully itch-free, you should take those complaints seriously.

Bedbugs are not known to carry any diseases, but scratching the bites increases the irritation and itching and can lead to infection. Bedbugs do cause considerable psychological harm, described in a 2009 report by the Toronto Bed Bug Project Steering Committee as high levels of anxiety, stress, depression, sleep deprivation, insomnia, constant vigilance, and an incredible preoccupation with bedbugs, sometimes resulting in psychological trauma.

If you react to bedbug bites, your first clue that there are bedbugs in your apartment is likely to be the appearance of multiple bites that begin to appear and itch sometime during the day. Because different people react differently to being bitten by bedbugs, you cant necessarily identify what bit you from the way the bites look and feel. Bedbug bites range from small red pinpricks to large inflamed welts, and often resemble mosquito, spider, or mite bites. Bedbugs tend to feed in groups and sometimes take more than one bite nearby where they started feeding, so unless you have swarms of mosquitoes in your environment, multiple bites are likely to be indicative of bedbugs.

Because bedbugs like to cluster together and prefer to stay close to their food source, you may be able to find them in and around a bed theyve infested, especially in the seams and tufts of mattresses, in the box spring, around the headboard or footboard, or in the beds structure. They often leave evidence of their presence where you can see ittiny, dark-red feces, eggs, dead bedbugs, and the cast-off skins that nymphs leave behind when they grow to a larger size. Bedbugs that have been crushed during the night by a restless sleeper leave bloodstains on the sheets. You can get a good idea of what the bugs look like at their various growth stages and levels of infestation hereand here (video).

Nevertheless, because of the bugs extremely small size (ranging down to almost impossible to see with the naked eye in their early nymph stages) and ability to hide in the tiniest cracks and crevices, a visual inspection may not yield any clues, especially if the infestation is small. The sticky traps some exterminators use to catch stray bugs in order to verify their presence are not always effective, because bedbugs are as likely to crawl under them as into them. You may want to try an interceptor that traps bedbugs as theyre crawling onto or off of the legs of a piece of furniture; these are usually specially designed concentric plastic cups with talcum powder or diatomaceous earth inside, which can trap bugs going in both directions.

Dogs that have been trained to sniff out bedbugs, together with handlers who are skilled at making visual inspections, are generally considered to be an effective method of detection where the bugs arent visible to you, though even then there may be false positives or negatives. You should make sure that both dog and handler are highly trained and skilled, and that a different dog is used for each follow-up visit.

Bedbugs are spread in a variety of ways. Hitchhiking on suitcases, backpacks, clothing, bedding, or furniture is probably the most common way they enter an apartment. They can also move on their own from one apartment to another, especially vertically along a line of apartments as well as next door or across the hall, which is why its important to make sure that neighboring apartments are inspected, and treated if necessary, when a known bedbug infestation is being eradicated. Once they enter a new space, bedbugs track down their prey (thats you) by following the trail of carbon dioxide that human beings breathe out; when they get closer, body heat guides them the rest of the way.

Bedbugs are especially hard to get rid of because they multiply so quickly and because theyre so good at hiding during the day. Their small, flattened bodies make it easy for them to disappear into bedding, mattresses, box springs, the structure of the bed, out-of-the-way cracks and clothing folds, electrical outlets and wiring conduits, electronic devices, papers bedbugs like to congregate in clutter and all kinds of furniture, as well as under loose wallpaper and behind wall hangings. Usually at least 70 percent or more of an infestation stays within the bed structure and bedding, but as the size of an infestation increases, the adult females will start moving away to lay their eggs, and bedbugs will travel as far as 20 feet to and from a food source. This is why just getting rid of infested furniture and bedding wont always solve the problem in fact, it may just move the bedbugs around in your building and neighborhood and make the problem worse. Most furniture can be made bedbugfree with effective extermination methods.

Obviously, multiple dwellings offer bedbugs a perfect environment, since the bugs can hide in the walls while one unit is cleaned and then appear in another, or return to reinfest rooms or apartments. Hotels traditionally have been especially problematic: their populations are transient, bedding is often carried from one room to another, and while one infested unit might be cleaned, its rare for the entire hotel to be shut down so that all the rooms can be cleaned at once. College dormitories, nursing homes, and shelters for homeless people are also extremely prone to bedbug infestations, for similar reasons.

Bedbugs can go for months without feeding, which means they can lie low and wait patiently if an apartment is empty for a while. Some strains of bedbugs have developed resistance to pesticides; according to the Toronto Bed Bug Project Steering Committees report, by the 1950s it was widely recognized that bedbugs across the world had become resistant to DDT. In any case, very few pesticides kill the eggs, which means that more than one treatment may be necessary if pesticides are being used for eradication.

The apartment-by-apartment treatment favored by many landlords can also cause a bedbug problem to persist throughout a building. When an infested apartment is being treated, all adjoining apartments and even apartments across the hall should be inspected, and extermination should be carried out in them as necessary; certainly the landlord should be taking measures, such as caulking and sealing, to prevent the spread of bedbugs from one apartment to another.

Generally, a professional exterminator will have to be called in to get rid of all of the bedbugs and prevent a reinfestation, and you will have to do a lot of work both to prepare for the extermination and to make sure that the bedbugs stay away. It is not recommended that you try to get rid of them by yourself, but there are some things, outlined below, that you can do to mitigate the problem while youre waiting for the exterminator, if you have the kind of landlord who is likely to make you waitor if you have no alternative to the do-it-yourself method. Most people with a lot of experience in the field agree that theres no magic bullet theres no one pesticide or technique that will solve the problem by itself.

And by lots of company, we dont just mean the six-legged kind. Major bedbug infestations are occurring everywhere, including the wealthiest neighborhoods, and they have nothing to do with being dirty. Bedbugs dont care whether your house is totally unkempt or as neat as a new pin: theyre only interested in the presence of human beings to feed on.

Many people put off getting help with a bedbug problem because of the stigma; its like the old schoolyard bugaboo about having cooties (although cooties are actually body lice, which are really a rarity) the fear of getting them from the person with the problem can be pretty intense. But youd be surprised at how many other people have bedbugs, or have had them, so forget the stigma and get help immediately! Given the rapidity with which the bugs reproduce, every day you put off getting help will only multiply the severity of the problem.

As soon as you learn that you have bedbugs, you need to advise your landlord of the problem in writing if you dont get an immediate response by other means (send by certified mail, return receipt requested, and keep the receipt with a copy of your letter). Also, you should inform your neighbors that you have a bedbug problem. If they dont already know that they have a problem of their own and they may need encouragement to address it immediately they should be checking to see whether they also have bedbugs, or taking steps to keep the bugs out of their apartments. And you may need to organize your building so that you can work as a group to put more pressure on the landlord to take care of the problem (see How to Organize a Tenants Association).

No, it is not! For tenants in New York, the right to a bedbug-free environment is included in the citys housing and maintenance code, Subchapter 2, Article 4, which specifically names bedbugs in the list of insects the landlord is legally obligated to eradicate. The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) lists bedbugs as a Class B violation, which means that they are considered hazardous and that the landlord has 30 days to correct the problem. The landlord must eradicate the infestation and keep the affected units from getting reinfested.

If your landlord refuses to take the necessary steps, you can file a complaint with the city department of Housing Preservation and Development (call 311) or take the owner to Housing Court in an HP action; you can also file a complaint with the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal (if you are a rent-regulated tenant), but this can be time-consuming and may not be as effective in getting relief. As with any problem you have concerning repairs or services, in addition to calling the managing agent or speaking with the superintendent, its important to notify the landlord or managing agent of the condition in writing (send by certified mail, return receipt requested, and save a copy of your letter with the receipt), and let the owner and/or manager know what steps you expect them to take.

The exterminator will let you know what steps you have to take in advance of extermination and you should follow those instructions to the letter. Usually, it will involve dry-cleaning or washing and double-drying all bedding, clothing, and linens; some items that cant be washed, such as woolens and luggage, can be put directly into a hot dryer for 30 minutes rather than sent out to the dry cleaner. You need to determine whether infested furniture can be cleaned and treated or whether you have to discard it. If you discard infested furniture, seal it in plastic and clearly label it as bedbug-infested before taking it out of your apartment. You should also take steps to make infested furniture unusable such as ripping the fabric so that people are less likely to bring it into their homes. Just hauling an unwrapped mattress out to the curb can scatter bedbugs throughout your building which means theyll soon be back in your apartment. All items discarded because theyre infested with bedbugs should also be kept out of common storage areas, unless theyre sealed in plastic.

Generally, the landlord is only liable for property damages and out-of-pocket costs when you can show that there was negligence on the landlords part that the landlord didnt take reasonable steps to eliminate bedbugs. This could include a situation where the landlord knew that there was an infestation in a neighboring apartment or apartments and failed to take appropriate steps to stop the infestation from spreading into your apartment. If you have proof that the original infestation or an ongoing infestation is the result of the landlords negligence that the problem was caused by the landlords failure to act in a reasonable manner to address the bedbug problem then you might have a claim for compensation for out-of-pocket costs and property damages related to bedbugs.

Landlords take the position that it is the tenants obligation to do this work or to pay someone to do it for them. Tenants take a risk by not doing the work themselves, since they can be held liable for failing to comply with the protocols for extermination. However, where the tenant is simply unable to do the work him- or herself the tenant is physically unable to do the work and economically unable to pay someone else to do it the tenant should make a request to the landlord in writing with an explanation that the landlord have its employees assist the tenant, since packing, etc., is part of the work required to eliminate bedbugs. Adult Protective Services will help some elderly tenants with preparation work; for information about this, call 311. There are commercial companies that will do the preparation for a bedbug extermination, but they can be very expensive.

Most landlords probably wont pay temporary relocation costs voluntarily. Trying to recover these costs or trying to get the landlord to relocate you while the apartment is being exterminatedwill probably require a court proceeding, and theres no guarantee that the court would grant the relief; it all depends on the circumstances and the facts of the case. Remember, though, that if you move out while the eradication is being carried out in your apartment, you must make sure that you do not bring any bedbugs with you which means that you must take the necessary steps to make your clothing and luggage bedbug-free by laundering them and/or putting them in a hot dryer before you pack.

You must give a landlord access to your apartment to take measures to get rid of bedbugs. If you have a lease, it will in all likelihood set forth the notice requirements for access. Unless you have a lease that specifically addresses access and bedbugs, bedbug infestation is not an emergency that allows access without notice it is a Class B violation that allows the landlord 30 days to correct so the landlord should be notifying you ahead of time that it needs access to your apartment to inspect for bedbugs or exterminate. Nevertheless, you delay giving access at your own risk: if there are bedbugs, you should be acting in a reasonable manner in giving access, and you should cooperate with preparation for extermination. Bedbugs reproduce at such a rapid rate that every day of delay means that you (and potentially your neighbors) have to suffer through a worsening infestation.

Yes, you can. Housing Court has awarded rent abatements for bedbug infestations. But you should be prepared to document the infestation, the notice that you gave to the landlord of the infestation, the steps that you took to prepare the apartment for extermination where relevant, and all steps that the landlord took, if any, to get rid of the bedbugs. If you are thinking about withholding rent to force the landlord to exterminate the bedbugs, you should know that because court records are obtained by tenant screening bureaus that then sell them to landlords, you will be placed on a blacklist for future rentals, could have your credit score damaged for 20 years if you agree to a stipulation that includes a judgment even if you win the case or be evicted if you have not saved the money to cover all the rent that is due and owing if the judge does not find in your favor.

You must establish that the bedbug infestation constructively evicted you from your apartment to be legally entitled to break your lease because of bedbugs. Whether a bedbug infestation amounts to a constructive eviction depends upon the extent to which the infestation interferes with your life and/or deprives you of the use of your home. If you break your lease, you risk the possibility of the landlord suing you for the rent due for the remainder of the lease term and any other damages that the landlord may be entitled to under the law and/or the lease and if the landlord sues you, it will be up to the Court to decide whether the bedbug infestation was so bad as to amount to a constructive eviction, and therefore allow you to break your lease. Bear in mind that if you move out without making sure that all the possessions you take with you are bedbug-free, you will just be taking the problem with you.

This can be a tough call. If you refuse to let the landlords exterminator do the work, then you may be accused of being the problem. Generally in court cases involving contractors of any kind, judges in Housing Court will say that that you need to let the landlord use the company it picks, and when the work isnt done properly, you have to return to court and complain. The best practice is probably to document what the company is doing, show that what its doing isnt working, and try to compel the landlord to get a new company that will employ better methods.

Insecticides are highly toxic chemicals, so you should educate yourself about a particular product before using it or allowing an exterminator to use it. This is particularly important when trying to eradicate bedbugs, since peopleespecially children, who are most susceptible to toxinsspend a lot of time in bedrooms and in bed. For information about insecticide components and their dangers, look at Web sites like the Childrens Health Environmental Coalition or the Natural Resources Defense Council. You should also bear in mind that most pesticides dont kill bedbug eggs, making multiple treatments necessary. Some insecticides are repellant to bedbugs and may simply cause them to scatter, and since most kill only on contact, a bedbug deep in a crack or crevice may not get a lethal dose.

NEVER use insecticide bombs or foggers: instead of killing the bugs, which rarely come into contact with enough of the insecticide to be affected by it, the bombs only drive them further into their hiding places, and perhaps even into neighboring apartments.

If you have a documented medical condition and/or a doctor advises against contact with certain chemicals, you should notify the landlord immediately, before an exterminator is sent to your apartment. If you dont have a documented medical condition or advice from a doctor, toxicity becomes a more difficult issue. If you refuse to allow an exterminator in because of a general concern about chemicals, you do face the risk that the landlord may take legal action against you for failing to take the necessary steps to allow for the elimination of the bedbugs; continuing to harbor bedbugs where the landlord claims to be making a good-faith effort to get rid of them can lead to a holdover eviction proceeding for causing a nuisance.

Taking matters into your own hands is essentially a question of assessing the risk. If you dont cooperate with the landlords arrangements and your apartment continues to be infested, youll be at risk of legal proceedings against you, regardless of the reason for the ongoing infestation.

You can hire your own exterminator, but if you do, there is no guarantee that you will be compensated for the cost of the extermination. If you are compelled to hire your own exterminator because the landlord refused to do so, you can try deducting the cost of the extermination from your rent. Make certain, however, that you have written proof that you asked your landlord to hire an exterminator before you hired one yourself. If the landlord takes you to court, you can ask for a rent abatement for the time that elapsed between your notice to the landlord that there were bedbugs and the time that the bedbugs were eliminated, in addition to the cost of the extermination and you may very well get it. You do risk not getting the abatement and having to pay the rent and, as in the case of withholding rent to force the landlord to exterminate, your name will also be picked up by tenant screening companies and you might have trouble getting a new apartment in the future, as well as having your credit rating damaged. Make sure that any exterminator you hire is licensed and make sure to get references. You must have proof of payment to the exterminator, and you always need to make certain that you have saved the rent money there is never a guarantee that the Court will find that you had the right to deduct the cost of extermination from the rent.

You can bring an H.P. (Housing Part) proceeding against the landlord to compel him or her to exterminate. An H.P. proceeding is commenced in Housing Court. Once you file the proceeding, inspectors from HPD will inspect your apartment to verify the presence of bedbugs. HPD inspectors only accept evidence of actual bedbugs in the apartment or signs of their presence (bloodstained sheets, for example) as proof of a bedbug infestation dead bedbugs or live bedbugs that you have in a container are not proof for HPD. HPD inspectors will not move furniture or bedding to look for bedbugs. You do not need an attorney to do an H.P. proceeding; there are attorneys from HPD in the courtroom in H.P. proceedings who will sometimes assist you. But these attorneys do not represent you.

If the landlord is refusing to exterminate the apartment and you want to try to work toward abating the problem of bedbugs on your own, you can talk with a reputable pest-control supplier to discuss purchasing products to help exterminate the bedbugs. (See below, How to rid an apartment of bedbugs.) You may still be able to deduct the costs of purchasing such products if youve notified the landlord of the problem in writing. If the landlord takes you to court, you can ask for a rent abatement for the time that elapsed between your written request to the landlord and the time when you were able to make your apartment bedbug-free, in addition to the costs of the extermination.

The landlord is under a legal obligation to compel uncooperative tenants to allow for extermination in their apartments through a court process if necessary. You could sue the neighbor for nuisance, and/or take the landlord to court to compel the landlord to exterminate in the neighbors apartment.

Co-op owners have the same obligations to each other that tenant neighbors have. Likewise, the landlord of a co-op (the cooperative corporation) has the same obligation to its tenants (proprietary lessees) as do other landlords. However, at least one Court has held that the co-op owner and not the co-op is responsible for paying for the cost of extermination. Whether the co-op or the proprietary lessee (tenant) is responsible for paying for the cost of extermination will depend on the terms of the proprietary lease.

Yes, you can. A landlord has an obligation to keep your apartment bedbug free, so the landlord should take reasonable steps to keep bedbugs from coming into your apartment from a neighboring apartment. If your landlord isnt automatically inspecting neighboring apartments and treating them if necessary or sealing up holes and cracks that provide access for bedbugs, you should make a written request that it do so. If the landlord doesnt comply, and you get bedbugs, then you will have a stronger claim of negligence, potentially giving you the right to compensation for out-of-pocket damages and other related damages.

If you live in public housing, you can call the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) directly, at 718-707-7771. Its especially important to communicate with your neighbors in public housing about the presence of bedbugs, because if NYCHA doesnt address your problem promptly, you may get more prompt attention if all of the tenants who have bedbugs in their apartments join together to complain as a group.

To date, it appears that the most effective method for getting rid of bedbugs is extreme heat: bedbugs cant survive temperatures over 113 degrees Fahrenheit. Exterminators use a variety of devices to heat a space and belongings that are infested, but since even heating isnt a magic bullet this kind of treatment may need to be accompanied by the use of fumigants, along with high-power vacuuming and the application of insecticide powders in likely hiding places, followed by sealing all cracks, crevices, and openings around pipes or electrical conduits. This last procedure should be part of any eradication program and is also useful for keeping away other pests, such as mice and cockroaches.

A bedbug-certified mattress encasement that can both trap bedbugs inside and prevent them from hiding in a mattress or box spring is indispensable for managing and preventing infestations. You may want to tape up the zipper. If you use less-expensive encasements that arent bedbug-certified, use two, put them on with the zippers facing in opposite directions, and tape both zippers.

The New York State Integrated Pest Management Program recommends three steps for getting rid of bedbugs: Find the bedbugs hiding places, clean those places thoroughly, and then make it hard for the bugs to get back in. As part of cleaning the hiding places, the IPM program recommends washing all bedding, rugs, and clothes in hot water, and drying them in a hot dryer to kill bugs living in these materials. Articles that cant be washed but wont melt can simply be put into a hot dryer for at least 30 minutes. There are also portable heating units that can be used to rid your possessions of bedbugs. Carefully clean or vacuum all surfaces in the room and all items that cant be washed or put into a clothes dryer or heater; after vacuuming, seal the vacuum-cleaner bag in a plastic bag and dispose of it outdoors. Vacuuming should usually be repeatedbedbug eggs are usually stuck onto the surface where the female lays them, and may not be picked up on the first pass. To prevent the return of bugs, all cracks, crevices, and openings around pipes or electrical conduits should be sealed. If youre following these steps yourself, however, you should be very careful to make sure that youre actually eradicating bedbug clusters and not just breaking them up and sending them scurrying off elsewhere.

Cooling or freezing bedbugs doesnt seem to be very effective. Cooling just slows down the bugs metabolism, which means they can live for astonishingly long periods of time without eating, and even bedbugs that have been frozen have been known to revive after theyve thawed out. Techniques that freeze bedbugs instantly only work on contact if theres anything between the freezing substance and the bedbug, the bedbug will survive. Even something as insubstantial as a piece of paper between a bedbug and a freezing substance will allow the bedbug to live to bite another day or night.

And it bears repeating: NEVER use bombs or foggers. They dont work, and they can make the problem worse by driving the bugs further into their hiding places or into a neighboring apartment, from which you may be fairly sure theyll return to yours.

It often requires more than one visit from the exterminator to rid an apartment of bedbugs, so you cant assume that your apartment and property are bedbug-free after a single extermination. Repeated rounds of treatment are not uncommon.

Heat is the most effective nontoxic method for eliminating bedbugs. Except for the portable devices for ridding smaller personal items of bedbugs, however, heat treatments can only be applied by a licensed exterminator. A number of sprays that are safe for children and pets will kill bedbugs on contact, but usually not their eggs. A 91-percent solution of rubbing alcohol, applied with a plant mister, will also kill bedbugs on contact, and if the eggs are sufficiently soaked in alcohol, it will kill them, too. However, alcohol is a fire hazard, and if you use it, you should be aware of the very real risks it entails.

Diatomaceous earth, which is marketed as a fine powder (make sure you get the kind thats designed to kill bedbugs), is the fossilized remains of tiny crustaceans. It tends to be slow acting: when bedbugs and other insects come into contact with it, it damages their skins, causing them to dehydrate. You can use diatomaceous earth to fill cracks and crevices (you may want to seal it in), behind switch and outlet plates, or in some kinds of interceptors. Diatomaceous earth can cause serious health problems if you inhale too much of it, so its not a good idea to scatter diatomaceous earth around your apartment or on furniture.

You can also use barriers to bedbug travel to keep the bugs from getting into your bed or other furniture. Putting the legs of furniture into glass jars or metal cans is not as effective as has been popularly believedbedbugs can climb up glass and metal and have been known to live on plastic items. You can coat the legs of furniture with petroleum jelly, or wrap them in double-sided carpet tape. Carpet tape can be strong enough to pull off paint or finish when removed, so you may want to put it on over a layer of masking tape that is the same width. Be sure to seal all cracks that might make it possible for the bedbugs to avoid the petroleum jelly or tape. Double-sided carpet tape tends to lose its stickiness over time, so you should check the tape regularly and replace as needed and you may want to experiment with different brands.

You can make a nontoxic bedbug spray repellant by putting 5-10 drops each of essential oils of peppermint, cloves, lavender, and eucalyptus in a spray bottle, filling the bottle with water, and spraying liberally everywhere where there may be bugs and particularly where you dont want them to be, such as in or nearby your bed, or in or on your luggage if youre traveling. It wont kill the bugs, but it will keep them away from you while traveling, between an exterminators treatments, or while a slow-acting substance that will kill them, like diatomaceous earth, is doing its work.

Make sure that bedclothes dont touch the floor, and keep the bed and other furniture some distance away from the wall.

If you choose to use insecticides yourself, buy them only from a reputable extermination supply store and make sure that their use is explained to you by a salesperson. Follow all directions to the letter.

Of course, even if you follow every possible precaution, you cant necessarily protect yourself from bedbugs, but here are some measures that might help:

NEVER bring discarded furniture into your apartment! Avoid rebuilt mattresses (which should be clearly labeled). A bedbug-certified mattress encasement is also a good preventive measure. You may want to tape up the zipper; if you use less-expensive encasements that arent bedbug-certified, use two, put them on with the zippers facing in opposite directions, and tape both zippers.

If you buy second-hand clothing, have it dry-cleaned or put it in a hot dryer for at least 30 minutes before bringing it into your apartment.

Be careful when you travel! Never put your suitcase or clothing onto the bed or into any furniture or closets in a hotel room. Put your suitcase on the luggage rack and live out of it. You may want to bring with you a plastic bag large enough to seal your suitcase up while youre not using it. Check the mattress and box spring for signs of bedbugs. Even if you dont see any signs of bedbugs, you may want to take other precautions: there are nontoxic sprays available in sizes approved for air travel that will keep bedbugs out of the bed while youre in it. You can make a nontoxic bedbug spray repellant by putting 5-10 drops each of essential oils of peppermint, cloves, lavender, and eucalyptus in a spray bottle, filling the bottle with water, and spraying liberally the bed, around the bed, and your luggage. The bottles the essential oils come in are small enough to meet TSA specifications, and you can leave the spray bottle empty until you need it.

If youve been in an environment where you think there may be bedbugs, there are things you can do when you get home to make sure they dont move in with you. Strip as soon as you get in the door, put all your clothes into a plastic bag and seal it up until they can be washed and dried, and take a hot shower. If you think your suitcase may have become infested and it doesnt have any components that might melt in a dryer, put it directly into a dryer for 30 minutes. Remember that a visual inspection of your clothes and luggage may not be sufficient eggs and newly hatched nymphs are very difficult to see with the naked eye.

If you own a car, make sure that its kept bedbug-free, too. Your apartment can become infested, or reinfested, by bedbugs that have been joyriding in your car.

The measures outlined above for keeping bedbugs from getting back into your bed or your apartment once youve had an infestation will also work to keep them out in the first place especially sealing up all cracks and crevices.

There are any number of changes that could be made in the way that state and city governments support landlords and tenants who are struggling with bedbug infestations. A bedbug advisory board issued a report in the summer of 2010; one of their recommendations was implemented when Governor David Paterson signed into law a provision requiring landlords to inform tenants if there has been a previous bedbug infestation in an apartment they are about to rent; another, the creation of a web portal, has been funded by the City Council. More recently, New York City has enacted a law requiring a landlord to notify HPD of past and present bedbug infestations, as well as notifying current tenants of the buildings bedbug history, either with their lease renewals or by posting the information in a prominent location in the building. If you want to remind the state and city governments that there is much more they can do about bedbugs such as provide funds to help replace possessions that have had to be discarded and help small landlords with extermination costs, as well as coordination of services that can help tenants with the preparation work prior to an extermination and that this is an urgent matter that requires immediate action, contact the office of the mayor, the office of the Speaker of the City Council, and your local City Council member, State Assembly member, and State Senator. To find out who your City Council member, State Assembly member, and State Senator are, and for contact information, click here.

For more information:

New York City Department of Health: call 311 and ask for the Health Department, or go to the Health Department fact sheet on bedbugs.

New York State Integrated Pest Management Program: 1-800-635-8356, or go to New York States fact sheet on bedbugs.

The rest is here:Bedbugs Metropolitan Council on Housing | New York City

Bed bugs and bat bugs are strikingly similar in the way they look, feed, and reproduce, but they are in fact different.

Have you seen a bug crawling around your bed that resembles a bed bug? Maybe you woke up to find a red mark on your skin that looks like a bed bug bite? Well, it could be that you do have bed bugs, but its possible youve mistaken it for another pest; like bat bugs.

It is not easy to differentiate between a bed bug and a bat bug because of their possible family relationship.Their body shapes and color are almost identical. According to studies, the theory is that when originally early mankind were living in caves there were no bed bugs, but rather bat bugs. Inside of the caves bat bugs fed on the blood of bats and early people.

When the people moved out of the caves they carried along bat bugs on their bodies, and they later developed into bed bugs. Most likely because they had to feed exclusively on human blood then.

Bed bugs and bat bugs crawl, feed, and reproduce almost in the same ways, but still they are different. The following are some of the major differences between bed bugs and bat bugs:

Despite their development to their respective species, bat bugs and bed bugs appear similar that their body feature differences can only be established using a microscope.

Thats why only a trained pest control expert will be able to accurately tell if the bugs that you are seeing in your home are actually bed bugs or bat bugs. When viewed under a microscope, a bat bug is seen having longer hair in its thorax as compared to a bed bug.

Location is another thing that distinguishes bedbugs from bat bugs. Bed bugs are mostly found in areas near their hosts (human beings), and some of such places include beneath mattresses, along with the edges of headboards, in a closet near your bed and any other furniture in proximity with your resting area.

On the other hand, since bat bugs primarily feed on bats, theyre mostly found in the harboring grounds of the hosts. Such places include the attics, ceilings and on walls.

Nevertheless, in case there are no bats, bat bugs will attack people as alternative sources of blood. For that reason, they may also come near or to your bed although that happens in rare cases.

Although bat bugs and bed bugs are blood-suckers, their favorite hosts are different. The favorite host for bed bugs is a human being. On the other hand, bat bugs prefer to suck blood from bats, especially big brown and little brown species.

However, after being left behind by their host bats and cannot find any other bat to suck blood from, bat bugs have to option but to feed on the blood of other mammals such as human beings for their survival.

The elimination of bed bugs involves altering their reproductive cycle through extensive pest management. For instance, the disruption of the life cycle can be done using carbon dioxides cooling properties, killing all the present live bed bugs and their eggs.

Heat treatment, which involves subjecting bed bugs to extremely high-temperature conditions, and fumigation are also options for bed bug extermination.

When it comes to bat bugs, their elimination is not as demanding as bed bug control. Once their presence is confirmed, the best treatment for a bat bug infestation is the elimination of all the bats in the building.

Once that is done, all the exterior entry points should then be sealed to prevent a come-back of bats and the bugs. Having done that, youll rest assured that your home is safe from bat bug infestations.

The understanding of differences between bat bugs and bedbugs is essential for the determination of the correct method to use for their elimination.

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Bat Bug vs. Bed Bug: What Is the Difference? | Rest Easy ...

With the seemingly unstoppable spread of bed bugs, especially the rapid pace in which infestations expand in apartment buildings, hotels, dorms and schools, many wonder if there are bed bugs in the walls, making it easy for them to move from location to location.Two Perspectives on the Bed Bugs in the Walls Debate

Bed Bugs hiding in a wall crack

While its common knowledge that there may very well be bed bugs in the walls when a structure is infested, there is still debate as to if this is the origin of the infestation and/or the primary cause of the infestation spreading to other locations. One family who moved into a new apartment and got bed bugs believed that they came into their home from being transferred on clothing and furniture. Of course, that can also be true.

The University of Kentucky, in its researchabout bed bugs, both agrees and disagrees with the idea that bed bugs in the walls are a primary way they spread. In their research on how bed bugs originate, they noted the following:

The bugs are efficient hitchhikers and are usually transported into dwellings on luggage, clothing, beds, furniture, and other items. This is a particular risk for hotels and apartments, where turnover of occupants is constant. Bed bugs are small and agile, escaping detection after crawling into suitcases, backpacks and belongings. Acquiring secondhand beds, couches and furniture is another way that the bugs are transported into buildings. Bed bugs also can be carried in on ones clothing, shoes or wheelchair. Once bed bugs are introduced, they can crawl from room to room or floor to floor. They can also be transported throughout buildings on people and their belongings.

Yet, they do not rule out the use of walls as a means of bed bugs spreading out throughout a building. Their research also concluded, Once bed bugs are introduced, they often spread throughout a building. The bugs can travel from room to room or floor to floor either by crawling or via a person. And, because there may be cracks and crevices in walls, it makes sense to think that they can hide out here and also avoid some bed bug treatments this way. Eventually, they will come out and seek beds and other areas, so it is important to re-inspect and re-treat those areas as well as inspecting any used furniture and other items like suitcases before bringing these items into a new location in case you are inadvertently transporting hitchhiking bed bugs.

In SummaryIn debating how bed bugs spread, this blog post noted the following points:

[catlist name=bed-bug-infestation]

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Are Bed Bugs in the Walls? | Bed Bug Exterminator NYC | 24 ...

Bed bugs can cling to and find hiding places in your suitcases and bags and travel with you from a vacation hotel or convention center very efficiently. When you stay in a hotel, bring a small flashlight to inspect the mattress, behind the headboard, under couch cushions, and in furniture drawers. Immediately report sightings of bed bugs, as well as other less-obvious evidence such as streaks or droplets of blood, bug droppings, or eggs. Since bed bugs can cling to carpet, keep your suitcase off the floor and on a luggage rack (or leave it in the bathroom).

On its bed bug advisory site, the New York City Health Department says you can protect your clothes by packing them in large plastic bags or washable mesh bags before putting them in your suitcase. When you return from a trip, put all of your clothes in the dryer immediately to kill bed bugs and their eggs. Spray your luggage with alcohol, which also destroys bed bugs, or vacuum it and throw away the vacuum bag promptly. If you travel frequently, you may want to consider investing in a thermal container that can heat your luggage when you return home. For example, the PackTite thermal container ($320) is large enough to hold a suitcase and promises to kill bed bugs.

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How to Keep Bed Bugs Out of Your House - Healthy Home ...

Millions of overlapping, private Brooklyns make up the borough. They vary in almost every way peoples lives can; rich, poor, happy, sad, fulfilled, lonely, and all the Brooklyns in between.

The majority of residents glimpse, at most, dozens of these private realities. But a certain category of workers plumbers, movers, and electricians, among others see a far larger slice of the city. Frequently, theyre called in during moments of stress or transition. Often, theyre tasked with performing essential services people dont like to talk, or even think, about.

Billy Swan, a life-long Brooklynite and long-serving member of this club, has been invited into thousands of versions of the borough. Hes surveyed meticulously remodeled brownstones, dilapidated basement apartments, a three-story townhouse owned by a hoarder, and an apartment where every surface was lined with crystal balls. Hes seen rich people arguing over money, adult children neglecting their aging parents, and lonely octogenarian bachelors yearning for conversation. Hes yelled at hapless 20-somethings, comforted new moms, and once, revived a woman who fainted in front of him. People hug him, argue with him, and send him photos. He gets lied to all the time.

The through lines are geography and pests. A Brooklyn exterminator, Swan, 48, is sent to individual apartments and homes to handle roach, rodent, ant, fly, beetle, and bed bug infestations. While most visits give him a sense of who a resident is and how they live, bed bug calls, while not that frequent they account for around five or six of the roughly 70 jobs he completes in a month provide the most intimate and unvarnished windows.

Bed bugs were seemingly engineered in a lab to induce severe anxiety and revulsion. Theyre mostly nocturnal, sucking our blood when were at our most defenseless. They feast in three to five day cycles yet can live for a year without feeding, which means that once you have them, you never know when theyre going to strike next. They invade our most personal spaces at a rapid clip, breeding in tight cycles with females laying up to six eggs a day.

In New York, where strangers exist in tight proximity and constant contact, bed bugs are a source of heightened concern. Live here long enough, and youll hear or experience for yourself variations of this particular genre of horror story, which often involve the insects stealth. Because their bites mimic those of mosquitoes, when they show up at all around 30 percent of people arent allergic victims can miss the problem for weeks. By the time a full-fledged infestation has bloomed, other distressing signs emerge: pillows and sheets riddled with black stains (from their feces) and red streaks (from blood-drunk bugs that have been crushed during the night), accompanied by the unsettling musty scent of their pheromones, which experts have likened to coriander.

These nightmare reveals are well-known in the city, as is the fact that bed bugs are savvy travelers, able to climb onto clothing, jump into purses, and lie in wait for a juicy host in movie theaters, bar lounges, the back of cabs, even changing rooms. If someone else has them, the consensus is: stay away. And if you have them, its a good idea to lay low and do your best to eradicate the problem without broadcasting to the world that youre single-handedly feeding an army of parasites.

Add all of these elements together, and you get a recipe for extreme panic. Many of Swans jobs start like this: Its the middle of the night, and somewhere in Brooklyn, someone has woken up to the sting of bites or, worse, a confirmed bug sighting. And so Swans phone rings. If hes up, he answers. Part of this is financial desperate calls usually translate into work but its also human decency. After ten-plus years into the business, he knows that while he cant do anything about the infestation itself, he can make the situation less terrible. Often, he gives the person at the other end of the line a task. Bag up the sheets and pillows, take a shower, put on clean pajamas, and go to sleep on the couch. When its two in the morning and you cant sleep because you think something is sucking your blood, having a mission helps.

So does having someone on the phone who can credibly say: You will get through this. Heres how.

For the most part, once you start asking people questions they get away from hysteria and start making a game plan, he said. They just want you to tell them its going to be okay.

If you live in Brooklyn and have searched for a bed bug exterminator online, chances are youll stumble on the Gowanus-based New York Pest Control, which has 23 reviews and an impressive-if-suspicious five stars on Yelp. Scan through the reviews, however, and youll see account after account from desperate, emotionally fried people profusely thanking the company for shepherding them through the ordeal.

Angela Balbi, who handles incoming calls, is regularly praised for her empathy. Special thanks to Angela who not only set up the appointment with ease but managed to walk me off the ledge since this mess has been such a depressing and chaotic situation, writes one user. Without pushing any services on me, she listened to my story about mystery bites, and gave me thorough advice. I spent 20 minutes on the phone with her and she made me feel better than anyone I've talked to about my situation, writes another.

As for Swan, hes praised in virtually every review. Marcia (who declined to use her real name, citing fears it would damage her reputation as a landlord) discovered why back in May, when she realized the mosquito bites covering her lower back were not, in fact, mosquito bites.

I kept reading about Billy, Billy, Billy, she remembered. I called and I specifically asked for Billy. I didnt want anyone else coming to my house.

When I visited Swan and Balbi at New York Pest Controls office on a punishingly hot afternoon just before Labor Day, they play downed their role as stand-in therapists while acknowledging that bed bugs truly do mess with your mind. Having both experienced bed bugs personally, they empathize with the anxiety and irrationality experienced by their customers. (Three years after a minor bed bug problem, Balbi says she still checks her bed for signs of a return every night.)

Balbi, 44, is responsible for scheduling: Im the mob boss. I send him out, and he puts a hit on [the bugs], Balbi joked from the doorway to the back office, in between calls.

She spent the last few days in constant communication with a self-described neurotic who was waiting for Swan to come and spray his apartment for a confirmed bed bug infestation. I felt like I was dating him. I was waking up to text messages: Good morning Angela! Balbi said. Im like, Hey, how you doing? Thats how personal it gets. Theyre dependent on us.

Warm and instantly likeable, Balbi doesnt mind the lack of boundaries; she answers texts as soon as possible, even on weekends. (Like Swan, she receives a lot of bite and bug photos to analyze.) Sprayings are staggered 14 days apart so that any unscathed eggs, which are protected by a layer of fat, have time to hatch but the resulting bugs dont get a chance to lay eggs of their own. Treatment takes weeks, sometimes longer, which is ample time to form connections. There was a bed bug job once where we got so close, we were both taking our daughters to a concert and we were going to meet up at the concert and have a drink together, she said. Thats how much time we spent on the phone.

Usually, by the time Swan arrives, Balbi has managed to calm down even the most frenzied of customers. Still, he is frequently met at the door by people who are overwhelmed and sleep-deprived. His strategy is to immediately start asking questions. If they are very upset, Ill ask them about something in their house when I walk in. Hey, whered you get that? just change their thought, he said. And then you can talk to them. Sometimes, his presence alone is enough.

When a fireman rolls up, you smile, he told me. They believe that you are going to save them.

And he is, Angela chimed in. Hes never failed.

Swans work brings him all over Brooklyn. For a time, he was a route exterminator called mostly for maintenance jobs in large apartment complexes but today, hes more of a detective. When he enters, he does a sweep to assess the particulars of the case, before working with the customer to devise a plan of attack. He can spend multiple hours on one job; the majority of this time is typically spent answering questions and playing therapist.

It also exposes him to problems that extend far beyond pests. Ive called people bad children for the way they treat their elderly. I get crazy when I go into the house, I move the sheet and see 50 bed bugs. The daughter goes, Oh I didnt see nothing. That means you never change your mothers sheets, he said, getting worked up. Short and stocky with close-shaven hair, a neatly trimmed beard, and a thick New York accent, Swan is a charismatic, expressive talker who doesnt mince words. You dont need to be a bug expert to know you are neglecting this lady, he continued. You see it all too often.

Getting lied to is a regular part of the job. So are uncomfortable family dynamics, like when a woman in Connecticut called to arrange a bed bug appointment for her 24-year-old son. When Swan arrived, hed failed to dismantle his bed frame or put his clothes in bags as instructed, which meant Swan couldnt spray. He chewed the kid out and left, only to receive a second call from the mother. She said, Can I pay you to do all that? Just put my credit card and charge me for everything. Swan shook his head, amazed.

Couples fight in front of him all the time, and hes witnessed first-hand how money doesnt always buy happiness: Rich people can be outright pricks to their families. Many of his customers, particularly the elderly, are isolated and deeply lonely. They just want to talk to you, he said. Bob, a former customer in his seventies who Swan helped with a cockroach infestation, regularly calls to discuss theoretical plans of attack. He likes to ask me about maybes, Swan said. What if one got into this cabinet? I go, But Bob, it didnt.

He encounters a rich variety of mental illness: people who are convinced there are bugs where there arent any, hoarders who only want him to spray in a particular area of the house, renters who have their own personal supplies of pesticides. Once a customer asked him if he could vacuum up the bed bugs instead of killing them, and then release them into Central Park.

But, by far, the most systematic problem he encounters is poverty and its asshole cousin, gentrification.

It was a grey rainy morning in early September, and Swan was at a job in rapidly gentrifying Flatbush. This was his fifth or sixth visit, all at the bequest of a landlord, who owns two units in the building, one of which is about to be totally renovated, after which it will command a significantly higher price than what the old tenants paid.

There was just one problem (or, more accurately, many small ones): bed bugs were getting in from the other apartment, a rent-controlled one-bedroom thats home to a family of five.

Swan has sprayed this apartment a handful of times over the past few years, but the infestation has never entirely gone away. The issue, he believes, is that the family is not following the proper protocol, which is extensive. It includes washing all bedding, linens, and clothing in hot water and then drying them; placing the items in garbage bags; vacuuming items that are not machine washable and putting them in sealed bins; unplugging all electronic devices; washing and vacuuming floors, carpets, moldings, electrical sockets, couches, and rugs; moving all objects away from the parameter of the room; and finally, taking apart the bed frame. Theyre maintaining.

The landlord knocked, and a woman, holding a toddler, answered to let them in. Swan immediately spotted a bed bug crawling on the living room wall. There was a second one to its right. They were both about an eighth of an inch, which means they have a ways to grow. Baby bed bugs are the size of a pin, but expand with each feeding; well-fed adults are comparable in shape and size to plump apple seeds.

He sprayed them with rubbing alcohol. A young boy, armed with a plastic truck, watched gravely from the couch.

Swan moved into the bedroom, which faces the street. Rain streamed down outside. Is it okay if I look through the sheets? he asked. The woman nodded, and told him she hadnt seen any bugs in the bedroom, just in the living room and a lone straggler in the bathroom. He raised the mattress; no sign of bugs. On the pillow cases, however, he finds blood and feces stains. Maybe its pen stains? the woman suggested. There are primary-colored scribbles on the walls. Theyre always drawing. Swan told her he knows how it goes; he has five children. But these stains were definitely from bed bugs.

He asked if anyone sleeps in the living room. Sometimes, she told him. He searched the crib, and despite finding more blood stains, saw no evidence of the bugs themselves. The stains might have been from previous infestations. His theory was that the bugs are camped out in the living room, and feeding on whomever sleeps out there. If left alone, theyd eventually find their way back to the bedroom. He directed the information at the woman, but hes also talking to the landlord, who stood by the doorway, tense.

Afterwards, Swan and the landlord went back to the empty apartment next door to strategize. Swan recommended opening the walls, and lining them with insecticide dust, which should kill the bugs if they attempted to cross through. He gets a lot of calls like this. Brooklyn is full of buildings where rent-stabilized apartments that go for $800 or $900 a month abut units that rent for thousands more. As a result, landlords regularly pay Swan for treatments out of pocket. They dont want to lose the $3,000 tenants, he said.

But poverty makes following bed bug procedures difficult, even when the treatment is paid for. There are so many times when you go into an apartment for bed bugs and you have four, six kids sleeping in one bedroom. Where do you put all their stuff?

And when a treatment isnt paid for, the cost can be prohibitive. An inspection through NYC Pest Control costs $100. A treatment, for a one-bedroom, starts at $875; each extra room is $75. These numbers run through Swans head all the time. He actively dissuades potential customers from having him come for an inspection unless hes confident hell find something; otherwise, he advises they do a deep clean, and wait it out. If theres a problem, signs will soon emerge. Its far from cheap, bed bugs. If I dont find physical evidence, Im going to feel like a crook to charge you for a job, he said. Thats what separates us from all the other companies.

He takes pride in his refusal to overcharge or string anyone along for extra fees. Although official NYC Pest Control policy states that after a 30-day warranty, additional treatments cost extra, Swan mostly disregards it; if youve followed his instructions and the bugs are still coming from the same source, hell return on his own and spray for free.

I always tell people on the phone, he takes it personal. Hell come back as many times as he needs to come back, Balbi said. He will literally drive himself crazy if he cant figure out whats going on.

Swan isnt great with faces or remembering names; when he closes his eyes, however, he can recall the layouts of apartments hes treated. My family would tell you I dont remember anything, but when it comes to jobs I honestly take my work very serious.

Months after the last bed bug sighting, Marcia said she still wakes up two to three times a night. She has redecorated her bedroom, removing the paintings and curtains, anything where bed bugs could hide. It kind of changes you permanently.

Marcia was adamant that she wouldnt have gotten through the six-week ordeal, in which she was living out of bags, doing laundry every day, and sleeping almost never, without Swan and Balbi. I was ready to have a nervous breakdown, she said, and they were cognizant and respectful of that. Through texts and calls, Swan would reassure her that the infestation was temporary; an end was in sight. His extreme confidence in his ability to eradicate the problem was a lifeline. That was the most helpful thing.

Marcia said she confided in a few close friends, but as a general rule, bed bugs are designed to isolate. A cockroach or mouse sighting is an excuse to vent and commiserate. Bed bugs though? Try telling friends or coworkers you think you have them, and see how they react. Whats more, there can be legal repercussions.

Frank, a real-estate agent in his forties who declined to use his real name for exactly this reason, owns a unit in a co-op. Landlords are legally required to notify prospective tenants in writing about any bed bug outbreaks that have occurred in the building in the past year.

But Frank wasnt sure what his obligation was as a shareholder. So after his wife woke up with bites and a dog inspection confirmed they had a minor infestation, he called Swan and asked him to come treat the apartment in civilian clothes, so as not to alert the neighbors. (This, Swan said, is a frequent request.) The bed bugs are gone from his unit, but since then, theyve been found in a few other apartments in the building. Similar discoveries are happening across Brooklyn, creating unacknowledged threads running through the borough that, unpleasant as they may be, tie us all together.

See the article here:
The bed-bug whisperer of Brooklyn | The Outline

Hey Suitcase,

I think the best advice I can give you is, let's take this one step at a time. Try not to worry about the long-term future just yet - try to focus on the present.

Glad to hear you're in a rental car. Will you be driving home in your car from the airport? If so, I think you should do the big "throwing out" at the airport, BEFORE getting in your car, if that is possible for you.

If you must bring things into your home, make sure they are protected. But really, I'd bring home as little stuff as possible. While the chances are that you only have a few bugs (not like, hundreds or anything) you need to imagine that they could be in anything.

But wallets, purse, shoes - don't worry about these things' long-term futures. We will deal with those once you've made the transition home. Just worry about getting home, with your stuff isolated.

I'm gonna describe what I think is your ideal scenario:

You get to the airport. You open your suitcases and take everything out. You put everything into XL ziplocs. You wrap the suitcases in garbage bags, and put them in a dumpster or garbage (I know that may be hard to find, and I wouldn't want you to just leave them where others might steal them, but perhaps there is a big garbage somewhere?) Or, worst-case, they are wrapped in garbage bags and you drive them to a dumpster.

Then, you and your family carry the bags of stuff to the car. You get home. You take your own clothes off, maybe in the garage or something, and put them right into bags too. You jump in the shower.

You empty ziplocs straight into the washer, and you seal and throw them out after use. You take drycleanables to the cleaners, in the ziplocs, and instruct them to keep the bags sealed because they may have bedbugs. (My first cleaners acted like I was a total freak, so I found a new cleaners, and they are much nicer about it).

All the other stuff, you keep sealed, at least at first. You monitor your body, you make sure you've got no new bites. Then you can start dealing with your other stuff.

No, I don't think you'll need to leave things in storage for 18 months, though it is one way to be totally sure any bugs inside are gone. But there are faster ways. You might want to inspect each item, one at a time, in the bathtub or over a white sheet. You can spray everything individually with Kleen Free - it's an enzyme cleaner that kills bedbugs on contact and shouldn't damage any of your stuff (I've sprayed leather shoes, wool coats, my own skin, etc). You can steam-clean items that are hard to see inside, like a purse (my purse has an inner liner, so it's hard to see inside there). You can stick things in the dryer, like any sneakers or canvas shoes.

But don't worry about these things right now. Just worry about keeping everything isolated, and getting yourself and your stuff home without infesting your car or your house. Then we'll deal with the stuff.

You're doing so great!! Hopefully this'll be over soon!

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How do I avoid bringing bedbugs home after being exposed ...

Information for New York City Residents

Bed bug infestations are increasingly common, but there are steps that can be taken to prevent bed bugs from infesting your home. When bed bugs are present, they can be safely controlled. This web site will help you learn more about how they thrive, how to recognize and inspect for their presence, steps to take to prevent them from infesting your home, how to safely rid your home of bed bugs if they do occur, and also how to select and work with a pest management professional.

Read the guide, Preventing and Getting Rid of Bed Bugs Safely (PDF)

Bed bugs are small insects that are usually active at night when people are sleeping. Adult bed bugs have flat, brown oval bodies and are about the size of an apple seed.

The New York City area has more than 1,000 pest control companies and thousands of licensed pest management professionals. To get rid of bed bugs, you need to choose the right company, be clear about what you want done, and monitor the service you get.

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Bedbugs

Why Exterminator Reports are Evidence of Nothing

posted Sep 19, 2010

Hotel managers will sometimes dispute a report on this site by emailing me an exterminator's statement that a given room has been checked and found not to harbor bed bugs. In their view, a report of this kind is ironclad evidence that the room inspected is bug-free, so they are dismayed and sometimes angry to find that I don't give the statements much weight.

As I see it, there are two serious problems with treating exterminators' reports as evidence of anything:

First, it's quite possible for a skilled exterminator to examine an infested room without finding bed bugs. The insects are notoriously difficult to find when present in small numbers. Even in a room where there is no doubt of their presence, it can be impossible for an expert technician to find them without disassembling furniture. The problem is compounded in hotel rooms, which often have fixtures like headboards that are permanently fastened to the wall.

Second, not all exterminators know how to check for bed bugs. For many pest control companies, bed bugs are still an unfamiliar foe, and the level of expertise between individual inspectors varies enormously. People posting to this site have reported "inspections" in public housing that consisted of a technician going door to door in the daytime and briefly shining a flashlight under a mattress, a procedure almost designed to eliminate the chances of finding a bed bug.

They've also reported licensed exterminators applying inappropriate treatments (like room foggers) or simply not knowing how to go about looking for the insect.

A perfect example of why I don't treat exterminator reports as dispositive came just a few days ago in an email exchange I had with the Regency Hotel in Omaha. A guest had reported seeing bed bugs during her stay at the hotel, and the manager of the hotel wrote me to vigorously dispute the claim. As evidence, she included the following scan of an exterminator's report:

On the face of it, the report looks quite authoritative. The pest control company in the letterhead has been in business for many years, and works routinely with this hotel. One of their technicians came by, inspected the room, and found it to be free of bed bugs.

But if you look more closely, you'll see the entire inspection lasted 1 minute 57 seconds. Anyone who's fought bedbugs knows this is an impossibly short time to detect anything short of an overwhelming infestation. (When I pointed this out to the Regency manager, she responded that the time recorded on the report did not reflect the actual time spent looking at the room.)

From the hotel's point of view, any report on an exterminator's letterhead should serve as conclusive evidence that there was no bedbug problem. But from my point of view, it's just another piece of evidence to weigh in evaluating a claim.

We may reach a point where there is a gold standard for bed bug inspection, and I can treat a certified report as credible evidence that a hotel room is free of the pests. But we are a very long way from that being the case, and this kind of 'proof' will remain unconvincing.

Still, since hotels give them so much weight, I am working right now on a way to upload scanned PCO reports directly to the site, and let readers make up their own minds.

Read the rest here:
Bed Bug Registry Blog

NEW YORKSleep tight and don't let the bedbugs bite? If only. The creepy critters have become such a nuisance here that the city council is mulling legislation that would establish a bedbug task force, ban the sale of used mattresses, train exterminators, and regulate mattress disposal. Just how infested is Gotham? According to the New York Daily News, there were 22,218 complaints to the city's 311 hotline about infestations of the blood-sucking hemipterans, a 34 percent jump since this time last year.

And the Big Apple is not alone in its battle against the bugs. In Chicago, the number of official complaints doubled from 900 to 1,650 during that same period, according to the Tribune. Boston already slaps warning stickers on discarded furniture and Cincinnati has its own bedbug task force. The bugs, which originally hailed from Europe, were nearly wiped out by DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) in the 1950s. But they have been making a comeback since the insecticide was banned in the U.S. in 1972, a decade after journalist Rachel Carson documented the chemical's damaging effects on humans and wildlife in her book Silent Spring.

"I'm petrified to turn the lights off at night," one discouraged New Yorker told Newsday this week. "I'm not getting proper sleep, I can't concentrate on work."

Contrary to their name, bedbugs do not only hang out in beds. They can be found in just about in nook and cranny and can survive for several months without a warm blood meal. The adults are reddish-brown, as about 0.2 inch (five millimeters) long, roughly the height of the numbers on a credit card, and resemble tiny cockroaches; when young, they're pale and about the size of a pinhead. They leave itchy red skin welts and cause endless grief for their victims.

So what's the story on these pesky ectoparasites? Is there any surefire way to avoid themor to get rid of them if they grace you with their vampiric presence?

To find out, we spoke with Louis Sorkin, an entomologist at the American Museum of Natural History here, who sustains a personal colony of the bugs with his own blood.

[An edited transcript of the interview follows.]

What are bedbugs?The common bedbug is Cimex lectularius. They are true bugs [of the order Hemiptera] in that they possess a hinged beak in the front of the head and have a stylet. The stylet is what is pushed through the skin to find a blood vessel inside. The bug sucks until it's full, and when it's finished it will go and hide and digest the blood. The body swells up to six times its normal sizefrom a flat insect to football-shaped.

So are they really just found in beds?By virtue of its name, people always think bedbugs are found only in beds when, in fact, they fit anywhere their bodies can be hidden and they are as thin as a sheet of paper. They are found in all kinds of furniture, electric appliances, clock radios, computers, printers, behind pictures, books and, of course, bookcases. They are found in cracks and crevices in the wall and within walls as well as in electric outlets, wiring, pipes, plastic and metal conduits.

The problem with calling them a "bedbug" is people have an infestation and they throw out the mattress, but then the critters come back. It's really a nest or roost-inhabiting insect, and our homes are our roosts.

How do you get bedbugs?They are good hitchhikers. Often people carry them unknowingly in their luggage. This can be baggage when you are traveling, a briefcase, a backpack or just clothing. They can be picked up in public transportation sometimes or in theaters. They will travel on pipes and wiring and conduits from one apartment to another.

Are they dangerous?As far as the research shows, they don't transmit diseases, but they do bite and take blood. People can get secondary infections if they scratch their wounds. In some people, the itching is unbearable. There's some disagreement as to how many people don't itch at all. That's one reason why infestations can be so bad, because people don't realize they have them

In a few cases, there may be an anaphylactic reaction. It is also possible to have an asthmatic reaction because of the shed skin the bugs leave behind as they grow and die.How do you know if you have bedbugs?If you have unexplained bites, that's a good way to know. You can also look for their blood droppings. The excrement is a liquid that varies from either light brown to black and can either bead up or be absorbed by the surface.

In some cases, we use dogs who are trained to sniff out live bedbugs or past infestations. They'll pick up on the odor of even one bedbug. We can't typically smell bed bugs, but we do pick up their alarm pheromone when they are disturbed, which smells like coriander. If there are a lot of live bugs, there may be a smell of blood, like rusty iron.

If you are traveling, you should examine the headboard in your hotel room. The headboard should be taken off and looked into. Massive headboards would be a great condominium complex for bedbugs.

How do you get rid of them?Often you have to seek the services of a pest control expert who has had a lot of experience. You don't have to get rid of your furniture. Insecticides can be sprayed on furniture or furniture can be taken apart and sprayed with orange oil or Murphy's oil, both of which have an insecticidal quality. There are special preparations labeled for mattresses.

The nonchemical ways to remove bedbugs include low-vapor steam treatments, which are done for mattresses and furniture. There are also encasements that you put the mattress box spring in. You starve them to death, but it will take months.

In medieval times, when people would travel to inns with bedbug problems, they would send a pig into the room first so the bedbugs would feed and be satiated.

Don't you have a colony of bedbugs at the museum?I've only had them for three years, but the original population had been collected from Fort Dix in New Jersey by an Army entomologist in 1971.

I have two eight-ounce jars with about a thousand bugs. There's a fine screen and I have duct tape around the base of the screw-on lid. Inside, there is just cardboard and paper, because they like to hide between the pieces.

Once a month, I just have to invert them on my arm in order to feed them. I get a bump on my arm for an hour or two and then it goes away. It doesn't itch.And why is it that you keep these vile creatures?They're mostly for educational purposes. I can show people and reporters all sizes of bedbugs. I also supply bedbugs to the companies that train the bedbug-sniffing dogs.

More:
What are bedbugs? Are they dangerous? - Scientific American

Broad City has consistently strong cold opens. Bedbugs opens with Abbi and Ilana driving around in the convertible Ilana got out of their trip to Florida earlier in the season. At first, theyre riding the high of having a car in New York...until its time to park. Anyone who has ever had to deal with street parking in New York knows its a hellscape. Broad City is brilliant in these moments that take a specific aspect of New York life and mine it for relatable and organic comedy. The sequence is barely even exaggerated for comedic effect. Abbi directs Ilana into a tight spot only to then realize its in front of a driveway. After a long search, they think they see a spot, become excited and relieved, and then come crashing back down when they realize theres a fire hydrant. Eventually, they give up entirely. Its a tragic play. Its a slice of New York life. Its a great cold open that doesnt have to try too hard to be funny. Broad City shows the extreme highs and lows of living in New York, and Bedbugs is full of that emotional whiplash.

And that easy, understated humor permeates Bedbugs, the second episode of the season to be directed by Ilana Glazer. I liked her directorial debut Florida, but theres something more confident and cohesive about Bedbugs, which sees both Ilana and Abbi through two personal lows. Still out of a job and forced to turn in cans and bottles for a few bucks, Abbis luck turns around after Ilana bestows her with an absurdly expensive bag. Suddenly, Abbis living in a romcom version of New York or, more accurately, a romcom version of New York filtered through the wacky lens of Broad City. Glazers direction plays up the romance with sweeping camerawork, but a masturbating guy on the street reminds that the romanticized Hollywood version of New York isnt real. Even artists with successful work showing around the world are broke.

Abbis bag confidence peaks when she goes into Anthropologie, a store so ridiculously overpriced that it seems to exist on a different plane. Sure enough, Abbis little voyage into Anthropologie has an almost fantastical vibe to it as she sniffs the perfect display of candles and wanders the stores sacred halls. The bags magic is short-lived. Abbi comes crashing back to reality when a mugger, played by Steve Buscemi, holds her up and takes her to her local bodega to take out money. When he sees her bank account, hes appalled and starts lecturing her on the importance of having money for emergencies and being more proactive about her equity. A mugger lecturing Abbi on her finances is just the right amount of absurd, heightened but still grounded, underscoring just how dire her financial situation is.

Its not Buscemi with the best guest performance of the episode but rather Zephyr Ingle as Massouma, the girl who works at the bodega. Abbi comes to the bodega enough for Massouma to know her by name but Abbi doesnt know hers. Ingle plays Massoumas annoyance at Abbi with a perfectly straight-face. Broad City sprinkles its universe with fun and specific one-off characters, and Massouma is a great example. Shes funny, but shes also more than just a bit character. And the episode places her in the larger context of the shows universe: She and Ilana are tight enough to have each others phone numbers. Abbi comes off looking like a dumb white bitch, as she puts it herself. If you dont know the names of the people who ring you up at the bodega on a near daily basis, youre kind of a shitty person, and Broad City acknowledges that.

Given Ilanas excessive spending all season, her comeuppance was inevitable. Abbi isnt the only one to face one of New Yorks monsters when she gets mugged. Ilana and Jaime get bedbugs. The ruthless way Ilanas family and boyfriend treat her after finding out she has bedbugs is all too real. People in New York treat bedbugs like the actual plague. Lea Delaria has a fun cameo as the exterminator who finds the source of their bedbugs: all the cash Ilana was stuffing into her comforter. It all has to be burned. Ilanas financial irresponsibility has severe consequences, and she cant recoup the lost money because, as it turns out, Sushi Mambeaux was the source of the infestation and is closing down.

Now Abbis the one with a job (as security at Anthropologie, which wasnt really the glam vision she had in mind...expectations versus reality have been extremely divergent for Abbi as of late) and Ilanas the one whos unemployed. More so than in past seasons, this season of Broad City has been showing Abbi and Ilana genuinely struggle financially and experience how tough it can be to find steady employment in New York. Their lack of steady employment has significantly affected the seasonas it should. Bedbugs isnt necessarily cynical, but its a realistically dark episode that puts Abbi and Ilana through some shit. In the end, they still have each other (and the real hero of the episode: Massouma). Sometimes the only thing you can do after an exceptionally shitty day is just be with your best friend.

The rest is here:
Bedbugs, muggers, and unemployment plague Broad City, but ...