BED BUG INFESTATIONS CONTINUES TO EXACT TOLL ON PUBLIC AND PRIVATE HOUSING
IN MULTNOMAH COUNTY AND BEYOND
Excerts from Oregon Live - Dana Tims 09/19/12
Just mention the word "bedbug," and people's skin starts crawling. And with good reason. Since arriving in the metro area several years ago, the rust-colored pests have invaded motels, apartments, taxis, buses -- anyplace people sleep or congregate. Now, their continuing infestations are driving some property owners to the brink of bankruptcy. Similarly, their bloodsucking ways have drained hundreds of thousands of dollars from the already strained budgets of numerous public and private housing providers, particularly those clustered in the denser portions of Multnomah County. And they don't discriminate, showing up everywhere from high-end hotels to single-family residences to high-rises populated by poor and disabled seniors. Making matters worse is that infestations are often kept quiet because of the awful stigma attached to bedbugs. Eradication is costly and unreliable, leaving many landlords and business owners to ignore the problem. Lower-income residents not living in subsidized housing, meanwhile, are often told that pest-control solutions are simply beyond their means. Housing providers are responding with a multifaceted approach that includes heat, cold, bedbug-sniffing dogs and intense chemical treatments. And while the efforts appear capable of playing bedbugs to a draw right now, the prehistoric-looking critters are here to stay. And, as New York City learned a few years ago, they are ready to explode the moment conditions allow….. Bedbugs first popped up in significant numbers in the Portland area in 2008, not long after the wingless, nocturnal nuisances sent the entire state of New York writhing into full-on panic with infestations everywhere from the Empire State Building to the United Nations. By 2009, elderly residents in downtown Portland high-rises starting seeing "an enormous outbreak of bedbugs," said the, assistant director of property management for Home Forward, formerly the Housing Authority of Portland. The agency dispatched its own licensed pest operators to tackle the problem, he said, but they struggled to keep up with each new outbreak. Reports of new infestations, both in public and private accommodations, continue pouring in. "It remains a growing problem," said one tourist facilities specialist for the Oregon Health Authority, which oversees licensing of the state's lodging facilities. "It may be due to better reporting, but there are more documented cases today than there were several years ago." An adult bedbug, for instance, can survive without a meal for a year or longer. And with females capable of laying five eggs a day, their rates of reproduction are exponential. They tend to live within eight feet of where people sleep, lest they stray too far from their entree. They need 10 or so minutes of uninterrupted feeding, during which they gulp more than three times their body weight in human blood. Simply moving to another room on the far side of a residence is fruitless -- bedbugs stalk their victims by tracking body heat and the carbon dioxide exuded during sleep. A Multnomah County workgroup that's been mulling the bed bug problem for the past year, for example, reports that public education efforts, combined with early detection campaigns, have helped limit outbreaks in public-housing facilities. "Early detection and quick action are what's important”.
Our Service is designed to meet your individual needs, schedule and budget - Call today for a Free Estimate.
Just mention the word "bedbug," and people's skin starts crawling. And with good reason. Since arriving in the metro area several years ago, the rust-colored pests have invaded motels, apartments, taxis, buses -- anyplace people sleep or congregate. Now, their continuing infestations are driving some property owners to the brink of bankruptcy. Similarly, their bloodsucking ways have drained hundreds of thousands of dollars from the already strained budgets of numerous public and private housing providers, particularly those clustered in the denser portions of Multnomah County. And they don't discriminate, showing up everywhere from high-end hotels to single-family residences to high-rises populated by poor and disabled seniors. Making matters worse is that infestations are often kept quiet because of the awful stigma attached to bedbugs. Eradication is costly and unreliable, leaving many landlords and business owners to ignore the problem. Lower-income residents not living in subsidized housing, meanwhile, are often told that pest-control solutions are simply beyond their means. Housing providers are responding with a multifaceted approach that includes heat, cold, bedbug-sniffing dogs and intense chemical treatments. And while the efforts appear capable of playing bedbugs to a draw right now, the prehistoric-looking critters are here to stay. And, as New York City learned a few years ago, they are ready to explode the moment conditions allow….. Bedbugs first popped up in significant numbers in the Portland area in 2008, not long after the wingless, nocturnal nuisances sent the entire state of New York writhing into full-on panic with infestations everywhere from the Empire State Building to the United Nations. By 2009, elderly residents in downtown Portland high-rises starting seeing "an enormous outbreak of bedbugs," said the, assistant director of property management for Home Forward, formerly the Housing Authority of Portland. The agency dispatched its own licensed pest operators to tackle the problem, he said, but they struggled to keep up with each new outbreak. Reports of new infestations, both in public and private accommodations, continue pouring in. "It remains a growing problem," said one tourist facilities specialist for the Oregon Health Authority, which oversees licensing of the state's lodging facilities. "It may be due to better reporting, but there are more documented cases today than there were several years ago." An adult bedbug, for instance, can survive without a meal for a year or longer. And with females capable of laying five eggs a day, their rates of reproduction are exponential. They tend to live within eight feet of where people sleep, lest they stray too far from their entree. They need 10 or so minutes of uninterrupted feeding, during which they gulp more than three times their body weight in human blood. Simply moving to another room on the far side of a residence is fruitless -- bedbugs stalk their victims by tracking body heat and the carbon dioxide exuded during sleep. A Multnomah County workgroup that's been mulling the bed bug problem for the past year, for example, reports that public education efforts, combined with early detection campaigns, have helped limit outbreaks in public-housing facilities. "Early detection and quick action are what's important”.
Our Service is designed to meet your individual needs, schedule and budget - Call today for a Free Estimate.
APRIL 25th 2013 - MARKET WATCH REPORTS BED BUGS INVADE HOSPITALS
by Jen Wieczner | MarketWatch – Thu, Apr 25, 2013 3:43 PM EDT
As if adapting to health-care reform and curbing the “nightmare bacteria” weren’t challenge enough, hospitals are increasingly plagued by another problem: bedbugs.
More than a third of pest-management companies treated bedbug infestations in hospitals in 2012, 6% more than the year before and more than twice as many as in 2010, according to a survey released today by the National Pest Management Association. The percentage of exterminators dealing with bedbugs in nursing homes has also almost doubled since 2010, to 46%. Bedbug experts also report seeing them in ambulances. Hospitals are already cracking down on anything that could increase the risk of patient infections, which not only can be deadly but may also lead to more readmissions and reduced federal funding under the Affordable Care Act. While bedbugs have not been found to transmit infections to humans, they leave itchy bites after feeding on people’s blood, which can lead to secondary infections when victims scratch, opening themselves up to bacteria. This is especially problematic in hospitals, where there is a greater likelihood of catching the highly potent and contagious staph infection known as MRSA, says Dr. Jorge Parada, medical director of the infection prevention and control program of Loyola University Health System in Chicago. “You don’t need one more ingredient to increase your risk of infections in the hospital,” he says. Although hospitals are putting a growing emphasis on strict cleanliness and sterilization protocols, bedbugs still arrive via the many patients and visitors going in and out of their emergency rooms and waiting areas. “We never know when somebody might show up with bedbugs,” Parada says. The high instance of bedbugs in nursing homes is also concerning, he adds, because hospitals receive many transfers from such facilities, and elderly people often don’t exhibit the same telltale signs of bedbugs—red, raised, itchy lesions—that other patients do: “It’s one less tipoff that it’s a problem.” To be sure, say experts, you’re still more likely to catch other kinds of bugs in hospitals than you are to get bedbugs—and they aren’t a medical emergency the way other complications would be, says Missy Henriksen of the National Pest Management Association. That said, if bedbugs become a problem in a hospital, they can be a persistent nuisance. “The bedbugs, and particularly the eggs of bedbugs, are even harder to kill than the spores of the bacteria,” says Dr. Dick Zoutman, a professor and infectious disease specialist at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada. “I wouldn’t have thought that to be the case.” Zoutman helped develop a new hospital sterilization system that can kill highly drug-resistant bacteria as well as bedbugs. The sterilization technology, marketed as AsepticSure by San Francisco-based Medizone International—a firm that is traded over-the-counter as MZEI.OB and MZEI.QB—uses gas to effectively eradicate 100% of bacteria in less than an hour, according to the company. Medizone just began distributing its new disinfecting technology to Canadian hospitals earlier this month, and is seeking approval to market it in the U.S., too. But Zoutman, who now serves as Medizone’s chief medical officer, says that in tests, the system took up to 24 hours to kill bedbugs, and up to 36 hours to kill their eggs. He says Medizone is now working to adapt the system to kill bedbugs in a faster and more effective manner, both for hospitals and other settings as well. Advances like that would be eagerly welcomed in hospitals, but for now, exterminators are their only realistic option for addressing a pest invasion. “No patient,” Parada says, “is going to look favorably on a hospital that’s had a bedbug infestation.”
As if adapting to health-care reform and curbing the “nightmare bacteria” weren’t challenge enough, hospitals are increasingly plagued by another problem: bedbugs.
More than a third of pest-management companies treated bedbug infestations in hospitals in 2012, 6% more than the year before and more than twice as many as in 2010, according to a survey released today by the National Pest Management Association. The percentage of exterminators dealing with bedbugs in nursing homes has also almost doubled since 2010, to 46%. Bedbug experts also report seeing them in ambulances. Hospitals are already cracking down on anything that could increase the risk of patient infections, which not only can be deadly but may also lead to more readmissions and reduced federal funding under the Affordable Care Act. While bedbugs have not been found to transmit infections to humans, they leave itchy bites after feeding on people’s blood, which can lead to secondary infections when victims scratch, opening themselves up to bacteria. This is especially problematic in hospitals, where there is a greater likelihood of catching the highly potent and contagious staph infection known as MRSA, says Dr. Jorge Parada, medical director of the infection prevention and control program of Loyola University Health System in Chicago. “You don’t need one more ingredient to increase your risk of infections in the hospital,” he says. Although hospitals are putting a growing emphasis on strict cleanliness and sterilization protocols, bedbugs still arrive via the many patients and visitors going in and out of their emergency rooms and waiting areas. “We never know when somebody might show up with bedbugs,” Parada says. The high instance of bedbugs in nursing homes is also concerning, he adds, because hospitals receive many transfers from such facilities, and elderly people often don’t exhibit the same telltale signs of bedbugs—red, raised, itchy lesions—that other patients do: “It’s one less tipoff that it’s a problem.” To be sure, say experts, you’re still more likely to catch other kinds of bugs in hospitals than you are to get bedbugs—and they aren’t a medical emergency the way other complications would be, says Missy Henriksen of the National Pest Management Association. That said, if bedbugs become a problem in a hospital, they can be a persistent nuisance. “The bedbugs, and particularly the eggs of bedbugs, are even harder to kill than the spores of the bacteria,” says Dr. Dick Zoutman, a professor and infectious disease specialist at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada. “I wouldn’t have thought that to be the case.” Zoutman helped develop a new hospital sterilization system that can kill highly drug-resistant bacteria as well as bedbugs. The sterilization technology, marketed as AsepticSure by San Francisco-based Medizone International—a firm that is traded over-the-counter as MZEI.OB and MZEI.QB—uses gas to effectively eradicate 100% of bacteria in less than an hour, according to the company. Medizone just began distributing its new disinfecting technology to Canadian hospitals earlier this month, and is seeking approval to market it in the U.S., too. But Zoutman, who now serves as Medizone’s chief medical officer, says that in tests, the system took up to 24 hours to kill bedbugs, and up to 36 hours to kill their eggs. He says Medizone is now working to adapt the system to kill bedbugs in a faster and more effective manner, both for hospitals and other settings as well. Advances like that would be eagerly welcomed in hospitals, but for now, exterminators are their only realistic option for addressing a pest invasion. “No patient,” Parada says, “is going to look favorably on a hospital that’s had a bedbug infestation.”
BED BUG RESURGENCE
Bed Bugs have been around as long as recorded history. Throughout the 19th and early 20th century the phrase "Sleep tight don't let the bed bugs bite" has a very common saying. Pesticides in the 1940 eradicated them for the most part, but in the 1990 when the pesticides were outlaw the resurgence began. There's no doubt about it: bed bugs are back. In fact, one out of five Americans has been bitten by bed bugs or knows someone who has encountered bed bugs at home or in a hotel, according to a recent survey. Today these ‘EOP’ are found in Taxis, Dorms, Daycare Centers, Health Clubs, Tourist Sites, Luggage, Backpacks, Theaters, and Hotels and just about anywhere people gather. Bed Bugs are true hitchhikers.
Taking Precautions While Traveling Can Reduce Your Risk of Bringing Bedbugs Home
Bedbugs are a risk for everyone, but people who travel frequently (as well as those who live in apartment buildings or dorms) and are moving possessions in and out of places where there’s a considerable amount of occupant turnover are at an increased risk because the bugs most commonly get transported via luggage, clothing, beds, and other furniture and personal items. Since bedbugs don’t feed on dirt or grime, it’s possible for them to be living in even the fanciest five-star hotels. Your biggest concern when traveling shouldn’t be getting bit, your biggest concern should be taking them home.
To reduce the chances of that happening, adopt these travel tips:
Inspect the hotel room or house rental before unpacking. Make sure you look behind the bed’s headboard and in furniture. “Pull back the bed sheets and check the mattress seams for pepper-like stains that may be evidence of bed bug activity. Also check any upholstered fabric, curtains.
Request a new room if you believe there could be bedbugs. Make sure the new room isn’t next to or directly above or below the original one. Bedbugs can easily hitchhike via housekeeping carts, luggage, and even through wall sockets. Never use a luggage stand. Keep your luggage off the floor and away from the bed usually in the bathtub. Avoid unpacking your clothes in the hotel room drawers. After you return home from a trip where you think you may have been bitten by a bedbug, be sure to wash and dry all of the clothing from your suitcase. Drying all fabric items (even those that have not been worn) in a hot dryer for at least 30 minutes to ensure that any bed bugs that may have made it back with you don’t end up in your drawers or closet. You may have heard that it’s helpful to vacuum your luggage, but that might not be effective since it can be difficult to spot bedbugs inside your suitcase, particularly if they are hiding in the lining. Unfortunately, sprays designed to prevent bedbugs aren’t effective either. Using a garment steamer (such as a handheld one) to steam luggage, which should kill any bed bugs.
Bedbugs are a risk for everyone, but people who travel frequently (as well as those who live in apartment buildings or dorms) and are moving possessions in and out of places where there’s a considerable amount of occupant turnover are at an increased risk because the bugs most commonly get transported via luggage, clothing, beds, and other furniture and personal items. Since bedbugs don’t feed on dirt or grime, it’s possible for them to be living in even the fanciest five-star hotels. Your biggest concern when traveling shouldn’t be getting bit, your biggest concern should be taking them home.
To reduce the chances of that happening, adopt these travel tips:
Inspect the hotel room or house rental before unpacking. Make sure you look behind the bed’s headboard and in furniture. “Pull back the bed sheets and check the mattress seams for pepper-like stains that may be evidence of bed bug activity. Also check any upholstered fabric, curtains.
Request a new room if you believe there could be bedbugs. Make sure the new room isn’t next to or directly above or below the original one. Bedbugs can easily hitchhike via housekeeping carts, luggage, and even through wall sockets. Never use a luggage stand. Keep your luggage off the floor and away from the bed usually in the bathtub. Avoid unpacking your clothes in the hotel room drawers. After you return home from a trip where you think you may have been bitten by a bedbug, be sure to wash and dry all of the clothing from your suitcase. Drying all fabric items (even those that have not been worn) in a hot dryer for at least 30 minutes to ensure that any bed bugs that may have made it back with you don’t end up in your drawers or closet. You may have heard that it’s helpful to vacuum your luggage, but that might not be effective since it can be difficult to spot bedbugs inside your suitcase, particularly if they are hiding in the lining. Unfortunately, sprays designed to prevent bedbugs aren’t effective either. Using a garment steamer (such as a handheld one) to steam luggage, which should kill any bed bugs.