RI, MA EHS Pest Control Blog

Bedbugs Take Cheer out of School Trip

A cheerleading squad that checked into the Quality Inn said they found numerous bed bugs and evidence of bed bugs in more than one room. Friday, they drove six hours to the Grand Rapids area for an early Saturday competition and discovered bedbugs in their room.

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

Judge Allows Class Action Lawsuit in Apartment Bedbug Case

A lawsuit alleging that managers of two Des Moines apartment buildings for the elderly and disabled turned a blind eye to a growing bedbug infestation for more than two years will now be allowed to proceed as a class action, a Polk County judge ruled Thursday.

Polk County Senior Judge Joel Novak certified the class in a 27-page ruling that’s expected to eventually spark new settlement talks between residents and the owners of Elsie Mason Manor and Ligutti Towers.

Lawyers for roughly 300 current and former residents of the low-income apartment buildings first filed the lawsuit in March 2010 seeking money for back rent, lost property and other hardships because of a bedbug problem stretching back to late 2007.

Residents at the time complained that they’d been repeatedly bitten, forced to discard infested furniture and shunned both by relatives and other landlords too afraid to rent to them. While some residents are believed to have escaped with only emotional damage and laundry bills, others suffered repeated property losses and medical costs.

“Everybody sleeps on the floor,” Elsie Mason resident Robert Hobbs said in an interview last year describing infested furniture. “You have to.”

Court papers say the bedbugs eventually were brought under control after building officials last year hired a new exterminating company that treated both facilities with 120-degree heat.

The head of American Baptist Homes of the Midwest, a Minnesota agency that manages the buildings for the First Baptist Elderly Housing Foundation in Johnston, has previously acknowledged mistakes by on-site managers — including failures to aggressively treat the infestation or to deal appropriately with resident complaints.

American Baptist President Dave Zwickey could not be reached for comment Thursday. He earlier has said the organization intends to settle with residents eventually, once court proceedings sort out who is owed money and how much.

According to Novak’s ruling, evidence presented so far indicates that several hundred possible plaintiffs share common complaints involving personal injury and misrepresentation by building management. Iowa law allows such cases to be handled together when they share common legal issues and when it would be impractical for each individual person to bring his or her own lawsuit.

“This case, in fact, seems to be the paradigm for when a class action is appropriate; a case attempting to vindicate the rights of a group of people who individually would be without effective strength to bring their opponents into court at all,” the judge ruled.

Plaintiffs’ attorney Jeffrey Lipman on Thursday described class certification as the case’s first major hurdle for residents attempting to show that their claim should be taken seriously.

“Conventional wisdom is that that’s your fight is class certification,” the lawyer said. “It’s a class action now.”

Source = associated press

Waldorf Astoria is Haven for Bedbugs! Md. Tourist Third to Sue Famed Hotel for Bloodsucker 'Attack'

A Maryland woman is suing the Waldorf Astoria for $10 million because, she says, she awoke at the fancy hotel and found bedbugs all over her body.

Svetlana Tendler is the third tourist since last year to sue the famed Park Ave. hotel over a nasty encounter with the tiny bloodsuckers.

"I felt like I was eaten alive by bedbugs, which have attacked my body," she said.

Tendler, her husband, Jacob, and their two kids stayed at the hotel in August 2007, the suit says.

One morning, she awoke to a nasty bedbug attack.

Photographs released by her lawyer, Anna Carley, show bites on Tendler's arms and legs.

"The defendants did nothing to assist plaintiff, Svetlana Tendler, in treatment of ... bed bites or fumigation of [her] luggage," says the suit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court.

Tendler, of Owings Mill, Md., initially filed a summons against the hotel in August.

She filed a new, detailed complaint this week.

A Michigan woman who says bedbugs attacked her during a family vacation sued the hotel in November.

The hotel also was sued in October by a woman whose 6-year-old daughter said she was victimized by bedbugs during a visit last February.

Hilton Worldwide, which owns the Waldorf Astoria, declined to comment.

Source = NY Daily News

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA

Click on Image to Enlarge

There are things that we see in our industry that are pest impressive to down right jaw dropping disgusting. This fits both those tags!

Here is the story...

40 unit commercial apartment building. Report of bedbugs in two units on two floors. I get there and find both units were positive for bedbugs, just minor activity. After questioning the two tenants plus the superintendent there was nothing conclusive as to why they had bedbugs. Best to inspect abutting units to see if there is anything else going on. I asked to get into unit “3-A” to which the superintendent responded “Joe has lived there for 15yrs and has never once complained about pests or anything.”

I replied, “Exactly the reason why I need to get in there.” The second “Joe” opened the door we found the epicenter of the bedbug problem. There was not ONE SQUARE INCH of the apartment that did not have bedbugs!!! This was a problem that was at least 3yrs old if not longer.

The picture you see is his comforter with tons of live bedbug, eggs, cast skins, fecal matter, etc. YEARS WORTH! Needless to say he was causing bedbugs in adjoining units, even more proof that pests don’t know property lines! This was a perfect example of your neighbors pest issue becoming yours. EHS brought in our K-9 bedbug detection team to sweep all 40 units. What started as two units with bedbugs became six units with confirmed bedbugs. No worries, EHS eliminated the bedbugs.

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA