RI, MA EHS Pest Control Blog

Bus Drivers Battling Bed Bugs

City bus drivers' union reports problem of infestation on city buses, while the Detroit Department of Transportation says the problem is not widespread.

The union representing Detroit's bus drivers has asked the City Council to put pressure on the transit agency to help stop the spread of bedbugs on buses.

About 50 Detroit Department of Transportation drivers have reported seeing the bugs on buses, and some have been bitten within the past year, said Henry Gaffney, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 26.

After receiving a letter from Gaffney in May, DDOT chief executive Ron Freeland said Thursday he asked a maintenance crew to investigate and sent a letter to the union later in the month saying any infested bus would be cleaned.

Freeland said the amount of bedbugs the crew has found so far in the cleaning process isn't unusual for a service with an average of 100,000 riders each day.

"I, personally, am not aware of any widespread problem," he said. "Where we do have problems, we are in fact dealing with it."

Any buses reported to have bedbugs will be cleaned and fumigated, Freeland said. If that doesn't kill them, the maintenance crew can put the vehicle in a paint booth and kill the bugs with heat.

That wasn't enough for Gaffney, though. He said DDOT should be taking preventive measures by treating all of the agency's terminals and coaches.

"If this continues to get bad, you can't force anybody to work in those types of conditions," he said. "It's not fair to the citizens either. Somebody's got to care somewhere in this city."

Bedbugs are flat, parasitic insects that feed on blood of people or animals, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They are about a quarter-inch long and spread by latching on to people's clothes or luggage. Once in a home, the bugs hide in beds or other furniture, feed while people are sedentary and reproduce.

Their bites affect people similarly to that of a mosquito, said Erik Foster, medical entomologist for the state Department of Community Health.

"Bedbugs have been found in public transit, school buses, public buses, airplanes," Foster said.

It's unlikely that a bus would have a large infestation of bedbugs, however, because there isn't a great place for them to hide, Foster said.

For the past two months, Rainey Henley, a 17-year DDOT driver, has taken his clothes off immediately when he returns home from his shift. He then throws them in a clothes dryer with hopes the heat will kill any bed bugs.

Henley said he was bitten about two months ago and has seen at least three other bedbugs on different buses.

"It's terrifying, man," Henley said. "I bring 91-percent alcohol and spray my seat and around my driver area before I start."

Gaffney's letter — dated June 19 — was on the agenda Monday for the City Council's Public Health and Safety Committee, but Council President Pro-Tem Gary Brown, chairman of that committee, said Wednesday he hadn't heard anything about the issue.

"There are no bedbugs on DDOT buses," Brown said. "They can't live on a bus. People can bring them on, but they can't live on plastic chairs."

DDOT's customer service line hasn't received any calls within the past year from customers reporting bedbug sightings, Freeland said. He said he planned to have the operations' staff talk to drivers for more details, but he believes cleaning all buses and facilities is unnecessary.

"I think most transit agencies, not just DDOT, would tell you (they) tackle these problems as they occur," he said. "I think if we had a major problem we would know it."

Bedbugs started turning up in Michigan in 2006, and they began spreading rapidly at the start of 2008. The state Department of Community Health receives 15 to 20 calls a week reporting bedbugs, with most coming from southeast Michigan and many from Detroit, Foster said.

The department received funds to provide Detroiters with information about bedbugs, and will begin its outreach in the next couple of months, Foster said.

"When you have a high density of people and you have a high density of people living in multiunit housing, their ability to spread is great," he said, adding "the chance of them spreading is high unless … the infestations are being treated."

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

Bed Bugs Attack Jurors

A Manitoulin Island man will remain in jail after being found guilty Friday of aggravated assault in an attack that left a brother and sister with multiple stab wounds.

The eight male and four female jurors, who were polled, were unanimous in their decision.

In doing so, they cleared Darrell Bebonang of attempting to murder the siblings.

Assistant Crown attorney Karen Lische said she would like an assessment done on Bebonang so she can consider an application to declare him a dangerous offender.

Court was told Bebonang's defence team of Terry Waltenbury and John Saftic will need to check into whether they can continue as his counsel if the Crown proceeds with a dangerous offender application.

As a result, the matter was put over to July 6.

"There are steps we must take to seek appeal to be included in that process," Waltenbury told Superior Court Justice Dan Cornell.

According to Public Safety Canada, the dangerous offender designation is intended to protect the public from the most dangerous violent and sexual predators in the country. The designation can carry an indefinite prison sentence.

The jury began its deliberations Thursday afternoon. The jurors were sequestered in a city hotel overnight Thursday after failing to reach a verdict, but two of them had to be treated at hospital Friday morning for bedbug bites.

As a result, jury deliberations did not resume until after the lunch break Friday.

Bebonang, 34, of M'Chigeeng First Nation, was facing two counts of attempted murder in the stabbing of Michael Debassige and his sister Sheila Laford in a Louis Street apartment in Greater Sudbury about 1:30 a.m. Nov. 13, 2009.

Bebonang was arrested in Toronto about two weeks after the incident and returned to Greater Sudbury. He is in custody.

Bebonang was convicted of aggravated assault for the attack on Debassige.

Bebonang inflicted 12 stab wounds on Debassige and four on Laford, while receiving no injuries himself in the scuffle.

Debassige testified he was going to leave the friend's apartment when Bebonang stabbed him in the chest and continued to stab him repeatedly as they struggled.

Laford testified she went to the aid of her unarmed brother ad was stabbed once in the chest. At the hospital, doctors found Laford had been stabbed four times. She spent three days recovering from her injuries, which included a collapsed lung.

In his defence, Bebonang testified it was Debassige who attacked him. He said during a scuffle in which his hoody and sweaters were pulled over his head, a knife fell to the floor. Bebonang said he grabbed it, opened it and slashed repeatedly at Debassige and an unknown attacker, who turned out to be Laford, in an attempt to defend himself.

Bebonang, who has served time in penitentiary, was serving an 18-month house arrest sentence when the incident occurred.

In addition to being sentenced on the aggravated assault conviction, which could evolve into a dangerous offender application by the Crown, Bebonang also has some minor charges before the courts to resolve.

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

Firefighters: Bedbug “Do It Yourself” Spray Causes Fire

A fire that engulfed an apartment in Colerain on Friday night was partially caused by the use of a common bedbug deterrent, fire officials said.

Colerain Township firefighters said they received a call at about 9:30 p.m. reporting a fire on a second floor apartment in the 3500 block of West Galbraith Road.

Firefighters said they brought the fire under control at about 9:50 p.m. with the help of fire crews from Springfield Township and Green Township fire departments.

Authorities said a family of six, including four children, was displaced and receiving assistance from the Red Cross.

Fire officials said the residents of the apartment were using isopropyl alcohol in a spray bottle to kill bedbugs. Officials said the home-remedy is common, but droplets formed by spraying the chemical dramatically increases the evaporation rate of the alcohol.

The vapor released is extremely flammable and was ignited by a cigarette, firefighters said.

No injuries were reported, firefighters said. The fire caused an estimated $30,000 in damage to the building and its contents.

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

Bed Bug Infestation Closes Salvation Army Shelter

A bed bug infestation has forced a Salvation Army shelter in Orlando to temporarily close. The Salvation Army announced Thursday that the men's shelter could be closed for up to a week.

The Orlando Sentinel reports officials are scrambling to find accommodations for up to 75 homeless men - just as the temperatures are expected to dip into the 30s. Another 50 men who are enrolled in the agency's long-term transitional program will be housed in a gym on the shelter's property.

Officials say it will cost about $15,000 to tent the building for treatment of bed bugs.

Spokeswoman Vicki Hastings says the Salvation Army hopes the public will help cover the costs.

Bed bugs bites can lead to severe itching and skin infections.

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

Cockroaches, Bed Bugs, Mold Spark $10M Lawsuit

A civil lawsuit alleging long-term substandard living conditions against the owner of the Cordova Estates apartments in Rancho Cordova is seeking $10 million in damages for 97 tenants.

"It's horrific. It's disgusting. I can't describe it. I was without heat for three years," said tenant Jessica Munoz, the named plaintiff in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit, filed this month, alleges that the property owner, Juvenal Campos, did not fulfill his duty to maintain habitable apartments for tenants paying $525 to $725 per month in rent.

A prepared statement sent by "the owners" of the property stated that they are trying to address issues in those apartments.

"We are disappointed by the filing of this lawsuit," read the statement which was signed "the owners".

Meanwhile, Rancho Cordova code inspectors stress Campos is facing a string of code violations based on a recent walk-through of the apartment complex.

"He is facing roughly 150 violations ... He could face fines in the hundreds of thousands of dollars if we continue to come out and things not be done," said Kerri Simpson, Rancho Cordova Code Enforcement officer.

City officials said they are working the property owner to fix the owner. However, Simpson said previous agreements to fix problems in the past failed.

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

A Hairy Body Can Mean the Bed Bugs Won't Bite (Because they Can't Get to the Skin)

Finding hairs in your food can be disgusting, and it seems that blood-sucking insects feel just the same.

Scientists have discovered that hairy people are better protected from parasites, as the hair makes it harder for the bugs to reach skin.

Bed bugs and other parasites such as mosquitoes, midges.

But as the insects search for somewhere to dive in, the nerves in hairs also increase the chances of them being felt on the skin and swatted away.

Researchers studied 29 brave volunteers who had one arm shaved before hungry bed bugs were placed on their skin

The results of the experiment showed that people with more hair - both longer hairs and fine, almost invisible 'vellus' hairs - were more protected.

Hair covering the arms extended each insect’s search for an ideal feeding ground, and increased the likelihood of it being detected.

Because of this, bed bugs and other parasites including mosquitoes, midges, ticks and leeches prefer relatively hairless areas such as the wrists and ankles, the scientists claim.

Study leader Professor Michael Siva-Jothy, from the University of Sheffield’s Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, said: 'Our findings show that more body hairs mean better detection of parasites.

'The hairs have nerves attached to them and provide us with the ability to detect displacement. By forming a barrier and providing detection, these hairs prolong search time and make detection more likely because the bug has to spend more time clambering over them.

'The results have implications for understanding why we look the way we do, what selective forces might have driven us to look the way we do, and may even provide insight for better understanding of how to reduce biting insects’ impact on humans.'

The findings may explain why humans have retained a body-covering of fine hair.

'Our proposal is that we retain the fine covering because it aids detection and if we lost all hair, even the relatively invisible fine hair, our detection ability goes right down,' said Prof Siva-Jothy.

The research is published today in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters. Prof Siva-Jothy said it would be wrong to assume women will always be bitten more often than hairier men.

He pointed out: 'Men have more body hair than women which is caused by the action of testosterone at puberty. This does not necessarily mean that women are more likely to be bitten.

'Blood-sucking insects are likely to have been selected to prefer to bite hosts in relatively hairless areas.”

The Sheffield scientists are investigating the biology, reproduction and immunity of blood-sucking insects.

Their aim is to find more effective ways of controlling parasitic insects and the diseases they spread.

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

I though for a second I had stumbled onto a freak of science. One that would set the entomological world on its ear!!! A FLYING BEDBUG!!!

I was doing a bedbug inspection at a housing authority when something caught my eye. It was a dead bedbug caught on a strand of spider web. For a second it had the appearance of flying. Needless to say bedbugs can’t fly, nor jump for that matter. It was worth grabbing a video of it though!