RI, MA EHS Pest Control Blog

Saying she was traumatized after suffering 25 bedbug bites in the fall at a Holiday Inn in North Carolina, a Spring Valley woman has filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the company that operates the hotel chain.

Yvonne Rollins, 56, is suing InterContinental Hotels Group, seeking more than $7 million, alleging negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress and breach of contract.

In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in White Plains, Rollins says that the Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites in Laurinburg, N.C., had a duty to provide her a “vermin-free” room during her two-night stay in October as she visited the area for a family reunion.

According to the suit, Rollins awoke to her cell phone ringing on Oct. 19, turned on a light and saw “something run across her pillow.” That’s when she noticed welts on her left wrist, arm, and hand, as well as a “huge hickey” on her forehead.

When she pulled back the seam of the pillow case, “hundreds of bedbugs scurried out,” the suit says. Rollins, who was staying in the room with her aunt, screamed and ran to tell a man working at the front desk, who agreed to check it out.

“Yeah they’re bugs all right,” he told her, scooping them into a cup and photographing them, as he planned to take them to a manager. With no other rooms available, he offered Rollins sheets to change the bed, but she declined, staying on the second-floor with a relative.

“This isn’t a case about whether the hotel exterminated,” Alice T. Crowe, a lawyer for Rollins, said today. “This is a case about a hotel’s failing housekeeping practices.”

Rollins, who sought medical attention after the attack and was prescribed medication to treat anxiety, also suffered a “persistent nervous cough” because of the episode, the lawsuit filing says, adding that doctors also told her that her condition might compromise her recovery from breast cancer, since bedbugs are known to carry some pathogens.

“It becomes a concern to know that,” Crowe said.

Bennett Gershman, a law professor at Pace University, said when contacted by The Journal News/LoHud.com that such suits are usually about negotiating a settlement, rather than hoping to collect full damages — in this case more than $7 million.

But Crowe bristled at any such suggestion.

“What price would you put on someone’s dignity?” Crowe said.

Rollins, who works part time as a nurse, said in an interview today that she has mostly recovered from the incident.

“I’m hanging in there,” she said. “It happened in October so most of that has worn off, the effects.”

Rollins filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy in 2000 but said her financial affairs are in order and the lawsuit isn’t about money.

Officials at InterContinental Hotels Group could not immediately be reached for comment.

Nearly 7 Million Bats May Have Died From White-Nose Fungus, Officials Say

More than five years since the deadly white-nose fungus was first detected in a New York cave where bats hibernate, up to 6.7 million of the animals are estimated to have died in 16 states and Canada, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Tuesday.

The estimate, drawn from surveys by wildlife officials mostly in Northeastern states where the disease thrives, confirmed the worst fears of biologists who have been counting dead bats covered in the powdery fungus in mines and caves every winter and worrying whether the little brown bat, the northern long-eared bat and the tricolored bat will survive.

“We’re watching a potential extinction event on the order of what we experienced with bison and passenger pigeons for this group of mammals,” said Mylea Bayless, conservation programs manager for Bat Conservation International in Austin, Tex.

“The difference is we may be seeing the regional extinction of multiple species,” Bayless said. “Unlike some of the extinction events or population depletion events we’ve seen in the past, we’re looking at a whole group of animals here, not just one species. We don’t know what that means, but it could be catastrophic.”

Bats are a top nocturnal predator, picking off night-flying insects that feed on agricultural crops and forests. A reproductive female consumes her weight in bugs each night. In a single summer, a colony of 150 brown bats can eat enough adult cucumber beetles to prevent the laying of eggs that result in 33 million rootworm larvae, according to a study cited by Bat Conservation International.

White-nose syndrome is caused by an aggressive fungus called Geomyces destructans that eats through the skin and membranes of bats. It was first detected at Howes Cave near Albany, N.Y., in 2006.

Since then, biologists in Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Vermont, Indiana and other states have returned to caves and mines during the annual winter hibernation of bats and reported alarming numbers of fresh dead to wildlife and gaming agencies.

Tuesday’s estimate of 5.7 million to 6.7 million dead bats dwarfed the previous count of slightly more than a million in 2009. The estimate was derived from winter trips to mines and caves through December 2011.

Clustered as high as 30 feet above the floor, the bats are difficult to see, so digital images are captured and studied, said Jeremy Coleman, national white-nose syndrome coordinator for the Fish and Wildlife Service.

“They . . . basically count the noses,” Coleman said. Otherwise “you look at a big brown smudge of bats. Indiana bats can have 300 in a square foot. You can get a much more accurate count with digital imagery,” he said.

The declining population found in the winter counts was supported by summer counts, where bats are tracked to areas where they feed and roost.

The bats being wiped out by white-nose syndrome are usually long-lived, up to 20 years. Mates produce a pup per year. They usually hibernate in the same places year to year, and they return to the same place to feed.

Biologists said the bats’ decline could begin to affect the general public if their disappearance results in swarms of the insects they feed on, and higher food prices if food crops are invaded, biologists said.

A paper published last year in the journal Science, relying on the lower mortality rate projected in 2009, estimated that 1,320 metric tons of insect pests were not eaten because of the decline in bats.

The paper products industry could also be hard hit if pests such as the emerald ash borer proliferate in the absence of bats. Loggers in states such as Vermont “ought to be concerned, but I don’t think the word has really gotten out to these folks,” said Mollie Matteson, a conservation advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity in Richmond, Vt.

“It certainly behooves people concerned about the health of forests — loggers or ecologists — to pay attention,” Matteson said. “But it’s hard to make a direct connection between 7 million bats dead and what happens to forest pests.”

A recent report said bat colonies found in Vermont and Pennsylvania were an indication that some are managing to survive the fungus. But those data are inconclusive, and hopes based on the report might be misplaced, Coleman said.

In Pennsylvania, where the mortality rate of the most common bats is nearly 100 percent, farmers and homeowners are showing concern, said Greg Turner, an endangered-mammals specialist for the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

With 95 percent mortality, there’s little hope that the little brown bats will survive in the state, but Turner isn’t giving up on saving them. “I’m going to plug forward all the way to the bitter end, if there is a bitter end. Hopefully, there won’t be,” he said.

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

School Officials Say Bedbugs at School a Hoax

Augusta Independent School Principal Robin Kelsch had enough to worry about with the flu. Kelsch didn't need a student's report of bedbugs at the school to make things worse.

But, that's what he got.

Kelsch told The Ledger Independent that the report turned out to be a hoax, but school office phones were ringing with concerned parents on the other end (http://bit.ly/y6sYQw).

Kelsch said the rumor started when a student brought in a water bug and squashed it, then told her friends it was a bedbug "just to scare them."

Kelsch said officials checked the school, then bleached and cleaned it and found "absolutely no" bedbugs.

As far as can be determined, Kelsch said, no one used the bedbug rumor as an excuse to skip school.

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

Comcast Cable Box Comes With Cockroach Surprise - As Company is Sued For Very 'Buggy' Gear

Comcast is under fire in Illinois for installing buggy hardware -- literally. An Illinois resident says the company installed a set top box that came with a free cockroach infestation, and once installed resulted in the bugs "pouring out" into his home. When the user went to complain about the used device and his new friends, Comcast took several days to address the problem, the user going so far as to bring a bag of dead roaches into the Comcast office. While normally you'd think this was an isolated incident, Chicago's being sued by nearly a dozen current and former employees who say they were forced to install the "buggy" gear:

The employees claim they would find cockroaches crawling in and out of equipment, and in their lockers, trucks and equipment bags. They also claim the South Side facility had rats, a leaky ceiling and birds that flew in and out of the warehouse. The employees claim they saw cockroach eggs fall out of cable boxes that were supposed to be installed in customers’ homes. When an employee complained, the supervisor said, “just put the box in — you’re in Englewood. They’ll only have cable for a month. They won’t pay bills,” the suit said.

While Comcast was busily installing bug-infested equipment in low-income Illinois homes, the company was making great political hay from a low-income broadband offer most users can't get. "Comcast adamantly denies the allegations and will vigorously defend itself in court," a Comcast spokesman insists.

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

The "Rarest Insect in the World" Also Happens to be Freaking Enormous

In 1918, a battered British supply ship was forced to run aground off the coast of Lord Howe Island, a volcanic remnant located hundreds of miles off Australia's eastern seaboard. There, the ship's crew was received by the island's famous Dryococelus australis, a positively massive, hand-sized species of stick insect known to Europeans as "tree lobsters." But these impressive bugs were not long for this world.

In the nine days it took the ship's crew members to repair their damaged vessel, a pack of stowaway rats had managed to jump ship and invade the island. A scourge had been unleashed upon the D. australispopulation. By 1920, the island had been overrun by rats, and the insects had vanished. The tree lobsters of Lord Howe — long believed to be endemic to the island — were presumed extinct.

But in 2001, scientists made an incredible discovery.

About thirteen miles southeast of Lord Howe sits another island, named "Ball's Pyramid," that would look right at home on the cover of a Tintin comic. It was here, about halfway up the island's precipitous, 1800-foot-high slope, that researchers discovered what is believed to have been one of the last bastions of tree-lobsterdom in the entire world: a collection of two dozen of the enormous black insects, huddled beneath the shelter of a single bush.

D. australis' small-numbered reappearance has led some people to call it the rarest insect in the world, but scientists are working hard to change that. NPR's Robert Krulwich explains:

The important thing, the scientists thought, was to get a few of these insects protected and into a breeding program.

That wasn't so easy. The Australian government didn't know if the animals on Ball's Pyramid could or should be moved. There were meetings, studies, two years passed, and finally officials agreed to allow four animals to be retrieved. Just four.

The plan was to take one pair and give it a man who was very familiar with mainland walking stick insects, a private breeder living in Sydney. He got his pair, but within two weeks, they died.

The other two were taken to the Melbourne Zoo, where, under the care of invertebrate conservation experts, they managed to survive. By 2008, the zoo's captive population had grown to around 700 adults. Today, scientists are faced with the daunting task of reintroducing the bugs to Lord Howe Island, where the descendants of the rats that nearly wiped D. australis off the face of the Earth still pose a significant threat.

You can read more about the history behind these resilient bug behemoths, the puzzling circumstances surrounding their reappearance on Ball's Island, and the ongoing efforts to see them reintroduced into the wild, in this awesome in-depth feature by NPR's Robert Krulwich.

SOURCE: Science News

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

Termites and Carpenter Ants Drove Tiger's Ex to Demolish $12 Million Mansion

Finally, an explanation why Elin Nordegren, Tiger Woods' ex-wife, bulldozed the $12 million oceanfront mansion she bought only last year.

Her builder told People magazine the 17,000 foot, six bedroom home in North Palm Beach, Fla. wasn't built to code to withstand Florida hurricanes. To top it off, Habitat for Humanity found the place was crawling with termites and carpenter ants. So it made more sense structurally and economically to tear it down and start over with a new home.

The 32-year-old Nordegren, who's living nearby with her and Woods' two children, invited the charity to salvage tens of thousands of dollars worth of cabinets, hardware and fixtures before sending in the wrecking crew. Said Habitat's director of deconstruction, Bobbi Blodgett: When we pulled out the windows, the bugs were everywhere... To rebuild that house would have been ridiculous. We're so grateful to Elin. It's rare we get this kind of donation.

Nordegren got $100 million in her divorce from Woods so she can afford it. She never shared the demolished mansion with Woods, who recently appeared as an honorary captain for his alma mater Stanford at the Fiesta Bowl.

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

Loudest Animal on Earth is a Tiny Insect
Lion's roar? Whale's song? Ounce for ounce, this bug has them beat

It's a wee bug, but it makes a monster noise.

Commonly known in the U.S. as the "water boatman," the 2-millimeter-long insect produces a sound equivalent to sitting in the first row of a loud orchestra. For their size, they are the loudest living animal, say a team of researchers from Scotland and France.

"I met someone who does underwater recordings and they heard these sounds … and wondered what the sounds were and what was making them," said Dr. James Windmill at the Center for Ultrasonic Engineering at Glasgow's University of Strathclyde. "We figured it must be a larger bug."

Windmill and a colleague teamed up with Jerome Sueur, a biologist at the Natural History Museum in Paris, to study the bug. They presented their work this month at a conference in Glasgow.

The male water boatman produces the sound by rubbing body parts together, called stridulation, like a cricket chirping. The males do it to attract a female, of course, and have evolved over millions of years to be a loud "bunch of males trying to outdo each other," said Windmill.

The herbivorous bugs live in shallow water, less than a foot deep, but Windmill doesn't suggest people walk along the river banks expecting to hear a very loud sound. Ninety-nine percent of the sound is reflected back into the water, though the remaining 1 percent can be heard out of the water.

Scientists do not understand how such a loud sound can be made with body parts the width of a human hair. However, the insects have a bubble of air under their bodies they use to breathe underwater, and Windmill suspects they may use it to amplify the sound.

"I love the biology but I take the practical view that there is something we can take from it and learn from it," said Windmill. He is interested in studying how animals hear and produce sounds, to develop better technologies such as sonar and biomedical ultrasound.

"As an engineer, I get to learn something. The loudest thing on Earth is a creature people wouldn't expect, like a lion roaring or a whale singing. The loudest thing on this planet is this tiny insect."

Source = Chicago Tribune

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA

Dreams About Insects: Dream Meanings Explained

Dreams about insects are a common theme at bedtime. If you or a loved one has been covering this ground at night, you may have questions about what it all might mean. As part of a Huffington Post series on dreams and their meanings, we spoke to Cynthia Richmond, author of "Dream Power," and frequent guest on shows like "Oprah" and "Dr. Phil," in Camp Verde, Ariz., to get expert advice about the meanings of dreams about spiders. Note: While dream analysis is highly subjective, this post might provide some insight into why this dream occurred or is recurring.

What do dreams about insects mean?

Richmond says each insect has its own associations. However, when dreaming about insects in general, the dreamer should ask herself what's been annoying or pestering her.

What can I learn about myself from dreaming about this subject?

The subject matter of your dream plays a big role in what you can learn about yourself, says Richmond. For true soul searching, think back to how the bugs were treated in your insect dream. "Often they are being swept under a rug or stepped on," explains Richmond. "That represents the dreamer wanting to ignore the annoyance or end it."

Are there any tricks to avoiding or inducing dreams about insects?

"The only real trick to not having a certain dream is to interpret and understand the meaning so your subconscious mind stops sending the symbol," notes Richmond. To dream about insects, visualize them before dozing off.

Beyond analysis, what cultural symbolism can be found in dreams about insects?

"In Egypt, the beetle is associated with immortality. Bees are associated in many cultures with hard work and organization, as well as producing sweetness, food and the substance of life," says Richmond.

Who tends to have dreams about insects most frequently?

Dreaming about insects is common among males and females of all ages.

What does it mean if I'm completely surrounded/overwhelmed by insects in a dream?

"If you are completely surrounded or overwhelmed by insects, you are probably so annoyed by something or someone that you are ready to freak out," Richmond tells us. "If you are phobic to the insect, you are either ready to overcome the phobia -- by facing it-- or something has pushed you to your limit."

Source: Huffington Post

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA

Bedbugs Found at Police Station

Police officers across the city are being warned of a frustratingly stubborn enemy that has infiltrated their workplace: bedbugs.

An infestation was discovered last week in the building in Mayfair that houses the Second and 15th Police Districts and the Northeast Detective Division.

The bedbugs came to light after inmates in several holding cells were bitten, said Roosevelt Poplar, vice president of the Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge No. 5.

An exterminator treated the infested areas twice, and the department's administration is closely monitoring the situation, said Lt. Raymond Evers of the Public Affairs Unit.

Joan Schlotterbeck, the city's public property commissioner, said that one inmate had brought the bugs to the building and that an exterminator believed the infestation was confined to three cells.

Those cells have wooden benches that are different from those in other units, she said. They will be removed.

The cell block has been evacuated. Cells will be power-washed, crevices will be sealed, and the walls will be repainted, Schlotterbeck said.

"At this point, we believe we're doing everything we can," Schlotterbeck said.

Poplar said the entire building at Harbison Avenue and Levick Street should have been treated for bedbugs. About 500 officers work out of the building, he said, and the bugs may have hitched rides with inmates who were transferred.

"These bugs, they can be carried on people," he said. "They can be carried in a car, to another district. The holding cells have people coming in and out all day long. We're talking about potentially thousands of people who could be affected by this."

Officers will be asked to report any signs of infestation. Employees who wish to take extra precautions can wash and dry their clothes as soon as they get home from work, Schlotterbeck said.

Poplar said several officers had told him that they might have unknowingly carried bugs home in their clothing. "These guys are under enough stress as it is without worrying about taking bugs home to their families," he said.

The bedbug resurgence began about 10 years ago in hotels and apartment buildings in large cities nationwide. The bloodsucking insects are known for resilience. Clothes and other belongings must be heated to extreme temperatures to kill them, and the bugs can hide in wooden furniture or baseboards for a year without food.

Though New York City has been seen as the center of the scourge, the problem is on the rise here. This year Philadelphia ranked fifth among U.S. cities for bedbugs, with New York still in first.

McClatchy-Tribune News Service

George Williams
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA

Insect Stings Hold Deadly Risk for Some

For most people, insect stings are a painful annoyance, but they can be deadly for those who are allergic to them, researchers warn.

Each year in the United States, more than half a million people have to go to emergency departments after suffering insect stings, and at least 50 die, according to the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, which recently released updated guidelines for diagnosing and treating people with hypersensitivity to insect stings.

Its three key recommendations for people who are allergic to stings:

• Consider allergy shots
• Avoid all stinging insects, including bumblebees
• Be aware of factors that increase the chances of a serious reaction.

Research indicates that allergy shots are effective in preventing allergic reactions to stings. The shots work like a vaccine, exposing recipients to increasing amounts of the stinging insect allergen in order to boost the immune system's tolerance of it.

And although bumblebees are considered less aggressive than hornets and wasps, a growing number of severe allergic reactions are being caused by bumblebees, particularly among greenhouse workers. Because of this, people should try to avoid bumblebees as much as other stinging insects, the group advises.

In addition, the allergy experts noted, certain people are at increased risk for serious allergic reactions to insect stings. Factors associated with a higher risk include: a history of severe or near-fatal reactions to insect stings; heart disease, high blood pressure or pulmonary disease in those who have had a reaction beyond the site of a sting; asthma; taking certain medications, including beta blockers or ACE inhibitors; and frequent exposure to stinging insects, such as among gardeners and beekeepers.

Symptoms of a severe allergic reaction to stings include:

• Hives, itching and swelling in areas other than the sting site.
• Tightness in the chest and difficulty breathing.
• Swelling of the nose, lips, tongue and throat.
• Dizziness, fainting or loss of consciousness.

Medical experts stress that anyone who has any of these symptoms should seek immediate medical attention at the nearest emergency department.

SOURCE = USA TODAY

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA