Chicago vs. Bed Bugs

If you’re reading this post, then you’re probably aware that our organization– Chicago vs. Bed Bugs– advocates policy to control the spread of bed bug infestations in the City of Chicago.  But you probably have no idea what the heck that means, right?  It’s okay.  Not many people do.

Our organization advocates a plan– a strategic, coordinated effort– to acknowledge, address, and eventually stop the spread of bed bugs in Chicago.  The type of plan we advocate will involve multiple city departments and agencies.  It will be developed, monitored, and enforced by a team of representatives: health department officials, streets and sanitation officials, members of city council and other legislators, expert pest management professionals, local entomologists (bug scientists), and representatives of community organizations.  The type of plan we advocate will involve public education campaigns, landlord and tenant training workshops, amendments to local laws, tracking and surveillance, standardized treatment protocol, mandatory training for pest management companies, and lots more.

Sounds like we’re advocating the impossible, doesn’t it?

Well, Cincinnati, among other cities, is doing it.  And if Cincinnati can do it, Chicago can do it, too.  Right?

In Cincinnati, it all started with a series of town hall meetings, initiated by Ohio State Representative Dale Mallory back in 2007.  Those meetings prompted Representative Mallory to convene an emergency meeting with city, county, and state officials to discuss ways in which the bed bug problem in Cincinnati and Hamilton County could be solved.  The product of that emergency meeting is the Cincinnati-Hamilton County Joint Bed Bug Task Force; the product of the Task Force is The Cincinnati-Hamilton County Joint Bed Bug Task Force Strategic Plan.

The following information was copied directly from the 52-page document that is the Strategic Plan.  It’s been summarized and paraphrased, in some cases, to highlight critical elements and accomplishments– policies and procedures and strategies and plans– that we advocate here in our city.

Joint Bed Bug Task Force Structure

• Cincinnati Health Department and Hamilton County Public Health

• The Ohio State University Extension Entomology

• Stakeholders - people/organizations that are present at the meetings (future inclusion)

• Interested parties - people/organizations that receive automatic notification and minutes of the meetings (future inclusion)

Joint Bed Bug Task Force Members:

• Dr. Camille Jones, Assistant Health Commissioner for the Cincinnati Health Department
• Timothy Ingram, Hamilton County Health Commissioner
• Dr. Susan Jones, Ohio State University Extension Entomologist
• Antonio Young, Supervising Sanitarian for the Technical Environmental Service of the City of Cincinnati Health Department
• Chris Eddy, Hamilton County Director of Environmental Health
• Thomas Hooper, Sanitarian in the Technical Environmental Service of the City of Cincinnati Health Department
• Robert Smith, RS
• Bernadette Watson, Public Information Officer
• Dr. Mohammad Alam, Director of the Environmental Health Sciences section of the Cincinnati Health Department

What Cincinnati/Hamilton County has accomplished thus far:
*Listed by individual working group

Cost and Resource Needs Working Group:

• Established list of resources needed for (detailed list provided; refer to pages 13-15 of Strategic Plan):

• Further development of complaint lines
• Development of best practices protocols to regulate businesses and practices that may contribute to spreading infestations
• Further development of surveillance systems
• Development of standardized education materials
• Development of policies for disposal of infested furniture
• Development and monitoring of inspection protocols and procedures
• Development of creative strategies to encourage responsiveness on the part of owners and occupants of multi-unit buildings that are infested

• Established list of cost estimates and assumptions, based on the escalation of complaints for three different scenarios:

*The Working Group notes that based on the escalation of complaints seen in New York City, it is reasonable to plan for at least a doubling of complaints.

• At the same level of complaints as 2007 in Cincinnati and Hamilton County
• At twice the number of complaints seen in 2007
• At four times the number of complaints seen in 2007

• Established a regional total estimate for the cost of the entire Strategic Plan, based on the escalation of complaints at twice the 2007 number and at four times the 2007 number.

Hotline/Database Working Group:

• Evaluated existing hotline and complaint system and database: City of Cincinnati CSR system.

• Developed a plan for implementation of a joint city/county bed bug hotline through existing CSR system, using existing software and database applications to recognize, route, process and geographically map bed bug hotline calls.

• Requested resources to be allocated to accomplish reprogramming of existing CSR system within a specific time frame.

• Developed a list of issues related to developing bed bug hotline to address and resolve.

• Determined that Hamilton County Public Health and the Cincinnati Health Department would continue to respond to direct calls and input those calls into the existing CSR system until reprogramming is accomplished and issues are addressed and resolved.

Education Working Group

• Evaluated current education efforts:

• Bed Bug Brochure
• DVD with extensive information about bed bugs (links to article on Bedbugger.com with downloads of DVD and public service announcement)
• Presentations to community groups
• Presentations to landlords
• Information on CHD website
• Development of a procedure for how public employees going into infested buildings can protect themselves from spreading the infestation
• Continuing and expanding vigorous educations outreach to affected citizens

• Enlisted Dr. Susan Jones, an entomologist with the Ohio State University Extension, to review educational materials produced by both health departments to develop standardized and state-of-the-art educational content to provide to citizens.

• Planned to develop new educational resources in the following areas:

• General information
• Treatments people can apply themselves, and cautions
• What is an Integrated Pest Management System? (multiple topics covered here; refer to page 18 of Strategic Plan)
• What to expect if your home is being treated for bed bugs
• How to adequately prepare your apartment or home prior to pesticide treatment for bed bugs
• How to evaluate a pest control operator
• How to find out the complaint history of a pest control operator
• How to choose a mattress and bed spring encasement
• How the public can check to see if they are hiring a licensed pest control operator (PCO), and how to check the pesticide complaint records at ODA for PCOs, and how to file a complaint
• Infested furniture (involves bed bug hotline, refer to page 19)
• Media/Public Service announcements
• Scripts for calls to CSR
• Guidelines for special situations (child who comes to school with bed bugs; clients with bed bugs who enter public buildings or public transportation)
• Education outreach in schools, community councils, hotels
• Education about secondary health issues
• Translations of materials into other languages
• Low literacy materials
• Prevention
• Dissemination of information through multiple venues

Inspection Issues Working Group

• Developed a summary of inspection issues from the perspective of Task Force entomologists

• Developed recommendations based on assessment of existing laws governing multi-unit buildings:

• Health Department and other inspectors participate in field assessments rather than full inspections
• Field assessment confirms a complaint on the basis of performance of a standardized protocol for field assessment
• If any sign of bed bug infestation (bed bug seen or fecal stains), a warning letter will be given to the owner/manager saying that action to abate the nuisance must be taken within 5 days
• At the same time, extensive education materials will be given to both the owner/manager and the occupant, including guidelines for site preparation and information about Integrated Pest Management Programs
• If the site is a multi-unit building of 4 or more units, at 5 days of follow-up the owner/manager will be required to show evidence that a licensed pest control operator has been hired to do the abatement
• If no action has been taken to abate the nuisance, the owner/manager will be written a Notice of Violation, and will be subject to further enforcement of action according to city or county codes
• Due to the complexities and challenges of achieving complete eradication in multi-unit buildings, the Inspection/Issues Working Group and the Joint Bed Bug Task Force as a whole recommends that evidence of continued efforts to eradicate will be accepted in lieu of absolute confirmation of eradication
• With continued infestation, the pest control operator may be required to document that they are using state-of-the-art practice in their attempt to eradicate the bed bugs

• Developed a draft flowchart to show how health department field assessments would lead to a letter of warning, then notice of violation, and orders for abatement

• Committed to development of a standardized protocol for health department complaint follow-up

• Committed to development of a standardized criteria for “closing out” a bed bug complaint

Transient Accommodations Working Group:

• Cincinnati Board of Health adopted a Transient Accommodations Regulation (BOH Regulation #00011) that will help Cincinnati Health Department Environmental Health staff evaluate the bed bug infestation situation in the city

And there you have it: policy to control the spread of bed bug infestations in action.  It can be done, my friends.  It’s just a matter of how.

*You can view related articles written by our adviser at New York vs. Bed Bugs here, and by our adviser at Bedbugger.com here.

The American Apartment Owners Association posted some interesting words of caution to landlords on its blog today, and I thought I’d share some of them with you, Chicagoans.  I think it’s important for all of us to understand just how messy things can get between landlords and tenants when they’re forced to deal with bed bug infestations.

The title of AAOA’s post is “Are You Screening Your New Tenants for Bedbugs?  Landlord Liability Expanding As Bedbugs Continue to Thrive in Apartments,” and it starts off like this:

As these insidious biting creatures find their way from apartment house to apartment house riding in suitcases, furniture and clothing, new avenues of liability for landlords are emerging, including:

• New tenants who bring bedbugs to the building
• Old tenants who bring the problem to the new landlord
• Employees and vendors who bring the nuisance to other apartments, and their own homes

These are some really important issues, and I’m glad to see that the AAOA is addressing them.  I’ve been contacted by countless Chicagoans over the last few months who are or have been involved in frustrating debates with their landlords or with their tenants about which of them is responsible for paying to exterminate bed bug infestations, and to what extent they are responsible.  It’s a tangled web, believe me.

The debates always seem to come down to one question: Who brought bed bugs into the apartment or building in the first place?

I keep hearing the same arguments, over and over again.  Landlords argue that tenants bring bed bugs into buildings, and therefore tenants should be responsible for eliminating bed bugs from buildings.  Tenants argue that they do not bring bed bugs in– or if they do, they don’t know it– and that landlords are responsible for maintaining their buildings, so landlords should be responsible for eliminating bed bugs.

I can see both sides of these arguments, I really can.  They’re both right, you know.  Bed bugs are human parasites; they travel with humans because they rely on our blood to survive.  So bed bugs are, in fact, introduced into buildings by humans.

It’s impossible, though, to figure out how bed bugs got into a building.  The truth is that many people live with bed bugs for months before they discover an infestation, because bed bugs are extremely difficult to detect.  By the time an infestation is discovered, it’s tough to try to determine where they came from: Could it have been a business trip taken last month?  Maybe a friend or relative brought them in?  Or did the bed bug infestation actually originate in a neighbor’s apartment, and travel in through an adjoining wall?

It’s impossible to try to find answers to these questions.  Think about it for a minute.  No one could prove any of the theories mentioned above– the business trip, the visiting relative, the neighbor– no matter how hard they tried.  Do you think you could find out if there were bed bugs in your hotel room during last month’s business trip?  Try calling the hotel and see what they say.  I bet they don’t say “Why yes, we do have a bed bug problem!”.  Or, try asking your relatives if they might have bed bugs.  I bet they don’t say “Why yes, and I brought them to you accidentally!”.  Imagine asking your neighbor if his or her apartment is infested.  I bet you wouldn’t hear “Yes, it is, and if yours is, too, we should work together to get rid of them!”.  You see, it’s impossible to try to figure it out, because even in the most obvious cases, the finger can– and likely will– be pointed in another direction.

In the end, it doesn’t really matter who “brought them in” anyway, does it?  What matters is who’s going to get them out.

And herein lies the problem, because once bed bugs are in, they are incredibly expensive to get out.  We’re talking thousands of dollars, people, many, many thousands of dollars.  As AAOA’s blog says

Once introduced into a unit (via a mattress or other belongings), bedbugs spread as invisibly and effectively as germs throughout the other units and common areas. The cost of subsequent decontamination of your building is significant, not to mention the hassle of subsequent sweeps when remaining eggs hatch.

True.  And the cost– the thousands and thousands of dollars– is what starts the finger-pointing and the debating between landlords and tenants.  The cost is what keeps landlords from helping their tenants at the outset (and, in turn, protecting their buildings from further infestation) and it’s what keeps tenants from making landlords aware of bed bug infestations at the outset (and, in turn, protecting their neighbors from further infestation).

In some places, like San Francisco and Boston, bed bugs are treated just like any other pest– like roaches or ants or mice– so the “who brought them in?” question is irrelevant.

What does the City of Chicago say?  Well, here’s what I’ve found and posted before:

From the City of Chicago Department of Public Health Website’s Bed Bugs: Frequently Asked Questions:

What should tenants do?

If you are a tenant, contact your property manager or landlord to discuss your respective obligations and come to an agreement on a plan to manage the infestation. If there is an infestation, landlords should contract with a licensed pest control operator to manage the problem.

Request a written integrated pest management (IPM) plan from the pest control operator. The plan will include the methods and insecticides to be used, and describe the efforts expected by the building manager as well as by the tenants.

And from chapter 5-12 of the City of Chicago Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance:

The landlord shall maintain the premises in compliance with all applicable provisions of the municipal code and shall promptly make any and all repairs necessary to fulfill this obligation (5-12-070).
In addition to any remedies provided under federal law, a tenant shall have the remedies specified in this section under the circumstances herein set forth. For the purposes of this section, material noncompliance with Section 5-12-070 shall include, but is not limited to, any of the following circumstances (5-12-110):

• failure to exterminate insects, rodents, or pests

It seems pretty clear-cut to me, but then again, my opinion doesn’t count for much.  And landlords, if you don’t like what the City of Chicago has to say about bed bugs (as I wouldn’t if I were you!), you could always join us here at Chicago vs. Bed Bugs.  We are trying to advocate policy to control the spread of bed bug infestations, so our sole purpose is to make our city agencies and legislators aware of the physical and financial hardships that bed bug infestations create for everyone.

In the end, finger-pointing doesn’t solve the problem.  And in reality, landlords, it’s really in your best interest to hire a pest management company that specializes in treating bed bug infestations the very second you think that there might be bed bugs in your building.  You don’t want to put that responsibility in the hands of tenants who might not be able to afford proper treatment anyway, do you?

And, apparently, Boystown and Ravenswood do, too.  North Siders, this one’s for you.

Nobugs, a member of our advisory committee, suggested that I take a look at an article published in the Chicago Journal on December 30th.  I did, and what I read in the article inspired me to conduct a little research, the results of which might be of particular interest to those of you living in and around the Lakeview neighborhood.

In News you may have missed in ‘08, editor Jessica Pupovac lists some 2008 North Side news stories that did not make the online newspaper’s list of the top five stories of the year.  One of these stories details an ongoing battle between the owner of the Diplomat hotel, a 98-room single-room occupancy (SRO) at 3208 N. Sheffield, and the City of Chicago.  According to Pupovac’s article, residents at the Diplomat are living under conditions that are in violation of more than eighty municipal codes, including the codes concerning insects, rodents and pests:

In July, tenants at the Diplomat Hotel… told us about the conditions inside the building. They complained of leaky plumbing, cockroaches, rats, electrical circuits that blow out “every five minutes,” floors that feel like they are on the verge of collapse and bedbugs that keep them up at night and make them itch all day.

Wow.  Talk about a building that’s not reasonably fit and habitable!

While I hated to think about what the residents of the Diplomat have to live with day in and day out, I couldn’t help but think about how their miseries could help us spread good information about bed bugs.  What this article is telling us, you see, is that bed bugs are alive and well in Lakeview.

Now, I know some of you are wondering what the big deal is, right?  I mean, the truth is that most people who don’t know much about bed bugs associate them with places just like the Diplomat: shelters or group living facilities or affordable housing communities that serve people who don’t make a lot of money and have to move around a lot in order to keep roofs over their heads.  Right?

This is the stigma that’s associated with bed bugs.  It haunts people who are dealing with bed bug infestations in their homes.  It makes them leery about talking about bed bugs; it keeps them from sharing their woes with even their closest friends.  And sometimes, it prevents them from getting the help they desperately need.

I am about to discredit the bed bug stigma, right here and right now.  You paying attention, North Siders?

Today, I went to The Bed Bug Registry, a free online public database of reported bed bug infestations.  I know that most people don’t know that The Bed Bug Registry exists, and I know that many of the people who do know that it exists are afraid to register their addresses (the stigma again).  So, I’ve never really viewed the Registry as a reliable tool for tracking the spread of bed bug infestations in our city.  I think what I found on the Registry, however, is a reliable tool for discrediting the stigma that follows bed bug infestations, in our city and everywhere else.  Here are some of the addresses registered, as of today, in and around the Lakeview neighborhood:

536 W. Addison St.

540 W. Roscoe St.

452 W. Aldine Ave.

3155 N. Hudson Ave.

833 W. Buena Ave.

So you see, contrary to what you’ve probably always heard or believed about bed bugs, they do not, in fact, limit themselves to certain socioeconomic segments of the population.  Nope.  They’re just as likely to show up in apartments and condos in Boystown, Lakeview, and Ravenswood (no, Ravenswood, you have not been spared) as they are anywhere else.

And if you’re breathing a sigh of relief right now because the addresses listed above are a mile or two away from your own, take heed: bed bugs do travel.  They travel in purses and bookbags, they travel in coats and shoes, they travel on discarded furniture, and they travel on buses and trains.  They travel with people to work and to school and to movie theaters and to bars and to restaurants.  They travel through the walls in buildings like the Diplomat, which shares its address with two businesses, either of which you might have visited this week.

There’s a reason the addresses listed above are all located within several blocks of each other.  There’s a reason I keep finding discarded mattresses and box springs in the same neighborhoods, over and over again, for months and months on end.  Bed bugs do travel.

The moral of the story?  Bed bugs could happen to you.  You, my fellow Chicagoans, could be kept up all night and kept itching all day by parasites that live with you in your homes and feed on you– your blood– whenever they are hungry.

If there are bed bugs in your home or your building, I encourage you to register your address on The Bed Bug Registry.  You can do so anonymously, and you do not have to list a specific apartment or unit number if you don’t want to.

And if you’d like to help us advocate policy to control the spread of bed bug infestations in the City of Chicago by taking on one of the tasks listed on our Activism page– or if you have an idea we haven’t thought of yet– please contact us at the email address listed on our Join page.

If you’d like to share your story or engage with other Chicagoans who are dealing with bed bug infestations, I encourage you to do so by submitting a comment on our Discuss page.

I hope that the City of Chicago wins its battle with the owner of the Diplomat hotel, and that the residents of the Diplomat sleep peacefully again.  Soon.