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  • Bedbugs? There’s an App for That.
  • Wednesday, July 20, 2011
  • By ELAINE GLUSAC
  • The interface of a new bedbugs app.
    Bedbugs are as likely to settle in luxury hotels as youth hostels. So, travelers may wonder, is there a way to figure out whether a hotel (or theater or restaurant) is infested? Well, now there’s an app for that.
    The new Bed Bug Alert ($1.99 at iTunes.apple.com) app for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch shows users a GPS-enabled Google map that indicates nearby bedbug-infested sites as red push pins. The locations are based on addresses of bedbug outbreaks reported by the media, by governmental agencies and by users across the country.
    Once the map is loaded, bedbug-fearing travelers can zoom in on a pin for more information. If it is a public place, such as a hotel or theater, the name will appear. (If it is a private place like a home, the name will not.)
  • As Bedbugs Multiply, New Insurance Plans Crop Up
  • July 19, 2011, 8:49 a.m.
  • By MATTHEW STURDEVANT, msturdevant@courant.com The Hartford Courant
  • Bedbugs are crawling the sheets in hotels, apartment buildings and college dormitories in surging numbers, which has spawned a new enterprise for insurance companies.
    The tiny, reddish bugs, ranging to about 7 millimeters, or the size of Lincoln's head on a penny, hide in dark places like vampires during the day and suck human blood at night. Unlike those other blood-thirsty parasites, head lice, bedbugs are extremely hard to wipe out once they infest, and the cost can be very high.
    Infestations of any kind — bugs, rats or cockroaches —typically are excluded from commercial property insurance policies. The cost of eradicating pests was a maintenance expense, meaning it was not covered by insurance, up until recently.
    Also
    • UPCOMING CHAT: Insurance Companies Offering Bed Bug Coverage
    • Video: Dog Trained to Sniff Out Bedbugs
    • Photos: Top 15 cities for bedbugs
    • Read more on outbreaks, preventive tips and how to get rid of the pests
    • Photo: Bedbug
    Insurers, like most of us, didn't want to get near the bugs.
    But increasing pressure from lawmakers to require coverage, along with high demand from hoteliers and property owners to protect themselves from financial loss during an infestation, has created a new market.
    Last month, bedbug insurance coverage was offered for the first time by two national brokerage firms, Aon Risk Solutions of Chicago and New York-based Willis North America; and also NSM Insurance Group of Conshohocken, Pa., an insurer.
    "You've got legislators in the state of New York Assembly who are trying to make this mandatory that insurance companies do this," said John Lafakis, senior vice president at Willis North America and program manager for the bed bug recovery insurance. "So we figured, 'You know what, we're going to beat everyone to the punch.'"
    The brokerage firms are leaping into an area that has exploded after years when bedbugs were rarely reported, seemingly a forgotten annoyance from another era.
    "Ten years ago it was considered a minor pest issue," said Greg Gatti, a director at Aon Risk Solutions.
    Bedbugs have grabbed headlines as more and more people report the telltale red welts after staying in hotels and living in apartment buildings.
    Hotels could spend an average $600 to $800 per room to eradicate bedbugs, according to experts in Connecticut. That says nothing of lost income if an infestation becomes public knowledge — on websites such as bedbugregistry.com, or in the media.
    Nutmeg State Plagued
    The state office that fields questions from people asking about bedbugs, the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven, had only two inquiries in 1996. Reports started coming in more regularly in 2003 in all major cities across the state, said Gale E. Ridge, an entomologist who specializes in bedbugs at the experiment station.
    Ridge is also chairman of the Connecticut Coalition Against Bed Bugs, which brings together bug researchers, pest control services and other interested parties. She recorded more than 900 reports from people who suspected they had bedbugs in the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2010, and the numbers are double or triple that for the year that ended June 2011.
    The insects are now in every corner of the state. "We have a very active population here," Ridge said.
    Bedbugs aren't known to spread disease, but they can be an annoyance because of itchy welts from their bites and the loss of sleep they cause, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
    The Connecticut trend mirrors what is happening across the U.S. First, bedbug reports were coming out of larger urban areas. Now, they are more widespread, affecting every town in the state, Ridge said.
    Occasionally, a person will mistake Eastern bat bugs (Cimex adjunctus) with bedbugs (Cimex lectularius), which are similar in the way they look and behave. Bat bugs typically signal that bats are living in the eaves or attic.
    What's the difference?
    Bedbugs are small, flat parasites, retreating by day to hiding places in bed frames, floorboard cracks and other dark corners."Actually, they'll hide anywhere. I've found them in electrical outlets and … in TV remotes," Ridge said. "They don't like to be on you, your person. You are the food source, and they want to get off of you as soon as they can and get back to their refuge."
    The bedbug population is spreading, due in part to the fact that chemicals once used to kill them, such as DDT, are illegal because of the human harm and environmental damage associated with the chemical. DDT, for example, is a probable human carcinogen that damages the liver and reproductive system. It pushed bald eagles and peregrine falcons near to extinction decades ago before it was outlawed in the U.S. in 1972.
    Modern-day bugs have mutated to become resistant to neurotoxins, helping the population to grow, though a pest control company can resolve an infestation if the colony of bugs is detected early.
    Bedbugs also are spreading because more people are traveling internationally, unwittingly bringing back the nasty stowaways, Ridge said. Sometimes, people notice bites within a few hours, but, for others, it can take two weeks for the bites to show up, particularly the first time a person is bitten. That delay can exacerbate the spread.
    Colonies of bedbugs are able to survive in condominium complexes and other multi-family housing arrangements because they travel from one home to another unless the entire building is treated.
    Covering Bugs In The Covers
    New lines of bedbug insurance announced last month by Willis and Aon, sold as separate lines of coverage, already have taken off, according to insurance brokers. Annual premiums for policies sold so far this range from $3,000 for a 100-room hotel in Oklahoma City to $150,000 for eight state colleges with 36,000 beds in New Jersey, said Lafakis, the Willis North America broker.
    "People have been clamoring for this coverage for God knows how long," Lafakis said. "It really didn't exist."
    Whether the coverage sells well to hotel owners will depend on how it's priced, but there is certainly a demand for bedbug insurance, said Joe McInerney, president of the American Hotel & Lodging Association. Bedbugs are a recent concern that hadn't been a problem for hotels in decades, and with every new arrival at a hotel comes the possibility of unwanted guests.
    "We don't grow them in the basement and send them up for a midnight snack," McInerney said. "Somebody brings them in."
    A greater chance of getting bedbugs and all the costs of casting them out may make insurance more attractive, he said.
    The Willis coverage, for example, includes decontamination services, rehabilitating expenses, lost profit due to business interruption, crisis management — including a 24-hour/7-day-a-week hotline, coordination with regulatory authorities, risk control and prevention.
    Willis North America is a broker for policies by Professional Liability Insurance Services Inc., of Largo Vista, Texas, and is joining with Orkin LLC of Atlanta for pest control services. Willis employs about 100 in Connecticut.
    Aon Risk Solutions, which employs 641 people in Connecticut, is an insurance broker for Global Excess Partners policies, and both are teaming with Memphis-based Terminix for pest control.
    "We had immediate reaction, not only from our current and prospective real estate customers, but also from our hotel and hospitality customers and have had a lot of interest from our higher-ed practice, which includes the universities and colleges, and to date, we have 15 indications out to major corporations around the country," said Gatti, the director at Aon Risk Solutions
    Bedbugs have made hoteliers very anxious.
    "Everybody freaks out," Lafakis said of a hotelier discovering a bedbug infestation. "You've really got a problem. The landlords, and the property owners and the hoteliers, they've got to run a business, and now they're freaking out that they don't know how many rooms are infested, 'What have we got to do, is this going to make the front page of the New York Times?'"
    He added, "There's hysteria, but it's justified. People's lives are turned upside down by this."
    • Cincinatti, Ohio Topples New York City, NY as the Bedbug Capital
  • Jul 18, 2011
  • NEW YORK, NY, Jul 18, 2011 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- With bedbug infestations on the rise, Apps Genius Corp. (OTCBB: APGS) (www.appsgenius.com), the developer and publisher of social games and software applications, recently updated its Bed Bug Alert app for the Apple iPhone(TM) and iPod Touch(TM) with a new list of the top ten US cities with bedbug outbreaks. The Bed Bug Alert app is currently available for $1.99 from the Apple Store (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bed-bug-alert/id397206377).
    According to the various tracking and reporting methods used to identify bedbug outbreaks, Cincinnati, Ohio now is the most bedbug infested city in the United States, a position long time held by New York City.
    Featured by The New York Times and USA Today, Apps Genius' Bed Bug Alert app provides the public with easy-to-access updates on bedbug infestations in their area based on the users' geographic location or via maps of bedbug infestations in ten major U.S. cities. Users can also contribute to the Bed Bug Alert's database of infestations, providing new bedbug locations for other users to avoid.
    "Apps Genius will continuously monitor news outlets and other sources of bedbug infestations, and update Bed Bug Alert with new locations where sightings are occurring and have occurred. I never go to any hotel, movie theater or other public place without first checking it out on Bed Bug Alert. I am happy to say that I have remained Bed Bug Free and plan to remain that way," said Adam Kotkin, CEO of Apps Genius.
    For more information, visit http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bed-bug-alert/id397206377 or www.appsgenius.com.
  • Researchers Report Findings on Recent Bed Bug Resurgence
  • Sunday, July 17 2011 12:00 41NBC News
  • If you're traveling this summer, you may not be alone.
    Summertime is high season for bed bugs.
    Health experts say complaints and infestations are up across the country.
    Whether its a luxury hotel, the workplace or even your home, the bugs aren't afraid to dig in.
    Bed bugs are also good travelers, able to hitch a ride in luggage and on clothing.
    Experts say there were more than 12,000 complaints of bed bugs nationwide last year, a jump in large part, due to an increase in tourism worldwide.
    New York City, a top travel destination, is the leading indicator of the growing infestation.
    Bed bugs have been found in hotels, apartments and office buildings.
    Health concerns over the use of pesticides like DDT and the creepy, crawly creatures' ability to adapt are just a few reasons they are back in droves.
    "We haven't gotten control or found a great way to control bed bugs, nobody has found the silver bullet," says Cornell University's Jody Gangloff-Kauffman.
    Steam heat, 122 degrees, is the best way to kill bed bugs.
    In the past few years products aimed at keeping them at bay have become popular, and are available in many stores.
  • Philadelphia police working to arrest bedbugs
  • July 12, 2011
  • By Elizabeth Fiedler
  • The interface of a new bedbugs app.
    A bedbug infestation is a worst nightmare at home, and at hotels, but what about the police station? Police have called an exterminator to the Harbison and Levick street station to deal with a possible case of bed bugs.
    Fraternal Order of Police Vice President Roosevelt Poplar says the building is a busy one--with prisoners, and hundreds of officers from the 2nd and 15th Police Districts, and the Northeast Detective Division.
    "The 15th District is a closed circuit facility which means that they do processing of prisoners and they all transport prisoners from that locations down to the Police Detention Unit," said Poplar. "It's possible that the bedbugs can travel either on a prisoner or on officers."
    Poplar says he saw cockroaches and other bugs on a recent visit, but no bedbugs. He says the bedbug problem is putting additional stress on police.
    "To learn that a facility is infested and there's a possibility that you may take it home to your family, your children--which was expressed to me several times by officers in the districts," said Poplar. "The cost of treating the infestation or the bugs themselves, monetarily is costly for the officers."
    Poplar says officers across the city have been warned about the bugs.

DISGUSTING! In one year, 3 TIMES as many bedbugs are found in NYC public schools

BY Ben Chapman
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Thursday, July 21st 2011, 8:13 PM

The consequences for students of fumigating for bedbugs can be severe even if small numbers of the pests are discovered.

Jewel Samad/Getty

The consequences for students of fumigating for bedbugs can be severe even if small numbers of the pests are discovered.

Bedbugs were found in public schools three times as often last school year compared to the year before - and officials are preparing for even more of the pests when classes resume in the fall.

Some 3,590 reports of bedbugs at city schools were confirmed by Department of Education officials in the 2010-2011 year - up from just 1,019 a year earlier.

In most cases just one or two of bedbugs were found, but the consequences for students can be severe even when small numbers of the pests are discovered.

"Fumigation for the bugs destroyed four of our classrooms completely," said Lucille Mauro, a gym teacher and union chapter leader at Public School 197 in Midwood, Brooklyn, where one or two bedbugs were discovered nine separate times last year.

Damage from chemicals used to exterminate the pests ruined classroom libraries and other teaching materials that the school is still struggling to replace.

"It's been disruptive for the kids," said Mauro, who is also the teacher's union chapter leader at PS 197.

To prevent the return of the pests next year, teachers and students at the school are storing bookbags and jackets in plastic bags and containers.

Education officials said they're working to better control the problem of bedbugs in schools across the city.

State laws compel public schools to notify parents when bedbugs are found, even if just a single pest is discovered.

DOE spokeswoman Margie Feinberg said that most incidents at city schools involved only one bedbug brought in by someone coming into the building.

"Schools are not hospitable environments for bedbugs," said Feinberg.

But some experts think it's likely that more of the bugs will turn up in city classrooms next year.

"More people have the bugs in their homes, so more will probably show up in schools," said Richard Cooper, an entomologist who served on the city's Bedbug Advisory Board.

bchapman@nydailynews.com


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2011/07/21/2011-07-21_disgusting_in_one_year_3_times_as_many_bedbugs_found_in_nyc_public_schools.html#ixzz1SqcSkIaP