metro
Bedbugs Hit The 'Burbs
Infestation strikes Federation apartments in West Bloomfield and Oak Park.
Bryan Gottlieb
Red Thread Editor
A
ccording to a 2011 report on cit-
ies hit hardest by the resurgence
of bedbugs, Detroit takes this
year's bronze, ascending two spaces from
last year's No. 5 rank; parroting a Motor
City trend, this scourge also has migrated
north to Oakland County.
The annual list, released by pest exter-
minator Orkin, is culled from the actual
number of cases treated by its nationwide
network of 350 offices.
Reports of these boudoir phlebotomists
infesting New York City hotels have been
splashed across the media, but scant local
coverage has been given to what is clearly
a growing problem. Rumblings about
bedbugs invading apartments owned by
the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit, for example, have turned out to be
accurate.
Rochelle Upfal, CEO of
Jewish Senior Life, the
agency tasked with
overseeing tenant
welfare for
the 870 units
in Federation's real
estate portfolio, acknowl-
edged last week that apartments
in both West Bloomfield and Oak
Park have been affected.
According to JSL, two apartments in
the Meer complex and one in Hechtman,
both in West Bloomfield, were found
to have bedbugs. The Oak Park Jewish
Community Campus has been harder hit,
with a half-dozen units at the Teitel high-
rise apartments having been — or sched-
12
September 22 m 2011
uled to be — treated.
"Jewish Senior Life is considered one
of the leaders in the industry," Upfal said
of the agency's approach to identifying,
isolating and eradicating the pests from
an infested unit. "We are far exceeding
industry standards, and when bedbugs are
made aware to us, we contact [our exter-
minator] to schedule treatment:'
Industry standards vary, and the
approach to eradication depends on fac-
tors including treatment cost, location of
the infestation and availability of equip-
ment used to treat the problem.
Adding that JSL bears all cost for exter-
mination, which she said could exceed
$1,000 per unit, Upfal said her agency
goes to great lengths to ensure the safety
and welfare of its residents, noting the
incidence of bedbugs is not endemic to
Federation apartments alone.
To that end, she is correct. While local
statistics are not available, a survey con-
ducted by the National Pest Management
Association and the University of
Kentucky suggests calls to exterminators
nationwide have increased nearly 60 per-
cent in the last five years.
The 2010 study is the first
comprehensive industry
report focusing
solely on bedbug
infestation. Its
conclusions mirror
findings cited in an aptly
named U.S. House bill intro-
duced in 2009 called the Don't
Let The Bedbugs Bite Act, which
noted a 500 percent increase
in the bedbug population
within the last few years.
The legislation, unlike
its parasitic eponym,
died in committee.
The Department
of Housing and
Urban Development
(HUD), which regulates
multifamily facilities receiving federal
subsidies, including Teitel and a number
of individual units in the Hechtman and
Meer buildings, does not have a statutory
requirement for reporting incidents of
bedbugs.
Donna White, a HUD official in
Washington, said the rise in bedbug infes-
tation prompted the agency to recently
issue guidance for assisted multifamily
housing owners, tenants and inspectors.
"M bedbug infestations have become a
serious problem in housing throughout
the country, HUD multifamily sites are not
immune,' she said.
At the state and local level, Oakland
County's Department of Health does not
consider the occurrence of bedbugs a
reportable infraction, rather a nuisance
pest. Kathy Forzley, manager of the health
division, said that calls into her office
about bedbug complaints have been "few
and far apart." The state referred questions
back to HUD.
Upfal explained how JSL and Troy-
based Rose Pest Solutions, its commercial
exterminator, have established protocols to
help mitigate the introduction, infestation
and spread of bedbugs.
Once a resident or staff member identi-
fies a bedbug, which is about the size of a
watermelon seed, Rose is called out to ver-
ify and inspect surrounding apartments
and common areas. From there, JSL and
Rose map a course of action. Procedures
for incoming tenants include the dispatch
of a Rose technician to a new lessee's
current residence for verification that all
personal effects are bedbug-free prior to
occupancy.
Once bedbugs have been eradicated,
Upfal said constant monitoring by JSL
staff and Rose helps prevent a reintroduc-
tion of bedbugs into a treated environ-
ment.
"We are as proactive as possible and
spare no expense,' Upfal said. "We want
our residents to feel comfortable in their
homes and enjoy their homes. The intro-
duction of bedbugs is extremely upsetting,
and we take immediate action upon an
incident being reported."
Purging The Pests
The eradication of bedbugs has a history
spanning more than 300 years, the last 60
of which saw a virtual elimination of the
home invader from the Western world.
The one-time chemical panacea DDT,
introduced at the outset of World War II,
achieved a 100 percent effective kill rate;
it remained effectual for as long as three
years after a single application. It was
cheap, easily applied and abundant.
According to Dr. John Osmun, professor
emeritus at Purdue University and one of
the first scientists to evaluate DDT against
bedbugs, after three to five years of DDT
on the consumer market, it became hard
to even find populations of bedbugs for
further testing.
DDT's widespread use, however, caused
the bugs to adapt; bedbugs can develop
immunity to insecticides at a rapid rate.
New generations of insecticides were
developed to tamp down occasional out-
breaks during the 1970s and '80s.
The banning of DDT and similar chemi-
cals by the Environmental Protection
Agency, often blamed for the re-emergence
of bedbugs, is too simplistic, according to
entomologist Mark Shepeerdigian, vice
president of technical services at Rose.
"Bedbugs are difficult to deal with:'
Shepeerdigian said. "They stay hidden
very well, and humans are incredibly poor
at finding bedbugs. They are expert hitch-
hikers, so many people have walked off
with a single egg in the cuff of their pants
and — there it goes."
Rather than citing the removal of chem-
ical agents as the culprit, Shepeerdigian
said human behavior is the real reason
bedbugs have made a comeback. A lack
of awareness about the problem, coupled
with increased travel, brought the pest
back from obscurity.
Outlining the most effective eradication
method, Shepeerdigian said using exces-
sive heat would ultimately leave no bug
standing. Heat treating an infected unit,
at temperatures ranging from 115-130
degrees, achieves the same kill rates as
DDT without the health and environmen-
tal hazards associated with insecticides,
he said.
"You can bring in industrial electric
heaters and raise ambient temperatures
into the 130s',' Shepeerdigian explained.
"We go into apartment buildings unit by
unit. You send people in every hour and
circulate the air in the environment. Then
we go in with laser-guided handguns to
read the temperature and use fans to keep
the air circulating."
Shepeerdigian did hedge his bet by say-
ing heat treatments aren't foolproof. "If the
bugs can find a space that's cooler than
the lethal limit, they'll hunker down in the
corner and just stand by,' he said.
TL's Full-Court Press
JSL's protocol in treating an infested unit
employs a "cube" method, Upfal said. The
affected unit, along with units on either
side, as well as above and below, are all
heat-treated. This dragnet, she said, guar-
antees the success of the action.
On Monday, Sept. 12, an entire cor-
ridor of the Hechtman building's second
floor — in addition to the apartments on
floors 1 and 3 adjacent to the infested unit
— had been sealed off for heat treatment.
Treating the common areas of that wing,
Upfal said, was a preventative measure to