By John Majeski
They tend to congregate in beds, coming out at night to feed on your blood. Although they pierce your skin with a miniature beak to nourish themselves, you usually don’t even notice it as you sleep. But the creatures, which can multiply quickly, leave evidence of their invasion in the form of reddish marks.
Sound like the plot to a sci-fi movie? Nope. It’s the story of bedbugs — those tiny pests that rank up there on the creepy-crawly list next to rats and cockroaches. While the latter two have long been on the radar for city-dwellers the same cannot be said for bedbugs, which only grow to the length of 3/16th of an inch.
"I never really head of any bedbug issues until the new millennium," said attorney Steven Wagner, a co-op/condo specialist at the Wagner Davis P.C. firm. "I’m sure there were cases, but they weren’t becoming legal issues before.
"’Don’t let the bedbugs bite’ is no longer a thing your grandmother says to you as she gives you a kiss and tucks you in at night," he added.
Wagner, who has handled multiple bedbug-related cases, said the issue seems to have hit a tipping point about five years ago.
According to the College of Agriculture at the University of Kentucky, bedbug problems were common in the United States up until the 1940s and 1950s when hygiene improved and use of the pesticide DDT became common. But today, their infestations are on the rise, likely because of changes in the use of pesticides and international travel. The university says the parasitic insects can be picked up in hotels, community facilities and just about anywhere else and then, inadvertently, transferred by humans back home.
Indeed, the number of bedbug violations written by the city’s Department of Housing Preservation & Development against landlords is up. In fiscal year 2004, there were 82 violations written, with the total figures increasing annually to 4,084 in fiscal-year 2009. And these numbers pretty much only represent residential tenants rather than homeowners and those in public housing.
"Bed bugs are definitely a big problem in new York," said Angelo J. Guglielmo, Jr., an agent at City Connections Realty. "I remember picking out a series of apartments for my clients and then going on a website that lists buildings in New York with bed bug problems and saw that three out of the five apartments I was going to show had bed bugs. Obviously, I did not show those apartments."
The website Guglielmo was referring to is www.bedbugregistry.com, a public database of reported bedbug infestations around the country. Concerned renters and travelers often refer to the site. The registry showed that the Big Apple alone had more than 50 reports of infestations between May 29 and June 8.
"When you see advertisements on the subways for bed bug mattress covers, you know it’s a big problem," Guglielmo added.
While the critters often crawl into mattresses and box springs, they can hide in baseboards, headboards, cracks in hardwood floors and just about anywhere else. Because they are so small and so good at hiding in small spaces, it’s hard for pest-control companies to know if they have completely eradicated the problem.
Haverstraw, New York-based R. Dana Pest Control thinks it has a solution. The company recently launched a K-9 Scene Detection Division and brought on some new employees: Walter, a 24-pound Puggle; and Lucy, a 45-pound Border Collie-chocolate lab mix. The furry pair were trained at a canine academy in Michigan and now have the ability to sniff out live bedbugs and their eggs.
"It gives us a more precise treatment plan," said owner Richard Effaldana, who usually goes by simply Rick Dana. "It takes the guesswork out of it."
Effaldana said a proper visual inspection of a hotel room by a human could take an hour, but the dogs can do the same thing in about two minutes and with more than 95% accuracy. It’s true that the number of bedbug infestations is growing in this country, he said. The bugs can be unwittingly picked up anywhere and transported in luggage and clothing.
"Bedbugs are professional hitchhikers," Effaldana said.
Once the bedbugs are detected by the dogs, the humans take over and provide either a heat or chemical treatment. Rick’s wife and company president Kristine Effaldana said most people have a misconception about these pint-size pests. "Some people think it’s a dirty bug, but we have clients … who are affluent," she said.
While they declined to give specifics, the business — located 33 miles north of Manhattan — does have some clients in the city. The Big Apple has housing and health codes on the books to address pests such as rodents and insects, and its Housing Maintenance Code seems to be the only law that mentions bedbugs specifically. It says that an owner or tenant is responsible for keeping premises free of pests and should make elimination efforts when needed.
According to the city’s Health Department, bedbugs enter homes by hitching rides on luggage, used clothing or furniture and by traveling on wiring or pipes. Among the department’s recommendations for preventing bedbugs: keep suitcases off the floor and beds in hotels, check for bedbugs when staying away from home, never take box springs and mattresses that were discarded on the street and make sure to seal cracks in your home with caulk.
With foggers and bug bombs ineffective, the department says that a professional pest company needs to address infestations. Infected furniture usually has to be discarded.
Bedbugs are small but can be identified. The babies are semi-translucent in color while adults are flat and have a reddish color, according to the department. They grow to no more than the size of an apple seed.
Although these diminutive creatures are a growing problem, rats still rule when it comes to pests in New York City, at least as far as renters. In fiscal-year 2009, HPD issued about 16,200 violations for rats/mice compared to 4,084 violations for bedbugs during the same time period.
Wagner said he had a client who lived in a co-op who was being blamed for a bedbug problem and was facing possible eviction. The outcome was that the apartment was exterminated "in a very serious way" and then put up for sale.
Wagner said there have also been cases of unscrupulous landlords renting out units to people even though they knew there was a bedbug problem, which they failed to remedy.
"Unfortunately, the cases are not worth enough," he said. "As horrifying as it is, it’s like getting mosquito bites. There’s no permanent injury. If you take the case to court, it’s not a high-dollar case in terms of personal injury. The issue of remediation is a different issue."
What is the worst case he has ever seen? "If you have these bugs in your bed, any case is horrible," he said.