Posted on 10/01/2006 5:20:51 AM PDT by billorites
Bloodsucking bedbugs are plaguing housing complexes across the Hub, leaving elderly and handicapped tenants in at least one building furious at the city’s inability to uproot the insatiable pests.
“The exterminator told me not to sit on my chairs because they’ll crawl on my clothes,” said Mary Doucette, a 59-year-old diabetic Southie widow whose left arm is pocked with red welts she fears are the pandemic pests’ personal brand. “I’m lucky it’s just the arm.”
The Foley Apartments at 199 H St. are meant to be an affordable refuge for its older and infirm residents, but to many it has become a tower of terror haunted by the freckle-sized vampires.
Lon Bertocchi, the liaison between the Foley tenants and the Boston Housing Authority, said the problem is worse than the authorities know and that his neighbors are afraid to speak up.
“They’re older and they’re afraid of being evicted. They’re ashamed, which they shouldn’t be because it’s a citywide situation.” he said.
Lydia Agro, spokeswoman for the Boston Housing Authority, concedes bedbugs have turned up in “some” other BHA developments. She refused to name them.
Speaking of the Foley site, which houses more than 100 people, she said: “We’ve been exterminating there for some time. We have three units where there’s still a problem out of 96.”
In the past three years, bedbugs have cropped up at the Washington-Beech complex in Roslindale and Mission Main complex in Mission Hill, said Edna Carrasco, director of programs for the Committee for Boston Public Housing.
During the outbreaks at Mission Main, which has 535 housing units, and Washington-Beech, which has 268, Carrasco said management did a good job. Responding entails asking tenants to leave their apartments for long periods while chemical treatments are applied.
“For poor people, it’s really harsh,” said Carrasco. “Bedbugs are really hard to get rid of. It becomes an issue in low-income housing where people don’t want to throw away their furniture.”
Back at Foley, Doucette says she was forced to scrap her solid oak bed frame because of bedbug infestation, and has mummified her queen-size mattress in plastic and duct tape. “I used to sit and cry and make myself sick,” she said. “Now, I’m just aggravated.”
Neighbors Jean and Charles Moschella, who have sealed off the electrical outlets they said bedbugs were scurrying in and out of, slept on their linoleum floor for a year - even as Charles, 85, recovered from open-heart surgery.
“They’ve bit me. They like Italian food,” he quipped.
Baseboard glue traps adorn their one-bedroom apartment along with pictures of Elvis and curios of St. Bernard dogs. Jean Moschella’s morning ritual leaves her no time for a second cup of coffee.
With a flashlight in one hand and a wooden toothpick in the other, the 60-year-old woman drops to her knees where the floors meet the walls and spearhunts her tiny tormentors.
“You don’t have a choice, really,” she said. “It’s a no-win situation. And they’re spreading.”
How? Doucette and the Moschellas note that every time a tenant tosses a piece of infested furniture, another tenant retrieves it.
Agro said BHA exterminators are waging war on the infiltrators with the professional insecticides Phantom and Suspend but can’t afford to replace infested furniture. “Unfortunately, that’s true,” she said. “We don’t have the funding. We just don’t have it.”
Bertocchi said the financially strapped BHA is doing all it can to keep up, but tenants can be their own worst enemies. “People are not the Wellesley-Newton set. They are poor. If they think they can use something they pick it up from the dump and bring it home.”
Now I know I'm old. That made me think of Lawrence Welk....
THIS IS THANKS TO THE THIRD WORLD ENTERING THE FIRST WORLD. Good luck with this one. Some of the worlds finest hotels have bed bugs and can't get rid of them...
"furious at the city’s inability to uproot the insatiable pests."
What do you expect from government?
"What do you expect from government?"
To some people, the answer is, "Everything."
What do you expect from government?And why would a government of rats want to eradicate pests in the first place? It could set a bad precedent.
We know someone who was bitten so badly by bedbugs in a first class hotel at a popular resort area that they actually died the next day from the poison in their system. (Before someone tells me this is impossible, let me assure you that it did happen, the bugs were so numerous they covered the person while they were asleep and unaware. This was not an elderly or already sick person either.) I would hope that the family receives a very nice settlement as the resort is extremely high profile. I don't know how legally informed they are, but hope someone has helped them with the case.
Couldn't the tenants hire an exterminator?
It's public housing. I doubt the tenants are allowed to do diddle on their own.
What do the professionals do to kill the little buggers?
We have some friends who had to deal with an infestation. I don't know how they got rid of them, but here's a solution I find attractive:
http://www.alliance-enviro.com/tph_bedbugs.html
According to this site, 140 degrees F for three hours will kill them.
I don't know about professionals, but in a book I have from the 1930's, When Our Hearts were Young and Gay,everything in a bedbug infested boarding house gets washed down with lysol to get rid of them.
From the Alliance site:
Increased immigration from developing nations and international travel both have sparked the bedbug resurgence. It also discusses how they don't just live in mattresses and box springs, but rather any wall or floor crack the thickness of a playing card can accommodate a bedbug.
- New York Times 11/27/2005
Bet the NYT babies got this statement through before the editors got their coffee.
Everyone knows that America only benefits from immigration ...
Gonna have to bring DDT back for this
No surprise. Bloodsucking bedbugs have infested the state capitol and its legislature for decades; it was only a matter of time before the infestation spread.
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Diatomaceous earth kills all insects. I've even seen it kill a 4 inch Texas grasshopper in less than 2 minutes.
It's safe enough to ingest. The only down side aesthetic ... the white powder can be a little messy.
Still a better alternative than using massive doses of chemicals around the elderly and infirm., IMHO.
interesting stuff.
A tax increase to combat bed bugs....perhaps even a new executive Department of Parasites.
Sprinkle liberally in any concealed location, baseboards, corners, behind shelf and cupboards, etc...
I also recall that beds were protected from bedbugs by placing the feet of the bed in tin cans containing kerosene..
( Not recommended for smokers.. )
But one must remember the types of beds back then, which were wood frames and legs, generally fairly high standing..
Modern beds are usually built fairly low to the floor..
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