News & Events
Boston struggles with growing bed bug infestations: MyFoxBOSTON.com
A growing epidemic of bed bug infestations has left the city of Boston struggling to keep its own housing units pest-free and respond to complaints in private units.“They bite you on your face. They bite you on your neck. They bite you on your back. Your hands. Your arms,” said Takisha Coles, who has been living with bed bugs in her Roxbury apartment for four years.
The bugs have forced the family to abandon one of the floors of the apartment and cram onto couches and beds to sleep.
She lives at the privately-owned New Academy Estates, where she says years of insecticide treatments haven’t worked. Now she believes the bugs are entering her apartment from other infested units.
Resurgence Of Bed Bugs In Massachusetts
By Beth Germano, WBZ-TV
November 17, 2010 5:08 PM
SALEM (CBS) — The phrase “don’t let the bed bugs bite” is being said frequently these days in Massachusetts, thanks to a resurgence of the tiny, blood-sucking pests.
From one end of the state to the other exterminators say their phones are ringing off the hook with calls to eradicate the bugs.
At least 40 units at a senior housing complex in Salem are now getting the heat treatment to literally bake the bugs out of the apartments.
Air heated to at least 125 degrees is being pumped in because “it’s lethal to bed bugs,” said Gary Weisberg of A-1 Exterminators which is handling the job.
Bob Waldie, whose mother lives in the complex, says it’s a problem that’s happened before.
“I ran my finger under the box spring and they were dropping on the floor, it was disgusting,” he said. “These people like to trade stuffed animals, buy stuff at thrift stores.” And those are prime breeding grounds for bed bugs.
It’s a resurgence in the state some attribute to more international travel and restrictions on some pesticides in the growing green movement.
“They’re hitchhikers, and they’re transferred that way,” said Weisberg.
PJ Arsinault of Yankee Pest Control is exterminating two units at a Dorchester triple decker, cranking up the heat to keep up with the demand, at least ten calls a day.
“It’s bad luck,” he said. “It’s people not being aware of how to prevent them.”
The bugs are more of a nuisance than a health threat. The infestation has less to do with the cleanliness of a dwelling and more to do with what residents bring in.
At his mother’s housing complex, Bob Waldie hopes they have better screening for tenants.
“They’ve got people coming in and they don’t check them out. It’s a big issue,” he said.
Sat Nov 13, 2010, 05:58 AM EST
Beagle sniffs out bedbugs in 38 Salem apartments
By Tom Dalton StaffWriter The Salem News
SALEM — The Salem Housing Authority said it will exterminate bedbugs from dozens of rooms in two elderly housing complexes after a specially trained dog detected the troublesome insects yesterday.
Tracer, a beagle, went through the Philip L. Morency Manor and the James A. Dalton Residence searching for the small, bloodsucking bugs that have made headlines across the country.
The dog, which was brought in by A-1 Exterminators of Lynn, raised its paw and scratched furniture or other surfaces in 38 of the 89 apartments in the complex, which is along Bridge Street near the old Salem Jail.
"Yes, we have found bedbugs at the Morency and Dalton buildings," said Carol MacGown, executive director of Salem Housing Authority. "Right now, we're looking at exterminating 38 units."
The bedbug-sniffing dogs have been used nationwide to find the tiny bedbugs, which are about a quarter-inch long and reddish brown. 
"They are between 95 and 98 percent accurate ..." Jeff Weisberg of A-1 said.
The SHA removed furniture from the common areas of both buildings yesterday and emptied out an apartment in the Dalton building about a week ago.
MacGown was meeting with the exterminators and her maintenance crews yesterday afternoon and said she planned to begin the buildingwide exterminations next week. Some individual rooms have been debugged over the past few weeks, the director said.
"We're preparing the schedule as we speak," she said. "We'll start ... midweek."
Asked if there are any interim arrangements for tenants in the targeted rooms, MacGown said: "There's nothing we can do ... until we start the exterminations."
John Boris, chairman of the SHA, praised MacGown for being "proactive" and bringing in outside resources on what has become a national health problem.
"It's a big problem, not only here in Salem but around the country," he said.
Bedbug infestations have been reported in New York City hotels, Chicago office buildings and apartment complexes in Arizona.
Residents of the Dalton building first learned of the problem about two weeks ago when a woman went to the doctor with bites, one tenant said.
"It's very upsetting," said Kathleen Burke, who resides in the Dalton building. "It's the creep factor."
While she had hoped for speedier action, Burke praised the SHA for "stepping up to the plate" and dealing with the problem.
Burke, who is on the board of the Massachusetts Alliance of HUD Tenants, said more tenants and landlords need to educate themselves about the issue.
Bedbugs in the apartments at Morency and Dalton will be exterminated using heat, according to MacGown. Heat-carrying ducts will be run into the apartments that will raise the temperature in those rooms to more than 130 degrees, killing the bedbugs and any eggs. An A-1 official said the method is safe, effective and poses no fire risk.
"We will get the temperature up and bake those units," Weisberg said.
A1 Exterminators Turn The Heat Up On Bed Bugs In Elderly Housing Complexes
Boston Herald By Ira Kantor 
Exterminators will begin turning up the heat on a bedbug infestation at two Salem elderly housing complexes tomorrow, days after a specially trained beagle found the bloodsucking pests living in 38 out of 89 units, housing officials said.
“Those 38 units are now in the pipeline for extermination using the heat method,” said Salem Housing Authority Executive Director Carol MacGown.
A-1 Exterminators of Lynn will heat alerted units at Philip L. Morency Manor and the James A. Dalton Residence on Bridge Street to 125 degrees to kill the creepy crawlers and their eggs. “Nobody will be displaced. All we ask is the residents cooperate in assisting us in preparing the unit for extermination,” MacGown added.
A-1, called in to investigate Friday by housing officials, brought in Tracer, a beagle belonging to American K-9 Private Investigators of Mattapoisett, to sniff out the pesky varmints. Going through all units and the common areas of both buildings, Tracer tracked the bugs by scratching furniture, said A-1 president Gary Weisberg.
“It’s unbelievable. You put a dog in one of those units and they will immediately go right to that area,” Weisberg said. “They’re on the scent.”
Affected tenants must leave their homes for eight hours because of the excessive heat, MacGown said.
Turning up the heat is “lethal to all stages of bedbug development,” Weisberg said.
Saugus elementary school dealing with rodent problem
SAUGUS, Mass. -- There is a rodent problem at a local elementary school.
The rat problem at the Douglas Waybright School in Saugus became apparent right after the Christmas break.
School officials have had exterminators to the school and a special Hazmat team came in to help clean things up. Town officials believe the problem is under control, but they still want to take more steps to ensure it doesn’t come back.
Health officials immediately got involved with inspecting the school. Almost all of the rats were found in a basement area used for storage that students and faculty do not have access to.
It is believed construction in the area behind the school sent the rodents scurrying for shelter.
Two rats were caught in traps in the cafeteria while all of the other rats were found in the basement.
Health officials said the school took the proactive step of temporarily shutting down the hot lunch program, a move that wasn’t mandated because there was never any evidence of rats in the kitchen.
Town officials said exterminators have been to the school daily and now have a handle on the problem.
“We’ve instituted a program of rodent control throughout the building, we’ve gone through and have made some improvements to the perimeter of the foundation so that the rodents would not have access,” said Andrew Bisignani, Town Manager.
Town officials said they have never had a problem like this at a school before. They will be asking for money to install a concrete floor in the basement. Right now, part of the floor is dirt and it is believed that the rats have been burrowing in it.
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