In case you missed it, The New York Times’ City Room Blog published a story on Friday evening, “Even Health Dept. Isn’t Safe From Bedbugs.” It seems New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which is an agency that helps set bed bug policies for NYC and influences other agencies’ actions, discovered a bed bug in its offices and had a whole floor treated.
Click here to read the whole article.
The reporter focused on the paranoia and social stigma that bed bugs cause victims.
Another key item in the article that we found interesting is that the whole floor was treated due to a single bed bug. (Why is it that schools, department stores, and other buildings are always affected by only a single bed bug and never have more than only one bug in their buildings?)
Treating a whole floor in response to a single bed bug is a really large response. Our approach in a commercial setting is to have trained canine teams determine the extent of the infestation. We treat an appropriate radius around each sighting or alert by our bed bug canine teams. Bell Environmental’s approach and technicians use InstantFreeze technology, which gives us the most thorough solutions including being able to treat all office furniture and computer equipment without causing any stains or damage. If there were only a single bug or alert, there would not be a need to treat the whole floor.