Low-income renters in Anchorage bitten by another problem: Bedbugs

Alaska Daily News (2014) explained,

After years of homelessness with her husband and children, Sandra Haviland was ecstatic to land an apartment this May.

The two-bedroom unit at the Royal Suite Apartments, a former motel that fronts Minnesota Drive, was modest.
The couple’s elementary school-age sons would share a bed. So would their two teenage daughters. Haviland and her husband would sleep on the couch and a fold-out cot, respectively.

But after camping on the floor of a church and being crammed in motel rooms, an apartment promised stability and peace.

“When you are homeless and you finally get an apartment, you’re just so happy,” Haviland said.

But six months later, Haviland and others who reside at the Royal Suite Apartments are finding out just what being a low-income renter with few other options can mean in Anchorage.

Haviland and some of her neighbors say their apartments are so infested with bedbugs that they put children to bed at night with a dose of Benadryl to dull itching and allow sleep.

One of Haviland’s neighbors, Crystal Girlando, has taken to at times sleeping in her pickup to escape the bugs.

Girlando’s daughter-in-law Brandy Straight, who lives in another unit, catches bedbugs in a cup of water for proof.  Like many other residents, she has removed her mattress, box spring and couch from the apartment to a stairwell in an effort to expel bedbugs.

The manager of the Royal Suite Apartments says he is doing everything possible to rid the apartments of bugs, having purchased a $10,000 electric heater that is supposed to safely eradicate bedbugs from an apartment over a six-hour period.

“I am very confident we are taking care of those problems,” said manager Thomas Yoon.

Bedbugs found on another subway line, MTA takes three R trains out of service

ProChem - Heat is the best treatment

NY Daily News (2014) explained,
Bugger off! The bloodsuckers have survived the MTA's fumigation efforts, adding to the 21 bedbug sightings in August. Subway workers unions are calling on the authority to establish a more regular spraying schedule.
 Hey straphangers, R you feeling itchy?

Bedbugs have jumped over to the R train — one subway line that had not been affected by a series of recent sightings of the dreaded bloodsuckers riding the rails.

Since last Wednesday, Sept. 3, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has taken three R trains out of service after receiving reports of bedbugs on board, transit sources said.

“The MTA is losing the war on bed bugs,” said Joe Costales, a chairman with the subway workers union, Transport Workers Union Local 100.

Late last month, the Daily News published the low-down on bug stats in the subways: there were 21 bedbug sightings during the month of August, affecting the A, L,N,Q,3,4,5 and 6 lines.
 Most of the sightings were on subway trains; a few were in subway crew rooms or offices.

The MTA confirmed that it fumigated 16 trains after bedbugs were found on board last month.

In addition to the September sightings on the trio of R trains, an A train was sent to a rail yard after a bedbug sighting was made within the last week, the sources said.

Costales and Kevin Harrington, a Local 100 vice president, demanded the MTA fumigate the entire subway fleet, establish a regular schedule for cars to be sprayed and make regular cleanings more thorough.
 MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz, however, said the agency would not change its course. “We continue to follow the same protocol,” Ortiz said. “Once we receive a report of a sighting, the train is taken out of service and inspected. In most cases, the car is then treated, even in cases where no bugs are found.”

Some checks are done visually,  butthe MTA brings sometimes in a pest control service that uses a bug-detecting dog.

“Regular fumigation of cars would be a waste of time and resources considering we have not discovered an infestation anywhere in the system, and fumigating would only be as good as the next time a person walks into the system carrying a bug,” Ortiz said.

Bedbugs can live up to 30 days without feeding and often move from location to location by hitching rides on a person’s clothing. Since bedbugs feed on blood, an infestation usually occurs in areas where people sleep, including apartments, rooming houses and hotels.

They bunk down in the seams of mattresses, bedframes, dressers, and cracks and crevices near food supplies, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They do not carry diseases but can cause itchiness and other discomfort.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/bedbugs-found-subway-line-article-1.1934519