On a recent hot summer day ”“ weather to jump-start bed bug breeding ”“ Robert Ciardullo readied the tools of his trade for another emergency call at his four-employee company”™s basement office in New Rochelle.
“We”™re going to do a dermatologist office later today,” he said. On the floor of his office at R&K Pest Control Inc. ”“ he”™s the ”˜R”™ and his brother Kenneth the ”˜K”™ in their 34-year partnership ”“ sat a vacuum cleaner, insecticide spray can and a squat steam machine with a wash cloth wrapped over its nozzle to intensify bug-zapping heat emissions.
His business card describes Ciardullo as an urban entomologist, and the certificate framed above his desk and microscope attests to his training in urban and industrial entomology by the Entomology Society of America. As it has too for his trade competitors in metropolitan New York and Connecticut, business has picked up for the exterminator since bed bugs began picking up rides on their human prey in ever greater and occasionally business-disrupting numbers. Once a pest of the good-riddance past whose numbers were decimated by DDT and its toxic ilk, the resurgent biting bug in recent years has moved from boudoirs to board rooms, retail stores and professional offices for its blood meals.
In Manhattan, the bed bug”™s commercial relocations this summer forced temporary closings at Abercrombie & Fitch and Victoria”™s Secret stores. The New York City Council, acting on advice from the city”™s bed bug advisory board, last month put up $500,000 to fund a new bed bug web portal and a dedicated staff to help city residents and businesses deal with what Ciardullo and an exterminator in Stamford, Conn., said is the toughest job in their business.
Coming to the defense of his besieged city, Brooklyn-raised U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer recently urged the heads of three federal agencies to form an interagency task force to investigate and resolve bed bug infestations of properties.
“It”™s such a great hitchhiker, and you have no control over that,” said Ciardullo, whose pest-control service area ranges from Manhattan to Bridgeport, Conn. About seven of 10 travelers on whom the bed bug hitches a ride don”™t know they”™re being bitten and used as transport, he said.
Ciardullo and others in the pest-control field cite the rise in international travel as the chief cause of the bug”™s global comeback. Ciardullo said the used-furniture market that has flourished on Craigslist and traffic in rent-to-own household goods also have contributed to the problem.
At Nu Tech Pest Control in Stamford, Conn., owner Mel Rich Jr. said the international ban on DDT and other organochlorine pesticides enabled bed bug populations to grow for the last several years. Since 2008, that growth has spiked, making bed bug infestations “a severe problem right now,” he said. Insecticide products now used have “limited efficiency” in eradicating the pests, Rich said.
“The insecticides we have aren”™t doing it,” Ciardullo agreed. “These things are in cracks and crevices,” where they nest. “They don”™t pick up insecticides as readily as most insects do. It”™s very, very hard to kill them” with the limited number of pesticides available. “We don”™t have a panacea as far as an insecticide is concerned.”
“There is no one treatment that is going to kill off bed bugs,” he said. “It”™s a combination of treatments that”™s effective.” Those most often used involve applications of cold and steam, insecticides and vacuuming.
Thirty years ago, when Ciardullo started in the pest control business in Brooklyn, “Bed bugs were very, very few to nonexistent,” he said. “In the last five years, it”™s just been off the charts.”
Ciardullo said office buildings make up about 25 percent of his business. While mice remain the most common pests for commercial building owners and tenants, “Any offices now are susceptible to bedbugs,” he said. “Anywhere you have a lot of people, there”™s going to be bedbugs. It”™s across the board. Nobody is immune to that.””
“Dermatologists, people are coming in with allergies” caused by bed bugs, he said. “Lawyers”™ offices. People, that”™s the whole issue with bed bugs.” Bed bug infestations “are becoming a big problem in senior-citizen housing,” he said.
For a pest exterminator, discretion is the better part of staying in business. Ciardullo would not identify the buildings and offices where he has answered bed-bug calls. But the pests have been found in government buildings and private office buildings in White Plains, Mount Vernon and New Rochelle, he said.
In Manhattan, his industry colleagues say “movie theaters are getting them now. I know of a couple,” he said.
“The well-known hotels are very proactive,” in preventing bed bug infestations, said Ciardullo. “They have to be. They”™ve learned the hard way.”
In office buildings, Ciardullo typically will monitor the success of his eradication program for a year. “The hard part is to get them to identify the people who are bringing them in,” he said. “You have to get with building management”™ and secure their cooperation. “Then you”™ve got to start with the (office) staff” in tracking the source. “It”™s the preparation and the due diligence you do that”™s going to mark the degree of success.”
With bed-bug infestations,” There”™s a stigma attached,” said Ciardullo. “That”™s a part of the problem as well.” Some business and building owners will deny the problem exists, he said. “If you are a business owner and we do bed-bug control, people are not going to go there,” he said. “The stigma of it is impeding.”
“It”™s got nothing to do with cleanliness or dirt or anything,” said Ciardullo. “It”™s a parasite of man.”
The parasite”™s bite and stigma apparently are the worst afflictions it brings to its human feast. “It”™s considered a nuisance rather than a public health threat because bed bugs, while irritating, don”™t carry diseases, said Caren Halbfinger, public health spokeswoman at the Westchester County Department of Health.
She said county health officials “in the last couple of years” have received more calls about bed bugs, almost all from residences. Callers usually are referred to building departments in their local municipalities, she said.
Ciardullo said the problem that has brought his company more emergency business won”™t abate with the hot weather that speeds up the reproductive life cycle in bed bugs.
“Wait until September or October,” he said, “because people will come back from vacations, summer camps.” Some will come back with hitchhikers aboard.
For urban entomologists, it could be a busy fall for emergency calls ”“ and a busy winter and spring, too.
A bed bug can stay in a wall for one year without a blood meal, Ciardullo said. “It”™s capable, if no one”™s in that room, to just sit in the wall, just sit there and wait.”
