You see, the longer you wait to identify if something you found is a bedbug, the bigger the problem becomes down the road if the bug is indeed a bedbug.
Bedbugs breed fast. And they breed a lot.
An adult female lays between 300 and 1000 eggs in her lifetime. After mating, she lays three eggs a day. The eggs hatch in approximately ten days. Now you have more bedbugs ready to mate and lay eggs and expand the problem.
So you can see why you would want to get test results very quickly if you have found something that looks like a bedbug.
The longer you wait, the bigger the infestation can become.
Unfortunately, if you find a bug in a NYCDOE school, here is the procedure for identifying it:
The protocol for bed bug sightings means a lot of hurry-up-and-wait.
"The procedure is catch the bug, give it to the head custodian, he mails it out," Mauro explained. "It has to be confirmed that it is a bed bug, which is approximately two weeks before anything gets done."
If that bug that has been tested is positively identified as a bedbug, by the time the DOE gets the results back on the test, that school now has lots more bedbugs.
That's how it works.
Now I know the DOE spokesperson Marge Feinberg says many of the schools that had bedbug incidents only had ONE bedbug.
But that's nonsense.
Just as the cockroach rule is if you find one cockroach somewhere, you can be sure that have more, if you find one bedbug in your home or workplace, you can be reasonably certain there are more of them.
And for the DOE to say that the school system can't be infested with bugs because it doesn't have many beds is also nonsense.
These are resilient little buggers, they can be frozen and still be alive after being defrosted. They travel easily in clothes or bags, they live in fabric or wood.
They do not need beds to live in. They're just as happy living in the wooden walls of old buildings.
Does the NYC school system have any old buildings?
They are also happy living in ratty old rugs (like reading rugs) or couches or cushy office chairs.
Does the NYC school system have any of these items in classrooms or offices?
Basically what we have here is a NYCDOE that is in total denial over the bedbug problem.
They have a detection process that takes so long to complete that if the test comes back positive, the school where the bug was originally found could have hundreds of new bedbugs hatching.
They seem to have no idea how bedbugs live, what the incubation period is, how quickly they breed or travel.
They don't seem to understand that the more people you have exposed to an infested area, the more likely the problem will spread.
And finally, they don't seem to understand that when it comes to bedbugs, keeping the locations that have had positive identifications secret makes the situation worse, not better.
Bloomberg knows this. He put together a bedbug commission of experts that issued a report over the summer that explained much of what I have written here.
So if Bloomberg's bedbug commission knows that you have to take this problem seriously, educate the people affected by it, and be open in acknowledging where the problem is, why doesn't Joel Klein and the NYCDOE?
How much does it cost if you bring them into the home? Can the DOE be sued?
ReplyDeleteIf you find you have them in your home and you rent, the landlord is responsible for extermination until the problem is eliminated. You will be responsible for all the laundry (everything must be washed in hot) and taking care of your books and other items that they can hide in with either heat treatment or in some cases HEPA vacuuming.
ReplyDeleteIf you own your home, the expense is all yours.
Can you sue the DOE for bringing them? The answer is, can you prove you brought them home from school? The DOE will have a battery of lawyers to say you cannot and they will undoubtedly prevail in that fight even BEFORE you get to court.
So I'd say no, you cannot sue the DOE.
You can, however, go to Tweed with your infested clothes and bag and bites and make sure you leave a few in Tweed as close to Klein's office as possible.
That's what one commenter here at Perdido Street School suggested, and I think that might be the best revenge.
Although, if you take a close look at Klein, both his face and his skin tone resemble that of a bedbug, so maybe he's immune to them.
After all, he is a bloodsucker himself.
Unrelated on Obama, but isn't it ALL related these days . . . ?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.hindustantimes.com/Obama-to-use-teleprompter-for-Hindi-speech/H1-Article1-622605.aspx
(summary of article below)
Indian politicians are known for making impromptu long speeches and perhaps that is why some parliament officials, who did not wish to be named, sounded rather surprised with the idea of a teleprompter for Obama.
"We thought Obama is a trained orator and skilled in the art of mass address with his continuous eye contact," an official, who did not wish to be identified because of security restrictions, said.
Obama is known to captivate audiences with his one-liners that sound like extempore and his deep gaze. But few in India know that the US president always carries the teleprompter with him wherever he speaks.
I'm surprised that the schools allow furniture/flooring with cloth fibers... ours were all removed when the someone decided that having lice was a "lifestyle choice" and students couldn't be sent home for it anymore. Also, they have to be cleaned more often.
ReplyDeleteThere have been numerous instances where bedbugs have been found in our school, and the administration chooses to ignore the problem, and the particular students that have been bringing them in , via their bookbags and clothing.
ReplyDeleteWhy is that, I wonder?