Bitten
Des Moines' bed bug issue is uncovered
By Jared Curtis and Amber Williams
Sheila Barnes is 81 and lives alone - or at least she thought she did. One
morning in June 2010, she woke up in her Des Moines apartment clawing at her
own skin with an unstoppable urge to itch.
When Barnes flipped on her lights, she discovered blistering boils covering
her arms and legs. That's when she - like 293 others in the Des Moines metro
last year - discovered she was sleeping with bed bugs.
"
When I found out what the problem was, I complained to the building manager
right away, and he didn't believe it was bed bugs - like I'm senile or something,
or a liar," Barnes huffed. "When I showed him the paperwork from
my doctor, he got upset at me and said I must have brought them into the
building. He wanted me to pay for the extermination!"
Barnes' downtown apartment building, Prairie Field Manor, closed last summer
after the infestation drove all 38 tenants out. Building Manager Bob Slummes
eventually admitted that the building was infested with bed bugs but gave
no apologies for blaming Barnes for the problem.
"
She was the first one to have them, so they must have come from her," Slummes
said. "I don't know what kinds of places the woman hangs out, but wherever
it is, she brought her bugs back with her, and now all those people are out
of a home, and I'm out a job."
Pest problems
Prairie Field Manor was one of several buildings that encountered a bed bug
infestation last year in Des Moines. Now they're back, this time in full force,
taking the Polk County Employment and Activism Agency (EAA) and the Des Moines
House of Human Affairs (HHA) buildings as their latest victims.
"
It was one thing to have them infesting apartment buildings downtown, but
now that they're attacking people at their places of work in our government
buildings. We're realizing this is a growing nuisance and a matter of public
health and safety," said Polk County Public Health Director Terry Tenkels.
Tenkels said the Polk County Public Health Department has already begun taking
action against the spreading infestation. A year-long fight against the insects
in 2010 afforded his department some experience in arming against the latest
plague.
Last year, the department thought it had won the battle with the implementation
of more modern pest control techniques after "traditional chemicals
alone failed to work," according to Chad Borkin, pest control expert
with Best Pest Control in Ankeny.
"
Insects are one of the fastest-evolving creatures in the word," Borkin
said. "Over the years, we've seen it with cockroaches, mosquitoes, head
lice, and others. The traditional chemicals fail to work after the insect
breed has built a tolerance against it."
Almost exactly one year ago, Borkin and his crews started spraying and disinfecting
residential units at Prairie Field Manor, as well as Chicanery Country Club
on Army Post Road. Residents from both complexes were showing up at health
clinics with diagnosed bed bug bite marks speckling their bodies.
"
They're sore and really itchy and irritating," said Amanda Pocky, a
former Chicanery Country Club resident. "It was hard to sleep at night
- not just because of the irritating scabs all over my back and legs, but
because I didn't want to lay back down in my bed. Actually, I didn't even
stay in my apartment for two months before I eventually moved to the north
side."
Pocky said she's sleeping better now, especially after winning a lawsuit
against the owner of her former apartment building.
"
I used that money to buy a Temper-Pedic and a vat of skin cream. And a few
cartons of smokes, but don't print that," she said.
But employees at the EAA and at HHA have fewer choices when it comes to protecting
themselves against bed bugs.
"
It's not like we can just stop coming to work," said HHA staff member
Emily Ackers. "If I did, I'd lose my job, and I'd end up begging for
handouts on the other side of this counter, just like the people I see in
line here every day."
HHA was forced to close in order to eradicate the problem but re-opened in
early January seemingly bug free, according to Linda Satira, Des Moines HHA
spokesperson.
But this latest outbreak has administrators asking, "How did the bugs
get here?"
Extermination
Neither the HHA nor the EAA includes residential housing in the buildings.
So how does a "bed" bug infestation break out at a business that
closes nightly and is vacant of any sort of prey during the hours when the
blood-feeding insects supposedly go looking for dinner?
In the Polk County EAA's case in November, sabotage was the accusation. But
public health inspectors who teamed up with pest control experts are certain
HHA's outbreak was accidental.
"
Some dirt bag from the unemployment line probably came in here with them
crawling around in their clothes or something," said an irritated Satira,
scratching at an apparent bug bite on her forearm. "Those people are
lined up here for handouts every day of the week. You're not writing this
down, are you?"
In fact, HHA sees about 5,000 clients every day, several of whom are likely
to fit the demographic of those in bed bug-infested dwellings, Satira said.
Administrators at two Des Moines health clinics that have also been plagued
by the pest agree that Satira's theory - though insensitive - is not at all
unreasonable. In March, the Free-4-All Family Practice Medical Center, 2325
W. Nile Road, and Imslo Mental Health Clinic, 8494 Lost Way N., had to close
specific units and call pest control. Like Satira and Akers, they also blame
members of the public who come through the doors "already infested," according
to Imslo marketing director Les Smarts.
"
We keep a clean, sterile facility here, but we can't give everyone that comes
looking for care a thorough body-cavity search to ensure they're not carrying
parasites through our doors," Smarts said. "This has been an expensive
problem that we'd obviously prefer to avoid. Closing down units for pest
eradication means turning patients away who need care. This problem affects
everyone."
All involved agree that this infestation has gone on for far too long, but
experts are now saying the problem may have only just begun. The insurgence
of bed bugs is predicted to increase with warming temperatures outside. In
fact, pest control experts have discovered that heat not only stimulates
the insects, but attracts them.
"
When the chemicals were no longer effective, we began experimenting with
different extermination techniques," Borkin said. "Bottom line
- we're going to nuke them."
In January, Borkin and his team implemented a heating device called a Deet-Heat
that draws the bed bugs out of hiding and into the machine that not only
poisons the pests, but essentially nukes them like a microwave. The plan
was to use the device to heat up the room, attract bed bugs to its incendiary
core, "and then fry them," Borkin said.
"
The little suckers pop like popcorn," Borkin laughed.
However, the otherwise effective technique back-fired at Prairie Field Manor
last year, and Barnes' plight worsened as a result.
"
I didn't even know they were starting it. I was in my bed sleeping, and it
started getting really hot in my room," Barnes said. "I woke up
in a sweat, and there were bugs crawling out of my hair and down my forehead!
I could feel them coming out of my ear and racing through my eyebrows!"
Barnes said she fled the apartment screaming, slapping bugs off her arms
and legs, which only added to the problem, according to Borkin.
"
When they start to leave the crevices of your body, you've got to remain
calm," Borkin advised. "Let them crawl off of you and toward the
Deet-Heat. It's all part of the eradication process."
Borkin said Barnes' kneejerk reaction caused more bed bugs to fling into
the hallway of the apartment complex, multiplying the infestation by thousands
before the day was up.
"
It took us two weeks to rid that entire building of bugs using the Deet-Heat,
but we got them all. At least, I think so," Borkin said.
The aftermath
Although the Deet-Heat product worked in the beginning, officials found more
bugs hovering around the machines, rather than going inside for incineration.
After some studies, Borkin discovered that instead of going into the extreme
heat, the bedbugs were salivating outside as chemical radiation was released
from the machine. The bugs were catching their high without death. That's when
things went really wrong.
"
At first it worked, but then it didn't," Borkin said. "We took
a few of the bugs back to the lab, and that's when we knew we had a problem."
The radiation from Deet-Heat overwhelmed the bugs' bodies, and soon they
began to grow. Within a few days, the inch-sized bugs began to expand, and
within a few weeks, the bugs were too big for their containment cage. They
were becoming aggressive and biting anything that came into contact.
"
It was a bad scene before we put them down," Borkin said. "I had
employees that were scared to come to work. We thought we had the problem
solved, but actually we made it worse."
As the pest control experts transported the specimens to entomologists for
tests in Minnesota, they came back with unexpected results.
"
When they reached a certain size - I would say about the size of small dog
-their pincers started falling off," said Dr. Jackie Meoff, a registered
entomologist and a professor at Waseca (Minn.) Community College. "After
some tests, we discovered the radiation was poisoning their pincers and causing
them to literally rot off. It's good that we won't have massive bugs scurrying
around attacking people with the pincers, although they can still bite."
But Dr. Meoff has a more grave concern than the bugs biting.
"
When their pincers eventually fall off, it smells like, well, shit," he
said. "I'd rather just have the damn things pinch me than have to smell
that."
As local pest control officers worked overtime trying to destroy every last
bed bug they could find, the local animal rights group Fighting Against Radical
Termination (F.A.R.T.), wasn't having it. Members were collecting bugs and
storing them in an abandoned facility south of downtown Des Moines.
"
These bugs are breathing, living things and should be treated humanely," said
Fonda Dix, president of F.A.R.T. "They can be easily captured and have
caused us no harm. If they do need to be destroyed, there has to be a better
way to do it than a bunch of pest guys walking around with clubs and bats,
smashing them to death."
While F.A.R.T. continued its work, another group joined the cause.
"
As the bugs lose their pincers, they become more docile and even friendly," said
Debbie Stevens, spokesperson for the Iowa Bug Rescue League (BRL). "We've
been training them, and they have become very loving. We have some that can
sit and stay, as well as a couple who are already playing fetch. These bugs
are easy to house train, and you won't find a better cuddle buddy anywhere.
It gives the name 'bed bugs' whole new meaning."
The two organizations quietly joined forces to help introduce bed bugs as
household pets.
"
These bugs are just like any other pet - you have to feed them, bathe them
and take them out for exercise, especially the exercise because they get
a little wound up without a walk," Stevens said. "We encourage
everyone to have the bugs' teeth removed and spayed or neutered before they
take them home."
However, when a handful of homeowners took the bugs in as pets, things started
going wrong. One bug owner had to be taken into quarantine for tests and
later died. Officials would not release the victim's name.
"
A woman was brought to us by a local hospital with complaints of abominable
pain," said Dr. Meoff. "We did an X-ray and found that she had
a bug growing inside her."
Meoff said the woman admitted to doctors that she bought the bug from an
unlicensed pet owner after her cat had passed away. Living on a limited income,
she claimed she did not have the funds to buy another dog or cat, so she
chose a bug. She unknowingly bought an unneutered species, and it wasn't
long before she became emotionally attached to it, even going so far as letting
it sleep at the foot of her bed, according to doctors.
"
She thought she was just having erotic dreams, not being penetrated by a
bed bug," Dr. Meoff said. "It was awful. We tried to do everything
we could to comfort her. But when the bug was ready to be born, it was chaos."
Dr. Meoff describes a scene straight from the 1986 motion picture "The
Fly."
"
Within an hour, the woman and her bug baby were both dead. We thought we
could save the baby, but it died quickly after birth," he said. "The
bug ate her from the inside out."
Although this is the only incident on record, Borkin is certain additional
cases have gone unreported.
"
I told these people that this was a bad idea from the start, but those bug
rights people are tough. And I'm pretty sure under the guise of being politically
correct, they led this poor woman to her doom," Borkin said. "I'm
guessing people heard about this and are hiding. Obviously a woman died,
but that was the first time. Like anything, people and bugs will adapt over
time, and we are heading down a slippery slope."
Meanwhile, the bugs are still out there, available as pets.
"
Forget how all the animal lovers are whining about rights and freedoms; we
need to kill them all," Borkin said. "I don't want to be overrun
by bugs."
Dix disagrees.
"
There are always problems that pop up over pet ownership, but this woman
who died obtained a bug illegally, without all the proper shots and vaccinations," she
said. "I can assure you, as long as you properly care for your bug,
you'll live a happy and full life together. I think they could eventually
replace dogs as man's best friend."
For people who have been bitten, turning bed bugs into pets is the last thing
they'd like to see happen.
"
Bed bugs for pets? Baloney!" Barnes said. "F.A.R.T can kiss my
bed bug-bitten butt. Nuke them all, I say." APRIL FOOLS
captions:
Pest control expert, Chad Borkin, with Best Pest Control of Ankeny, attempts
to use traditional chemicals to eradicate the bed bug problem in Des Moines
but says the insects are growing immune. Special to Cityview
Dr. Jackie Meoff says bed bugs have a deadly potential. He's an expert entomologist at a Waseca, Minn. animal laboratory. Special to Cityview
Amanda Pocky was one apartment-dwelling victim of the Des Moines bed bug infestation
last year. This was a photo taken by her boyfriend with a cell phone one morning
when she woke up. Special to Cityview
