Patricia Valadez's past life of glamour can be found in a tattered black leather portfolio, filled with head shots and other photographs from her days as a performer.
Last summer, Ms. Valadez endured a bedbug infestation in her apartment, which compelled her to throw away all her furniture, clothing and most other belongings. The portfolio survived the purge because she had already given it away to her daughter.
Ms. Valadez has chronic depression. For several years before the bedbugs arrived, she had been spending much of her time at home, going out only to buy food or to visit her daughter and granddaughter. ''I'm a recluse,'' she said. ''Well, not anymore, not after this.''
While Ms. Valadez received emotional support from neighbors and friends, the bedbugs set her back financially and left her emotionally and physically exhausted, she said. It does not show: at 61, Ms. Valadez still has a striking appearance.
Ms. Valadez, born in Mexico City, became a naturalized citizen after arriving in the United States with her mother shortly before her first birthday. (Her estranged father never left Mexico City.)
Mother and daughter spent much of their lives in the Upper West Side, the neighborhood where Ms. Valadez still lives and is reluctant to travel far from.

It is easy to imagine her as a cabaret dancer on the New York scene in the late 1970s and early 1980s. She performed in variety shows, in dinner theater and as part of a dance troupe at Carnegie Hall before pursuing a solo career as a jazz singer. She knew people on the club circuit in Miami and lived there in the mid-'80s. She also spent time singing in Mexico and Puerto Rico and traveled farther afield, to Morocco among other places.
''You always look beautiful, you're a blessing to the world; keep on doing what you're doing,'' a passer-by said as Ms. Valadez and Luna, her pit bull, began their morning walk.
''I'm kind of a legend around here,'' she explained.

At 40, Ms. Valadez decided to start over. At Hunter College, she earned a bachelor's degree in psychology and sociology, and she went on to counsel prisoners at Arthur Kill Correctional Facility in Staten Island and Bayview Correctional Facility in Manhattan. She specialized in behavior modification and substance abuse.
''It worked out really well, but I burned out after a year,'' she said.
She later became the director of development at Iris House in Manhattan, a center for H.I.V.-affected women and their families, and was involved with nonprofits helping Haitians in New York.
About 2003, she said, the depression she has fought her whole life started to win. She became unable to work; she went out less and less. Today, she is slowly crawling out of that deep hole of mental illness.
''Life has a way of forcing change,'' she said. ''I'm no longer a recluse; I get dressed and I put makeup on.''
These days, the rhythm of her life is set by Luna and her routine of daily walks. At her public housing complex, she is a member of the tenants' association and the tenant patrol watch. Ms. Valadez, who lives on $761 a month in Supplemental Security Income and receives $200 a month in food stamps, can afford her $250 rent and cover necessities, but the need to replace many household items at once after the bedbug infestation was far beyond her means.
Her therapist at the Service Program for Older People told her about The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund and helped her submit a proposal to the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, one of the fund's seven beneficiary agencies.
The fund provided Ms. Valadez with $1,000 to buy new bedding and clothes.
She is grateful but wistful. ''It's hard to get back to normal when everything is brand-new and all the old stuff is gone,'' she said.
HOW TO HELP: Checks payable to The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund may be sent to 4 Chase Metrotech Center, 7th Floor East, Lockbox 5193, Brooklyn, N.Y. 11245. All gifts are acknowledged; special letters are not possible. A check intended for a particular agency should be written to and mailed to the agency, noting that it is a Neediest Cases gift. BROOKLYN COMMUNITY SERVICES 285 Schermerhorn Street Brooklyn, N.Y. 11217 CATHOLIC CHARITIES BROOKLYN AND QUEENS 191 Joralemon Street Brooklyn, N.Y. 11201 CATHOLIC CHARITIES ARCHDIOCESE OF NEW YORK 1011 First Avenue New York, N.Y. 10022 CHILDREN'S AID SOCIETY 105 East 22nd Street New York, N.Y. 10010 COMMUNITY SERVICE SOCIETY OF NEW YORK 105 East 22nd Street New York, N.Y. 10010 FEDERATION OF PROTESTANT WELFARE AGENCIES 281 Park Avenue South New York, N.Y. 10010 UJA-FEDERATION OF NEW YORK Church Street Station P.O. Box 4100 New York, N.Y. 10261-4100 Donations may be made with a credit card by phone at (800) 381-0075 or online, courtesy of NYCharities.org at nytimes.com/neediest or nycharities.org/neediest. For instructions on how to donate stock to the fund, call (212) 556-1137 or fax (212) 556- 1979. No agents or solicitors are authorized to seek contributions for The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund. The Times pays the fund's expenses, so all contributions go directly to the charities, which use them to provide services and cash assistance to the poor. Contributions are deductible from federal, state and city income taxes to the extent permitted by law. To delay may mean to forget.
PHOTO: Patricia Valadez, with her dog, Luna, has chronic depression. (PHOTOGRAPH BY ÁNGEL FRANCO/THE NEW YORK TIMES)
CHART: Previously recorded $3,490,900 Recorded Wed. 131,492 Total $3,622,392 Last year to date $4,023,954

View the original article here

Patricia Valadez's past life of glamour can be found in a tattered black leather portfolio, filled with head shots and other photographs from her days as a performer.
Last summer, Ms. Valadez endured a bedbug infestation in her apartment, which compelled her to throw away all her furniture, clothing and most other belongings. The portfolio survived the purge because she had already given it away to her daughter.
Ms. Valadez has chronic depression. For several years before the bedbugs arrived, she had been spending much of her time at home, going out only to buy food or to visit her daughter and granddaughter. ''I'm a recluse,'' she said. ''Well, not anymore, not after this.''
While Ms. Valadez received emotional support from neighbors and friends, the bedbugs set her back financially and left her emotionally and physically exhausted, she said. It does not show: at 61, Ms. Valadez still has a striking appearance.
Ms. Valadez, born in Mexico City, became a naturalized citizen after arriving in the United States with her mother shortly before her first birthday. (Her estranged father never left Mexico City.)
Mother and daughter spent much of their lives in the Upper West Side, the neighborhood where Ms. Valadez still lives and is reluctant to travel far from.

It is easy to imagine her as a cabaret dancer on the New York scene in the late 1970s and early 1980s. She performed in variety shows, in dinner theater and as part of a dance troupe at Carnegie Hall before pursuing a solo career as a jazz singer. She knew people on the club circuit in Miami and lived there in the mid-'80s. She also spent time singing in Mexico and Puerto Rico and traveled farther afield, to Morocco among other places.
''You always look beautiful, you're a blessing to the world; keep on doing what you're doing,'' a passer-by said as Ms. Valadez and Luna, her pit bull, began their morning walk.
''I'm kind of a legend around here,'' she explained.

At 40, Ms. Valadez decided to start over. At Hunter College, she earned a bachelor's degree in psychology and sociology, and she went on to counsel prisoners at Arthur Kill Correctional Facility in Staten Island and Bayview Correctional Facility in Manhattan. She specialized in behavior modification and substance abuse.
''It worked out really well, but I burned out after a year,'' she said.
She later became the director of development at Iris House in Manhattan, a center for H.I.V.-affected women and their families, and was involved with nonprofits helping Haitians in New York.
About 2003, she said, the depression she has fought her whole life started to win. She became unable to work; she went out less and less. Today, she is slowly crawling out of that deep hole of mental illness.
''Life has a way of forcing change,'' she said. ''I'm no longer a recluse; I get dressed and I put makeup on.''
These days, the rhythm of her life is set by Luna and her routine of daily walks. At her public housing complex, she is a member of the tenants' association and the tenant patrol watch. Ms. Valadez, who lives on $761 a month in Supplemental Security Income and receives $200 a month in food stamps, can afford her $250 rent and cover necessities, but the need to replace many household items at once after the bedbug infestation was far beyond her means.
Her therapist at the Service Program for Older People told her about The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund and helped her submit a proposal to the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, one of the fund's seven beneficiary agencies.
The fund provided Ms. Valadez with $1,000 to buy new bedding and clothes.
She is grateful but wistful. ''It's hard to get back to normal when everything is brand-new and all the old stuff is gone,'' she said.
HOW TO HELP: Checks payable to The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund may be sent to 4 Chase Metrotech Center, 7th Floor East, Lockbox 5193, Brooklyn, N.Y. 11245. All gifts are acknowledged; special letters are not possible. A check intended for a particular agency should be written to and mailed to the agency, noting that it is a Neediest Cases gift. BROOKLYN COMMUNITY SERVICES 285 Schermerhorn Street Brooklyn, N.Y. 11217 CATHOLIC CHARITIES BROOKLYN AND QUEENS 191 Joralemon Street Brooklyn, N.Y. 11201 CATHOLIC CHARITIES ARCHDIOCESE OF NEW YORK 1011 First Avenue New York, N.Y. 10022 CHILDREN'S AID SOCIETY 105 East 22nd Street New York, N.Y. 10010 COMMUNITY SERVICE SOCIETY OF NEW YORK 105 East 22nd Street New York, N.Y. 10010 FEDERATION OF PROTESTANT WELFARE AGENCIES 281 Park Avenue South New York, N.Y. 10010 UJA-FEDERATION OF NEW YORK Church Street Station P.O. Box 4100 New York, N.Y. 10261-4100 Donations may be made with a credit card by phone at (800) 381-0075 or online, courtesy of NYCharities.org at nytimes.com/neediest or nycharities.org/neediest. For instructions on how to donate stock to the fund, call (212) 556-1137 or fax (212) 556- 1979. No agents or solicitors are authorized to seek contributions for The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund. The Times pays the fund's expenses, so all contributions go directly to the charities, which use them to provide services and cash assistance to the poor. Contributions are deductible from federal, state and city income taxes to the extent permitted by law. To delay may mean to forget.
PHOTO: Patricia Valadez, with her dog, Luna, has chronic depression. (PHOTOGRAPH BY ÁNGEL FRANCO/THE NEW YORK TIMES)
CHART: Previously recorded $3,490,900 Recorded Wed. 131,492 Total $3,622,392 Last year to date $4,023,954

View the original article here

“It uses UV light, which is a germicidal,” said Ryan Douglas, chief executive officer of Verilux. “What’s most exciting is that it is killing bedbugs; nymphs, which are the babies, and bedbug eggs.”
Hasn’t this vac-attack thing been tried before?

“Some people have tried to kill germs with vacs,” Mr. Douglas said. “But UV-C is a tricky wavelength of light, it’s hard to harness. What we are able to do is intensify and focus it at the surface so it can be very effective as a sanitizer. With the tests we’ve done on bedbug eggs, none of them hatched.”
That gives us the feeling that some tough adults survived.

“A tough adult bedbug is going to survive DDT, just about everything,” he said. “It’s important to be preventative.”
A vacuum could suck up the adults, we suppose. But then this vac is bagless — and they’re probably tough to spot.
“It has a contained area. And they’re actually visible, kind of reddish brown and about 3 ½ to 5 millimeters in length,” Mr. Douglas said. “What we advise people to do is put the container in a plastic bag and drop the bottom out. Then you tie the bag off and double-bag it and get it out of your house.”





View the original article here

“It uses UV light, which is a germicidal,” said Ryan Douglas, chief executive officer of Verilux. “What’s most exciting is that it is killing bedbugs; nymphs, which are the babies, and bedbug eggs.”
Hasn’t this vac-attack thing been tried before?

“Some people have tried to kill germs with vacs,” Mr. Douglas said. “But UV-C is a tricky wavelength of light, it’s hard to harness. What we are able to do is intensify and focus it at the surface so it can be very effective as a sanitizer. With the tests we’ve done on bedbug eggs, none of them hatched.”
That gives us the feeling that some tough adults survived.

“A tough adult bedbug is going to survive DDT, just about everything,” he said. “It’s important to be preventative.”
A vacuum could suck up the adults, we suppose. But then this vac is bagless — and they’re probably tough to spot.
“It has a contained area. And they’re actually visible, kind of reddish brown and about 3 ½ to 5 millimeters in length,” Mr. Douglas said. “What we advise people to do is put the container in a plastic bag and drop the bottom out. Then you tie the bag off and double-bag it and get it out of your house.”





View the original article here

“It uses UV light, which is a germicidal,” said Ryan Douglas, chief executive officer of Verilux. “What’s most exciting is that it is killing bedbugs; nymphs, which are the babies, and bedbug eggs.”

Hasn’t this vac-attack thing been tried before?

“Some people have tried to kill germs with vacs,” Mr. Douglas said. “But UV-C is a tricky wavelength of light, it’s hard to harness. What we are able to do is intensify and focus it at the surface so it can be very effective as a sanitizer. With the tests we’ve done on bedbug eggs, none of them hatched.”

That gives us the feeling that some tough adults survived.

“A tough adult bedbug is going to survive DDT, just about everything,” he said. “It’s important to be preventative.”

A vacuum could suck up the adults, we suppose. But then this vac is bagless — and they’re probably tough to spot.

“It has a contained area. And they’re actually visible, kind of reddish brown and about 3 ½ to 5 millimeters in length,” Mr. Douglas said. “What we advise people to do is put the container in a plastic bag and drop the bottom out. Then you tie the bag off and double-bag it and get it out of your house.”

View the original article here

“It uses UV light, which is a germicidal,” said Ryan Douglas, chief executive officer of Verilux. “What’s most exciting is that it is killing bedbugs; nymphs, which are the babies, and bedbug eggs.”

Hasn’t this vac-attack thing been tried before?

“Some people have tried to kill germs with vacs,” Mr. Douglas said. “But UV-C is a tricky wavelength of light, it’s hard to harness. What we are able to do is intensify and focus it at the surface so it can be very effective as a sanitizer. With the tests we’ve done on bedbug eggs, none of them hatched.”

That gives us the feeling that some tough adults survived.

“A tough adult bedbug is going to survive DDT, just about everything,” he said. “It’s important to be preventative.”

A vacuum could suck up the adults, we suppose. But then this vac is bagless — and they’re probably tough to spot.

“It has a contained area. And they’re actually visible, kind of reddish brown and about 3 ½ to 5 millimeters in length,” Mr. Douglas said. “What we advise people to do is put the container in a plastic bag and drop the bottom out. Then you tie the bag off and double-bag it and get it out of your house.”

View the original article here

There is one of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg wearing a T-shirt that protests the construction of the West Side stadium. It was a project that he, in fact, supported — and one that Ms. Bermúdez, who lives in the neighborhood that would have been affected, did not.

“I made him much more handsome than he is,” Ms. Bermúdez, 66, said.

There is one of Christie, her dachshund. And there is one of a woman asleep, unaware of the bedbugs that have invaded her apartment.

Ms. Bermúdez cited Frida Kahlo as one of her inspirations, mentioning Kahlo’s vibrant use of color, but resisted further comparisons.

“My life is much fuller than hers,” she said. “I don’t have that much sadness in my life.”

In mid-March of 2001, Ms. Bermúdez, then a designer, arrived for work at a bridal-wear company in the garment district. As she started across the workroom floor, she slipped, slamming her right shoulder against a metal door handle.

The resulting injury, which broke her upper arm in three places, required the insertion of metal rods in her shoulder and two years of physical therapy.

“I couldn’t even pick up a cup,” she recalled. “I still don’t have full-range motion of my arm.”

Her accident, Ms. Bermúdez said, coincided with a protracted legal dispute with her landlord, as she struggled to retain the third-floor apartment on West 34th Street where she has lived since she was 26.

During this period, she said, she was not notified of a rent increase, which eventually put her thousands of dollars in debt.

Housing court records show at least three lawsuits filed against Ms. Bermúdez. The most recent indicates that in 2004, she agreed to pay a total of $14,093.45 for “all rents prior to April 2001” and “for the period April 1, 2001, through Sept. 30, 2004.”

After her accident, Ms. Bermúdez had no steady source of income. And while workers’ compensation covered the cost of her hospital bills, years of legal fees had chipped away at her savings.

No longer able to afford a lawyer, Ms. Bermúdez turned to Housing Conservation Coordinators, which offered legal guidance necessary to help settle her debt. With money from several social service organizations, including the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, which gave her $1,500 toward her arrears, she said she managed to come up with most of the remaining sum.

Now, because of New York State’s Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption program, her rent is frozen at $1,021. But she still lives on a tight budget, with just under $1,000 in federal aid, including Social Security, plus $500 her older sister sends her each month.

And then, a little over a year ago, the bedbugs arrived.

In October 2009, she woke up to find bites all over her body. She immediately discarded her sofa and mattress.

Ms. Bermúdez said she spent about $3,000 repeatedly washing clothes and buying the necessary cleaning supplies.

In October 2010, long after her apartment had been exterminated and she was certain she no longer had bedbugs, she again turned to the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, one of the seven beneficiary agencies of The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund. With $620, Ms. Bermúdez bought a new sofa.

Financially, she says, she is just getting by. Still, Ms. Bermúdez contends that she considers herself lucky, reasoning that there are people far worse off.

“I always say my life is like the Internet,” she said. “You put in what you want, and the universe gives it to you.”

View the original article here

There is one of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg wearing a T-shirt that protests the construction of the West Side stadium. It was a project that he, in fact, supported — and one that Ms. Bermúdez, who lives in the neighborhood that would have been affected, did not.

“I made him much more handsome than he is,” Ms. Bermúdez, 66, said.

There is one of Christie, her dachshund. And there is one of a woman asleep, unaware of the bedbugs that have invaded her apartment.

Ms. Bermúdez cited Frida Kahlo as one of her inspirations, mentioning Kahlo’s vibrant use of color, but resisted further comparisons.

“My life is much fuller than hers,” she said. “I don’t have that much sadness in my life.”

In mid-March of 2001, Ms. Bermúdez, then a designer, arrived for work at a bridal-wear company in the garment district. As she started across the workroom floor, she slipped, slamming her right shoulder against a metal door handle.

The resulting injury, which broke her upper arm in three places, required the insertion of metal rods in her shoulder and two years of physical therapy.

“I couldn’t even pick up a cup,” she recalled. “I still don’t have full-range motion of my arm.”

Her accident, Ms. Bermúdez said, coincided with a protracted legal dispute with her landlord, as she struggled to retain the third-floor apartment on West 34th Street where she has lived since she was 26.

During this period, she said, she was not notified of a rent increase, which eventually put her thousands of dollars in debt.

Housing court records show at least three lawsuits filed against Ms. Bermúdez. The most recent indicates that in 2004, she agreed to pay a total of $14,093.45 for “all rents prior to April 2001” and “for the period April 1, 2001, through Sept. 30, 2004.”

After her accident, Ms. Bermúdez had no steady source of income. And while workers’ compensation covered the cost of her hospital bills, years of legal fees had chipped away at her savings.

No longer able to afford a lawyer, Ms. Bermúdez turned to Housing Conservation Coordinators, which offered legal guidance necessary to help settle her debt. With money from several social service organizations, including the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, which gave her $1,500 toward her arrears, she said she managed to come up with most of the remaining sum.

Now, because of New York State’s Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption program, her rent is frozen at $1,021. But she still lives on a tight budget, with just under $1,000 in federal aid, including Social Security, plus $500 her older sister sends her each month.

And then, a little over a year ago, the bedbugs arrived.

In October 2009, she woke up to find bites all over her body. She immediately discarded her sofa and mattress.

Ms. Bermúdez said she spent about $3,000 repeatedly washing clothes and buying the necessary cleaning supplies.

In October 2010, long after her apartment had been exterminated and she was certain she no longer had bedbugs, she again turned to the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, one of the seven beneficiary agencies of The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund. With $620, Ms. Bermúdez bought a new sofa.

Financially, she says, she is just getting by. Still, Ms. Bermúdez contends that she considers herself lucky, reasoning that there are people far worse off.

“I always say my life is like the Internet,” she said. “You put in what you want, and the universe gives it to you.”

View the original article here

The interface of a new bedbugs app.

Bedbugs are as likely to settle in luxury hotels as youth hostels. So, travelers may wonder, is there a way to figure out whether a hotel (or theater or restaurant) is infested? Well, now there’s an app for that.

The new Bed Bug Alert ($1.99 at iTunes.apple.com) app for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch shows users a GPS-enabled Google map that indicates nearby bedbug-infested sites as red push pins. The locations are based on addresses of bedbug outbreaks reported by the media, by governmental agencies and by users across the country.

Once the map is loaded, bedbug-fearing travelers can zoom in on a pin for more information. If it is a public place, such as a hotel or theater, the name will appear. (If it is a private place like a home, the name will not.)

In addition to the map, the app includes a tab that links to bedbug maps of the Top 10 infested cities. (New York, Philadelphia and Detroit are currently first, second and third, respectively.) And users unfortunate enough to encounter one of the insects can immediately report it via the app as well.

View the original article here

The interface of a new bedbugs app.

Bedbugs are as likely to settle in luxury hotels as youth hostels. So, travelers may wonder, is there a way to figure out whether a hotel (or theater or restaurant) is infested? Well, now there’s an app for that.

The new Bed Bug Alert ($1.99 at iTunes.apple.com) app for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch shows users a GPS-enabled Google map that indicates nearby bedbug-infested sites as red push pins. The locations are based on addresses of bedbug outbreaks reported by the media, by governmental agencies and by users across the country.

Once the map is loaded, bedbug-fearing travelers can zoom in on a pin for more information. If it is a public place, such as a hotel or theater, the name will appear. (If it is a private place like a home, the name will not.)

In addition to the map, the app includes a tab that links to bedbug maps of the Top 10 infested cities. (New York, Philadelphia and Detroit are currently first, second and third, respectively.) And users unfortunate enough to encounter one of the insects can immediately report it via the app as well.

View the original article here

CORRECTION APPENDED

Having invaded New York City's bedrooms, retail stores, movie theaters and offices, bedbugs are now showing up with growing frequency in another place: public schools.

There were 1,019 confirmed cases of bedbugs in the 2009-10 school year -- an 88 percent increase from the previous school year, according to Education Department records.

So far this month, the city's 311 help line has received 22 calls about bedbugs in schools, its records show. It is unclear whether additional cases were reported by other means.

School officials declined to provide the full number of confirmed cases since classes started on Sept. 8. But the Education Department spokeswoman, Marge Feinberg, said there had been no instances of city schools being closed because of bedbugs.

''Each confirmed case is dealt with expeditiously,'' she said.

At the Brooklyn Transition Center, a public high school in Bedford-Stuyvesant where middle-school students from the Beginning with Children Charter School also study, a Police Department school security officer and three teachers said Friday that there had been multiple instances of bedbugs since the beginning of the school year.

''We really need somebody to come clean it up,'' said a teacher who was in front the school building, on Ellery Street, about 2 p.m.

''It was a problem last spring and we thought it would be gone this year, but it's still a problem,'' said the teacher, who spoke on the condition of anonymity and was eventually asked by a security guard to end the interview.

Ms. Feinberg said the school's principal, Valerie Miller, told her that bedbugs had been found in the school twice this month, and that the two classrooms involved had been treated. Ms. Feinberg said that Ms. Miller told her, ''There were no instances where it was widespread.''

Ms. Miller also told her that parents of children in the affected classrooms were notified, Ms. Feinberg said.

Bedbugs feed on humans, but do not transmit disease. Still, now that they are showing up in the schools, they are joining lice as a scourge of families that include young students. While schools are not considered ideal feeding spots for the nocturnal parasites, classrooms could be serving as a transportation hub to and from homes, further fanning a citywide resurgence of the pests, experts say. And it could get worse in the months ahead.

''What we've found is that they crop up during winter time, on heavy clothing, like jackets,'' Ms. Feinberg said.

Mike Orlino of Superior Pest Elimination, a company based on Staten Island that has contracted with the Education Department since 2004, said the company had seen a huge increase in cases. It treated 29 schools for bedbugs last year, he said.

Schools in Brooklyn and Queens, the city's most populous boroughs, had the most confirmed cases last year, Ms. Feinberg said. Brooklyn reported 439 cases, and Queens reported 327.

Ms. Feinberg would not say how many schools were affected and declined to name schools other than Brooklyn Transition where bedbugs were discovered.

City officials have started to track the problem more closely, said Nick Sbordone, a spokesman for the city's Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications. Since the city started counting 311 calls related to bedbugs, in March, operators have received 121 calls about bedbugs in schools, including the calls since the current school year started, he said.

This month the city updated its nine-page ''Bedbug Kit,'' which outlines ways to detect and deal with the insects, Ms. Feinberg said. The manual includes a letter school administrators can use to notify parents whenever bedbugs are found in a school.

Gov. David A. Paterson signed a law last month that requires schools in large districts to notify parents of any infestation. The law does not take effect until July.

Ms. Feinberg said, ''We go above and beyond the legal requirement.''

She added that ''currently just the parents of students who are affected'' must be notified.

The union representing teachers acknowledged the difficult circumstances schools face, but called on officials to research safer, more effective methods of eradicating the bugs.

''Our school communities need to be able to count on more support from governmental agencies as well as legislation to address this increasing problem,'' said Richard Riley, a United Federation of Teachers spokesman.

PHOTO: The Brooklyn Transition Center, a public high school, is one of the schools where bedbugs have turned up, staff members said. (PHOTOGRAPH BY ULI SEIT FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES)

View the original article here

CORRECTION APPENDED

Having invaded New York City's bedrooms, retail stores, movie theaters and offices, bedbugs are now showing up with growing frequency in another place: public schools.

There were 1,019 confirmed cases of bedbugs in the 2009-10 school year -- an 88 percent increase from the previous school year, according to Education Department records.

So far this month, the city's 311 help line has received 22 calls about bedbugs in schools, its records show. It is unclear whether additional cases were reported by other means.

School officials declined to provide the full number of confirmed cases since classes started on Sept. 8. But the Education Department spokeswoman, Marge Feinberg, said there had been no instances of city schools being closed because of bedbugs.

''Each confirmed case is dealt with expeditiously,'' she said.

At the Brooklyn Transition Center, a public high school in Bedford-Stuyvesant where middle-school students from the Beginning with Children Charter School also study, a Police Department school security officer and three teachers said Friday that there had been multiple instances of bedbugs since the beginning of the school year.

''We really need somebody to come clean it up,'' said a teacher who was in front the school building, on Ellery Street, about 2 p.m.

''It was a problem last spring and we thought it would be gone this year, but it's still a problem,'' said the teacher, who spoke on the condition of anonymity and was eventually asked by a security guard to end the interview.

Ms. Feinberg said the school's principal, Valerie Miller, told her that bedbugs had been found in the school twice this month, and that the two classrooms involved had been treated. Ms. Feinberg said that Ms. Miller told her, ''There were no instances where it was widespread.''

Ms. Miller also told her that parents of children in the affected classrooms were notified, Ms. Feinberg said.

Bedbugs feed on humans, but do not transmit disease. Still, now that they are showing up in the schools, they are joining lice as a scourge of families that include young students. While schools are not considered ideal feeding spots for the nocturnal parasites, classrooms could be serving as a transportation hub to and from homes, further fanning a citywide resurgence of the pests, experts say. And it could get worse in the months ahead.

''What we've found is that they crop up during winter time, on heavy clothing, like jackets,'' Ms. Feinberg said.

Mike Orlino of Superior Pest Elimination, a company based on Staten Island that has contracted with the Education Department since 2004, said the company had seen a huge increase in cases. It treated 29 schools for bedbugs last year, he said.

Schools in Brooklyn and Queens, the city's most populous boroughs, had the most confirmed cases last year, Ms. Feinberg said. Brooklyn reported 439 cases, and Queens reported 327.

Ms. Feinberg would not say how many schools were affected and declined to name schools other than Brooklyn Transition where bedbugs were discovered.

City officials have started to track the problem more closely, said Nick Sbordone, a spokesman for the city's Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications. Since the city started counting 311 calls related to bedbugs, in March, operators have received 121 calls about bedbugs in schools, including the calls since the current school year started, he said.

This month the city updated its nine-page ''Bedbug Kit,'' which outlines ways to detect and deal with the insects, Ms. Feinberg said. The manual includes a letter school administrators can use to notify parents whenever bedbugs are found in a school.

Gov. David A. Paterson signed a law last month that requires schools in large districts to notify parents of any infestation. The law does not take effect until July.

Ms. Feinberg said, ''We go above and beyond the legal requirement.''

She added that ''currently just the parents of students who are affected'' must be notified.

The union representing teachers acknowledged the difficult circumstances schools face, but called on officials to research safer, more effective methods of eradicating the bugs.

''Our school communities need to be able to count on more support from governmental agencies as well as legislation to address this increasing problem,'' said Richard Riley, a United Federation of Teachers spokesman.

PHOTO: The Brooklyn Transition Center, a public high school, is one of the schools where bedbugs have turned up, staff members said. (PHOTOGRAPH BY ULI SEIT FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES)

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Last summer, Ms. Valadez endured a bedbug infestation in her apartment, which compelled her to throw away all her furniture, clothing and most other belongings. The portfolio survived the purge because she had already given it away to her daughter.

Ms. Valadez has chronic depression. For several years before the bedbugs arrived, she had been spending much of her time at home, going out only to buy food or to visit her daughter and granddaughter. “I’m a recluse,” she said. “Well, not anymore, not after this.”

While Ms. Valadez received emotional support from neighbors and friends, the bedbugs set her back financially and left her emotionally and physically exhausted, she said. It does not show: at 61, Ms. Valadez still has a striking appearance.

Ms. Valadez, born in Mexico City, became a naturalized citizen after arriving in the United States with her mother shortly before her first birthday. (Her estranged father never left Mexico City.)

Mother and daughter spent much of their lives in the Upper West Side, the neighborhood where Ms. Valadez still lives and is reluctant to travel far from.

It is easy to imagine her as a cabaret dancer on the New York scene in the late 1970s and early 1980s. She performed in variety shows, in dinner theater and as part of a dance troupe at Carnegie Hall before pursuing a solo career as a jazz singer. She knew people on the club circuit in Miami and lived there in the mid-’80s. She also spent time singing in Mexico and Puerto Rico and traveled farther afield, to Morocco among other places.

“You always look beautiful, you’re a blessing to the world; keep on doing what you’re doing,” a passer-by said as Ms. Valadez and Luna, her pit bull, began their morning walk.

“I’m kind of a legend around here,” she explained.

At 40, Ms. Valadez decided to start over. At Hunter College, she earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and sociology, and she went on to counsel prisoners at Arthur Kill Correctional Facility in Staten Island and Bayview Correctional Facility in Manhattan. She specialized in behavior modification and substance abuse.

“It worked out really well, but I burned out after a year,” she said.

She later became the director of development at Iris House in Manhattan, a center for H.I.V.-affected women and their families, and was involved with nonprofits helping Haitians in New York.

About 2003, she said, the depression she has fought her whole life started to win. She became unable to work; she went out less and less. Today, she is slowly crawling out of that deep hole of mental illness.

“Life has a way of forcing change,” she said. “I’m no longer a recluse; I get dressed and I put makeup on.”

These days, the rhythm of her life is set by Luna and her routine of daily walks. At her public housing complex, she is a member of the tenants’ association and the tenant patrol watch. Ms. Valadez, who lives on $761 a month in Supplemental Security Income and receives $200 a month in food stamps, can afford her $250 rent and cover necessities, but the need to replace many household items at once after the bedbug infestation was far beyond her means.

Her therapist at the Service Program for Older People told her about The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund and helped her submit a proposal to the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, one of the fund’s seven beneficiary agencies.

The fund provided Ms. Valadez with $1,000 to buy new bedding and clothes.

She is grateful but wistful. “It’s hard to get back to normal when everything is brand-new and all the old stuff is gone,” she said.

View the original article here

Last summer, Ms. Valadez endured a bedbug infestation in her apartment, which compelled her to throw away all her furniture, clothing and most other belongings. The portfolio survived the purge because she had already given it away to her daughter.

Ms. Valadez has chronic depression. For several years before the bedbugs arrived, she had been spending much of her time at home, going out only to buy food or to visit her daughter and granddaughter. “I’m a recluse,” she said. “Well, not anymore, not after this.”

While Ms. Valadez received emotional support from neighbors and friends, the bedbugs set her back financially and left her emotionally and physically exhausted, she said. It does not show: at 61, Ms. Valadez still has a striking appearance.

Ms. Valadez, born in Mexico City, became a naturalized citizen after arriving in the United States with her mother shortly before her first birthday. (Her estranged father never left Mexico City.)

Mother and daughter spent much of their lives in the Upper West Side, the neighborhood where Ms. Valadez still lives and is reluctant to travel far from.

It is easy to imagine her as a cabaret dancer on the New York scene in the late 1970s and early 1980s. She performed in variety shows, in dinner theater and as part of a dance troupe at Carnegie Hall before pursuing a solo career as a jazz singer. She knew people on the club circuit in Miami and lived there in the mid-’80s. She also spent time singing in Mexico and Puerto Rico and traveled farther afield, to Morocco among other places.

“You always look beautiful, you’re a blessing to the world; keep on doing what you’re doing,” a passer-by said as Ms. Valadez and Luna, her pit bull, began their morning walk.

“I’m kind of a legend around here,” she explained.

At 40, Ms. Valadez decided to start over. At Hunter College, she earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and sociology, and she went on to counsel prisoners at Arthur Kill Correctional Facility in Staten Island and Bayview Correctional Facility in Manhattan. She specialized in behavior modification and substance abuse.

“It worked out really well, but I burned out after a year,” she said.

She later became the director of development at Iris House in Manhattan, a center for H.I.V.-affected women and their families, and was involved with nonprofits helping Haitians in New York.

About 2003, she said, the depression she has fought her whole life started to win. She became unable to work; she went out less and less. Today, she is slowly crawling out of that deep hole of mental illness.

“Life has a way of forcing change,” she said. “I’m no longer a recluse; I get dressed and I put makeup on.”

These days, the rhythm of her life is set by Luna and her routine of daily walks. At her public housing complex, she is a member of the tenants’ association and the tenant patrol watch. Ms. Valadez, who lives on $761 a month in Supplemental Security Income and receives $200 a month in food stamps, can afford her $250 rent and cover necessities, but the need to replace many household items at once after the bedbug infestation was far beyond her means.

Her therapist at the Service Program for Older People told her about The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund and helped her submit a proposal to the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, one of the fund’s seven beneficiary agencies.

The fund provided Ms. Valadez with $1,000 to buy new bedding and clothes.

She is grateful but wistful. “It’s hard to get back to normal when everything is brand-new and all the old stuff is gone,” she said.

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Allison Moultry needed many things in November 2009: surgery to treat a pulmonary artery aneurysm; a doctor to diagnose the lump in her breast; and help paying bills after her heart condition meant she could not do her job as a day care provider. She did not need bedbugs.

Ms. Moultry first noticed bites on the youngest of her three boys, Brenton. She showed Brenton’s bites to a friend, who walked straight to Ms. Moultry’s couch and lifted up the cushions. They were in the couch, beds, chairs and dressers. “I had to throw everything out,” Ms. Moultry said.

Her family was surviving on the limited income of her husband, Kerry Cunningham, a building superintendent, and on Social Security assistance for Brenton, who is disabled. Ms. Moultry managed to have her apartment exterminated and replace most of her furniture on a rent-to-own basis, but she needed help.

Brooklyn Community Services, one of seven beneficiary agencies of The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund, helped, drawing $234 from the fund to purchase a twin bed and box spring for Brenton. It also paid off arrears the family had accumulated during the ordeal: a $500 electric bill and $267 gas bill.
Ms. Moultry is now in treatment, covered by Medicaid, for both her heart condition and breast cancer. “At least my baby has a bed to sleep on,” she said. “That is a great relief.”

All donations made to The Times’s Neediest Cases Fund go to one of seven charities: The Children’s Aid Society; Brooklyn Bureau of Community Service; The Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York; Catholic Charities, Diocese of Brooklyn and Queens; The Community Service Society of New York; The Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies; and UJA-Federation of New York.

To help, please send a check to: The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund, 4 Chase Metrotech Center, 7th Floor East, Lockbox 5193, Brooklyn, N.Y. 11245. You may also call (800) 381-0075 and use a credit card, or you may donate at: www.nycharities.org/neediest.

View the original article here

Allison Moultry needed many things in November 2009: surgery to treat a pulmonary artery aneurysm; a doctor to diagnose the lump in her breast; and help paying bills after her heart condition meant she could not do her job as a day care provider. She did not need bedbugs.

Ms. Moultry first noticed bites on the youngest of her three boys, Brenton. She showed Brenton’s bites to a friend, who walked straight to Ms. Moultry’s couch and lifted up the cushions. They were in the couch, beds, chairs and dressers. “I had to throw everything out,” Ms. Moultry said.

Her family was surviving on the limited income of her husband, Kerry Cunningham, a building superintendent, and on Social Security assistance for Brenton, who is disabled. Ms. Moultry managed to have her apartment exterminated and replace most of her furniture on a rent-to-own basis, but she needed help.

Brooklyn Community Services, one of seven beneficiary agencies of The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund, helped, drawing $234 from the fund to purchase a twin bed and box spring for Brenton. It also paid off arrears the family had accumulated during the ordeal: a $500 electric bill and $267 gas bill.
Ms. Moultry is now in treatment, covered by Medicaid, for both her heart condition and breast cancer. “At least my baby has a bed to sleep on,” she said. “That is a great relief.”

All donations made to The Times’s Neediest Cases Fund go to one of seven charities: The Children’s Aid Society; Brooklyn Bureau of Community Service; The Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York; Catholic Charities, Diocese of Brooklyn and Queens; The Community Service Society of New York; The Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies; and UJA-Federation of New York.

To help, please send a check to: The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund, 4 Chase Metrotech Center, 7th Floor East, Lockbox 5193, Brooklyn, N.Y. 11245. You may also call (800) 381-0075 and use a credit card, or you may donate at: www.nycharities.org/neediest.

View the original article here