Columbus slipping on list of bed bug-infested cities - News - The Columbus Dispatch

Rita Price The Columbus Dispatch @RitaPrice

Growing awareness and earlier treatments might be slowing the bed bug rampage in central Ohio.

But that won't quite be cause for celebration at the 10th Annual Central Ohio Bed Bug Task Force Summit, a public forum dedicated to providing all the latest research and guidance on the maddening, tenacious, blood-sucking pests.

"What we ideally want to see is a decline," said Susan Jones, an Ohio State University entomologist and member of the Central Ohio Bed Bug Task Force. "To plateau at a really, really high level is not good news."

After years of high rankings on lists of the nation's most bed bug-infested cities, Columbus — somewhat surprisingly — didn't crack the top 20 in the latest compilation from exterminating company Terminix, which bases rankings on the places where it performs the most treatments. (Orkin, however, still put Columbus at number 5 on a list it released in January.)

Ohio's other big cities fared worse on the Terminix list: Cleveland jumped to the top spot and Cincinnati was second.

"The top 20 is quite variable," Jones said. "That being said, I have been hearing about more problems in Cleveland. All of the northern part of the state had lagged behind. Cincinnati and Dayton were first; we were like the second bed bug wave. Cleveland and Toledo were the third."

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Now, experts say, the bugs have a strong foothold here and are holding steady.

How to make progress, or at least a bigger dent, in their presence is at the heart of the summits that bed bug warriors have been organizing for the past decade.

This year's gathering is free and open to the public and runs from 9:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. Sept. 15 at the Ohio Department of Transportation, 1980 W. Broad St. Registration and check-in starts at 8:45 a.m.

"It's everything from behavior and biology to the laws," Jones said. "There's a lot of time for questions."

Bed bug-sniffing dogs, do-it-yourself treatment and bugs in public — they happily invade offices, buses, hospitals and movie theaters — are among the topics to be discussed. Attorneys also will talk about landlord and tenant responsibilities.

The city of Columbus says faster action on the part of landlords appears to be helping reduce the number of bed bug complaints called in to the 311 help line. In 2015, there were 246; last year, the total dipped to 166.

So far this year, there have been 128 complaints, said Cynthia Rickman, a spokeswoman with the city's development department.

"Landlords are being more proactive in the larger apartment complexes," she said.

For more information about the Central Ohio Bed Bug Task Force or to register for the summit, go to www.centralohiobedbugs.org.

rprice@dispatch.com

@RitaPrice

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