Noticing More Bugs?

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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. For our last segment today, now that we're one month shy of a full year of working and schooling from home much more than before, some people may have noticed more pests. Is there something about this pandemic that's bringing more bugs into your home? Joining me now to talk about the rise of home infestations in the COVID era, and to take your stories to help his reporting on that topic is Danny Lewis, reporter, and producer in the WNYC newsroom. Hey, Danny?

Danny Lewis: Hey, Brian.

Brian Lehrer: Listeners, here's the thing, we want to hear from you, have you noticed more bugs in your house roaches, ants, flies? Which pests have become your unwanted roommates more since the pandemic? 646-435-7280. This is not a scientific survey, we're looking for anecdotal evidence, 646-435-7280. If it is the case for you, why do you think it is? More food around the house, since you're eating every meal at home, maybe you've noticed that a pile of cardboard boxes outside of your home has been a reliable source of shelter for whatever, or have you stopped paying rent because you can't afford it and is your landlord allowing pest control maintenance to lapse?

Tweet @BrianLehrer or call us now with your stories at 646-435-7280, and help Danny Lewis and the WNYC newsroom report this story. Danny, what's your starting point?

Danny Lewis: Like you said, I've been hearing anecdotal stories from people I know that they might be seeing more bugs around the house. It just got me thinking, one of those classic reporter prompts, basically. I started calling around some exterminators and other people who pay attention to bugs and study them. I've been hearing that they are getting a lot more service requests for people's homes these days, especially in the last year.

One person I spoke with the other week, his name is Anthony Davido. He's a general manager and entomologist over at Magic Exterminating and Flushing. He told me they do a lot of commercial business usually, office buildings and things like that. Of course, since a lot of those are still closed and fairly empty these days, business there has gone down. He did say that there has been a pretty significant rise in the number of people calling for help taking care of bugs in their homes.

Brian Lehrer: Magically, here he is.

Danny Lewis: [laughs].

Antony: If you've had a apartment house and say you have 200 people in it, generally we get about 10% of the client, maybe 20 clients who have signed up for the service willl have problems. Now that people are home more, there's more signing up. We probably have to spend an extra maybe 20 or 25% of time, at account simply because more people are signing up for servicing.

Brian Lehrer: Anthony, I spoke to you specifically about cockroaches.

Antony: Right.

Brian Lehrer: Is that the main thing you are hearing, or that he's been saying?

Danny Lewis: That was the big thing that we spoke about. His hypothesis on this is that, because people are home more, they're eating more meals at home. They're bringing in more food, they're bringing in delivering meals. That just means more little crumbs around the house, like, you might drop that cookie on the floor and maybe pick up the cookie, but a couple of crumbs get underneath the fridge and some enterprising insects might stumble across them and think, "Oh, hey, this is a great place to set up a new home."

He also thought that one other thing is just because so many more people are getting deliveries to homes like packages, Amazon boxes, all these things. Those can also be really good homes for roaches to breed. If you're not bringing those downstairs or throwing them out of your building very regularly maybe you're stacking them up in a corner for some reason, that can also give them places to set up shop.

Brian Lehrer: Gregory in Astoria, you're on WNYC. Hi Gregory? Gregory, are you there? Gregory once, Gregory twice. Kai in Prospect Lefferts Gardens. You're on WNYC. Hello Kai?

Kai: Hey Brian, how are you?

Brian Lehrer: Good. What you got?

Kai: I was just telling your screener that I got up this morning and re-corked my girlfriend's entire kitchen because we've had a roach explosion in the last month or two. I feel like it's been every species of roach from the little tiny ones to the big ones that fly. They were coming in from the sink area and so I just got up early and took care of it. Hopefully, that'll help.

Brian Lehrer: You have a theory as to why more now?

Kai: I'm not sure entirely, but I do think that one of the things we've had to do is put the food garbage in a very tight container. I think that maybe the roaches are just not getting the food that they typically get, maybe. Also, I feel like there's a connection to the wetness, there's the rain, and the snow. They're drawn to the sink area, for some reason.

Brian Lehrer: Kai, thank you very much. Michael in Syracuse, you're on WNYC. Hi, Michael?

Michael: Oh, wow. Hi Brian. First-time listener-- no first-time caller, longtime listener. I've just been seeing a lot of brown marmorated stink bugs a lot. I know they're an invasive species, but it's interesting. I see one every day and I put it outside. I don't know what else to do from it. Maybe it's just coming in because it's warm.

Brian Lehrer: Is this new in your home?

Michael: I've been seeing it since March, maybe it's because then we've been inside more and we've been noticing them more often. Maybe they've always been there. Who knows? Maybe there's some eggs somewhere we don't know about.

Brian Lehrer: Michael, thank you very much.

Michael: He raises, Danny, that whole idea of being home more, so maybe you notice more.

Danny Lewis: Right. That was definitely another perspective that I heard on this. Just the fact that our homes are also ecosystems for other animals that aren't us, just us being at home more, people who are home more might be noticing it a little bit more and just paying more attention to their surroundings that they hadn't when they were spending a full workday outside of their home.

Brian Lehrer: Here's another exterminator you spoke to. Fida Abbas owner of Best @ Pest Exterminating in Brooklyn.

Fida Abbas: We are not surprised. We actually was expecting this because due to this COVID there was a very limited access to the apartment, even if some person has issues with roaches, mice, bedbugs. Most of the people, they're not even willing to have anybody come into their house. It means that there is no check and balance on these pests either.

Brian Lehrer: We've heard two clips from professionals on the ground in this area, Danny from your piece exterminators. I want to play one more because it comes from a whole other realm, and that is a museum director. Dr. Jessica Ware, associate curator of Invertebrate Zoology at the American Museum of Natural History. She's going to go down the lane of, as things got quiet, at least in the city, when there wasn't so much of the normal rush hour and stuff like that, suddenly, you could hear more birds, for example. Maybe nature is just finding its way back into our homes, as well and noticing it. Listen.

Jessica Ware: While you're at work, you wouldn't necessarily notice that. If you're home all the time, suddenly, you're seeing all the flora and fauna of your home [laughs] with maybe a bit more of a close-up view. It could be in part that people are just noticing things that maybe were always there, but they just didn't necessarily pay attention to them because they weren't physically home or maybe they work from home before, but the pandemic has allowed a lot of introspection [laughs], and a lot of times, you just stare at the wall and, "There's some hiding. There's a cockroach there."

Brian Lehrer: There's Luke in Crown Heights. Luke, you're on WNYC. Hi?

Luke: Hi. Thanks, Brian. I just wanted to share that last week I found a roach perfectly cradled in the part of a mask that I would have put over my nose and mouth.

Brian Lehrer: Eew.

Luke: It was hanging on a command hook.

Brian Lehrer: Sorry it was hanging where.

Luke: I had worn it once before briefly. I had used it briefly once before, and I keep the masks that I've worn briefly on a command hook, on the door of my closet with the part that would go on my face facing inwards. I was receiving a delivery so I went to grab it to put on on my way out the door and luckily as it was on route to my face, I noticed that there was a roach just really perfectly comfortably cradled in that exact place that would have gone on my mouth. It was a new thing that I had not considered to happen.

Brian Lehrer: You are the call that's going to get into the New York Post, I predict. Did you have-

Danny Lewis: [laughs]

Luke: People should know.

Brian Lehrer: -a roach--

Luke: People should watch out for that.

Brian Lehrer: You had roaches that you were aware of in your apartment before that, I presume.

Luke: Yes from time to time. We have traps and everything. It's not an enormous problem, but, you can't really put a trap in a mask. Can you?

Brian Lehrer: I don't think so. Danny, how about that?

Danny Lewis: That was a special one. I am so sorry to hear that, Luke.

Brian Lehrer: It is and he made it clear at the end that he's calling to alert other people that this can happen, that that can be a friendly habitat in that nice warm underbelly of your mask.

Danny Lewis: Yes, tight spaces, that's perfect shelter for them from what I've been learning.

Brian Lehrer: I want to make sure we get the landlord piece of this in here at least as a theory, because sources who told you that landlords who may not be getting regular rent payments from tenants with problems paying rent that people have might just be withholding maintenance either because of lack of funds or because they want to drive people out. Do you have any evidence of either?

Danny Lewis: I don't. I've heard about this as anecdotally from a couple of exterminators who I've spoken with. I do want to note also while we're talking about this, that that is against the law. It is New York State Law that landlords are responsible for making sure that their tenants live in as pest free as possible at home given that we live in New York City, where there are obviously roaches everywhere. I would love to hear from folks who might be dealing with that kind of issue.

Brian Lehrer: Sophia in Bed-Stuy, you're on WNYC. Hi Sofia.

Sofia: Hi Brian. How's it going?

Brian Lehrer: Good. Thank you. What you got.

Sofia: I was just thinking about how in the summertime I had an infestation of weevils. They have a more official name, some kind of beetle, but they come in with grains. I was just thinking about how early on in the pandemic in the Spring, everybody was buying out flowers and rices from the store as getting everything from the back of the shelves and how that's probably how my weevils came into my house was just that scramble to get any grain we can.

Brian Lehrer: Very interesting, Sophia, thank you. We're going to get a view from a broker here in our last 30 seconds. Jill, in Manhattan, you're on WNYC. Hi Jill. What can you add from the broker's seat?

Jill: Hi, how are you?

Brian Lehrer: Good. Real quick.

Jill: I go in a lot of vacant apartments and I know that water bugs thrive in vacant apartments. I think it has something to do with not using the sinks. You'll have to have to expert on why, but I know it happens. I think that vacancy rate might be contributing

Brian Lehrer: Right, because there is a higher vacancy rate at least in Manhattan. That's an interesting possible point of departure for you, Danny, for your next story on this. Are you taking it further?

Danny Lewis: Yes. I would love to keep hearing stories from people. Anyone is welcome to email me at dalewis, L-E-W-I S, @wnyc.org. I'm also on Twitter @dannydoodar, very professional Twitter name there. My DMs are open and if you want to keep it a little more private right now, and also happy to take your stories and questions just on main.

Brian Lehrer: All right. D. A. Lewis, dannydoodar check your mask and thanks for coming on. The Brian Lehrer Show is produced by Lisa Allison, MaryEileen Croke, Zoe Azulay, Amina Srna, and Carl Boisrond. Zach Gottehrer-Cohen works on our daily podcast, and that was Juliana Fonda at the audio controls. I'm Brian Lehrer.

 

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