Posts tagged San Francisco
Posts tagged San Francisco
Sleep Tight Academy presented its first seminar, InvaderSF2012, gathering community leaders, pest control operators, government officials, building managers and other interest groups to learn aboutSan Francisco’s bed bug problem and how to combat it. On Friday, June 8, over 150 community members attended workshops and keynote speeches on issues surrounding bed bug prevention, abatement and control at the Ray and Joan Kroc Center in San Francisco’s Tenderloin.
“It’s time for people to start realizing that bed bugs are a problem – and working to fix it. A lot of people are still in denial,” said Arno Murayama, Vice President of Sleep Tight Pest Control, one of San Francisco’s foremost bed bug abatement specialists. Sleep Tight Academy launched with the goal of sharing the principles of prevention, early detection, containment, comprehensiveness and monitoring that Sleep Tight Pest Control has developed over the past 10 years.
InvaderSF2012 participants included representatives from many low-income housing and other community-based organizations and interest groups that deal with bed bug infestations, including Conard House, John Stewart, the Tenderloin Housing Clinic and DISH.
District 6 Supervisor Jane Kim, who spearheaded the development of new bed bug legislation, provided opening remarks. During her campaign, Kim said, community members repeatedly stressed the significance of the bed bug issue. “It wasn’t just what was happening in apartments, it was also the stigma and the incredible emotional response,” Kim said. “Removing the stigma is important, but figuring out how to combat it is more important. We can pass all the laws that we want, but we need to educate people in the community to make this a reality.”
“It’s amazing to see this coordinated by folks from the private sector…to have folks that actually care and want to solve the problem,” Kim added.
Sleep Tight Academy also announced that it will sponsor a free treatment to a local resident, Dominik Mollica, to mark the Academy’s launch. Accepting the treatment, Dominik described his years of suffering with bed bugs, undergoing at least seven treatments and multiple eviction attempts – one of which he is currently combating. “I feel honored to be the recipient of this treatment,” Mollica said.
In a plenary session, Geoff Wing described the pests as the “perfect parasite” and gave an overview of how they have adapted to prey on humans. Karen Cohn, program director at the Department of Public Health, informed participants about upcoming changes to city bed bug regulations and solicited feedback.
Eight hour-long interactive workshops led by pest control professionals, housing managers and other community leaders, dealt with issues such as prevention, treatment 101, the financial impact of infestations, integrated pest management strategies, property managers’ rights and responsibilities and complications associated withhoarding.
“It was about giving people guidance that no one was giving,” said Brad Bishop, CEO of Sleep Tight Academy, of the day’s topics. Bishop said he was excited to hear the discussions sparked during the workshops, and to see property managers, fellow pest control operators and representatives from other interest groups sharing information and ideas.
“Sleep Tight Academy approached this training the same way Sleep Tight Pest Control approaches their bed bug treatments –with thoroughness, intelligence and, more than anything, affability,” said participant Manuel Arredondo, LCSW of Casa Quezada, a low-income housing complex.
Eliah Bornstein, a property manager who supervises 250 units and budgets approximately $100,000 a year for bed bug management, said that the conference provided an opportunity to explore the complexity of the bed bug issue, which many people don’t understand.
“For all the years I’ve worked in property management, I’ve never come across an opportunity where this issue has been explored in such depth,” Bornstein said. “It’s hard to talk about this issue with clients or staff, with them not understanding the complexity. This is going to make my life a little easier.”
Sleep Tight Academy’s next bed bug seminar will be in Los Angeles this August. Go to http://www.SleepTightAcademy.com to find out more details.
(Source: prweb.com)
