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Borough, one in Eltham Park and one in the Victoria Gardens, North Woolwich.
These belong to the London County Council, and filtration plants have been installed
at both. There are also paddling pools in the Borough, one belonging to the
Woolwich Borough Council on their Middle Park Estate, and one in Eaglesfield,
belonging to the London County Council. There are no filtration plants at either
of these.
Eradication of Bed Bugs.—In the Circular dealing with the contents and
arrangement of Annual Reports of Medical Officers of Health, this heading appears
for the first time. The Ministry ask for information under the four heads as set
out below :—
1. The number of (a) Council Houses, (b) Other Houses, (i.) Found to be infested,
(ii.) Disinfested.—Such infestation as exists in Council houses is in houses occupied
prior to the institution in 1934 of the Disinfestation Scheme. Special visits are
paid to the Council's houses (a) when a tenant gives notice that he intends to vacate
the premises and before he does so; (b) when a tenant asks for a transfer to another
Council house: and (c) at the request of the Estate Office, when the presence of
bed-bugs is suspected. The number of such visits made during the year was 428.
The number of Council houses found to be infested during the year was 104, and
all of these were successfully disinfested.
Houses other than those in Council ownership are found to be infested on
house-to-house inspection, on inspection following investigation of a complaint,
or on enquiry into the occurrence of infectious disease, and not infrequently an
occupier asks for help in eradicating the bed-bug. The number of such houses
found to be infested during the year was 305, and the number in which the scheme
of co-operation described in my Annual Report for 1932, between the Council and
the landlord, was put into operation was 240. A further nineteen houses were
known to be disinfested by owners.
2. The Methods Employed for Freeing Infested Houses from Bed-bugs.—The
methods used by the Department during the year have varied:—
(a) Sulphur dioxide, plus cleansing, as described in my Annual Reports for
1932 and 1933, was used in 221 houses, all of which, with the exception of 33, were
in private ownership. In 194 instances this method of treatment was successful
in one application.
(b) Orthodichlorbenzene, the use of which in occupied houses was deprecated
by the Ministry in a Circular dated 22nd May, was used on nine occasions in empty
houses and on one occasion in an occupied house. It was only applied once on
each occasion and was successful in each instance.
(c) Cyanide (Zyklon B) was used for the disinfestation of 32 occupied houses
in 17 blocks. It was also used in 22 new houses in 7 blocks, on the day the tenants