View report page

61
Eradication of Bed-Bugs.—An organised effort against bed-bug infestation of
the Council's Housing Estates has been in being since 1934. It includes inspection
of the furniture and effects of selected applicants, inspection when opportunity
offers of occupied Council houses not known to be infested, disinfestation when
necessary of furniture and effects prior to occupation, disinfestation when necessary
of tenanted and untenanted Council houses, and regular periodic supervision of all
houses for a period of two years after a process of disinfestation has been carried
out. The figures given under appropriate heads below indicate what this effort
means and indicate the measure of success.
The privately owned housing estates, of varying sizes, present a much greater
problem. Our experience during the last four years shows that two out of every
five tenants accepted for the Council's houses are living in bug-infested privately
owned premises. If this be a true sample of housing conditions in Woolwich it
means that some 8,000 houses are bug infested. It is not possible to exercise the
same control over these houses as over the Council's estates, but the Council does
help owners so far as its resources allow, by disinfesting contents of infested houses
while the owners deal with the structure, by "following up" afterwards by trained
women Sanitary Inspectors and by disseminating knowledge about the bed-bug
amongst the populace. There is, however, no organised search for the bed-bug in
these houses and no disinfestation of premises or furniture before new tenants are
admitted. Bug-infested houses, about to be demolished, are, however, disinfested.
During the year the Royal Sanitary Institute arranged two courses on disinfestation,
one, extending over a fortnight, for sanitary inspectors, and one, extending
over a week, for disinfectors. The Council sent to these courses one sanitary inspector
and one disinfector.
In Circular 1650 the Ministry of Health ask that particulars of the action taken
for the eradication of bed-bugs should be given under the five headings set out
below:—
1. The number of (a) Council houses, (b) Other Houses, (i) Found, to be infested,
(ii) Disinfested. 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 404. The number of Council houses found to be
infested during the year was 69, and all of these were successfully disinfested, in
all, except six instances, after one fumigation.
The distribution of infested houses is interesting, as most of the infestation
which exists in the Council's houses is in houses which were occupied prior to the
institution in 1934 of the disinfestation scheme. On the Page Estate of 2,306 houses,
bug infestation was found in 55 cases. On the Middle Park Estate of 1,784 houses,
14 cases were found; twelve of these and all of those on the Page Estate were in
houses which were built prior to 1934.