A crusade to stamp out bed bugs

Leonina Heringer of Somerville, 55, held a pill vial with a few smudged black spots and small, cockroach-like insects. They weren't moving . . . right?

Halloween's over, but every day means creepy-crawlies to the Bed Bug Lady. She even keeps dead samples in her car.

"Some people bring some here in little glasses," said her sister, Clarinda Freitas, 51, of Plymouth.

In return, Heringer is about to bring bed bugs to the masses. Fortunately, they're not alive either: She's finishing an informational video for Somerville's public-access television, which will share the program with public-access TV stations in surrounding cities and towns.

On Monday, she stood outside her Winter Hill apartment with a ketchup-sprayed mattress - a tactic to discourage reusing bedding - to film a final segment.

Heringer has successfully improvised her own approach the whole way through. She started her crusade in 2004 after a fellow parishioner at the Portuguese Baptist Church in Cambridge, among others, described their bed bug woes. The bugs lived in the floor, the woman told her, so she couldn't let her 9-month-old baby crawl in her apartment.

Where others might offer sympathy, she took action. When the landlord's response proved unsatisfactory, "I brought the case to the Health Department and started writing articles in the Brazilian Times about 'percevejos,' " Portuguese for "bed bug."

Heringer included her contact information in the articles. People started calling - some from as far away as Connecticut.

Since then, she has helped people directly, served on a city action group and the Greater Boston Bed Bug Task Force, and raised over $1,700 to pay for video services from Somerville Community Access Television.

She helps people identify the bugs and tells them how to prepare for extermination (a multistep process). Just last week, she said, she called to prod the city's inspectional services office after a resident told her they had missed an appointment.

People used to back away from her for fear she was infested - although she hasn't had bed bugs herself.

Bed bugs live in furniture and buildings, coming out to feed at night, according to public health officials. More prevalent in densely populated neighborhoods, they can spread via luggage, moving vans, and used furniture, and can travel from one apartment to another.

You can pick them up "anywhere," Heringer said. "Any public transportation. Even sitting in a couch you could get it."

Listening to Heringer, you start seeing - or feeling - bed bugs everywhere. They hide in furniture and cracks in the wall, and can survive for over a year without eating.

When she travels, she won't bring her luggage into a hotel room until she has checked for bugs. A sleeper train in Italy got infested, she said.

"When I started, I had my camera and myself," Heringer said. "Now it's a big team."

Heringer's commitment "impressed me very much," said Mike Ginieres, an environmental health officer with the Cambridge Public Health Department who is helping with the video.

"She is driven!" agreed Bill Barrell, digital media coordinator at SCAT. (Also, "she's a sweetheart.") He estimated that he would complete the video by the end of January.

Her fervor was contagious. "The whole community has to get involved," Freitas said. "It doesn't matter if you are rich or poor . . . the risk is in every place."

(There are limits: the family won't let Heringer talk bed bugs at holiday dinners, Freitas said.)

Still, despite increased awareness, misinformation still abounds, Heringer said.

People treat themselves with plant bed bug solution (not the same bug, she said), mosquito repellant, engine oil, even kerosene. "It's very dangerous," she said.

Sometimes landlords exterminate only a few units in a building. One woman stored her infested furniture during extermination, then brought it - and the bugs - back in.

The video includes interviews with exterminators, a Harvard public health authority, and victims to tell people how to combat the scourge.

Ginieres admitted the orange Tyvek suit he wore while shooting partly treated buildings in Somerville and East Boston might have been overdoing it. He wanted to make sure there was "not a minute possibility of getting a bug on me."

Did he check his home? "You bet," he said.

A house cleaner and landlord in Somerville, Heringer worked as a teacher and lawyer in Brazil.

She waved her hand at a case of memorabilia. "The diplomas, here, they don't count," she said. "I'm happy that I can use the skills in order to help people."

The Bed Bug Lady now considers her nickname "a compliment."

Information on bed bugs is available on the city's website, www.somervillema.gov, under its Department of Health link.