Thursday, October 14, 2010

Whistleblower says exterminators may lie about bedbug infestations to make more dough

Do you really have bedbugs?

Better get a second opinion, says a former Bronx cop-turned-exterminator who is blowing the whistle on some less reputable members of his trade.

Samuel Soto of First Rate Solutions, Inc. says unscrupulous exterminators will tell homeowners they have bedbugs when they really don't - using their bedbug-sniffing dogs to back up their phony claims.

A lot is at stake since a bedbug treatment can run into thousands of dollars."What's going on is like a robbery without the gun," said Soto, an ex-Bronx detective sergeant who now runs the exterminating business in upstate New Windsor and has clients in the Bronx and the rest of the city. "It's a highly emotional situation that people are sick over, and people try to take advantage of them. Dogs work great, but not when they're being used as a part of a scam," he said.

City officials said they logged nearly 3,000 bedbug complaint calls to 311 from Bronx residents as of the end of June, resulting in 1,104 violations issued.

Jim Skinner, 43, of A&C Test Management in East Meadow, L.I., agreed with Soto that some in their trade can be less than honest.

"Have I ever encountered it as an exterminator? Yes," he said, "but all you have in the end is your name. Some people believe in that and some people don't."

A year ago, Soto said he was hired by a Queens co-op to give a second opinion after a rival firm claimed its dog had detected bedbugs in eight of the building's 15 apartments.

"There were two guys and both of them had dogs and all of a sudden they found hot spots in all of these apartments - eight or nine," said a building board member who asked not to be identified. "They gave us an estimate ...over $30,000. So we called First Rate Solutions and their dogs only found one hot spot."

The board member added, "They're taking advantage of people that are fearful. Bedbugs is a hot issue right now, and if a professional tells you you have them, most people are going to say, 'Whatever it takes.'"

Skinner said his firm was hired to do a heat treatment - raise the temperature above 130 degrees - to kill bedbugs in a Manhattan high-rise six months ago after a rival firm claimed to have found the critters in 60 of the building's 120 units.

"It didn't sound right. To have a building have 50% infestation in an affluent area, that's really odd," he said.

"We met with everyone and said, 'Has anyone ever seen a bug? Has anyone ever been bitten?' And no one could answer yes. We later found that not one apartment had bedbugs in the whole building.

"There's no way to sugarcoat it. Some people are unethical."

By: Bradley Skierkowski



Sourced By: BY Mike Jaccarino
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER