Bugs at North Mianus school weren't bedbugs

The bugs found last month at North Mianus School weren't bedbugs after all, but instead a rare, closely related type of insect that feasts on the blood of birds.

The vampire-like critters are called chimney swift bugs (cimexopsis nyctalis), according to a letter sent by the school district to North Mianus parents last week.

The bugs are named after the type of bird from which they usually feed.

"It is in the bed bug family, but is not a `bed bug,' " states the letter, which was obtained by Greenwich Time. "It does not feed on humans; it feeds on birds. These bugs are very small and have very similar characteristics and are often confused with bed bugs."

Dr. Gail Ridge, of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station's Department of Entomology, alerted the district about the type of bugs found in the school after the department received samples following the discovery.

The insects are not often seen, said Ridge, who explained that the department maintains an extensive collection of insects found in Connecticut. The last chimney swift bug sample to be collected dates back to 1942, she said.

"They're fast little runners," she said. "They have very short beaks, designed to go through the skin of birds. Basically, it's a portable straw."

Exterminators were called to the school Jan. 30 after the discovery of what were believed to be bedbugs, which feed on human blood. The first discovery came on Jan. 25, the same day the school district held a bedbug forum during which Ridge was a featured speaker.

The North Mianus findings were the first such discoveries of bedbug-like insects since last year, when bedbugs were found at Hamilton Avenue School on four separate occasions.

In a departure from their name, the insects found at North Mianus School were left behind not by chimney swifts, but by pigeons nesting in the school's exhaust and chimney.

"The chimney offered a vertical route for (the bugs) to move," said Ridge, who is also chair of the Connecticut Coalition Against Bed Bugs.

"It was kind of a treasure trove," she said of the discovery.

District spokeswoman Kim Eves said in late January that workers from Parkway Exterminating, based in Valhalla, N.Y., searched and treated the impacted area of North Mianus School. The insects were first found in a staff bathroom, and two days later, three other live bugs were found in a classroom, in and around carpet squares stored near a wall that separates the staff bathroom and the classroom. The exterminators discarded the carpet squares and also opened up a section of the wall between the two rooms to steam clean and vacuum it, Eves said.

The high heat from steam cleaning kills bedbugs and is often used to treat large areas, such as schools.

The school's vent and chimney were cleaned this week by an exterminator while students are on winter break, according to the letter from the school district. The exterminator will install a mesh barrier on the vent and chimney to prevent further nesting of birds.

The bathroom and classroom were closed Feb 1., Eves said.

"All expectations are that the students will be back in the classroom Tuesday," she said.

Active bedbug monitors placed in the school following the discovery revealed no evidence of insects Feb. 6, according to the letter.

Monitoring of the attic will continue until there is no further evidence of chimney swift bugs, according to the letter.

http://www.greenwichtime.com/news/article/Bugs-at-North-Mianus-school-weren-t-bedbugs-3338906.php#ixzz1mjqAzBBI

Another Mountain Lion Sighting Reported In Greenwich (via Chad Arment)

By DAVID OWENS, The Hartford Courant

http://www.courant.com/community/greenwich/hc-greenwich-mountain-lion-0812-20110811,0,2187802.story

GREENWICH There's a report of another mountain lion sighting in Greenwich.

Managers at a gated community in "backcountry Greenwich" sent a letter to residents telling them to take care with young children and dogs.

The letter, sent to residents of The Chieftains by officials at McGrath Management Services, says someone reported seeing a mountain lion last week. It also urged caution when walking at dusk or dawn, when mountain lions are active.

State Department of Energy and Environmental Protection spokesman Dennis Schain said the agency still believes there is no native mountain lion population in the state.

"We respect fact that people believe they saw something unusual, which they identified as a mountain lion," Schain said. "Absent any physical evidence, such as a good photo, paw prints or scat, it is impossible for us to determine the credibility of this report.

"We have … received from time to time reports of alleged mountain lion sightings from all parts of the state. The number of them did grow in the time period around the sightings in Greenwich and the mountain lion being struck and killed by a car in Milford. Reports have now settled down to a more typical pattern. We continue to believe that there is no native population of mountain lions in Connecticut and that it is not likely another one made its way here from faraway places in the west where they do live and breed.

In late spring there were several reports of mountain lion sightings near Greenwich. In June, a mountain lion was struck and killed by a car on the Wilbur Cross Parkway in Milford.

DNA testing of the cat revealed that it had probably traveled about 1,500 miles from its birthplace in the Black Hills of South Dakota to Connecticut.

Greenwich police said they have received no reports of a mountain lion sighting since before DEEP released its report about the cat killed in Milford.

Young male cougars often roam up to 100 miles in search of breeding opportunities, open habitat and food resources, said Paul Rego, a DEEP wildlife biologist. Rego said the Milford cat's journey was an anomaly, more than double the longest previously documented journey of about 640 miles.

Genetic testing revealed that the big cat came from a wild breeding population of about 250 mountain lions in the southwest corner of South Dakota, the Black Hills area, results released Tuesday afternoon revealed.

No one knows why the animal - a lean, 140-pound male between 2 and 4 years old - journeyed across the continent. But its travels were documented through Minnesota and Wisconsin, and biologists speculate that the cat then wandered through southern Ontario and New York before reaching Connecticut.

Nicknamed the St. Croix mountain lion during his time in Wisconsin, the cat was definitively linked to four sites in the two states through genetic testing of scat, blood and hair found in the snow during late 2009 and early 2010. He also was captured on video by trail cameras. Additional mountain lion sightings were confirmed at eight other sites in Minnesota and Wisconsin, but could not be linked to the same animal.

The DEEP said that a necropsy in Connecticut turned up no evidence that the mountain lion had ever been a captive creature - he had no microchip, nor was he neutered or declawed. His stomach was empty at the time of his death, although porcupine quills were found in his subcutaneous tissue, an indication that he had spent time in the wild, said Rego.

The results surprised DEEP officials and biologists across the country, said Rego, who originally believed the mountain lion was a captive animal that had escaped or was released.

"It is a testament to the adaptability of this species that it could travel from South Dakota to Connecticut," Esty said. "It is a symbol, perhaps a signal of a stronger bounce back of some of our wildlife species."

Although biologists do not know how the mountain lion got from Wisconsin to Connecticut, Rego said it is more likely that it moved through southern Ontario, rather than going into the populated area south of Lake Michigan.

Scientists may never determine why the big cat roamed so far, but DEEP Deputy Commissioner Susan Frechette said ongoing tests may reveal details of his travels, including the food he ate as he moved east. The animal was not rabid and did not have any physical abnormalities that might explain the extreme roaming, said the DEEP.

The June 5 sighting of the mountain lion in Greenwich, confirmed through DNA testing to be same animal killed by a car on the Wilbur Cross Parkway on June 11, was the first confirmed sighting in the state since the 1880s.

Despite a number of reported sightings over the years (the state receives 10 to 12 unconfirmed reports each year), the DEEP says that there are no native mountain lions in Connecticut. The Eastern mountain lion was declared extinct in March by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Mountain lions are regularly reported throughout the Northeast and other areas where the animals are not known to live, but besides the mountain lion killed in Milford, the only concrete evidence of an animal in the recent past was a skull found in Massachusetts.

Adrian Wydeven, a mammal ecologist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, said that mountain lion populations are higher now that at any other time over the past 100 years, and that Midwestern states such as Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa, without native populations, are now seeing some mountain lions.

As to the far-roaming animal's future, Rego said, several museums have expressed interest in displaying the animal after a taxidermist has preserved the body. The body is now in a freezer pending further tests, and no decisions have been made, he said.

An Associated Press report was included in this story..