Bed Bugs Infestation, Bed Bugs Info, Kill Bed Bugs, Bed Bug Pictures, Bed Bug Treatment

Bed Bug Infestation NY Campaign (NYC is Ground Zero for Bed Bug Infestations)

Officials in New York City are looking to stem the recent infestation of bed bugs that has affected one out of every fifteen people within the city this year.

Bed bugs tend to carry a stigma related to poverty or uncleanliness, but as the current infestation is teaching New Yorkers, it can happen anywhere. Office building, upscale apartment, housing projects and even retail clothing stores have all reported a problem with the pesky critters.

Though not dangerous, those who have these parasites will report a great deal of frustration and depression, suffering common welts and an overall feeling of helplessness when trying to get rid of them.

They have been reportedly spreading more rapidly this year than in any other past, and not just in New York. A great deal of U.S cities say the blood-sucking bugs are a common problem.

Many people who have bed bugs will throw out all the items affected, which is an expensive endeavor. Because people of lower incomes cannot afford to replace what they throw out, they often think they have no recourse.

But you can actually get rid of them by vacuuming floors, rugs, and mattresses, then disposing of the bags, or cleaning the canister well. Your clothing, towels, blankets and linens must be washed in hot water, and hiding places like cracks in walls can be cleaned out using a hairdryer.

Once this is done, it is recommended that an exterminator is called to spray for any remaining, and to prevent them from coming back.

Bed Bugs New York State: Law Landlords must disclose bed bug infestations

Two bills under consideration would provide renters protection and compensation

“Don’t let the bedbugs bite” is easier said than done for many New Yorkers.

One state Assembly member is pushing legislation that would require landlords to divulge any history of bedbug infestation to potential renters and another that would offer compensation for expenses accrued from dealing with infestations.

Linda B. Rosenthal, who represents the Upper West Side and parts of Hell’s Kitchen, introduced the two-bill legislation in mid-March as an effort to combat New York’s growing bedbug problem.

“As the scourge of bedbugs continues in New York, I am committed to giving my constituents the tools to protect themselves both epidemiologically and financially from this plague,” Rosenthal said in a statement.

The first bill would require the disclosure of any instance of bedbug infestation dating back five years. A memo in the bill states that the justification for the legislation is that “prospective tenants have a right to access relevant documentation regarding the history of bedbugs within their new living spaces” because the information is essential to making an informed decision.

“People who have gone through the plague of bedbugs are happy that I’m trying to address some the issues they’ve had to deal with — people who are long-time tenets who somehow get bedbugs or new tenets who move in to discover an infestation and have to deal with it,” Rosenthal told NBCNewYork.

After the bill was referred to the housing committee, it was amended and recommitted on April 20. The bill originally included the more complicated issue of apartment sales as well, so was amended to make the bill easier to pass. Rosenthal does support the protection of homebuyers and seeks to advance it in the future.

“Bedbugs are an enormous expense, and there is no mechanism right now to get that money back,” Rosenthal said. “I thought the state has responsibility to try and deal with it in some way.”

The second bill provides a tax credit of up to $750 to help with the cost of replacing property lost due to bedbug infestations. This property includes furniture, bedding, clothing, and any other belonging discarded during the extermination process. Since most renters or homeowners insurance does not cover bedbug infestation, the bill seeks to assist affected New Yorkers by offering a “modest tax credit.”

“If the state were in better economic condition perhaps the tax credit could be higher,” said Rosenthal. “But we’re in a precarious economic state, so offering high tax credit was impossible. We think what we came up with is more feasible.”

However, it is not clear when the two bills will be voted on in Albany.

Bed Bugs NYC: Bed Bug Epidemic Attacks New York City.

A bedbug epidemic has exploded in every corner of New York City – striking even upper East Side luxury apartments owned by Gov. Spitzer’s father, the Daily News has learned.

The blood-sucking nocturnal creatures have infested a Park Ave. penthouse, an artist’s colony in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, a $25 million Central Park West duplex and a theater on Broadway, according to victims, exterminators and elected officials.

Once linked to flophouses and fleabags, bedbug outbreaks victimize the rich and poor alike and are spreading panic in some of the city’s hottest neighborhoods.

One exterminator writes: “In the last six months, I’ve treated maternity wards, five-star hotels, movie theaters, taxi garages, investment banks, private schools, white-shoe law firms, Brooklyn apartments in Greenpoint, DUMBO and Cobble Hill, even the chambers of a federal judge,”

The numbers are off the charts: In 2004, New Yorkers placed 537 calls to 311 about bedbugs in their homes; the city slapped 82 landlords with bedbug violations, data show.

In the fiscal year that ended in June, 6, more than 889 infestation complaints were logged and 2,008 building owners were hit with summonses.

They must get rid of the pests within 30 days or face possible action in Housing Court, the city Department of Housing, Preservation & Development says.

The scourge has left no section of the city untouched: Complaints and enforcement actions soared in 57 of the 59 community boards.

In the most bedbug-riddled district, Bushwick in Brooklyn, HPD issued 172 violations this year, up from four in 2004; it responded to 476 complaints, up from 47.

Central Harlem chalked up 269 complaints, up from nine. Williamsburg and Greenpoint, home to the city’s hippest galleries, racked up 148, up from 11 in 2004. Astoria and Long Island City saw the tally climb to 345 from 41.

Bedbugs come out of the woodwork at night to feed on human blood, biting people in their sleep and leaving large, itchy skin welts that can be painful. They are not believed to carry or transmit diseases.

A surge in global travel and mobility in all socioeconomic classes, combined with less toxic urban pesticides and the banning of DDT created a perfect storm for reviving the critters, which had been virtually dormant since World War II, experts say.

Prolific reproducers and hardy survivors, they can thrive in penthouses, flophouses or any environment where they can locate warm-blooded hosts, said Louis Sorkin, an entomologist at the Museum of Natural History who keeps a colony of 1,000 bedbugs in his office and lets them feed on his arm.

“The female hatches as many as 500 eggs a year, and they can survive for a year and a half without a blood meal,” he said. “They’re at home in every neighborhood in the city, including Park Ave. and Fifth Ave.”

The small, wingless, rust-colored insects hitch rides on clothing, luggage, furniture, bedding, book bags, even shoelaces. They’ve been spotted in cabs and limos, as well as on buses and subways.

Those travel patterns account for the 1,708 verified bedbug cases in 277 public housing projects this year, the city Housing Authority says. The Department of Education has documented another 74 cases, spread across 50 schools.

They even contaminated five or six apartments in the swanky rental tower at 220 E. 72nd St. owned by Bernard Spitzer, the governor’s 83-year-old father.

Several tenants described a persistent, if intermittent, infestation on the 15th, 16th and 17th floors.

One resident had to throw away rugs, bedding, curtains, 20 cashmere sweaters, an Armani suit, a couch, a headboard, a night table, a bedframe and an exercise bike. During extermination, he stayed at the Carlyle Hotel.

Spitzer, a prominent developer, said he was unaware of contamination problems in any of his buildings. He referred calls to the managing agent, Rose Associates.

“The company has worked aggressively and proactively to address this issue through ongoing extermination and apartment inspections,” a spokesman said.

Spitzer’s 28-story building sits atop the six-story home of Marymount Manhattan College, which discovered seven infestations in two residence halls. The problem was under control by October, a spokeswoman said.

City officials say HPD inspectors are increasing enforcement as complaints mushroom and the Health Department is handling education and prevention efforts. It’s not more actively involved because its focus is on disease-spreading pests, officials said.

“That’s not good enough,” said City Councilman Gale Brewer (D-upper West Side.) “It’s great that we’re not smoking as much, and great that we’re not eating trans fats, but we need to focus on bedbugs in the same aggressive manner.”

Brewer wants to create a Bedbug Task Force and bar the sale of reconditioned mattresses, which the Bloomberg administration opposes because it “would adversely impact lower-income New Yorkers,” a mayoral spokesman said.

I was getting up to 20 bites a night

Tiny bedbugs can take a huge psychological toll on their victims, like Caitlin Heller, a Queens College student whose Jackson Heights apartment was twice infested.

“I was getting 15 to 20 bites a night, and it was driving me crazy,” said Heller, who runs Yahoo’s Bedbug Support Group where sufferers commiserate. “I suffered mentally. I couldn’t sleep at night, and I couldn’t focus during the day because I had itchy, painful welts all over my body.”

For therapy, Heller (photo inset) started her online support group in January 2006. In eight months, she had 70 members; today there are 555, almost all New Yorkers.

Bedbugs also take a steep financial toll – and can even keep families apart for the holidays, like the Delgados of Woodside in Queens.

Joyce Delgado, an office manager at a midtown firm, and her husband Joseph, who works in the back office of a brokerage house, always went upstate for Thanksgiving to see family in Wappingers Falls. Not this year. They used up all their vacation time battling an infestation in their apartment of 35 years and didn’t want to risk contaminating the homes of loved ones.

It all began in September when Joyce Delgado saw a single bedbug on her husband’s pillow at 2 a.m. “We threw out everything – a rug, couch, two upholstered chairs, wall-to-wall carpeting, drapes, towels, curtains, bedding – because we thought everything we owned was contaminated,” she said. “We checked into the Grand Motor Inn in Maspeth during extermination. All told, we must have spent $2,000, and we still won’t go back into our bedroom. We’re living on a makeshift bed in the living room.”

Redirect

An apology is likely in order.

Bedbugs have been showing up just about EVERYWHERE in the news recently, most notably, perhaps, in today’s New York Times article in the real estate section. Membership in the Yahoo! support group has surged in the last three weeks. E-mails have been flooding in and I have not been able to respond.

I simply have not been able to keep up, and I apologize.

However, I would like to point you in the direction of someone who has not only taken the reins but has done an excellent and incredibly thorough job of putting together loads of useful information for people who want to learn about and get support for dealing with bedbugs. Please check out this site. It is everything I wish this site could be.

I don’t know if I will be able to come back to this site, but honestly, it feels more right to pass the baton at this point. I have been bedbug-free for 13 months now. Of course I am always willing to provide support to those who need or want it, but the best information is elsewhere for now.

Thanks for visiting and for all your support over the last year. As always, my best to you in your quest to defeat the enemy.

Still Retired, But…

I’m still in bedbug retirement mode, but I wanted to point out this particularly helpful resource, aptly called The Bedbug Resource. It is put together and run by a pest professional/entomologist who has dedicated a large part of his life to the study of bedbugs. Please take a look.

And, as always (well, recently), please redirect yourself to the Bedbugger blog, which has loads of commentary and tips for people who are suffering with bedbugs. It is updated far more often than this site and probably at this point has more information than this site will ever have.

Reinfested.

Yep. Billy and I have bedbugs again. I noticed my first suspicious bite on August 1 and when on August 9 I saw two more, I called the super, even though I only had circumstantial evidence.

This is where I know my super and management company ROCK. No questions asked, he just went ahead and made an appointment for the exterminator to come in ASAP and told me he’d be contacting my neighbors above me and below me to have their places exterminated as well. And then he said he’d come in himself to caulk any cracks in the floors along the walls. All this after telling me that no one else had been reporting bedbugs in my building for quite some time.

Realizing that I could be overreacting, I was still grateful for the immediate and thorough response. It was only three bites, but it’s better safe than sorry, and I wasn’t about to let a potentially and relatively light infestation become something much worse without proof.

Well, I got my proof last night. In the form of a bedbug climbing up my bedroom wall just before I went to bed. I squashed it and saved it in a Ziploc bag and I am now even more grateful that the exterminator is coming tomorrow morning, 9am.

I can’t believe I have to go through all this shit AGAIN. We bought large heavy duty trash bags to put our clothes and linens into since of course we can’t get into the laundry room until tomorrow night. We’ll be pulling the furniture out away from the walls before we go to sleep tonight and vacuuming all the floors, removing the vacuum bag into another sealed bag and going directly into the trash compactor. With luck, we’ll get rid of the fuckers in one shot. I’m hoping there are only one or two of them in the apartment at this point, since I only got three bites in two weeks. I don’t honestly care how many there are, so long as every last stinkin’ one of them DIES.

Follow-Up

The exterminator came on Wednesday last week and I think that we’ve seen the last of bedbugs in this apartment for a long, long time.

Contributing to the quick and painless process this time around was the fact that I caught the signs early and I found a live one right away, after only three bites. I had an exterminator in exactly two weeks after getting the first bite and he was exceptionally thorough. We did all the laundry, even though it was only for three bites. And now it has been nearly a week and a half since I last got any bites.

I’m crossing my fingers that this is it once and for all, but I’m grateful that it didn’t get to be as bad as the first time. It says a lot for being informed and getting a professional in to do the job as soon as possible.

One thing we did NOT do, and I want to point this out, because sometimes people panic and make the situation worse: We did not spray any contact killers around the bed. I did not want to drive any bugs deeper into the walls where they’d become more difficult to kill. That meant using myself as bait and possibly getting more bites. But a few more bites and dead bedbugs would be better than getting sporadic bites for the rest of my life. If you’re thinking of using contact killers, I strongly recommend asking the advice of a professional before using them to be sure you don’t do the cause harm.

Thanks for all your concern and support. I think I’m going to go back into retirement, now.

Reporting Bedbugs in New York City

Do you have bedbugs?

Do you live in New York City?

Do you want to lodge a formal complaint?

Here is your best recourse, sent my way by Ken on the bedbug support board:

Dial 311 and ask to be connected to HPD. They will write down any violations you give them. In fact, if you have other violations, list them also, for instance, no hot water, a faulty smoke detector, anything. Speak slowly and let them write it down. They will make an appointment for an inspector to come visit your apartment and if they deem the problem legitimate, they will write up an official violation which will be on record and listed on their website. I have done this myself.

You can also call Department of Environmental Protection and Department of Health, but HPD is the key.

You can also lodge a complaint online at this website.

Please note too that if you see a bedbug, kill it, but save the carcass as proof that you have a problem. Take photos of your bites with time and date stamps. And if there are stains on your mattress and box spring, make sure to show them to the investigator as well.

Thanks, Ken!

About Bedbugs

Thanks, Deborah, for this link to an extremely informative article about bedbugs. (Link leads to a PDF document.)

This is Kinda Gross

Shari sent me the above Gummy Bedbugs last week. No one has ever sent me bedbugs in the mail before, and I hope no one ever does again. Shari, these things are totally disgusting. And yet, I fell on the floor laughing when I opened the package.

I have to admit, it’s a strange feeling to see that someone actually wants to market bedbugs as a TREAT. And it’s a bit disturbing. Even the scarecrow on the box is disturbed. He thinks the bedbugs are all funny and cute until you actually lift the cover and see that he’s got them. THEN he’s not so happy. THEN he’s gotta figure out which exterminators to use, how to deal with his landlord, who at City Council he can go to for help, and empty his savings account into doing a lifetime’s worth of laundry for the next six months. Not so cute any more, are they?

I thought there might be some kind of satisfaction in eating a bedbug, after the way they fed on me for so long, but the truth is, I couldn’t bring myself to put it anywhere near my mouth. You can put so much sugar coating on it, but the truth is, a bedbug is a bedbug. YUCK!

Shari, thanks for the laugh.

ADDENDUM: EW. Billy just ate one. He says, “Payback’s a BITCH, ain’t it?”

Bedbugs on CNN

CNN is running an article on bedbugs today on their website. Here is the link.

Bedbugs and Hotels on About.com

An article on About.com featuring information on bedbugs in hotels, offering tips on how to spot an infestation and what to do if you find yourself bitten.

UPDATE 8/15/06: The article now features a gallery of photos of bedbug bites from various sources. Check it out, if you can bear to look.

Site Update

Due to popular demand, I’ve added a button bar to the top of this page to provide easy access to some of the most requested information on this site. Not all of the buttons are functional at this point, but I am working on getting everything up and running as soon as possible. I’m making it live before it’s finished so I can test out my HTML skills and also to make as much information available to you as possible as quickly as possible. Also, your feedback is highly appreciated. If something doesn’t work properly, please let me know.

For now, the only buttons that work are:

Known Infestations
Handling Infestations
Bedbug Photos

I plan to update the other buttons as soon as I’m able. If anyone comes across interesting articles or other information that you think should be included, please let me know, either in the comments below or via e-mail.

Bedbug Links for 9/2/06

• An Open Letter to My Bedbugs
  “Listen up, you heinous little motherfuckers. I am not playing. Before I deliver the grim news of your collective fates, let me give you a brief synopsis of how you have driven me to the brink of insanity over the last three months.”
• Bedbug-proof luggage?
  This site claims to offer luggage that keeps bedbugs out.
• Apartment Building Overcome by Bedbugs
  A Connecticut apartment building is ordered to exterminate bedbugs by the city of Hartford.

Mapping Infestations

My thanks to the anonymous user who sent me the link to this interactive map mashup of known bedbug infestations.

It might make a cool (yet somewhat gruesome) addition to Gothamist’s growing collection of online maps.

Bedbugs in Baltimore?

Julie Scharper, a reporter from the Baltimore Sun, is looking for people in the Baltimore, MD area who have suffered the wrath of bedbugs. A bedbug sufferer herself, she is looking to do a story on the creatures and would like to interview “regular people” who are dealing with bedbugs in Maryland.

If you are interested, please e-mail or phone her at the office (410) 332-6129 for more information.

Bedbug Attack Strategy

With credit and thanks to one of the members of the Bedbug Support Group, I am reposting this list of suggestions for fighting bedbugs.
—

1) As soon as you discover the problem, gather up everything that is washable in the room, put it in tightly sealed garbage bags, and wash it on the hottest setting followed by an hour in the dryer. It’s important to seal it up so that the bugs don’t jump off on the way to the washer and infest new areas. For things that can’t be washed, I have had good luck so far with a clothing steamer—buying a $60 steamer at K-Mart can be cheaper in the long run than dry cleaning. I don’t think a steamer really works, though, for upholstered items, just things that can be steamed through. Once you have done this, keep the clothing stored in plastic bags away from the bedroom until treatment is complete.

2) Seal your mattress and boxspring in waterproof covers and tape up the zippers with duct tape. Throw out your pillows and seal the new ones in taped up covers as well. I think it is worth buying slightly more expensive high-quality covers (in the $40 range instead of the $10 range) because they will be less likely to rip, and a rip in the cover will allow the vampires to escape. If you can possibly throw out the mattress and sleep somewhere else while your home is being treated (a sofa in an uninfested room, a friend’s house, or even on a new mattress sealed upon delivery in a vinyl cover) I think this is a VERY good idea because bedbugs like to hang out near their meal, so lots of the little vampires are probably living in the bed. If you
decide to keep and seal the mattress, leave it propped against a wall until the exterminators come so that they can spray the bed frame.

3) Clear all clutter out of the room. Throw out everything, including any upholstered furniture you believe is infested. Try to seal up everything you throw out in garbage bags before you remove it from teh room to avoid spreading the bugs. If you can’t bring yourself to throw it out, wash it or steam it. You can even steam shoes and the
like. Luckily, non-porous things like jewelry and pots and pans aren’t likely to be infested—bbs prefer dark little crevices. Do get rid of alarm clocks and so on. If you can’t steam it or wash it and can’t throw it away, your only other option is to seal it in a bag (doubled up trash bags work for larger items) and put it in storage
for 18 months.

4) Find a good exterminator who knows about bedbugs or order the chemicals and treat your home yourself, which you can do at:
domyownpestcontrol.com. This site has great info about bbs and how to treat them and I highly recommend it. I opted to treat myself because I found that exterminators were incompetent (many know very little about bedbugs and one even refused to believe I had them), overpriced (many will charge over $1000 all together), and not thorough. The best treatment for bedbugs is to spray with a combination of Suspend SC and Gentrol (the Suspend SC kills the bugs and the Gentrol prevents them from molting or reproducing—both remain active for a few weeks) and once this dries, follow up with a crack and crevice dusting with Drione dust, using a hand bellows. (This remains active as long as it is dry. Don’t overdo it with Drione, a light dusting is best, the bbs will avoid big piles of it.) The Drione is really only safe for cracks and crevices but the suspend/gentrol mix can basically be sprayed anywhere and is safe once dry. I think it’s a good idea to spray the floors and crown molding as well as the baseboards. Most exterminators won’t do this because they’re stingy with their chemicals, which is another good reason to do it yourself. You can also use the dust and spray to treat furniture—I think you can use it anywhere that won’t touch skin or touch something that will touch skin. The treatment should be repeated at least three times, IMO, with a first treatment, a follow up in two weeks, and another in another month or two, and then again as necessary. If you do decide to do it yourself, you will save a lot of money (I got enough chemicals to treat my 3-bedroom house several times for $200), but please do buy a respirator.

5) Create a safe haven of your bed by encasing the mattress in vinyl (or preferably throwing it out and encasing a new one in vinyl), having the exterminator spray and/or dust the bed frame, washing all bed linens in very hot water and drying them until piping hot, pulling the bed away from the wall, and smearing the legs with vaseline. Tuck in the sheest and make sure the mattress cover and linens don’t touch
the floor. (BBs can’t fly, and this way they can’t crawl onto the bed either.)

6) If you have any pets, treat them with frontline. The packaging doesn’t say anything about bbs, but I have had good luck with this. When I didn’t treat my cat he was getting bitten and was responsible, I think, for bringing bugs onto my safe haven bed, but once he was treated the bites stopped.

7) Once the exterminator has done the first two treatments, caulk EVERY crack or crevice in the room. I am planning to get my hardwood floors waxed, as well.

Discovering that you have bedbugs can be a really horrifying thing, but I think that if these steps are followed you can get rid of them for good. I followed these steps and haven’t been bitten in a couple months. If you believe the infestation is severe (e.g. you are noticing bugs crawling on the walls or in rooms other than the bedroom), you may have to treat all the rooms as I’ve described here for the bedroom. The situation is more complicated, of course, if you are renting an apartment in a multi-unit building. Every apartment in the building will need to be treated, and if the landlord is uncooperative (refusing to treat more than once or to treat properly), my impression is that your best bet may be simply to move out, bringing only what you can wash or steam. It may be possible to control bbs pretty well in an apartment with an uncooperative landlord by exterminating yourself and caulking very thoroughly, and it’s worth a try if you are very attached to your apartment.

Bedbug Symposium

There will be a one-day bedbug symposium offered at the Hilton Washington Dulles Hotel on Tuesday, September 12. It will feature presentations on everything from detection to legal ramifications to treatment. Entry fee is $175, and anyone is free to register.

It appears to be an event aimed mostly at pest control companies, hotels, and management companies, but all are invited to attend. I would love to see someone start asking questions on the behalf of the bedbug sufferers, particularly where tenant rights are concerned, since that has been a recurring question on this site and in the support group.

I would love to go myself, but unfortunately don’t have the cash to make it happen. If anyone does go, please drop me a line and let me know. Maybe we can work out some way to live-blog or podcast the event.

Here is the link for more information and registration info.

Thanks to Parakeets for the link.

Bedbug-Sniffing Dog in the New York Times

New York Times article

Please note that if you are interested in trying out the bedbug-sniffing dog, Jada, and you live in the New York City area, NBC is looking to do an interview. Please e-mail me if you are interested.

UPDATE 6/21: Thanks for your interest. We’ve got our interview. More info on the air date as it comes in.

Organic Alternative

I do not endorse or recommend any one course of action on this site, but I do realize that people are coming here for information on various treatment alternatives. In the vein of sharing information, I received the following e-mail from Jeff, who owns a website that offers a non-toxic, pesticide-free solution to bedbugs – and other insects:

Hi,

I talk to people every day that have been having an exterminator come out for months to their house or apartment and they can’t get rid of the bedbugs. They try the Enzyme product and it gets rid of them. There is the definite possibility that some bedbugs have grown resistant to pesticides and insecticides and it would be nice if you offered an alternative to them when they run out of options.

Another thing that I think you should mention is the side effects of some of the pesticides. For example, did you realize that Lindane (which is a cream given to people suffering from different insect bites has been banned in California and many 3rd world countries.)

The US Environmental Protection Agency has classified permethrin as a carcinogen because it causes lung tumors in lab rats. This is a cream that is used for insects.

I am not a whacked out environmentalist, but many of these pesticides and insecticides kill many animals that are good for the environment and are just collateral damage.

Here is all that I ask: Take a look at my blog at http://www.licescabiesandbedbugs.com/blogger.asp . Read a little about what alternatives are available to insecticides and pesticides and then please put something on your site that at least gives someone an alternative. There are really valid reasons for not being able to use insecticides or pesticides to fight a bedbug outbreak. We are selling thousands of gallons of this product a year so it is working to improve peoples lives.

Thanks for your time,

Jeff Kinser
http://www.licescabiesandbedbugs.com

I invite anyone with comments or questions or other organic alternatives to please comment below.

Bedbug Sniffing Dog on Geraldo

Jada, the bedbug-sniffing dog, recently appeared on Geraldo.

You can view the video here (it aired on July 5).

There is also a blog post to accompany the video here.

Pretty cool.