Jeff Eisenberg: the bedbug expert

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He once worked as a CPA and flirted with law school, and his business is very detail-oriented. Jeff Eisenberg’s trained staff pokes into the cracks between walls, gaps behind furniture and underneath mattresses, in search of bedbugs. “They’re not just found in beds, bedbugs have been around since the beginning of life,” Eisenberg said. “The ancient Egyptians, the Gemara, and Shakespeare wrote about them.”

Nearly eliminated by the 1950s by the DDT insecticide, the household critter was nearly forgotten as homes and offices focused their attention on cockroaches. Although the bugs do not carry diseases, the swells and itching caused by their bites merit the public’s call to wipe them out this second wave, caused by the ban on DDT and an increase in international travel, the bedbug invaded an unprepared New York, crawling around hotels, apartments and office suites. “It’s not about hygiene. It’s about who has the money to travel. I get as many calls coming from people of means as any household,” Eisenberg said.

The resurgence of bedbugs caught New Yorkers unprepared, as the pests were often associated with nursery rhymes and flophouses. In reality, bedbugs appeared in five-star hotels, first-class venues and investment banking offices. By 2009, the National Pest Management Association estimated that American companies expended $258 million to combat bedbugs. “Globalization brought them back to first world countries,” Eisenberg said. “We rang the alarm bells on bedbugs and found ourselves doing bedbug work for other companies.”

Looking at the landscape of the exterminator profession, Eisenberg entered the trade, promising a different approach in his company, Pest Away, Inc. “I found technology that is eco-friendly and came up with treating the underlying causes of the problem- caulking, ceiling and cement,” Eisenberg said.

While many of Eisenberg’s A-list clients would not publicly reveal their bedbug problem, Eisenberg’s office features a photograph with former President Bill Clinton, whose Harlem office was treated by Pest Away in 2009. Using his business for philanthropy, Eisenberg connected Clinton to Rabbi Yitzchak Dovid Grossman of Migdal Or, which works with wayward youths in Israel. Likewise, his book, The Bedbug Survival Guide, published earlier this year, donates royalties from sales towards Migdal Or, alongside other Jewish charities.

Having cleaned out the Fox News Channel newsroom, Eisenberg established connections in the media, becoming the go-to expert on bedbugs. In turn, this led to consulting for governments and organizations around the world that were unfamiliar with bedbugs.

In New York, law mandates the awareness of bedbugs, with landlords notifying new tenants of recent exterminator visits. In March, the city’s Department of Health published an online guide to bedbugs, which includes sections on myths and facts, prevention, and recommendations in seeking an exterminator.

Among the more difficult assignments, Eisenberg spoke of Manhattan office buildings, where his EnviroGuard pest control program ensures that only the bugs will be affected. “In an office of 200 people, you can’t go around asking each employee about health concerns. Our materials are made of food grade products.”

Relying on referrals and a guarantee of free service if the bugs return, Eisenberg said that like any business, showing up on time, carefully explaining the problem and going to its root, are the cornerstones of Pest Away’s reputation. “We’ve all had experiences of exterminators not coming in on time and spraying just about anywhere.” Eisenberg said. “We brought a white collar approach to a blue collar industry.”