Esplanade – Bedbugs on the Bay?

by Varsha Sivaram

IT WAS at around 7.40pm, seated in the Esplanade Concert Hall, when she felt the first itch.

On Sunday evening (May 15), Ms Ana Dhoraisingam was enjoying a concert by the Blue Note Tokyo All-Star Jazz Orchestra, when she and her friend, Ms Evelyn Lee, felt the first signs of discomfort. The itch crept up their backs and worsened through the night. By the time both women got home from the concert, their lower backs were dotted with red, swollen welts.

The next day, Ms Dhoraisingam, a sales director in an investment management firm in her 40s, went to the doctor’s. Confirming her suspicions and to her horror, the doctor said she had been bitten by bedbugs.

“I’m just upset I got bitten by bedbugs… My biggest fear was bringing them home,” said Ms Dhoraisingam.

A third patron was also bitten on the same evening, but on the backs of his thighs at the circle seats of the Concert Hall, a level above where Ms Dhoraisingam and Ms Lee were seated, reported The Straits Times.

Bedbugs are the stuff of nightmares. Measuring four to five millimetres long and one-and-a-half to three millimetres wide, they are parasitic insects with a preferred diet of human blood. Owing to their name, they are mostly active at night. The effects of their bites can range from skin rashes and blisters to allergic symptoms.

In 2011, a massive infestation was reported in Kreta Ayer, where almost 40 per cent of rental flats in the Kreta Ayer-Kim Seng ward of Tanjong Pagar were affected. But these were mostly old flats – surely, there are no bedbugs in a place like the Esplanade?

Both women have sent emails to the Esplanade to complain about the bites on their backs.

When contacted, a spokesman for the concert venue said it had checked the area where the women sat and their seats but found no bugs or pests. Asked if there had been other similar complaints, the spokesman said she could not give a specific number, saying only that they were “rare”.

She added that Ultra Low Volume (ULV) treatments, a way to evenly coat an area with pesticide, are conducted every two months; regular steam cleaning of the seats is also carried out. The last time the concert hall was treated with pesticide was May 9.

“We do take the issue of pests in our venues seriously and will take all measures necessary to ensure a bug-free and comfortable environment for all our patrons,” said Mr Ravi Singalingam, Head of Hospitality & Services.

Apart from the 2011 case, complaints of bedbugs are relatively rare in Singapore. There have been a few isolated cases recently, such as in the seats of Rex Cinema in June last year, and in foreign worker dorms early last month.

 

Featured image Esplanade by Flickr user edwin.11. (CC BY 2.0)

If you like this article, Like the Middle Ground‘s Facebook Page as well!

For breaking news, you can talk to us via email.

The post Esplanade – Bedbugs on the Bay? appeared first on The Middle Ground.

- Varsha Sivaram