Concerns over bedbugs and other pests still have New Yorkers crawling away from public spaces

BY Gina Salamone
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, October 27th 2010, 4:00 AM


These bedbugs have climbed out of bed and are boldly marching along the surface of a bed fabric. Evans/AP

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New York is already in panic mode over bedbugs, which recent reports say have caused tourists to avoid the city, for fear of encountering them in hotels.

Add to those pests the stink bug, smelly little things that emit a stench when stepped on. They seek shelter in homes during cooler months for warmth.

And they're here.

"I actually saw one this weekend in Forest Hills on my window," says Gil Bloom, an entomologist with Standard Pest Management in Queens. "We've seen them in Queens, Brooklyn, Nassau County. They're increasingly getting around."

That's not even the really bad news.

This week kicks off lice season! And these creepy crawlers are more likely to jump on kids' heads right now, thanks to the sharing and renting of Halloween costumes, masks and wigs.

"On holidays, like Halloween, lice always want to come to the party," says Dalya Harel, CEO of Brooklyn-based company LiceBustersNYC. "Inviting guests home - here come the hidden guests."

No wonder New Yorkers are freaking out.

"I think about bedbugs everywhere I go," says film production manager Nora Killoran, who lives in the Village. "I'm very worried about it. I avoid stores that have been in the news that have reported having bedbugs. I used to love thrift stores, but now I avoid them. There was a screening in Tribeca of a film last week that I worked on, and I had to think twice about going."

Catherine Yan, 23, who recently moved from L.A. to east midtown, says she won't even sit on the subway - "or visit my friends' apartments who aren't the cleanest."

But before we become hermits (bedbug inquiries at the city's 311 line have risen from 13,322 in 2006 to 33,772 in 2009), experts say avoiding theaters and thrift shops might not be necessary.

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