esday, Sept. 19, 2006 10:16 p.m. EDT
Bedbugs Take a Bite Out of NYC




The Big Apple is being eaten by bugs, and city officials are in a quandary about how to get rid of them.

A reappearance of bedbugs -- described by the New York Times as "those pesky oval insects that hide in the crevices of furniture and feast on human blood at night" -- is defying attempts to deal with the infestation.

According to the Times, entomologists and exterminators told a city council meeting Monday that the nasty little critters have been proliferating at levels not seen in decades. In the last fiscal year, the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development received 4,638 complaints about bedbugs in rental housing —- nearly five times as many as in the previous year.

The experts added that they don't know why the bedbugs are swarming into New York City, but some experts say that increased international travel, a recent ban on powerful pesticides such as DDT that had all but eliminated them, and the market in used furniture have all been factors.

It seems that bedbugs, like mobsters involved in a turf war, go to the mattresses. The International Sleep Products Association, the trade association for mattress manufacturers, told the Times that it supports a ban on the sale of reconditioned mattresses. "The filth from the used mattress that lies just beneath the new fabric cover of a reconditioned product can be astounding,” said Ryan Trainer, a lawyer for the association.


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The problem with the bill is economic. Andrew Eiler, director of legislation for the city’s Department of Consumer Affairs, said that a twin-size mattress without a box spring can be bought for $40 from the Salvation Army, or about $50 less than a new mattress. "While $50 may not appear as a significant difference to some, it may be an unbridgeable gap to consumers with limited incomes,” he said.

Richard J. Pollack, an expert in parasitic insects at the Harvard School of Public Health, told the hearing that he doubted that the proposed ban would be effective. "As long as used mattresses have value, they will remain a commodity despite attempts to regulate their movements."


According to the Times, the resurgence of bedbugs appears to be affecting the city as a whole. "There is no clear pattern, or neighborhood that’s particularly at risk, at least that I’m aware of,” Daniel Kass, director of environmental surveillance and policy for the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, said at the hearing.

Cindy Mannes, of the National Pest Management Association, told the Times that the group recorded a 71 percent increase from 2000 to 2005 in the number of exterminators who had received calls about bedbugs.

Pollack explained that "We shouldn’t be too hysterical when dealing with bedbugs.” At one point, he showed a slide of a 1793 pamphlet on how to control bedbugs. "We keep trying to throw things at them, but they are outwitting us,” he said.



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The outbreak, first noted in 2000, is not confined to New York. Bedbugs are plaguing the entire nation. According to a study by the University of Kentucky, most householders of this generation had never seen a bedbug, and until recently they were also were a rarity among pest-control professionals.

"Bedbug infestations were common in the United States before World War II," the study observed. "But with improvements in hygiene, and especially the widespread use of DDT during the 1940s and '50s, the bugs all but vanished. The pests remained prevalent, though, in other regions of the world including Asia, Africa, Central/South America and Europe. In recent years, bedbugs have also made a comeback in the U.S. They are increasingly being encountered in homes, apartments, hotels, motels, dormitories, shelters and modes of transport. International travel and immigration have undoubtedly contributed to the resurgence of bedbugs in this country. Changes in modern pest-control practices -- and less effective bedbug pesticides - are other factors suspected for the recurrence."
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006 ... shtml?s=ic