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Photograph of subway bench by Triborough on Flickr; additional bedbug plushes added (plushes by Giant Microbes)
Warning: You may feel itchy after reading this.
A city bedbug expert has seen bedbugs on the subway benches at the Union Square subway station and the Fordham Road station, according to the NY Post. The Post also adds that Edward Brownbear also saw a bedbug, "in one case, catching a ride on an unsuspecting straphanger's caboose at Brooklyn's Hoyt-Schermerhorn station." Quick, everyone buy disposable jumpers to wear during commutes!
Gothamist on the horrors of bedbugs.
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Jen,
Maybe it's my computer but your link to the search opens a blank page.
Another reason to drive to work in the morning. Interesting the bedbugs are infesting the Hipster station (Union Square) and the Mexican station (Fordham Road).
Outstanding!
Another reason to avoid the subway.
A City Bed Bug Expert?!?!?
{In a local bar}
"Hey, you're cute. What do you do for a living?"
"I'm a Bed Bug Expert for the City"
BBNY
Is this serious? Cuz I seriously sat on that bench not two days ago.
Really is no reason to leave the house anymore.
I never sit on those benches anywhere in subway stations. Let me know when they find bedbugs in the actual trains themselves.
WTF? You people can keep this city!
UGH! My son sits on those because he needs the rest (and it keeps him from getting into trouble). Now I am totally skeeved out.
ewwww...standing from now on, no exceptions.
I guess homeless people sleep on those benches with all of their stuff and who knows whats living in those shopping bags and layers of clothing.
Why would anyone sit on those benches anyway? They are pissed on by drunks and homeless all the time.
@bornbreadnewyorker - Isn't almost everything in New York pissed on at some point? By either drunks, homeless people or dogs?
I'm disgusted.. But if they can be on the subway benches, could they be on the trains? Or is it the wood of the subway benches that help them hide and that's why they are found on those?
the trains are cleaned pretty often and have really bright light. i'd be surprised if bedbugs show up on them.
Or is it the wood of the subway benches that help them hide and that's why they are found on those?
The exterminator I had said they like wood and darkness. The train might actually too bright for them.
Of course, that doesn't help when you're crammed against nine different people on the 4...
Those benches should be stainless steel so they can powerwash them in the morning after the bums have woken up. Or better yet, just powerwash them with the bums sleeping on them.
Ive seen cockroaches on R46 trains (most F trains, most R trains, all G trains).
OMFG.
Ugh, I'm going to take a nice bleach bath when I get home.
"Of course, that doesn't help when you're crammed against nine different people on the 4..."
Word, TKaisen. I recently started working in the Financial District and made the mistake of taking the uptown 4. Never again. It was so crowded I'm amazed I didn't end up pregnant from the trip.
The scariest thing is the bedbug from bench to person transfer---that person then goes onto the subway and sits or stands next to you! ACK! And those bugs jump!
i don't understand why there isn't a city task force devoted to this problem, or even a national task force.
these bugs were all but eradicated from the U.S. not thirty years ago... the NY Times says it was because of DDT. is there no comparable chemical that can achieve those results without the harmful side effects (whatever those were?) sure, bedbugs don't carry disease, but they are still a public health disaster... where is the outrage? where are the scientists? the politicians? the SOLUTIONS?
if nobody is going to give us the chemical ammo to really take them out, then there should at least be public awareness campaigns- signs in subways, buses, in the lobbys of buildings, on TV: don't take furniture off the street, wash your clothes after going on vacation; get rid of excess clutter; make sure that cracks and crevasses in your apartment are properly sealed; only buy mattresses in sealed plastic containers, etc.
problem is though that all the education in the world won't stop every outbreak; and in poor neighborhoods landlords may refuse to deal with the problem; and tenants can't afford to. so the problem stays, and spreads through the city in vectors like the subway, etc. this is why we need heavy artillery against these things NOW.
wonder how much things would change if mayor mike or some city council members suddenly found them in their buildings...
@mrguy - It's true that the elimination of DDT and other pesticides is what has allowed the bedbug resurgence. But exterminators are not helpless against them. The problem eradicating them in NYC apartment buildings is the one idiot tenant who refuses to be fumigated or drags their infested mattress through the common areas without wrapping it in plastic first. If your building is willing to pay for the exterminators and all the tenants are cooperative, it should only be a major inconvenience instead of an insurmountable problem.
And good luck eliminating "cracks and crevasses" [sic] in your apartment big enough for a roach or mouse to squeeze through let alone a bedbug (bedbugs can hide in the tiny spaces between wood flooring during the day).
that could be the new PR campaign for the MTA about why we are paying more for the subway.
Getting *more* for your money!
This is what you get when 13 million illegals come here from the third world without being screened for diseases and parasites at places like Ellis Island.
And a pandering political class declares NYC a "sanctuary city". Will the city pay for the pest removal and destroyed mattresses, etc? Maybe we can petition the Mexican Consulate for redress.
The speciesism here is just sad.
I love how half brained humans dare to comment just because they can type.
"This is what you get when 13 million illegals come here from the third world without being screened for diseases and parasites at places like Ellis Island.
And a pandering political class declares NYC a "sanctuary city". Will the city pay for the pest removal and destroyed mattresses, etc? Maybe we can petition the Mexican Consulate for redress."
So tell me TSOL, where did you get the information that the bedbug problem in the city came from Mexico? The Encyclopedia of Dumb F*cks or are you just a jack*ss?
the NY Times says it was because of DDT.
The DDT Thing is insane. From everthing I've read no one's ever been able to conclusively prove it causes what they say it causes... and it could be used to practically wipe out malaria in Africa.
And get rid of bedbugs.
I saw a bedbug crawling on this guy on the L this morning. I was soooooo skeeved out but glad I saw it before I got any closer to him.
Now I know why I am so Itchy cause I sat down on
the A train.
Go to any old school hardware store you find and in a hushed tone, ask them for "Flit". if you're lucky, they'll go to the back forever and finally surface with a slightly rusted can of the good stuff. Pay whatever they want and go home and spray it everywhere. Just be sure that there are no nesting pairs of American Bald Eagles anywhere in your apartment before you do it.