You Don't Want This Chair

Reader JesqNY took this photograph of a discarded chair in Washington Heights. The chair's former owner helpfully notes that this chair apparently has bed bugs--"chinche" in Spanish--but we think it would have been better to wrap the chair in a sealed plastic bag, which is what one should do if they are getting rid of bed bug infested furniture (actually, people should consult with a licensed professional exterminator, but here's a PDF from the Health Department).

According to New York Bed Bugs, Washington Heights/Inwood had the 2nd most bed bug-related complaints so far--the most were in Bushwick.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on August 1, 2008 11:27 AM

Comments [rss]

tsol

It would have been better to wrap the bearer of the bedbugs in plastic and send them back to Guatemala or wherever.

Rfive

TKaisen@: WTF is a douche-chill?

NannyState

So when I was vacationing in P.R. last winter, I shouldn't have eaten at "Chinche's Grill"? Why didn't my Insight Guide say something?

Jen S

My roommate was a proud trash-picker until the bedbug endemic. Now our furniture matches.

NYLaughs

Not that I'm asking for any particular reason--but what happens if someone with crabs sits on a chair with bedbugs?

TKaisen

Every once in a while when walking on the street I catch a whiff of the pesiticide they bathed my apartment in when I had them and I get the douche-chills.

cfuller

Yah- that chair actually on my block!! it's been there like for a week now... yikes.

Reflect

Yea Im not sure if they came from the store or already in my kitchen but the bag was about 3 days opened. There were kind of way too many to have gotten in 3 days. I read that they are a problem of cereal silos. So I hope this is not one of Totals new unnoticed Ingredients. At least they were not bedbugs or roaches though.

And seeing the stuff Ive seen people eat for money on reality shows oddly brought me a little comfort. I havent been able to eat cereal since that day though.

Jen Chung

Flour beetles are disgusting--I found them in my cat's dry food two years ago and had the heebie jeebies for a month--there were all these little bugs IN the food on the floor around the dish. We bought that box of dry food at a bodega and suspect it had been sitting out there for a while. BLECH.

Reflect

This past weekend I was sitting down for a bowl of Total Cereal with cranberries. As I had finished about a 3rd of the meal I noticed little black seeds or grains and thought. Hmmmm this Cereal is really packed with healthy goodness to be having seeds floating on the top. About 10, I looked a little closer and to my disgust found they had antenne little legs and were not seeds. A few gag reflexes later....

I ran to the box of cereal and sure enough they were alive in there not moving in my milk because they drowned. I ran to google and found a couple other people with the same problem and a few unsuspecting souls like myself who had fallen to thinking they were part of whatever broken grains they were eating. So watch out for flour beetles!!!!

TJ

Am I the only one who feels the urge to take the tape off the chair and give it to someone I don't like?

"Hey, I got you this nice chair! So comfortable!"

EricRoberts

Am I the only one who feels the urge to burn that chair?

JenChungsBaby

I've seen a handful of mattresses on the UWS discarded with warning like that. Nice of the people to let others know before they sleep on them or something.