Results tagged “bed-bugs”

Not a good couple of weeks for Access-A-Ride, the bike-lane blocking fleet of giant vans that shuttle infirm New Yorkers around town. A local news crew caught one driver sleeping on the job last week, but now maybe the fatigue makes sense: the Access-A-Ride headquarters in Long Island City has been infested with bed bugs since the summer of 2008! The situation's become so intolerable that workers picketed outside yesterday, and one employee, who brought the bugs home and had to throw out all her furniture, tells the Daily News, "They really need to clean this place. This is not a joke."

The Department of Education is taking bids in search of a pest-control specialist to eradicate any sign of those troublesome bedbugs in schools around the city. A spokeswoman tells the Post that the listing is "a contingency measure, not a response to an increase in bugs." The department intends to spent no more than $100,000 over the course of the three-year contract, so who will be the intrepid exterminator that will protect our children on $33,333 a year?

The New York City Health Department received an anonymous report last week about bed bugs at the UA Sheepshead Bay 14 movie theater in Brooklyn. According to the Health Department, managers have hired a pest-control company to investigate. But a spokesperson for Regal Cinemas issued a statement saying, "At Regal, the welfare of our guests and staff is of utmost importance. We have taken all reasonable measures to assure their health and safety and been advised by the environmental professionals that there exists no current health or safety risk for our guests or staff." Feel reassured?

Students arriving for class this afternoon at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice building at 445 West 59th Street were greeted by a worker using a bullhorn to warn them: Stay away! Bed bugs! Classes canceled! Basically, the school's gripped with panic and they're one step away from painting a giant red "B" on the front door. After employees complained of itchy rashes this week, the administrators called in one of those trained dogs, who turned up the pests on the first three floors.

If bedbugs in the office are the next city scare, sign us up for bubble living. NY1 got an anonymous tip that "workers on eight floors of the Department of Homeless Services building on Beaver Street have been getting bitten by insects since Monday." But the DHS said, "We immediately began taking corrective action, and are extending it to all premises occupied by DHS. We are aggressively addressing the situation with an expert contractor and building management. No DHS employee has reported bites received from our building." Related: David Letterman doesn't understand what why Mary Louise Parker is so freaked out about bedbugs.

Last night, actress Mary Louise Parker was on Late Show with David Letterman, revealing that she's been worrying about that feared scourge, bedbugs. But Letterman didn't seem very convinced they were a real threat, asking, "Is it that treacherous? Is it that dire?... What's the worst that can happen if you have bedbugs?" Oh, Dave, if you only knew!

In what might inspire the first Arnold Diaz meta-segment, a consumer watchdog columnist was fired from a Hartford newspaper he had worked at for forty years after writing a piece that exposed allegations against retail giant Sleepy's for selling second-hand mattresses as new—including one with bedbugs. Despite the case being currently under investigation by the Connecticut attorney general, the Hartford Courant refused to publish George Gombossy's exposé on one of their largest advertisers. Gombossy quotes a report from a NJ environmental group that was brought in to exterminate bedbugs out of a box spring he had recently purchased at Sleepy's and appeared to have been previously used. The report found that the “box spring … was the culprit. There were bedbugs inside and the box spring did not look like it was new.” Gombossy has published the column on a new watchdog blog he started, where he prefaces it by saying, "This was the first time in my 40 years at The Courant that an investigation by the attorney general was withheld from the public." His site invites advertisers with the caveat "you will be treated the same as non-advertisers."

According to NYC the Blog, a rather revolting incident took place on on the 2 train Saturday night. Arron Howell, the blogger's roommate, revealed through a series of tweets that he "saw a homeless man on the subway with bugs crawling all over him. I am freaked out I was close to him." Howell said he has "no doubt" the critters were bedbugs, but given the tiny size of the parasites—adults don't exceed 4-5 mm in length—Howell would have had to get pretty close to the guy in order to see them.

Party's over, bedbugs. Today Mayor Bloomberg (heard of him? We humans call him the MAD DOG) has just created a Bedbug Advisory Board to take the fight to you. A veritable Justice League is forming, comprised of the best and brightest in pest management, entomology, and... Consumer Affairs. And come nine months from now, these geniuses are going to report their findings to the mayor, and who knows what they'll recommend? Everything's on the table—even DDT. Well, probably not, but if you're a bedbug who's smart enough to be reading this on the internet, there's nothing we can do to stop you at this point anyway. (Not really a joke, NYC bedbugs have been mutating into unstoppable super insects.) The creation of the Advisory Board, which mirrors steps taken by other bedbug-infested cities, came out of a City Council hearing on the blood sucking fiends last month. And with an increasing number of New Yorkers plagued by the resilient pests, we're not waiting around for the government to take action: we're releasing the hounds.

It's almost exactly one year since we first noted the use of dogs to detect bed bugs; today the Times takes a closer look at the growing cottage industry, highlighting the four-month old company Bedbug Finders. The owners use two dogs, Ruby and Pasha; Ruby is a beagle and Pasha is a basenji and "maybe part terrier," according to co-owner Donald Frey. Because of the city's worsening bedbug epidemic—which a City Council committee met to discuss this week—Ruby and Pasha have been very busy sniffing out bed bugs in hotels, apartment houses and schools, where they found the bloodsuckers in gym bags and in children’s books. Co-owner Michael Morin says the epidemic affects all walks of life, and clients have included buildings occupied by famous TV "personalities," and "a big, big university on the West Side—I think you can put two and two together." To keep the dogs sharp, Morin trains them by hiding vials with live bedbugs in them throughout his house. He tells the Times, "My wife doesn’t like it."

The bedbug policy advocacy group "New York vs Bed Bugs" had to file a Freedom of Information request to get the city to confirm what everyone already suspected: New York's bed bug population is booming! The group says there were more than 9,200 bed bug complaints to the city's 311 line last year, a 34% jump over 2007. The hottest neighborhoods for bed bugs right now are found in central Brooklyn, northern and eastern Bronx, midtown Manhattan, eastern Queens, and the north shore of Staten Island, the Daily News reports. In an attempt to turn the tide, the City Council will consider bills next week that would ban the sale of used mattresses, train exterminators, and force city agencies to develop a united strategy. Last month the Times called for a bed bug task force to focus on the resilient bastards, noting that "there are a lot of agencies that do a little about bed bugs, but nobody that can help with the whole shebang." And a recent study found that NYC bed bugs have developed nerve cell mutations that make them almost impervious to the most toxins used by exterminators.

A new report in the Journal of Medical Entomology has confirmed our worst fears: Big Apple bed bugs have developed nerve cell mutations that make them almost impervious to pyrethroid toxins, such as deltamethrin, commonly used against them. Toxicologists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Korea's Seoul National University have conducted extensive tests on the resilient bastards, and it appears that New York City bed bugs are now as much as 264 times more resistant to deltamethrin than easier to kill bugs in Florida. Of course, Florida is where bed bugs retire to suck blood in their old age, so it figures they'd have a higher mortality rate there. But up here, they've totally gone rogue, and the Times editorial board is calling for "a task force to figure out how to stay ahead of an army that seems to be growing every year."

Bug bombs—or 'total release foggers,' as they say in the extermination biz—have caused at least eight serious explosions in New York City apartments in the past several years, including one last month in Manhattan that hospitalized six people. And besides the explosions, the bombs have also given people respiratory problems, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain, according to a report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Now the state Department of Environmental Conservation will classify foggers as a restricted-use product in New York State, meaning that only certified pesticide applicators can buy and use them. Better stock up! Oh, and here's a fun fact; the Times says that when the bug bombs first became popular after WWII, each bomb contained enough mist to “de-bug” about 10 to 15 average-size homes.

Those making the trek upstate this weekend to see My Bloody Valentine reunite at the All Tomorrow's Parties Festival might discover a bloody valentine of another sort in the hotel they'll be staying at--bed bugs! On a message board for the festival, a fan is trying to spread the word that Kutchers, the on-site hotel "has BED BUGS," they repeat, "BED BUGS." While many concert goers often hope to meet an additional guest to accompany their return from a live show, this warning makes it clear that "you DO NOT want to take (bed bugs) home." Readers, let us know if you hear of any other bed bug reports from ATP or if this is a case of delusional parasitosis.

This thrilling little video was uploaded to YouTube last summer, but with the city's (and the world's!) bedbug armies still on the march, it's well worth watching as a cautionary tale. Finish what you're eating and behold in horror as the videographer gets up-close and personal with a spectacularly infested apartment, scored to a jaunty cover of The Band's "The Shape I'm In."

Warning: You may feel itchy after reading this.

Guests at Fox News now have more to worry about than Bill O’Reilly’s barking; there are also bed bugs biting. A senior vice president for operations and engineering at Fox News had nothing better to do yesterday than speak to the biased, freedom-hating New York Times about the situation, confirming that the Manhattan newsroom discovered the problem a few weeks ago, when an employee “caught a bug and showed it to us.”

Release the hounds. The latest innovation in bedbug eradication is being brought to you by Advanced K9 Detectives, a company using man’s best friend to sniff out the bloodsucking pests plaguing New York City. Since 2004, complaints about bedbugs to the Department of Housing have soared to 6,889 (up from 537 a year) and 2,008 building owners issued summonses (compared to 82 in ’04).

Nothing makes our skin crawl like reading stories about bedbug infestations. The notorious nocturnal bloodsuckers are almost impossible to get rid of, attack you under the comfort of covers, and can leave you covered with welts. Yesterday, the Daily News took a final 2007 look at the bedbug epidemic that leaves no corner of the city untouched.

With the buzz about the 248 McKibbin Street MySpace page organizing comments about its bedbug infestation, we thought it would be a good time to visit the Bedbug City Map. The map relies on reported bedbug incidents, which are mapped by the intensity of the infestation as well - and 248 McKibbin is at the red "Help!" level.

The Rare Urban Snowtiger, by Neene.

Chelsea, by Joe Holmes.

It's possibly the most famous couple to sue over bed bugs: Saturday Night Live star Maya Rudolph and auteur Paul Thomas Anderson claim that their SoHo rental was infested with the vermin and are now suing Halstead Property and the owner, Francis Feeney! They were paying $13,500/month for a Greene Street loft (plus two months' rent, security deposit, broker's fee), but found themselves (and their baby!) bitten. Ew. The exterminator told them they would have to move out for a couple weeks, and the family hasn't been back since.

- "People searching for bedbugs do not know to look along the seams of mattresses, under box springs, behind headboards and picture frames, and even inside alarm clocks and telephones"There are many more, but we were intrigued by the case of Peter Young, whose Ludlow Street apartment was infested. Young slept on an inflatable bed and then a metal cot while the landlord tried to get rid of the bugs to no avail. So Young did what any self-respecting, sick-of-bedbugs tenants would do: He stopped paying rent. A judge ruled in Young's favor, saying, "In this case, the bedbugs did not constitute mere annoyance, but constituted an intolerable condition, notwithstanding the landlord’s efforts to exterminate them," and Young got a rent abatement. Young, who now lives in Brooklyn, told the Times and sleeps on a futon, “Psychologically, I’m afraid of beds. I feel traumatized.”

-- The alleged perpetrator in the Nicole DuFresne LES slaying is still playing the crazy card: the judge had him removed from the trial yesterday.

- Look, Sleeping kitty!

Two awesomely odd but true stories:

Bedbugs are horrible and gross and nothing that anyone should have to deal with. That said, it's probably not a great idea to douse your mattress with gasoline in order to repel the critters. The FDNY has found a number of Queens residents who have taken to soaking their mattresses with gasoline - even children's mattresses - as a foolproof way of getting rid of bedbugs. Or even wiping it on themselves. Battalion Chief Robert Turner tells the Post, "Gasoline is very explosive - even static electricity from a rug can ignite it." Point taken, but we understand the desperation to get rid of the bugs.

- And the Howard Beach hate crime victim will sue his attackers

It's midterms week and you've broken out into a rash. But it's not because you're worried about your GPA - you've got bedbugs! Some poor freshmen at Columbia University are being evacuated from their rooms in John Jay Hall in order for housing services to fumigate the rooms. And not only do they have to evcuate, they need to "completely empty their rooms." The Columbia Spectator notes the craziness of the fumigation scheme, given that it is in the middle of exams, with one victim asking, "Couldn’t they fumigate over spring break, when, even if people are staying at Columbia, they won’t have academic schedules to be disrupted?” Not at Columbia - they are serious about bedbugs, for fear they might travel to other parts of John Jay and perhaps require housing services to buy new mattresses for the entire dorm! Okay, we're just guessing that, but now that we think about the mattress situation that we all go through during college-housing days, it's disgusting. Perhaps getting a vinyl zippered 16" deep mattress cover (just $12.99) from Bed Bath and Beyond would be helpful.