New Yorkers are besieged by rats who can read and bedbugs who eat poison for brunch (after they suck your blood for breakfast). If the feds can't help us, perhaps it's time to try a little tenderness? The WSJ reports that more women are entering the traditionally male-dominated profession of pest-control. "When people come to the door, they are surprised to see ladies, but they love to see ladies," Beverly Rice Brady, the co-founder of Pro Service Pest Control says. "They feel safer; they feel more comfortable having a girl in their home." more ›

Halloween is just around the corner, and if you don't already have your costume prepared, step right this way for some natural inspiration. Check out these creepy crawlies who make their home at the Bronx Zoo, and remain diligently prepared for All Hallow's Eve, all year round. And check out the special "Boo at the Zoo" events all month, which include a maize maze, costume parade and pumpkin decorating (with bears?), and vote for the creepiest bugger on their site. The current winner? It's a dead heat between the African whip scorpion and the Goliath bird-eating spider—vote now! more ›

From the looks of it, that Life After People show might not be so far off. The city has been overrun by bedbugs. We've got stink bugs, coyotes, opossums, raccoons, rats, snakes, gators and lice. And while those beasts have been content to stay out of human affairs (save for the occasional bite), termites are now determined to take out the power in Queens. Nature: nature's most dangerous killer. more ›

Residents in a West Village apartment building have been suffering for years from a stench coming from one apartment belonging to an elderly woman with OCD. At first it wasn't clear to outsiders what was happening in the apartment, and when the NYPD was called in an officer saw a green substance on the top of the door—he told the landlord: "That's it, that's the green slime, that comes from a body decomposing in an apartment." So, apparently that happens. more ›

New Jersey is apparently suffering from a stink bug infestation, which is damaging crops and annoying homeowners across the state. Native to Asia, the bugs popped up in Pennsylvania in 1996, and have no natural enemies in the area. Apple farmers in northwestern New Jersey have seen about 70% of their crops destroyed by the critters in the past two years, and Dan Bradbury of Viking Pest and Termite Control says they've been getting multiple phone calls about the bugs every day. So how should New Yorkers arm themselves if the bugs jump the Hudson? Bradbury suggests vacuuming, but says, "I’ve smelled them and I don’t think it’s that bad." Insert your own Jersey joke here. more ›

The Gray Lady slums it out to far East Williamsburg to report on the hipster bohemian squalor of the sprawling McKibbin Street “dorms;” two hulking buildings converted from garment factories to lofts in the late nineties by a trio of savvy Stuyvesant alums. It’s since become a filthy, bed-bug ravaged rite of passage for the young DIY arts set, who pile on top of each other in warren-like lofts more crowded than one of Dan Deacon’s dance-a-thons. more ›