Just two weeks ago, the Brooklyn DA's office admitted it had a bedbug issue. Today, we received this tip: "The Bronx DA's office had the DCAS and an outside consulting firm going through the offices (the older buildings, not the Hall of Justice... yet) late night this week with a bedbug sniffing dog. Official explanations range from "carpet mites" to "isolated insects."..." more ›

You already know all about the NYC's bed bug explosion, and the companies that are training dogs to detect them. But today Penelope Green at the Times files an in-depth feature on a day in the life of one small dog sniffing company, Bedbug Detectors. Great read, and when we say in-depth, we mean it. To train his dogs to detect bugs, the company's owner, Jeremy Ecker, 35, needs to keep bedbugs in vials in his home. And these specimens must be kept alive—on Ecker's own blood: more ›

The Observer spends a fruitful day palling around with exterminator Stephen Ceol, who has seen business boom ever since the rat rodeo sparked a city-wide Health Department crackdown on restaurants. It’s a fun read. “[Ceol] set out a number of baitless, mechanical traps, which instead lure vermin simply by the size of their tiny entryways. ‘They’re naturally comfortable going into a hole. It spins them around and they can’t get out. It works great because it’s a repeater. You catch so many of them. I’ve had five live ones in there at one time.’ What happens to the captured critters? ‘I boil ’em and throw ’em out. That’s what I have to do… I had one client; I guess their kitchen guys were taking count. Thirty-two rats were killed—32!’” more ›