Apparently the city's bedbug problem has gotten to be just too much for Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, especially with their recent presence in the city's public schools. He told the Daily News, "I'm calling for a full on war against bedbugs starting in the public school system. We should deal with bedbugs the way we deal with crime spikes, and we need to do it before it gets out of control." Out of control? Where were you all summer, Stringer?
Stringer noted that bedbug complaints to 311 jumped 19% across the city from 2004 to 2009, and says the best way to fight the critters is to hire an "army of inspectors" to start with the schools. "You can't fight this epidemic with a paltry, small army," he said. "We're in the middle of this bedbug war. We've already lost the Waldorf, we lost Lincoln Center, hundreds of residential buildings, and now we see we're losing public schools."
However, Daniel Kass of the city Health Department says Stringer is taking things a bit too far. "A single bedbug is not an infestation. It may not require the kind of response he's calling for...It's not accurate to say the city is not doing a lot. The reality is there are substantial resource constraints." Besides, those things are resilient!
