Bedbug paranoia is reaching a fever pitch in the city, with news outlets finding a variety of ways to cover the gross little pests to make us feel itchy. Now City Council member Gail Brewer will reintroduce a bill that will ban the sale of "reconditioned" mattresses and make sure new mattresses aren't tainted by old ones as well. Brewer has been brewing (we couldn't help it) this since last May, but the sound and fury of New Yorker's cries - and stats like 2 bedbug complaints in 2002, 16 in 2003 to 449 complaints during a five month period last year - are making the bedbug enemy number one - perhaps even after the nasty roach. Brewer wants to create a "bedbud task force" and Gothamist wonders if there is a Rat Academy, shoudln't there be Insect Prep?
A bedbug factsheet from the city's Department of Health, the New Yorker Talk of the Town from last year about roommates combatting the bug and the Bedbug Blog.
