Bed bugs in “refurbished” mattresses on Fox NY
By nobugsonme on May 22, 2008 in avoiding bed bugs, bed bugs and mattresses, bed bugs and the media, bed bugs in the media, bed bugs new york, bed bugs spread, bedbugs, city of new york, city policies, consumer, furnishing bedbug-free homes, mattress recycling, mattresses, new york city, new york state, news
It is perfectly legal to spritz, recover, and resell used mattresses in New York. They have to be sanitized and labeled properly.
There is no way to “sanitize” used mattresses to reliably remove bed bugs. There is no spray which will kill all the bed bugs and eggs in a used mattress.
Perhaps the only possibility for reliably removing bed bugs would be using heat (over 120 F for 3+ hours) or Vikane gas (which — if done correctly, and it is not always done correctly — should be 100% effective, but would probably raise the cost of refurbished mattresses to the point where no one would buy them).
The recycling of mattresses is shameful and the New York government must put an end to this practice which spreads bed bugs to so many.
And don’t think you’re safe if you never buy a used mattress. If your hotel, school, granddaughter’s day care, child’s friend’s parents, neighbor, building employee, or the person who sat in the movie theater before you bought a used mattress, that’s enough to give you bed bugs.
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