Why are people with bed bugs being told to throw out all their furniture?

According to WKRN in Nashville, bed bugs have infested Madison Towers, a public housing development run by the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency, or MDHA, in Nashville, Tennessee.

WKRN claims,

The first step in treating bed bugs is to throw out all furniture where the pest can hide.

Can someone please tell me why some government officials and pest control operators and reporters in the news media are still telling people on limited incomes to “throw away everything” that’s infested with bed bugs, and then complaining or expressing surprise when the neighbors raid the dumpsters and themselves become infested with bed bugs?

I know why: it’s harder to get people to treat items than to tell them to toss everything out. But bed bugs can come back. People need to be educated about how to deal with bed bugs properly — and how to avoid them.

Teaching people to treat items, and encase mattresses, and helping them do so, also means the tenants are not left sleeping on a bare floor, in an empty apartment. And it can help keep bed bugs out of someone else’s home. Seems like a win-win, no?

Click to read the article or watch the more extensive video report from WKRN.com.

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