I’m frugal, and I’m green – but I agree, the impact of bedbugs in our home is enormous – the use electricity in cleaning & drying everything, the use of pesticides, and the amount of waste going to landfill. If I did not have bedbugs there are many things that could have gone to charity. I think maybe there should be proper re-cycling centres and furniture should be inspected or treated before people can re-use it. There needs to be more public education about bedbugs.

Thanks for an interesting article.

I appreciate your response. You’re absolutely right, I did misrepresent your tone, and I have attempted to correct this by changing “tells you to” to “plans to,” and “pleads” to “says.” I think that more accurately represents your tone.

That said, since you write for the Idealist NYC blog, and are talking about what you plan to do, or think (personally) is a good idea, this does amount to, to some degree, encouraging others to do the same.

I appreciate your sharing your bed bug experiences in Guyana. Unfortunately, for New Yorkers, it is extremely hard and often expensive to get rid of bed bugs. In my opinion, it is worth standing on subway platforms rather than sitting in potentially infested (wooden, craggy) platform seats.

Simple plastic lawn chairs which have no crevices and which can be washed are a better option, but metal and wooden chairs can certainly become infested.

Taking chairs from the curbside isn’t the only problem with this initiative, either. As I noted above, people may potentially bring a chair from their own home that they do not yet know to be infested.

Entomologists suggest that as much as 70% of the population does not react in any way to bed bug bites.

Since you usually have to have an advanced infestation in order to see bed bugs, this means that someone could easily bring an infested chair to a station (or the curbside) without knowing they had a problem.

Finally, campaigning for the MTA to be proactive in searching for bed bugs in stations, trains and buses is a good idea (especially in platform seats and in upholstered bus seats). Bed bug k9s are certainly an option. While not 100% accurate, a good bed bug dog can walk through and quickly detect bed bugs in a way a human simply can’t.

Thanks for commenting. I really enjoyed reading your blog post, and it’s great to see such concern about the rampant bedbug manifestation across NYC.

Although I will say that disagree with your use of the phrases “…do not do as the Idealist in NYC blog tells you” and “…cellyham pleads.” There is not a single sentence in this blog post that tells the readers to do anything. I clearly state “The basic idea is that we all chip in by salvaging chairs from trash piles, cleaning them up and reusing them in one of the hundreds of stations across the city,” which is informing readers about the concept behind the project. I also clearly state at the end, “But that’s just me.” The whole point of the post is that I think this is a great idea, but of course, you take a seat at your own caution. NYC is dirty. That’s just the plain truth.

I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Guyana a couple of years ago, and can say with authority that I do know what bedbugs are like. There were countless times I awoke with bites, and had to soak my mattress in the sun. I’ve also heard of others accounts’ as well. I am, in all honesty, quite a germaphobe at times.

Your post definitely had me think, however, that I should have included more information, and stated more explicitly that taking the chairs is not just limited to salvage piles. I don’t think the intention of this project is to scavenge junkyards. It also includes thinking about that extra chair sitting in your apartment taking up space, and how it can be useful at a subway station. Also, to reduce the chance of bedbugs and other creatures, plastic and metal chairs are a good option as well.

The greater problem is the health standards of NYC subways in general. But I do think this initiative is a good first attempt at addressing another problem. Maybe it’s not the perfect solution, but it’s a good step. I’d love to hear more of your thoughts on how you think this specific problem about the lack of seats can be addressed with better safety standards.

According to an article written by Dr Potter of the University of Kentucky… “All modes of transport including trains, buses, taxicabs and airplanes were spreaders of bed bugs” in the late 1930s.

History is repeating itself and the learning curve is going to be very steep until our public officials figure out that these hardy little parasites are easily transmitted from person to person in public places.

Here is a link to Dr Potter’s article in PCT Magazine.
http://www.pctonline.com/articles/article.asp?MagID=1&ID=3264&IssueID=245