When a representative from the New York City Housing and Preservation Department told attendees of a bed bug seminar last spring that five NYC subway stations had had bed bugs, Miss Heather blogged about it, and the story was picked up by the mainstream press as well as every blogger and her brother. (You can see links to some of the places the news was reported here.)

The MTA said they’d look into it and the HPD acted like they had no knowledge of this. Still, lots of people looked a little more suspiciously at those wooden subway benches, as well they ought. Experts tell us that bed bugs are prone to infest public transportation, as a general rule.

Now consider for a moment, the curbside refuse of this great city, which is also quite likely to be infested by bed bugs. Bed bugs are in every neighborhood and it seems like the incidence of tossed out mattresses and chairs has gone way up.

chairs

Originally uploaded by t. van gieson

People have always sought out “curbside bargains” like free chairs, tables, and mattresses. It’s considered frugal and green, and what could be better in the days of global warming and the crashing stock market?

I’ll tell you what’s better: avoiding bed bugs. Forget the discomfort of bed bug bites, for a moment, which many will never even notice. Those who’ve never experienced bed bugs have no idea how much money they eat up (even if you aren’t the one footing the bill for pest control) and how much of a strain the average infestation is on the environment when you factor in the extra laundry (electricity and water) and plastic bags alone. Before you even talk about replacing some of your stuff and having someone spray pesticides over and over and over.

So, I want to stress that I have mad respect for Idealist.org and their cool Idealist in NYC blog. But I have to stress, in the name of sanity, do not do as the Idealist in NYC blog tells you plans to, and try and help tired people find somewhere to sit in the subway by donating curbside chairs. Do not, as the Idealist in NYC blogger cellyham pleads says, “chip in by salvaging chairs from trash piles, cleaning them up and reusing them in one of the hundreds of stations across the city.” Idealist got the idea from this “Dude”.

Idealist in NYC blogger cellyham has apparently thought of and dismissed the potential for bed bugs:

Skeptics also point out the potential for bedbugs and other such creatures. I’ve had my fair share of experiences with creepy crawlers, and I’ll chance another encounter for a shot at comfort any day. But that’s just me. What do you think?

All I can say is, think again. Anyone who is willing to “chance an encounter” with bed bugs does not know enough about them or what they do, even in a small infestation.

Oh yeah, and the chance of bed bugs on those “donated” chairs in the subway? It doesn’t just amount to you bringing the bed bugs into your digs when you rescue the chair from the curb and clean it up at home.

It also stems from the danger of getting bed bugs that have crawled into a chair in someone’s home. The Take a Seat idea’s originator has a nice google map showing where people have placed these chairs so far, and they include some of the most bedbug-infested areas of Brooklyn and Queens, as well as many Manhattan stations.

Part of the problem with bed bugs is that most people really do not get (a) how easy it is to just “pick them up” somewhere, or (b) what a pain in the — they really are.

One thing you can do, dear reader with bed bugs, is tell all of your close friends, slowly and repeatedly, so they get it, that bed bugs are easy to get (in fact, you need do nothing, as they may come to you), that there are ways to avoid them, and that you would not wish them on your worst enemies. Tell them. Make sure no one you know thinks bed bugs are just another “creepy crawler.”Similar Posts:

• Another Craigslist bed bug story
• Theresa Braine’s bed bug-induced trip down memory lane
• How to spread bed bugs, in three easy steps!
• Tennessee Hotel and Lodging Association: “Bedbugs are really a non-issue”
• A reader’s bed bug story

The Greenpoint HPD Bed Bug Seminar was last night.

I was not able to be there, but Miss Heather has an excellent recap on the evening.

New York vs Bed Bugs members were there spreading word on how to get some change on the bed bug issue in NYC.

The presenter was Ed Brownbear, the only HPD educator who has actually had bed bugs.

Congratulations to those who helped organize this event (Miss Heather and Ann Kansfield) and to Lou Sorkin and the NY vs Bed Bugs crowd for being there!

If anyone who was there wants to share some details, they’d be very much welcomed.

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PCTOnline has an interesting article on the bed bug seminar it held in NYC last week. We previously posted about Sarah Ferguson’s take. But this article gives you the PCO’s angle, and more detail. For example, the warning from Dr. Michael Potter resounds even louder (and scarier) with more detail:

“If there is a classic example of why you don’t eliminate entire classes of pesticides,” Potter said, “bed bugs are it. We’re in a heap of trouble in terms of the products we have available to fight this pest,” citing several classes of chemistry that are no longer available (e.g., organophosphates, carbamates, etc.) and the growing threat of pyrethroid resistance. As a result, he said, “I don’t see how this problem is going to get better. I think it’s going to get chaotic. This is the most challenging pest I’ve encountered in my career. We’re in big trouble.”

Also of note, Potter’s discussion of pesticides used for bed bugs, historically, and now. A lot of this we know, but probably not in this detailed way:

Potter kicked off his 90-minute presentation with a brief history of bed bug control, pointing out that 30 to 50 percent of structures in much of pre-World War II Europe were infested with bed bugs, so it’s not a new problem. In those days, public health officials in both the United States and Europe used a range of chemicals to control the ubiquitous pest, including cyanide, mercury, benzene and kerosene, even going as far as to soak beds with “high test gasoline” as recommended in a 1926 U.S. Department of Agriculture Bulletin.

Fortunately, today’s treatment techniques are much more targeted, not to mention environmentally sensitive, involving a range of options including heat treatments, vacuuming, steam treatments, fumigation, and cold, as well as the use of insect growth regulators, dusts and pesticide sprays. In addition, inspection dogs are being used to identify bed bug infestations in structures and mattress covers are growing in popularity among PCOs and the hospitality industry. In fact, a number of the aforementioned technologies were on display at the seminar, including representatives of McGlaughlin Gormley King, Residex, Steri-Fab, Hi-Tech Cleaning Systems, Zoecon Professional Products/Wellmark International, Whitmire Micro-Gen Research Laboratories, Mattres Safe, ThermaPure Heat, Protect-A-Bed, Temp-Air and Florida Canine Academy (BedBugDog).

It wouldn’t be a bed bug seminar without some marketing, eh?
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