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.

• inspectors find 600 unsanitized mattresses at Charlotte, N.C. used furniture store
• Bed bugs in Sweden: Ikea, used mattresses, and the spread of vägglus
• New York City is behind in the bed bug wars
• Eastern Nazarene College: students cannot bring in ANY used furniture

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I am really glad to see the Hotels fact sheet. I wonder how it is being disseminated.

I am more skeptical about the fact sheet for the rest of us. I see in it a few possibilities for misinformation. While it does suggest in the first column that people with bed bugs call a licensed pest control professional (as they, or their landlords, should), later, I am concerned with the answer to the question “Is it necessary to use pesticides to get rid of bed bugs?”

The answer begins:

The best way to get rid of bed bugs is to clean, disinfect, and eliminate their hiding places. Since bed bugs can live several months without food and water, pest control professionals may use a pesticide.

Whoa, Nellie! They may use a pesticide? They bloody well better use some pesticides.
First, every account I’ve seen states that bed bugs can live as long as a year (and some sources say 18 months) without feeding. And as far as I know, the food and water is your blood.

Next, sure, the best way to get rid of bed bugs would be to get rid of them. But since you cannot probably reach their hiding places, you had darn well better expect to involve some pesticides. I have never heard of a pest control professional examining a known infestation and saying, “Hmm, well, we might just use some pesticides to be sure.” It’’s the main way of eliminating something that can live in the cracks in your bed, the cracks in your floor, the cracks in your wall, the crevices of your electrical sockets and your light fixtures.

There is no good way to get rid of bed bugs by cleaning. Even if you think they are just on your mattress (and you are very likely to be wrong) cleaning and or removing the infested item can spread the problem. You can disperse the monsters through your home, inadvertently, as you drag the mattress out, or clean it.

And they are likely to be living in other locations.

They also come in 5 convenient sizes which range from the barely visible size of a speck of dust to the easily recognized “size of an apple seed.”

How you expect to “clean” something out of your home when you can’t see it on the item in front of you (let alone hiding in your baseboards) is beyond me.

Yes, maybe New York City needs a Bedbug Czar. And, Mayor Bloomberg, I’m available, as I am sure lots of more qualified people are as well. Someone needs to proofread this stuff they’re putting out.

The bed bug life cycle photo is from Stephen L. Doggett, Senior Hospital Scientist in the Department of Medical Entomology at the University of Sydney and Westmead Hospital. This is their bed bug site. He’s also the principle author or the Code of Practice for the Control of Bed Bug Infestations in Australia, which can be downloaded from the same site. We thank Stephen L. Doggett for giving us permission to post this helpful photo, which also appears in our FAQs!

• bed bug life cycle photo
• FAQ: What are bed bugs? Do I have them? What else could be causing this?
• PCTOnline on its bed bug seminar last week
• Russian, Chinese, Spanish fact sheets

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