I am astonished to find that, not even three months later, a second “The Hunt” column results in a bedbugged apartment. In this case, a young couple (Jon Werberg and Helene Mattera) moved into a semi-gut-renovated apartment on East 117th Street, only to find various troubles, including the elusive cimex lectularius, Mr. Bed Bug.

When the two arrived in late summer, the workers weren’t quite finished. “The hassles started right from the beginning,” Mr. Werberg said. They included sporadic hot water, trash in the hallways, rats and — worst of all — bedbugs. The couple spent hundreds of dollars on laundry. They now wish they had thought harder about building maintenance and general cleanliness.

Although bed bugs can often accompany poor building maintenance and hygiene problems, there is no relation between them, and it’s important to keep this in mind.

Ms. Mattera continues,

“My favorite thing about the apartment is the fact that two of my good friends live within minutes,” Ms. Mattera said. “That is the greatest thing, just calling them and saying, ‘I’ll meet you downstairs.’”

Which is fine, if the bed bugs are gone. If they’re not, it kind of takes all the fun out of the apartment.

It does make you wonder, if the New York Times can follow two couples in an apartment search leading to bed bugs, twice in twelve weeks, how many people in NYC are moving into bedbugged digs?

We know bed bugs in NYC are spreading like wildfire.

Maybe the New York Times should spend some time investigating how far bed bugs have truly spread, and how common they now are. Besides the two “The Hunt” columns, and an op ed, the paper last covered bed bugs in October 2006, using the city’s data on bed bug violations from the summer of 2006 (only those cases reported to 311 and declared “bed bugs” by city inspectors). It’s time to challenge the relevance of data that relies on people calling the city’s information hotline to report a pest most only call their landlords or a PCO about. It’s time for real  data.

You can read all about this failed “Hunt” and weep, here.

• Bed bugs: now appearing in news articles which are not about bed bugs
• Washington Post prints correction thanks to bed bug activist
• Fox employee suing building management, maintenance over bed bug bites
• How bad are bed bugs in Toronto? Nobody knows for sure.

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Last summer, I visited friends at their chateau in France – good company, excellent food, but a lumpy mattress full of bedbugs. Badly bitten, I said nothing, but I know I’ll be invited back. How can I politely tell them about their infestation? Or more politely, must I remain silent and simply decline the invitation? –Joan Shore, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Cohen’s response:

You’re waiting until now to tell them that their house is infested? What would you do if the chateau were on fire, mention it demurely in a few months? If this situation involved only your own comfort, you could keep silent, but because other people are at risk, you must speak up. Here’s how you tell them: You tell them – on the telephone, using a fake accent and a false name. No, no – openly, honestly, calmly. I can understand your desire not to embarrass your friends or imperil your relationship, but I hope they will value your candor and realize that having bedbugs is not a moral failing.

Joan Shore is lucky she did not take bed bugs home with her. Perhaps, bitten last summer, she did not know what they were. There’s been a lot more press since then. Anyway, good for Cohen for reminding readers that bed bugs are “not a moral failing.”

Oh, to be someone to whom the lumpiness of a mattress would be seen as being as notable as its infestation with bed bugs…

• NYC Bed Bug Seminar: did anyone get a letter inviting them?
• The UFT (NYC teachers’ union): how do we get the city to be proactive about bed bugs?
• Apartmenttherapy.com: Amanda update (#7)
• NYTimes real estate “Hunt” results in bed bugs for second time in 12 weeks

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