Renee of New York vs. Bed Bugs called to find out what it’s like to call the New York City 311 help line and report bed bugs, now that bed bugs are their own separate category in terms of 311 complaints.  Renee writes,

I called 311 to see if anything was new in how the actual calls were handled and a nice guy named Joseph walked me through what they’re doing. Basically, it’s the same but there was a certain efficiency to this call and no more “bed bugs? did you say bed bugs?” It’s still a complaint process that’s routed to HPD or NYCHA, and a call transfer to the Health Department if the caller wants the bed bug fact sheet. Interestingly, they’re now also taking complaints for subways (it’s a script for rats, mice and bed bugs or conditions conducive to the same), and that call gets routed to the MTA.

That’s huge. Good to hear.

Now, can they meet the demand of bed bug inspections?

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Paolo Mastrangelo of NYC the Blog reported yesterday that his roommate Aaron had a close encounter of the bed bug kind on the #2 train in New York City:

It seems the bedbug epidemic that has been building in nyc over the last few years has reached an apex. My roommate Aaron Howell explained he was riding the 2 train last night and a destitute gentleman was covered with little crawling translucent bugs. Himself and others surmised they were bedbugs. At home later, asked if he was sure they were bedbugs, Aaron replied, “no doubt.”

An MTA employee riding in the car first noticed the man and bugs, and notified police who then removed the bed bug hotel from the train at 96th St.

Mastrangelo also quotes from a string of tweets Aaron posted about the incident, the last of which, according to NYC the Blog (since I could not find it on twitter), reads:

I guess its illegal to ride train w/bugs since cops kicked the dude off. When guy rubbed hair one bug shot off him towards peeps across.

The City Room blog at the New York Times was quick to pick up the story.

Now, understand that I don’t doubt for a moment that there are bed bugs on the subway. I am pretty sure there are bed bugs on the subway. They travel with people, and lots of people in NYC have bed bugs.

However, a few things here make me question whether these were indeed bed bugs.

First, the man was, according to NYC the Blog, “covered with little crawling translucent bugs.”

Bed bugs are translucent — when they are unfed first instar nymphs. They are about 1mm long (1/32″), unfed.

As I said in the comments on the NYC the Blog piece, once bed bugs feed for the first time, they turn red, like this guy:

(Photos used with permission: American Museum of Natural History, L. Sorkin and R. Mercurio.)

Once bed bugs progress to later nymphal stages, and then their adult stage (6m long or 1/6 inch), they are no longer translucent.

(You can get a fuller sense of the bed bug life cycle here.)

Now, could this man have been covered in unfed first instar nymphs?

Even if the man was somehow covered only in bed bug first instar nymphs (without any later stage nymphs or adults present), it would surely only be moments before they would no longer be translucent. They would be hungry. They would feed and turn red.

Perhaps some entomologists will weigh in on exactly how long first instar nymphs would hang out on a body before feeding.

My hunch is, not long. Moments?

And then they would be filled in blood: red. Not translucent.

Again, I hope my entomologist readers will weigh in on this for us, but if the culprits truly were uniformly small and uniformly translucent, my guess is they were probably not bed bugs.

Could it have been some other critter? Body lice? Head lice?

Last year, I saw two people picking nits out of the hair of a third, on the E train, and flicking them across the train.

I am not sure if I was more disturbed by that, or by the fact that I was the only one who moved to another seat to avoid being hit.

Update (3/23): Gothamist is skeptical too, but not for the same reasons.

Update (3/24): thanks to the New York Times City Room Blog for picking up this story.Similar Posts:

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This Reuters piece was about how passengers on Nigerian motorcycle taxis were putting calabashes and portions of tires on their heads to avoid using the taxi’s passenger helmets, under a new law that requires motorcycle riders to wear helmets.

Newspapers quoted passengers as saying they feared the helmets could be laced with magic spells so as to knock the wearer unconscious and make them easier to rob, while others feared they would pick up an infection.

But the interesting point was this:

One columnist said transportation can already carry a health risk, and recounted how he had picked up a bedbug while sitting on a bus.

“The story is that people who have scabies, craw-craw, ringworm, dandruff and all other such diseases would easily infect others with them through the helmets,” Steve Nwosu wrote in the Daily Sun.

I’m not sure I’d want to share helmets with New York City motorcycle taxi riders either.

But Reuters readers should be aware you can get bed bugs from planes, subways, buses, and trams in Manhattan, Toronto, Prague, and the City of London, just as you can in Capetown or Lagos.

Enjoy!
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A Times (UK) article today on the spread of bed bugs emphasized the role of travel, specifically, the spread of bed bugs in public transportation:

Savvas Othon, technical director at Rentokil, said: “The short turnaround times for planes and other forms of transport means they are sometimes not inspected as thoroughly as they used to be. What should happen is a good vacuum around the back of seats and in the creases of seats. Any small gap is ideal for a bedbug, which can go for quite some time without a meal.”

Pest Control company Rentokil said it was now treating all kinds of public vehicles for bed bugs:

Rentokil says that it has seen a 24 per cent increase in work related to airlines, a 51 per cent increase in road-related call-outs, a 59 per cent jump in the shipping sector and a 9 per cent rise on rail in the past 12 months, compared with the year before.

“Bedbug infestations will continue to rise,” Mr Othon said. “Delays at airports don’t help as people sit in airport terminals, take things out of their bags and the bedbug jumps out and goes in search of another source of blood.”

While the general public is starting to think about hotel rooms as potential sites of infestation, it’s helpful to see a major newspaper highlighting the spread of bed bugs in airports, airplanes, trains, cars, and ships.

Awareness is key, as David Cain of Bed-bugs.co.uk stressed to the Times:

He said: “The number one reason for the spread of bedbugs is the lack of public awareness. People simply do not know how to detect them in the way they would have done in the 1950s and 1960s.

“They are a problem on buses, trains and subway systems, and on cruise ships too — any form of transport where there is a high turnover, really. Recently, on an overground train in South London, I pulled at the parting of the upholstery and found at least four months of dirt and debris.”

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