Remember Joyce Cohen’s New York Times column “The Hunt” — which features New York tenants searching for just the right apartment?  In 2007, two separate columns in three months described young couples ending their searches in an apartment with bed bugs.

In September 2007, it was Tabitha Shick and Benjamin Klein.  Then, in December, we heard about Jon Werberg and Helene Mattera, who moved to a semi-gut-reno on East 117th Street, with bed bugs.

Now, in the fifth anniversary “The Hunt” column, we get an update on Mattera and Werberg, who were stuck in their apartment on 117th St. for one year:

… it seemed location was the only thing their apartment had going for it. They gladly left last summer, the day their one-year lease expired.

The $1,550-a-month apartment, on East 117th Street, was badly maintained, they said. They had several bouts with bedbugs, spending a small fortune on laundry and dry cleaning.

They hoped to buy a home — doing so remains “somewhere between a goal and a dream,” Mr. Werberg said — but their priority was to get out. When they left, they took nothing upholstered.

They were relieved to return to the Bronx. They liked the Parkchester condominiums, but they wanted a dog and dogs aren’t allowed, so they found a big one-bedroom rental nearby for $1,350.

Their new superintendent “is the kind of man who dusts outdoor breezeways,” Ms. Mattera said. “He is meticulous to a T. It makes a world of difference.”

Although a meticulous, well-kept apartment has so much going for it, readers need to know that it does not mean the home will not get bed bugs, nor does it mean that the landlord will handle them properly if it does.

Cleanliness does not prevent bed bugs.

And any landlord who has not dealt with bed bugs before faces a learning curve.  Many good, meticulous landlords are not informed about how easily bed bugs spread, and how hard it is to detect them.

The truth about bed bugs is that you can clean like the Dickens and not get rid of or prevent them.

The good news is that it sounds like Mattera and Werberg are done with bed bugs.  Let’s hope they never have this problem again!

Read the update in full here: The Hunt – So Where Are They Now? – NYTimes.com.Similar Posts:

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Remember back in September, when the New York Times column “The Hunt” featured a young couple who moved five times in two-and-a-half years, only to end up in an apartment with bed bugs?

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. Similar Posts:

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