NYC hit by bedbug epidemic

New York City is suffering a bedbug epidemic which has provoked a huge rise in reports of the nocturnal bloodsuckers, the New York Daily News reports. The onslaught of the harmless but unpleasant creatures has seen complaints to 311 (the number for government information and non-emergency services) rise from 537 calls in 2004 …

[John Macintyre]

diddums

I know it's cruel but hey, it's funny

'one poor chap was forced to ditch "rugs, bedding, curtains, 20 cashmere sweaters, an Armani suit, a couch, a headboard, a night table, a bedframe and an exercise bike'

probably all his property in the place, owing to the whole minimalist living. Bedframe and headboard.. so not the bed then? surely the mattress is a better place to look considering everything else thrown out was material? They're not going anywhere then...

'Mercifully, he was able to find temporary lodging in the Carlyle Hotel while his unwelcome guests were evicted'

What the didn't say is two days later the Carlyle Hotel reported an infestation from an unknown source around the floors of the room he was staying in... (only kidding, would be funny though)

[Nick]

Whre's the IT angle?

Oh--ITch. I get it

I'll also get my cashmier coat and give it a good shake.

[Anonymous Coward]

I had an exterminator explain this to me

Apparently the delivery of pesticides has gotten species specific they target certain pests with baited boxes and other creatures aren't effected in the old days they just sprayed indescriminatly killing everything bed bugs included. The pesticides are still just as nasty but they use less and are more effective for things they wish to kill like roaches I assume this will be a problem till they learn to simulate a warm blood meal for things like bedbugs. You know what works great I wouldn't suggest it for the squeamish but a good thriving community of spiders in your house makes all these sorts of creatures scarce.

[Chris G]

Little fundamentalist vampires

These bugs when examined carefully under a magnifying glass will probably be found to be wearing little turbans and beards and carrying tiny copies of the Koran. The sooner these foreign bed bugs are required to have physiometric, psychometric and probably just plain metric passports the better, so their entry into honest democratic countries like the US can be better controlled. Is there no end to the dastardly plots these fundamentalist moslems will come up with to undermine Western Democracy?

[Anonymous John]

I was wondering about the Paris Hilton angle.

Although I suppose I'd rather have her than a bedbug in my bed.

[Maksim Rukov]

Where's the IT angle? Part 2

Wait, I see -- NYC is in need of a good debugger!

Mine's the Armani suit coat. Best wash your hands after passing it...

[Anonymous Coward]

Crisis building for 35 years?

The American congress banned DDT in 1972. Kind of hard to see the relevance to this.

[Aubry Thonon]

Re: Where's the IT angle?

It's not a bug, it's furniture.

[TeeCee]

35 years.

You'd see the relevance if you were a bedbug and had been breeding like a trojan for the last 35 years to get your population levels back to where they were before some SOB invented DDT.

Go and find a nice graph showing unchecked population growth with one of those pretty exponential curves on it. Now look at the flattish bit at the bottom end and see how wide it is compared to the big pointy bit at the other end where things get interesting.

[herman]

Formerly known as?

Hmm, "bed bugs". Are these perhaps the critters formerly known as "lice"?

[Nick]

not lice

bedbugs are not lice. they are worse and harder to get rid of.

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/TOPIC_Lice_and_Bedbugs

I thought the "prepare for boarding" icon would be appropriate.

[Tsu Dho Nimh]

Just a common bug

Herman ... no. It's the common bedbug (Cimex lectularius).

The trend to elaborate beds - piles of pillows, canopies, draperies and other foo-foo decor provides them with plenty of places to hide out between meals on the unknowing host. They LOVE cluttered areas.

They aren't hard to kill, but you have to be persistent and thorough. And hope the infestation is not coming from a near-by apartment.

[Daniel B.]

Bed Bugs

I remember distinctly a short story I read back in secondary school. It was about some rare kind of "bed bug" (actually, some type of geese-infesting parasite) that lived in a geese-feather pillow. It sucks so much blood from its host that the bug kills her. I was 12 at the time, and got very, very scared about these type of pillows.

1 year later, my dad bought geese-feather pillows; and of course I didn't use them. Then, some time later my cousin went on a week-long visit and *also* avoided these pillows. Guess what: she read the same short story.

Heh. So reading now about bed bug infestations tells me that maybe we weren't so crazy after all ;)

PD: The IT angle is ITCH.