Bedbugs Are Bugging New York City Again

When New York City was the great cauldron of immigration, thousands of people arrived there in over crowded ships having little or no sanitation. Bedbugs thrived in these conditions and were accepted as a fact of life, a little like mosquitoes. If you had them, you did what you could to rid yourself of them, but bedbugs were common. Health department regulations along with better sanitation, all but made bedbugs a memory. Until recently that is. Bedbugs are still a problem in other countries and that is proving to be a springboard to problems in the United States again. International travel, used furniture sales and lack of stronger insecticides are thought to be the cause of this re-infestation of bedbugs. Bedbugs hide in mattresses and dark crevices of furniture. They come out at night and feast on peoples blood. At present, no known diseases are transmitted by bedbugs but research will eventually discover their danger. They can wake people at night as they crawl over the skin to find a good place to suck blood. Itchy welts are usually signs of infestation.

An old and very toxic to humans and dangerous remedy for bedbugs is to spray the offending mattress set with gasoline or kerosene. Do not do this. In general, if you have an infestation, throw your mattress set out. Please take a waterproof marker and write directly on the mattress and boxspring "Bedbugs" so no one else picks your trash or recycles your infested bedding.