Bed Bugs In New York City
New York City is home to just about everything and bed bugs are no exception. The sprawling urban environment with its numerous housing projects, hotels, condos and office buildings make the Big Apple a bed bug paradise. In this concrete jungle are millions of cracks, crevices, dank corners and dark spaces between floorboards that make ideal hiding spots for the infamous Cimex Lectularius (bed bugs). New York is also a major international city with thousands of worldwide travelers arriving and departing each day with luggage, clothing and accessories that make perfect vehicles for bed bugs to hitch a ride.
During the 1940’s bed bugs were common and annoying pests in Manhattan. World War Two created a perfect storm for bed bugs to thrive in with hundreds of thousands of GI’s returning from Europe and Asia with a wide variety of foreign insects and bacteria piggy-backing on their bodies and belongings. When the baby boom began living space in the city was cramped at best and suffocating at worst. Bed bugs multiplied by the millions and were causing panic and insomnia in many residents.
Pest control experts then instituted a plan to eliminate bed bugs, and many other common insects, by spraying the synthetic pesticide DDT anywhere and everywhere. DDT was successful in killing bed bugs but the side effects of the chemical had disastrous consequences for adults, children and infants, in some cases causing deformity and even death. In the 1950’s DDT was banned due to the health hazards it caused and without the spray insects were again free to breed and nest.
However, DDT was so widely used during a roughly 10-year period that most believed the bed bug problem was eradicated. Reports of the insects diminished to nothing and city officials were confident the problem was solved. But nature has a funny way of being patient and during the past several decades experts have come to discover that bed bugs did not disappear, rather they regrouped, built up a natural resistance to chemicals and pesticides and are now again infesting many New York City homes, apartments, condos, office buildings and hotels. Where they came from and how they got back is still up for debate but the problem is real and Manhattan is again issuing public health warnings concerning the resurgence of bed bugs. In 2008 alone over 9,200 complaints were filed with the city regarding bed bugs and experts agree that as high as that number is it is only the tip of the iceberg since most bed bug infestations go unreported due to the bad publicity it attracts.
Now, almost 70 years after the first invasion bed bugs are back in force and with their natural immunity to modern day chemicals and pesticide gels are turning New York City into a battleground between insects and pest control technicians. Tiny, mostly nocturnal and extremely evasive bed bugs are public enemy #1 when it comes to Manhattan pests and without the use of DDT pest control experts are forced to develop new strategies for inspecting, detecting and exterminating bed bugs.