Bugs and the City: Bedbugs are taking over Manhattan

By Kira Semmler Aug 5, 2010, 8:14 GMT

New York - They became TV celebrities after overpopulating parts of the Big Apple and now blood-sucking bedbugs are on their way to their next target: the city's shops and stores.

The higher profile the bloodsucking parasites are enjoying in New York's media has nothing to do with the huge popularity of the vampire series of films The Twilight Saga. Although they are hardly visible in North America's biggest city, bedbugs are ever present and have taken over New York.

Bedbugs are active at night, leaving their hiding places to home in on body warmth or carbon dioxide to reach their victims. They feed on human blood and feel most at home in beds. After piercing the skin, their bite leaves a small mark and an itchy feeling.

But New York's bedbugs are on the move and are invading the city's shops. Three stores were forced to close for several days recently in order to get rid of the pest. The first closure was in SoHo where clothes shop Hollister shut down. A short time later a branch of Abercrombie & Fitch was affected. Then a lingerie business was forced to turn customers away because of bedbugs.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the president of Abercrombie & Fitch, Michael S Jeffries, asked New York's mayor, Michael Bloomberg, for 'leadership and guidance' in the matter. The city authority responded by saying it was a matter for the clothing company to battle the pest. But New York's authorities are not ignoring the problem. In March last year the mayor set up an advisory group to deal with the bedbug problem.

If you watch TV in the evening in New York it is not uncommon to see advertisements for insect exterminators pledging to rid their customers of any infestation. The insect has also become the subject matter of TV shows. In one episode of the sitcom 30 Rock, the bedbug-infested character Jack Donaghy is refused transport by a taxi driver and is forced to take an underground train. On board the train the other passengers recoil in horror when Donaghy utters the line: 'My name is Jack Donaghy and I have bedbugs.'

Bedbugs are often transmitted from one host to the next via clothing. Large crowds of people are one place where they make the jump. Transporting an old and new bed mattress in a car at the same time provides another opportunity for the insect to explore new territory.

Experts recommend packing an infested mattress in an airtight bag and placing it in the sunshine for as long as possible. Infested bed sheets should be washed in hot water, and duvets and pillows put in a vacuum bag if they cannot be placed in a washing machine.

But for the New Yorkers who are dealing with the problem, having the insect at home gives added meaning to the nursery rhyme 'Good night, sleep tight. Don't let the bedbugs bite.'