New York vs Bed Bugs

In a surprise development, on July 28 the New York City Council and Mayor’s office released the report of the New York City Bed Bug Advisory Board and announced the funding of certain educational components of the board’s recommendations. We at New York vs Bed Bugs are extremely relieved — and hopeful. To be updated. For now, you can download the report: New York City Bed Bug Advisory Board Report (April 2010) (PDF).

New York vs Bed Bugs was started by a small group of New Yorkers who were bed bug sufferers or former sufferers. The impetus for this project was the belief that New York City could act to protect its citizens—and its businesses—from the health effects, productivity drain, and staggering financial consequences of bed bug infestations. We advocated a city-wide bed bug control plan and we believed that bed bug control policies can be modeled on the plans and strategies in development or already adopted in other cities.

In March 2008, we started a campaign for a bed bug task force. In February 2009, the New York City Council held a hearing on various legislation proposals, including the original bed bug task force bill (PDF) sponsored by Council Member Gale Brewer in 2006.

Thanks to Council Member Brewer’s sustained efforts over the past several years, the New York City Bed Bug Advisory Board was convened. Please see the local law (PDF) which created the board and the Mayor’s March 2009 statement upon signing the legislation.

The bed bug advisory board completed its work and submitted its recommendations on April 1, 2010. The report has not been released to the public.

Our efforts have ended.

Using the site

Your first stop and best bet should be the resources page (see the NYC page for an overview of what’s available here). We collected various policy documents, regulations, best practice resources and many useful links (including NYC landlord/tenant resources and links)—we were always searching for emerging policies and strategies to highlight.

There is a selected site index and a category and date archive. The purpose of the blog was to engage in a public conversation about the issues and challenges: to highlight the public health interest, bed bug research, the history of bed bugs, the available statistics, and the strategy roadmaps in other cities.

For example:

Finally, while posting here has ceased, you can see an RSS feed of bed bug-related links/articles maintained by New York vs Bed Bugs as a reading list.

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