New York vs Bed Bugs

NEW – 2/5/10: the NYC Department of Health has published a new bed bug guide.

New York vs Bed Bugs is a project started by a small group of New Yorkers who are bed bug sufferers or former sufferers. We had a simple goal: we wanted our city to achieve control of the spread of bed bug infestations. 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.

The New York City Bed Bug Advisory Board has been convened. Please see the local law (PDF) which created the board and the Mayor’s March 2009 statement upon signing the legislation. A report is expected in April 2010.

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 advocate a city-wide bed bug control plan and we believe that bed bug control policies can be modeled on the plans and strategies in development or already adopted in other cities.

Using the site

Your first stop and best bet should be the resources page. We have collected various policy documents, regulations, best practice resources and many useful links (including NYC landlord/tenant resources and links) and we are always searching for emerging policies and strategies to highlight. Please contact us if you can’t find what you’re looking for.

The site is organized by blog entries; there is a selected site index and a category and date archive. The purpose of the blog has been to engage 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:

• The spread of bed bugs in buildings
• Some unsolicited advice for a NYC co-op
• Research on desiccant dusts
• An example of the bed bug resources being developed in other cities
• A glimpse into how other public health departments are showing leadership
• The surprising news (to us) that bed bugs were on an obscure list of pests of significant public health importance all along

Note: if the site search does not work well for your search, you may want to try instead, in your search engine of choice, site:newyorkvsbedbugs.org cimex — replacing “cimex” with whatever you are looking for.