This conversation at Astorians is about a bed bug encounter at a NYC movie theater.
The question is not, are there bed bugs in NYC movie theaters?
Because the answer to that one is yes, of course. (Silly!)
And if the thought of safety in your favorite theater or in neighborhood-X-that-is-not-Astoria crossed your mind… sorry!
The interesting question is, should we wear leather outfits?
There are no known repellents that work to my knowledge.
Bringing any kind of contact-killing spray to the theater is likely going to get you interrogated in a tiny room and, more important, if you actually see bed bugs around your seat, I don’t imagine you are going to stick around to try to kill them?
Tactile inspections are not likely to work either—there is so much dirt and debris on seats, in their seams and undersides and around them for this to be of much help. Plus, most of us are not skilled at bed bug inspection.
So, in a movie theater, we may get bed bug bites. If we’re lucky, we’ll get them before the third act. That way the bed bug, satiated and no longer attracted to us, in fact slightly repelled, will amble off to its hiding spot and leave us alone well before it’s time to gather our coats from under that pile in the next seat.
It gets complicated if there are lots of bed bugs. If, in fact, the bed bug population in your favorite movie seat is ready for new adventures. Or just clumsy. In that case, all bets are off.
So, perhaps you need to select washable attire for movie-going and isolate your clothing (and shoes) upon returning home. Into a hot wash and dry as soon as possible and problem solved. Don’t bring a backpack or handbag or shopping bags and you’re set.
Of course, your friends and family, those innocents who have not yet had bed bugs at home, are unlikely to take such precautions. And your downstairs neighbors? Your teenage kids?
What do you think, we may as well go to the movies? Some of us won’t be able to stay away no matter what unhappy bed bug experiences we’ve already had. We may get bites. We may get bed bugs. C’est la guerre.
We could, of course, call these our fellow New York citizens and ask them to create a plan to control bed bug infestations in our city. Just saying. We can be poor in these uncertain times, but do we have to have bed bugs, too?
These pages may be of related interest:
Just brought an adult bed bug back with me from the Sunshine theater on Houston street — not surprising considering how bad the problem is in the east village. Luckily found it (still hungry) on the outside of my shirt on the way home.
Oh no, that is terrible. I am so sorry! Good for you and your instincts and eyesight!
The bed bugs at the movies situation is sad because the management may not discover the infestation until someone who is allergic to the bites complains, and then imagine how expensive it is to treat such locations. For theaters and restaurants this has to be extremely challenging, and it is difficult to treat such locations too.
I’m so sorry this happened to you. They like to tell us that actually getting a hitchhiker from an infested seat doesn’t happen all the time, because the bed bugs will feed and go back to their hiding sites after feeding. But clearly, they got to the theater somehow, with someone and/or their stuff, so hitchhiking is within the repertoire of their behavior and it will happen.
News story about bed bugs in a Brooklyn theater.