How can there be bed bugs in buses, in offices, in, if I remember correctly, a judge’s chamber?

Also, as a general rule, it’s not a good idea to underestimate bed bugs. I know I’m always careful not to.

And it’s wrong to posit two scenarios, one of minimum awareness, and another of “panic” — there can be a third way for school officials and parents alike, and that is, for lack of a better word, competence and diligence.

Finally, I know you write about this a lot, what is with NYC and the requirement that teachers bag specimens? Quite a responsibility.

“Bed bugs are principally active in the dark (except in cases of heavy infestations–which would not be the case with the occasional, stealth introduction to a classroom). After dark they need a reliable source of blood to sustain a population and spread. Since people generally do not sleep in classrooms (with possible exception of short afternoon nap times in pre-school rooms), it would be tough going for a bed bug that slipped out of a backpack into a typical classroom from an infested home.”

I really do not understand this.

Bed bugs bite people in their homes at night because those people are sleeping or lying still long enough to be bitten. And yes, they prefer to be active at night.

We know people are also bitten in chairs, while sitting (and awake).

I get that bed bugs would prefer to bite at night, but where is the evidence that a bed bug, once introduced into a school, would encounter (as Merchant puts it) “tough going” (by this, I presume he means they will go hungry).

Who says they would not simply bite someone during daylight, while they sat in a chair? Has anyone ever actually studied whether bed bugs would go hungry rather than shift their schedules?