“NEW YORK THIS SUMMER HAD PLAGUE OF BEDBUGS,” the St. Petersburg Times, October 10, 1944:
New Yorkers suffered not only from heat and humidity this summer—the city had a plague of bedbugs. Congested areas all over the country had the same complaint.
The 1944 season was hailed as one of “the worst” to date by the insects’ victims; one of “the best” by the dozens of exterminating companies that rushed to their rescue.
The Sameth Exterminating Company, Inc., one of the largest in the metropolitan area, reported calls averaging 120 a day during the height of the heat—not including contract customers such as hotels, theatres and warehouses.
There is a familiar diagnosis:
One of the main drawbacks in combating the pests, exterminators say, is that many people are ashamed to admit their presence.
“They think bedbugs are a disgrace,” one exterminator said, “but anybody can pick them up anywhere—in theatres, subways, busses, trains. The thing to do is get rid of them and then forget it.”
The exterminators agree that there is no sure way of preventing bedbugs.
And a working bed bug savvy meter:
[A]ny exterminator who walks into a house and sees a lot of coats lying across a bed will throw up his hands in horror.
“That’s practically planting the bugs,” they shudder.
And then a simple and reasonable hope, or perhaps the DDT PR machine of 1944:
A rosy post-war future for bedbug victims is predicted when the use of DDT (dichloro diphenyl tricholoroethane) becomes general. Department of agriculture experiments have shown that a surface sprayed with this chemical, now reserved for military use, will remain toxic for 300 days.
I’m not sure what happened to the Sameth Exterminating Company. They practically founded the city’s first industry association. In 1905, Nathan Sameth started Rat-Catchers of New York, a social club of sorts; later, “with reservations” according to Dr. Robert Snetsinger in The Ratcatcher’s Child: The History of the Pest Control Industry, they became the New York Vermin Exterminators Association. New York Vermin Exterminators Association is a fabulous name. It was predictably downhill from there, as far as names, and by 1939 they were called simply the New York Pest Control Association.
Re Sameth Exterminating Co.
I’m looking at a name plate on my desk that belonged tomy Dad: J.I. Cutler that sat on his desk at Sameth for more than 25 years. I loved visiting the office at 200 fifth Ave. every once in a while on Saturday morning when my Dad did his paperwork. He was an outside salesman with many large and famous customers, such as Sunshine Buiscuit, Baraccini Chocolate and the 1939 New York Worlds Fair. Nat Fremed, Sameth’s chemist had a display cabinet in his office of all the specimens of insects, rodentia etc. It kept me busy while Dad did his work. Than as a special treat we might go to the Aldine Club for lunch. Then to a Yankee game, ( the Lou Gherig Yankees.), the Circus, the N.Y. Aquarium or perhaps a Broadway Matinee, one of which I remember was Porgy and Bess. Sameth was a lifesaver to us as it was a job during the Great Depression.
Mr. Cutler, thank you so much for your comment and reminiscences. I so appreciate it.
Very best wishes,
Renee
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