The NYC Health Department announced at last Wednesday’s press conference that 6.7% (of adult residents) answered yes.

Despite the bad news, it is exciting to have this question included in the city’s health survey for the first time.

Not that there are no problems with this question. Does it not exhibit an anxiety about confirmation in its chosen proxy of professional pest control services? As there are problems, perhaps, with some of the alternatives one can think of. There must be an art to this and the Health Department, with its public health tracking expertise, may have wanted to distinguish actual infestations from unconfirmed or suspected situations. And yet, how many people self-treat? Out of necessity or preference? And how? Are they successful, with or without an exterminator? (The exterminator word, though deprecated in favor of pest management professional, is well chosen here.)

I hope this question is tweaked in the years to come.

In any case, 6.7% is high, higher than I thought/guessed based on a consideration of what the under-reporting rate might be.¹

Survey data is not yet available but will be posted at the city’s environmental health tracking portal and at the yet to be realized bed bug portal.

This is the first in a series of posts wrapping up recent developments. It is not a full return of the blog.

1. In the only other comparable survey I remember, the Spring 2008 Greater Cincinnati Health Survey’s question was “In the past year, have you experienced a problem with bed bugs in your home or apartment?” The rate was 7.9% in Hamilton County and 14.5% in the City of Cincinnati. [↩]