The Daily Commuter has pics of the new subway ad for a mattress encasement company. Featuring three adult bed bugs.
Sadly, this is noteworthy. Finally. A picture of a bed bug in the subway. (But you just know people are going to think bed bugs are all about mattresses.)
Instead of PSAs, we have ads.
Which means we need PSAs more than ever.
But will we ever get them?
By the way, I know that, like the Daily Commuter, you’re thinking back to May, to that inimitable New York Post headline.
The debate over whether there are bed bugs in the subway is so tedious—much more interesting to see what history has to say about the possibility.
Let’s try 1948. A Scottish mystery.
From Time:
A baffling epidemic in Dundee was reported in the same issue of the Lancet. Women were turning up at doctors’ offices suffering from bullous erythema (reddish blisters) on their legs. The doctors wondered: Was it due to chemical burns? To a new skin disease? Dr. John Kinnear, of the Dundee Royal Infirmary, discovered and pondered the fact that all the women had been riding the same tram line. Dr. Kinnear inspected and confirmed a suspicion: bedbugs.
I think this is the journal article (but I don’t have access to it): doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(48)90447-4.
When normally even-keeled people start to show signs of despair.
Courage, Billy Mac. Please. You’ll scare the kids.
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?
Frank Andorka, editorial director of Pest Management Professional, had this tidbit on his blog today:
At the State Association Leaders session this morning, Scott Steckel, president of this fine company and president of this organization did a great job of explaining how important it is for state associations to get into the bed bug fight so states don’t pass legislation that inhibits your ability to do your job. He diagnosed part of the problem as a battle between most state Departments of Health and Agriculture (in an attempt to keep high levels in a time of budget crunches).
Yeah, inside baseball…
Still, we’re paying attention—with something like envy because our own lawmakers in New York, for the most part, aren’t even interested in bed bugs, much less engaged in a “bed bug fight” with any interests! See, that would be a good problem to have.
I’m sure once they think about it carefully, they’ll realize that there is only one right side for the pest control industry in this fight. In these times of rampant bed bugs and just a bad situation that is becoming worse by the day for so many bed bug sufferers? Only one side!
New York County Civil Court at 111 Centre Street
There was a bed bug infestation, now eradicated, at the Resource Center at New York County Housing Court.
Our source tells us that two court regulars, a pro se attorney and a tenant advocate, separately mentioned this in conversation, matter-of-factly. Neither the Housing Part Supervisor nor the Deputy County Clerk’s office would confirm or deny when we called.
An enterprising journalist should report on the rise in bed bug housing court cases, interview regular people who are struggling. We would like to know their stories, not just read the press releases of high-profile cases.
Have there been bed bugs where you work? How were they handled? And, more important, are they gone?
When I can’t sleep I think about how many New Yorkers are up at this hour because of bed bugs. Afraid to go to bed, or unable to sleep. Flashlight in hand, searching, always searching for bed bugs, for signs. Or perhaps they’ve graduated from the flashlight to the cutting edge, an LED headlamp. Serious tools for a sorrowful job—paid for with plastic of course, along with plastic bags, plastic bins, plastic everything. Some sectors of the economy are getting a stimulus…
Maybe they’re deep into 40-plus tabs of an internet maze, looking for the killer tips, hesitating before the bed bug potions that seem almost plausible at this hour, reading sad bed bug stories in order to feel less alone.
If you’ve never had bed bugs, can you understand what this means? Somehow, I hope the answer to that question is yes.
This is what I’ve been reading lately, perhaps it may help illuminate what it’s like, if you’re lucky enough to be visiting us in a context that is not personal:
- Nina Paley – the ordeal of having bed bugs during the festival circuit of her acclaimed animated film, Sita Sings the Blues, I can’t even imagine…
- Unlucky in Bugs – a New Yorker coping bravely and documenting the process step-by-step… it will be sweet when success comes!
Oh and as a bonus, here’s one fabulous New Yorker who really, really gets it, as well you might if you knew a dozen people who’ve been personally affected and, not insignificantly, if you’d lived in Greenpoint. (And do yourself a favor and don’t miss Mangy’s photos.)
As for New Yorkers who don’t get it? Wouldn’t it be fun to name them? Maybe we will, some day.
