Another Reason the New York City Never Sleeps: More Bedbugs

The New York Times reports:

New York City is experiencing a dramatic resurgence in bedbugs — those pesky oval insects that hide in the crevices of furniture and feast on human blood at night — and officials are confounded about how best to respond.

Moreover, city officials revealed yesterday that state regulators had failed to publish standards for sanitizing used mattresses and box springs before they can be resold — even though such standards were supposed to be developed years ago. The proliferation of secondhand furniture is believed to be one factor in the rise in bedbug infestations.

Although bedbugs are not considered a major health threat because they do not transmit disease, they can cause itchy welts and often require expensive exterminations. In the last fiscal year, the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development received 4,638 complaints about bedbugs in rental housing — nearly five times as many as in the previous year.

At a City Council hearing yesterday on the issue, entomologists and exterminators said that bedbugs have been proliferating at levels not seen in decades. The cause of the resurgence is not certain, but experts have speculated that increased international travel, a recent ban on powerful pesticides and the market in used furniture have been factors.

The diminishing returns to condensed living.