The Real Estate Bloggers

1 in 10 New Yorkers Have Bed Bugs – Bring Back DDT

Posted: 16 Aug 2010 06:22 PM PDT

Bed_bug If you are traveling to New York City in the near future, beware of the bed bugs. According to a recent survey by the Daily News, 1 in 10 New Yorkers has bed bugs. What is even worse, experts say that only 50 percent of people have a reaction to them. So the problem is probably worse.

CNN was in the news recently after their New York offices were shown to be overrun by these pesky creatures.

Once thought to be gone after an eradication effort in the 1940s through the use of DDT, bed bugs are now back and highly resistant to the chemicals being used to fight them. The scare campaign against DDT in the 1970s has stopped DDT being used in most of the world so do not expect Mayor Bloomberg to start using it, but it would be the smart move.

Of course, using DDT to eradicate mosquitos that kill millions in the 3^rd world from malaria would also be the smart move, but the powers that be still think that DDT is more dangerous. But that is another topic altogether.

It will be interesting to see how New York City deals with the bed bugs. Will they be a nuisance gone soon or will they be taking over Manhattan?

A new Daily News-Marist poll suggests that The City That Never Sleeps is probably too busy itching: One in 10 New Yorkers has now battled bedbugs in their home. That’s twice as many as the city estimated were plagued by the pests in 2009.

The poll results suggest that more than 800,000 New Yorkers have had bloodsucking bedbugs crawling in their sheets. “I got all chewed up,” said Margaret Martinez, 61, of the Bronx, one of the 11% of poll respondents who reported having personal run-ins with the tiny bloodthirsty insects.

“I woke up and I had bites all over my arms and my face. I was all swollen,” she said.

From swanky glass lofts to creaky tenement walkups, the plague of parasites appears to have spread fairly evenly across the five boroughs. Via the NY Daily News

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1 in 10 New Yorkers Have Bed Bugs – Bring Back DDT