East Village Special

May 23, 2005 7:42 AM

We hadn’t seen bedbugs in New York in sixty years. Then, all of a sudden, bingo. Cockroach-colored, and when full grown about the size of an apple seed, a bedbug sucks blood through a mosquito-like proboscis after injecting an anesthetic that keeps the sleeping victim from reacting before the meal gets under way.
posted by R. Mutt (40 comments total)

"Good night; sleep tight; don't let the bedbugs bite."

Those were always my grandmother's goodnight words to us in the Fifties when we spent the night at her house, on those days some of us may have had the German measles and had to stay clear from our pregnant mother...

It's a bug-eat-man world.
posted by kozad at 7:51 AM on May 23, 2005

My roomate came back from a trip abroad covered in bites. I made her fumigate all her stuff twice before I let her back in the house. Those things are evil.
posted by fshgrl at 7:57 AM on May 23, 2005

FYI
The "sleep tight" refers to having tight ropes that once held the matress in the frame. If they sagged they hit the floor and the bugs got ya.
posted by johnj at 8:03 AM on May 23, 2005

I've had bedbugs before.

My bedroom was directly under a vent that led into the attic of our house. As it turns out, there were about 60-80 bats roosting in the attic, and they brought the bedbugs with them. (This house is in the middle of the woods in rural Georgia.)

It was pretty interesting to see the roosting bats; little mouse-like fuzzy ovals packed side by side as neatly as you could ask for, sound asleep in the middle of the day. We called a wildlife relocation service, who then put a one-way funnel over the bats' entry and exit point; after that night when the bats went out to hunt, they never came back.

The bedbugs were gone almost immediately, and never returned.

Now, it's not like my bed was infested - there were perhaps two or three bedbugs at any given time (or so I suppose) as I had only a very few bites, and almost never saw a live bedbug. Stripping the bed and checking it thoroughly would usually turn up nothing. One interesting thing about bedbugs: They put off a noxious odor when you crunch one and kill it. The smell is similar to a grandaddy longlegs when one of their legs pops out.

To put the size in perspective, they're pretty small; about the size of a ladybug.

So, there. My bedbug story.
posted by Floach at 8:06 AM on May 23, 2005

Bring back the DDT, Mayor Bloomberg. Thank you.
posted by nervousfritz at 8:18 AM on May 23, 2005

Interesting facts about bedbugs:

Bedbugs are interesting critters with a wild sex life. Male bedbugs of Cimex lectularius have been reported to fuck everything in sight, several times a day: females, males, other species, and pieces of cork shaped like bedbugs.

And sex is not exactly fun for the female bedbug: while the female has a functional reproductive tract, the male prefer to pierce her abdomen and inject his semen in her body cavity, usually injuring his partner (don't worry for the sperm: they just swim to the ovaries). The evolutionary aspects of this bizarre behaviour have been much discussed recently.
posted by elgilito at 8:29 AM on May 23, 2005 [1 favorite]

if on 13th street, this could be the same 4BR my girlfriend had to leave on account of the bedbugs, they tried everything, including legal action against the landlord, but in reality you have to nearly gut a building to *eradicate* these bugs so she and her rommates settled for cash and a broken lease.
posted by subpixel at 8:30 AM on May 23, 2005

I. Hate. Bedbugs.

I've had to deal with these horrible little creatures three times. Always while "backpacking", that is, staying at youth hostels. Two trips, three seperate, different infestations. And yes, they are infestations.

The room you're staying in doesn't necessarily have to be dirty, as all that is needed for bedbugs is people and a place to hide at night. These guys can hide ANYWHERE. You know the seams that run along the edges of a mattress? They usually have a white nylon material that goes all around the top and bottom edges of a mattress? Those little bastards hid in there, among other places. In your backpack or luggage you have very similar seams. Bedbugs love to go in there. It's a good idea to check under the bed or inbetween the bed and the wall for dead bedbugs or their blonde shedded skins. They are repulsive and horrible.

You know you've been rocked by bedbugs in the morning. If you're lucky, you'll catch one scurrying away. They hate the light. If one has been under you, in the nice darkness, and you suddenly turn over and make him realize that it's daytime already, they get the hell out of there like a backdoor man when a husband comes home.

You might find a little spot of blood on your sheet. They leave series of bites on your skin. Usually about 3-5. This is because bedbugs are rather primitive and never developed anti-coagulating agents to put in the areas they bite you in. So they bite, feed as much as they can until it dries up, move a few steps forward, and try again.

Bedbug bites are so goddamn itchy. They are way worse than mosquito bites, although they swell less. Also, on a good night, you can get like 15 bites. The next night, despite countermeasures, you may get 15 more. So you, a very lucky person, get to scratch 30 bites or more. Yay!

If you get them, move to a new hotel immediately. This is not always possible. Maybe you're only in town for one or two nights. Maybe all the hostels in town are totally full. Maybe all the people you're traveling with are in your hostel and they don't have bedbugs in your room. Whether you move or stay you have to get a spray bottle of poison. I prefer the ones that are hypo-allergenic and scent-free. Spray your entire bag/luggage with poison and then poison the area around the bag on the floor. Next, poison your whole entire bed. Yes, you must sleep in poison. Otherwise, you will NEVER get rid of those damn bugs. You will have them for days and days and even weeks. You have to keep poisoning even when you think they're gone. I had a situation where the adult bedbugs must have laid their precious little eggs in my bag because I was getting mystery bedbug bites like a week later. The guys were so small that I never saw them. A few more days of spraying and they were gone.

Fuck bedbugs.
posted by redteam at 8:31 AM on May 23, 2005

Is a swarm of bedbugs one of the signs of the apocalypse?
posted by psmealey at 8:31 AM on May 23, 2005

besides itchy, annoying bites, is there anything really dangerous about these guys? do they transmit west nile virus or any other life threatening illness?
posted by spicynuts at 8:56 AM on May 23, 2005

Encountered them once while travelling abroad. They leave neat little rows of marks on you: it's almost like they're trying to communicate.

They didn't seem to stick around: after I moved hotel didn't have any trouble again, though I didn't do anything except normal washing. I don't think they're as tenacious as fleas, for instance.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 9:32 AM on May 23, 2005

spicy: according to the linked article, no.

But, since bedbugs can hide in clothing, they are 'communicable', causing people to become outcasts incapable of getting laid! :P
posted by delmoi at 9:35 AM on May 23, 2005

I've heard that most hotels have them--even expensive ones--normal cleaning doesn't get rid of them at all.

kozad: my grandma would say, "Go threaten the bedbugs" (in Yiddish and English) when she wanted us to go to bed. : >
posted by amberglow at 9:38 AM on May 23, 2005

Parasites in New York? No way!
posted by clevershark at 9:46 AM on May 23, 2005

Parasites in New York? No way!

No, no. What's notable about these is their lack of a three-piece suite.
posted by MikeKD at 10:02 AM on May 23, 2005

Mean Old Bed Bug Blues
posted by horsemuth at 10:16 AM on May 23, 2005

MikeKD writes "No, no. What's notable about these is their lack of a three-piece suite."

Lawyers still wear three-piece suits? :-)

Between the insect parasites and the human ones, it's enough to keep one out of the Big Apple...
posted by clevershark at 10:25 AM on May 23, 2005

it's enough to keep one out of the Big Apple

Excellent ... now maybe the rent will drop.
posted by R. Mutt at 10:32 AM on May 23, 2005

You're tellin' me... I used to pay almost $2k/month for a fairly large place in Hoboken... in Montreal I pay less than $750 (CDN) for an admittedly smaller place.
posted by clevershark at 10:46 AM on May 23, 2005

You're tellin' me... I used to pay almost $2k/month for a fairly large place in Hoboken... in Montreal I pay less than $750 (CDN) for an admittedly smaller place.

Yeah, but can you get a decent slice of pizza? I don't think so. Plus, how the hell do you say 'don't let the bedbugs bite' in French? I think you got a raw deal.
posted by spicynuts at 10:49 AM on May 23, 2005

Montreal has excellent food of all kinds and it's 1/2 anglophone.
posted by jb at 11:06 AM on May 23, 2005

I have to say that I was pretty blessed in Hoboken AFA pizza was concerned. Still, here I'm literally on the edge of Chinatown and a short walk away from St-Denis, so I can't complain about the food :-)
posted by clevershark at 11:08 AM on May 23, 2005

Also as of April 15th I'm done paying taxes to Emperor George. That can only be a positive development.
posted by clevershark at 11:11 AM on May 23, 2005

Boy, I got out of NYC just in time.
posted by languagehat at 11:33 AM on May 23, 2005

If this is NYC, all you have to do is figure out a way to pit the bedbugs against the roaches.
posted by rolypolyman at 11:51 AM on May 23, 2005

Montreal has excellent food of all kinds and it's 1/2 anglophone.

Thanks, jb. I was certainly entirely serious in my contention that nowhere on earth can good pizza be found but in the NYC region.
posted by spicynuts at 11:55 AM on May 23, 2005

Male bedbugs of Cimex lectularius have been reported to fuck everything in sight

so the bedbugs might not only be biting us, but fucking us?
posted by ackeber at 12:05 PM on May 23, 2005

am i only one getting itchy as i read this?
posted by hpsell at 12:15 PM on May 23, 2005

I have to say that I was pretty blessed in Hoboken AFA pizza was concerned

Mmm - Hoboken Pizza. Delfino's? 7 Star from down by the park?

(formerly of 2nd and Adams, me)
posted by fixer at 12:52 PM on May 23, 2005

My first trip to Montreal, I asked my colleagues where I might find a good restaurant. They had the same blank look on their faces that one would expect asking that question in Dry Creek, OK--but for a different reason.

How can you not find a good restaurant in Montreal, they asked--and each suggested a few places based on where I was staying (which was in walking distance of Rue St. Denis). As much as I like NYC pizza (or its tolerable cousins in Philly and Chicago), I never once missed pizza in Montreal.

And in twentyfive years of traveling US, Canada, and Europe--no bedbug experiences yet.
posted by beelzbubba at 2:14 PM on May 23, 2005

Am I the only person wondering why there apparently hasn't been a bedbug problem in NYC and now all of a sudden there's apparently a major bedbug problem? Or has this been going on all along, and suddenly it's gotten really dire?
posted by alumshubby at 2:30 PM on May 23, 2005

fixer writes "Mmm - Hoboken Pizza. Delfino's? 7 Star from down by the park?"

That's not a bad place, but I was closer to Molfetta (Wash & 12th). Probably got 1/3 of meals from that place when I lived in Hoboken. Their veggie pizza kicks ass.
posted by clevershark at 2:32 PM on May 23, 2005

If this is NYC, all you have to do is figure out a way to pit the bedbugs against the roaches.

Word.
posted by Firas at 2:57 PM on May 23, 2005 [1 favorite]

No - no you're not.

Why do I always read these threads, why god why?!!!
posted by Space Kitty at 3:12 PM on May 23, 2005

Interesting article from the CDC about the resurgence of bedbugs in urban environments (.pdf file - including some pictures of the nasty little beasties).

Bottom line, no one knows why there is a resurgence, though some thing increased world travel and reluctance to use toxic chemicals may have something to do with it.
posted by jasper411 at 3:33 PM on May 23, 2005

I don't believe they're not a disease vector. Lice, fleas and mosquitos are, why not bedbugs? Please explain.
posted by davy at 9:52 PM on May 23, 2005

jasper411, now I see one reason why even big fearsome ex-con-looking homeless guys often sleep outside even in bad weather instead of going to shelters. I had thought bedbugs were a rare antiquity.

Then of course there'd be lice, scabies, ass-rapers, snorers, crackheads, thieves, those who forgot what soap is, entrapping snitches, violent wackos, penintent missionaries... OY. It's enough to make me camp out in an alley, where all I'd have to worry about would be bum-rollers, cops and hungry rats.
posted by davy at 10:08 PM on May 23, 2005

If you get them, move to a new hotel immediately.

But before you check into the new place, please disinfest yourself & your luggage.

/hates the wee Armageddon-resistant f*ckers too.
posted by romakimmy at 6:07 AM on May 24, 2005

OK, I don't know if this would help, but back in my (non-US) Army days, pretty much every barracks had bedbugs. The easiest solution I've heard of was to brush some petrol or diesel on the "borders" of the beds, i.e. whatever the bugs may use to climb up to a bed. Typically that meant pulling the bed so it wasn't flush with the wall and "painting" an inch-wide strip of diesel on the lower bed posts.
posted by costas at 6:51 AM on May 24, 2005

"I don't believe they're not a disease vector. Lice, fleas and mosquitos are, why not bedbugs? Please explain."

A complete uninformed guess, but the article says that bedbugs don't inject any anticoagulants. I think that lice, fleas, and mosquitos do—and mosquitos inject an anesthetic, too. That it's one-way and not two-way probably makes a really big difference. The other link says they are a disease vector, as you would expect there to be some transmission of pathogens. But I bet the first articles assertion that they're not really means that they're not, relatively speaking, significant vectors for disease.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 7:32 AM on May 24, 2005