Feb 17, 2009 7:17 pm US/Eastern
Despite Task Force, NYC Bedbug Complaints Way Up
A Year Ago, The Bloomberg Administration Was Out To Stop Problem; A Year Later, 311 Hit 34 Percent More
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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The tiny menaces are making a record number of New Yorkers miserable and it appears Mayor Bloomberg is powerless to prevent the onslaught.
The Big Apple's bedbug menace is getting worse.
Back in January of 2008, New York City announced it was creating a bedbug task force to help deal with the problem and help educate residents on how to avoid an infestation. The task force was put together after NYC received 7,000 complaints in 2007.
However, an advocacy group said Tuesday there were more than 9,200 bedbug complaints to the city's 311 line in 2008, a 34-percent jump over the year before.
The group, called New York vs. Bedbugs, obtained records from the city through a Freedom of Information request.
The data shows the hardest hit areas include central Brooklyn, northern and eastern Bronx, Midtown Manhattan, a section of eastern Queens, and the north shore of Staten Island.
The scourge is nearly impossible to eradicate. The tiny creatures can go a year without feeding, they reproduce rapidly and don't die easily. Most bed bugs spend their lives inactive just waiting to feed, but when they sense heat, such as human body heat nearby, that's when they start moving around looking for blood. If you happen to sleep tight where the bedbugs bite, you may then inadvertently bring them with you wherever you go.
Signs of bedbug infestation include pepper-like spots of fecal matter, specks of dried blood on bedsheets, and of course, the bites.
A City Council hearing is scheduled for next week on bills that would ban the sale of used mattresses, train exterminators to handle bedbugs, and force city agencies to develop a united strategy.
(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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