Bedbugs and neigbors

What sort of restriction would help? Rejecting buyers who travel a lot?

One rule that might make sense would be to require new move-ins who bring their old bedding with them (and maybe all residents) to enclose their mattresses in bug-resistant bags. That would reduce the likelihood of an infestation spreading.

It is my understanding bedbugs are an equal opportunity pest. They love everyone's blood, poor, rich, white, black, Jew, Muslim, kids, nonagenarians, they don't care.

Yeah, it's not the neighbors so much as it is their behavior, like bringing home curbside castaways. Since you can't really enforce any rule against that, I'd mandate that only covered elevators can be used to convey furniture, which requires premeditation and stomps out spontaneous acquisitions. Of course, that only works with doormen buildings....

Does anyone know how the bedbug problem started? I heard it's because the law was changed & the sale of second hand mattresses was allowed.
Bedbugs were problems when my great-grandparents were kids, then the problem disappeared. Why has it re-appeared in the 21st century? Anyone know?

I think it was the ban on DDT and other toxic pesticides. But why it took this long for them to come back - I don't know.

Good thing more people die from malaria than the toxic pesticides that all but eliminated it.

With the gradual and increasing impoverization of the American underclass, i.e., prople making less
than $250,000 year, more people have begun scrounging trash left for pick-up on sidewalks.

You want DDT back? Then say goodbye to birds. The reason we banned DDT was it was leading to extermination of vast numbers of bird species.

Think you can have a diverse eco system that functions without birds? Wrong. They're an essential part of wildlife. Without them you'd have widespread human disease, because they eat so many insects that serve as disease vectors.

Now if you could only get the birds to eat the bedbugs!

Graffiti - you should research the subject. There are two types of uses of DDT. External and internal. DDT in the wild can cause harm to birds. DDT sprayed on internal walls once every 6 months would be 95% effective at destroying malaria carrying mosquitoes. Netting, etc. is only 20-40% effective.

Malaria kills 1 million people a year. But its effects are far more insidious in that it saps the strength and productive capacity of 10s of millions and guarantees them a life of famine, pain and struggle.

it was the rapid increase in international travel that started it this time around. it started in the most expensive hotels in the city, such as the plaza. the bugs most definnitely do not discriminate.

No doubt there's bedbugs in posh hotels, but I doubt the bugs originated with the post clientele. Does anyone know what the original source is?

Interesting debate about DDT. Why can't they invent a chemical to destroy mosquitoes, but not birds?

Because birds eat bugs?

I recall the discussion about bedbugs at 90 West Street downtown. Personally, I think there's something to be said about a building's tenants and propensity for bedbugs. It isn't about class, but I do think there may be a relationship with transiency. How often are people moving in and out, etc.

Another reason is that we've induced hyper natural selection with bed bugs (along with head lice and certain bacteria) that make them much more resistant to treatments that would have killed them off have a century ago. I can't remember where I read it but I can dig it up, but the average layer of wax surrounding a nit these days is 3 times thicker than it was. Gross, huh.

This seems to be now in offices making you wonder about coworkers.