Every day we are reading now about bedbugs. To some, an esoteric concept; to others, a reality they wish would be just a concept. Something they never had to deal with or think about. Or even read about.
And we are threatened with reading more and more about them, as the battle to get rid of them is being lost. As we are finding out, many sprays do not work; they are good at developing a resistance to chemicals.
In New York City, they have evolved to take over the niche of the once ubiquitous cockroach. These former insects were once public enemy #1 in our apartments, now they are starting to be welcomed as they are known to be enemies of the bedbugs. What an irony.
Soon, though, the cockroach may be gone from the Big Apple; the much smaller bedbug has usurped their role and is here to stay, it would seem. From Manhattan to the Hamptons, as noted so well in the
New York Post on 9 July, they are biting us and sucking our life fluids out while we sleep; if at all we are able to do that, as in some places the infestations have reached such a point that people toss and turn all night as they feel these creatures crawling on them with impunity.
And so we complaining, and journalists write a note or two in the papers; more often, it seems, when the rich and famous are the ones who suffer, as was the case with the
Post article. The
hoi polloi do not get merit a full page as did the model and her family did.
Which is a shame - because this is a plague about to happen. Yesterday in the
Metro as much was said by an anonymous writer, who noted their presence in the home, the theatre, the booktore, the library, the clothing shop - the list went and on.
This week and last I have spent my time alerting city authorities and the press about a building that houses up to two million bedbugs, which it has had, according to the manager and occupants, for about ten years. This year all parties agree is the worst ever, not surprising, as New York is in the grip of a heat wave and these buggers like it hot. I specifically metioned the danger of having so many in a hotel with over 100 rooms, and that each room had up to 300 in day. Collected in one jar of alcohol are 3,500, all gathered in the space of three months in one room. Other evidence, such as sheets stained with blood and tell-tale marks of their droppings, was offered to journalists. But they did not care. They took lots of time lately to tell us of the likes of Lindsay Lohan, her trip to France and her trip to jail, but for the citizens of the US and the residents of New York City, they did nothing. Calls and emails to the
Post and the
New York Daily Mail were a waste of time.
So I am writing to everyone to tell them that there is a danger. A place so badly kept that mice run free, their droppings collecting on the wire ceilings of rooms which are full of inescts that can multiply at the rate of 200 times a year. A place that has been run this way for years, so that the bugs have had time to develop a cell, from which a number of them hitch rides every day on the residents and then infect the city. And in which one resident has been diagnosed with scabies.
This is a disaster. And no one is taking note, for whatever reason. The most that gets done is that the landlord, after a court case goes against him, does some extra spraying - which has been observed to be completely ineffective. The measures indicated to him as necessary he has not taken. The halls are full of crevices where these creatures breed, and so great are their numbers that this place has been called the Ground Zero of bedbugs. It will destroy New York if this issue is left alone.
And it may well be left alone until all buildings in New York have these insects, which no one seems to be able to rid us of. Then it will spread from New York to other cities. At a multiplication rate of 200 a year, we cannot waste time with reluctant journalists and lazy city officials.
So I am writing an open letter to all Americans and residents of New York City, and also to the Mayor, whose ultimate responsibility this is. You cannot afford to have such a disgusting place in your country or your city.
Once, when a new resident moved in, I got to talking to him; he, like me, was in the service, so we talked shop about our days - he had tales of Khost, Afghanistan, and I told him about Gitmo, Cuba. He had been many places, some in the Third World, and he remarked that this place, right here in the US, was worse than anything he had ever seen. So he went out and bought some cleaning supplies and set about making his room habitable. Well, at 3am, the manager found him disinfecting his bed, and told him right then and there to leave.
That is how this place treats former servicemen. It is a disgrace beyond words. And it is also a disgrace that the city administration and the press in this town allow this kind of hotel to go on breeding these pests.
For anyone out there interested in helping - contact me at
bugout77@hotmail.comI am happy to meet face to face and give my real name to serious people and of course any journalists looking to do the right thing.
