But Is That Because There Aren’t Any Bedbugs Or Simply Because People In Other Boroughs Are Bigger Complainers?
No 311, no honey:
Posted: January 22nd, 2008 | Filed under: Followed By A Perplexed Stroke Of The Chin, The BronxNext week, the city begins a series of seminars at venues all over town on avoiding bedbugs — except in the Bronx.
The reason isn’t that city officials don’t want to come to the Bronx – but rather that, apparently, the bedbugs don’t.
While some residents of Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens are in a near panic over the worsening citywide infestation, people in the Bronx don’t seem to be bugged by the critters — yet.
“The Bronx had the second-lowest number of complaints last year,” said Seth Donlin of the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development, which keeps track of such calls to the city’s 311 hotline.
“It’s the lowest total after Staten Island, which is statistically insignificant,” Donlin said.
Bronx residents called to complain about bedbugs just 1,117 times last year, and HPD documented only 347 actual infestations.
Brooklyn saw the most complaints by far, according to HPD, with 2,382 calls and 692 infestations — double the Bronx totals.
Manhattan followed with 1,729 calls, just ahead of Queens, which saw 1,602 complaints.
Infestations by the blood-sucking insects in the city have skyrocketed in recent years.
In fiscal year 2004 the 311 hotline received only 1,800 calls about bedbugs citywide, but by 2007 the number had more than tripled, to nearly 7,000 overall.
Bedbugs were all but eradicated in the United States decades ago. But with the banning of the powerful pesticides used to kill them and increased global travel there has been a resurgence.