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During the Middle Ages, bedbugs were considered to be a rich man's problem. They preferred warm and cozy down mattresses to the damp straw beds of the poor. Now, with the banning of DDT and widespread use of central heating, these brown and wingless critters are again common, from plush-carpeted apartments on Park Avenue to cramped studios on Canal Street.
Ray Lopez, who works for a social service agency in East Harlem, has been trying to help people who report they have bedbugs in their home.
Lopez 01 (TIME: 9 sec.)
It's definitely not my favorite part of the job. What we're trying to do is teach them… basically how to think like that pest.
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He teaches families to seal cracks on the floor and walls with silicone caulk and to protect their mattresses with covers. On a recent Thursday, Lopez was making his third visit to this one-bedroom apartment in the past year.
SOUND: Parakeets squawking. Spanish radio. Open full to establish, fade under.
The woman of the house, worried about being evicted from her home, agreed to speak to a reporter only if her real name wasn't used and asked to be called "Argentina."
Argentina shares the tiny apartment with her husband, grandson and two African parakeets. Argentina obsessively vacuums and mops the floor to get rid of the bedbugs, but it's her desperate efforts that concern Lopez.
Lopez 02 (TIME: 25 sec.)
She mixed bleach and ammonia, and that's obviously a danger. You cannot mix those two chemicals because it creates a gas that really can hurt and even kill people. And so… these are some of the things…
Argentina: What killed the people?
Lopez: Mixing ammonia and bleach together.
Argentina: Oh… that's what I do, oh my God.
Lopez: It forms a gas, and it's very dangerous for people.
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Dr. Dickson Despommier, a Professor at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, says it's this type of behavior that spurs more public health concern than the bedbugs themselves, whose bites can cause itchy red welts, but are otherwise harmless.
Despommier 01 (TIME: 7 sec.)
It's a phobia… which manifests itself in super cleanly behavior.
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The constant stress of cleaning has taken its toll on Argentina. She says the cleaning chemicals have given her asthma… along with
Argentina 01 (TIME: 14 sec.)
Depression…. but I think that is giving me depression.
Me: The bedbugs give you depression?
Argentina: I think so. Because I can't stop. If I stop for two or three day, they're coming again.
But Louis Sorkin, an entymologist at the American Museum of Natural History, says people should sympathize with Argentina's reaction.
Sorkin 01 (TIME: 13 sec.)
Sometimes, they make light of it because they don't happen to have a bedbug problem, and they don't really understand how grueling it is to have you go through your apartment and clean like you've never cleaned before.
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He says a telltale sign of a heavy bedbug infestation is its sweet, musty odor.
Sorkin 02 (TIME: 4 sec)
It's a bit like citranello and cilantro… to me.
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Despommier says bedbugs are commonly transferred through used furniture, such as mattresses and wooden bookshelves.
Despommier 02 (TIME: 8 sec)
There are more people living in the city at a lower income level and because of the high prices of everything else, they are looking for alternatives for furnishing their apartments.
He says he thinks the problem is overstated, however, and that the majority of 311 complaints are false alarms. Sorkin disagrees and says not all New Yorkers report the problem.
New York City's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene declined to comment on this issue.
Lopez, from the social services agency, says the city has done little to alleviate the problem and says he will participate in a new bedbug task force that is being created in East Harlem.
SOC
Euna Lhee, Columbia Radio News.