What's next, chinch bugs?

You'll never guess who I slept with last night!

No, not Ann Coulter.
[Sheesh - no more guesses for you.]

The answer is: bedbugs. Got the bites to prove it.


Yup, apparently they are back - and they are not just in the sleazy places like 4 Seasons, either.

A local bedbug expert is Brian Cabrera, assistant professor of entomology at the University of Florida's Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center. ''They are definitely back,'' he says.

``Whereas before, pest control companies would see two cases in a year, they're now seeing 20, 50, 75 cases a year. Definitely an increase, but it won't constitute an epidemic.''

Cindy Mannes, vice president for public affairs with the National Pest Management Association, says between 2000 and 2006, pest control companies have seen a 71 percent increase in the number of calls about bedbugs, some receiving as many as 30 or 40 a week. And some companies, she says, are setting up bedbug divisions.

[Boy, that would be a coveted department head position! "Honey, I'm in charge of bedbugs now."]

The experts added that they don't know why the bedbugs are swarming into New York City, but say that increased international travel, a recent ban on powerful pesticides such as DDT that had all but eliminated them, and the market in used furniture have all been factors.

It seems that bedbugs, like mobsters involved in a turf war, go to the mattresses. The International Sleep Products Association, the trade association for mattress manufacturers, told the Times that it supports a ban on the sale of reconditioned mattresses. "The filth from the used mattress that lies just beneath the new fabric cover of a reconditioned product can be astounding,” said Ryan Trainer, a lawyer for the association. [More]

Well, any way. Sleep tight...