According to health department records and apparently unsatisfied customers, up until very recently the Trump Taj Mahal casino and hotel in Atlantic City was crawling with mice, roaches, and bed bugs.
Over the last six years, according to a new audit from the city comptroller, New York City has missed out on $59.2 million in tax revenue because it forgot to stop giving tax breaks, intended for senior citizen homeowners, to recipients who had died. From the Associated Press:
Last week, I took cover when I spotted what turned out to be a feather fluttering down from a locker to my gym’s floor. At home, my eye caught a loose thread swaying on a cloth bag in one of my cabinets, and I flinched. A green pepper seed stuck to a FedEx envelope on my coffee table turned my stomach. I freaked out…
This week a surprisingly long list of celebrities—including that kid from Love Actually, that girl from that TV show, and Patricia Clarkson—narrowly escaped a contractual fate worse than death: a movie premiere infested with bed bugs.
A tipster has revealed to Business Insider that a third train line in the New York City subway has potentially been infested with bedbugs. The first subway line to get fumigated—the N train—was followed by the 5 train, and now the pests have reportedly taken to feeding on passengers on the 7.
If you're a regular commuter or tourist in New York City, here's some exciting news: Earlier this week, MTA officials discovered that three N trains were infested with bedbugs.
Everyone knows that bedbugs are gross jerks that attack war veterans. But were you aware that they're also gassy? Luckily, you can use their flatulence against them thanks to an "exciting newly patented product" called the BBD-100.
Bedbugs carrying a drug-resistant MRSA germ have been discovered in Vancouver. It's unclear whether the bedbugs can give the germ to humans—we might have even given it to them—but the story is pretty close to the platonic ideal for public health panics. (Needs more obesity.) It's a fractal of insidious bugs! Zoom in,…
Cimex lectularius experts gathered in DC earlier this month and, besides giving up all hope of eradication, came to a conclusion: "Bed bugs are not going away any time soon." Great. [via Daily Intel]
Animal Planet is offering free pest control for anyone in the five boroughs with "severe pest infestations of any kind, from cockroaches and bedbugs to rats and raccoons. No infestation is too severe for their team."
Today we got all freaked out about the horror of the unkillable bedbug. Everything about bedbugs is terrifying! Including this terrible science fact from a real scientist. Be scared. Be very, very scared.
There is no hope. Discouraged and terrified scientists now tell us that the modern urban bedbug has spent the last decade drinking in our best poisons while emitting tiny cackles, growing stronger and stronger and stronger and scarier.
The bloodsucking numbers are in: bedbug complaints from NYC residents rose about 7% last year, to nearly 5,000. The forecast for 2011: "Each year it's always a little worse." Well, there are worse problems for cities to have. [WSJ]
Just in time for Christmas, Beverly Hills' high-end Golden Triangle shopping area is under a relentless bedbug assault, and one entomologist describes the PTSD-like horror of dealing with a bedbug infestation: "There's a huge emotional impact that can't be underestimated."
With the Bedbug Apocalypse upon us, inspectors from the NYC housing authority want to buy bedbug-sniffing dogs, according to the Daily News: "It's something we've been looking at as we've seen the violations increase." Too bad they don't really work!
Just because a dog barks at your wall doesn't necessarily mean you need to spend $3,500 on bedbug treatments.
Manhattan borough president Scott Stringer has declared all-out war on bedbugs, and he wants Mayor Mike to step up "before it gets out of control." Stringer thinks bureaucrats are "studying" too much, and that it's time for a bloodbath. [NYDN]
The one-time tourists are itching mad at the New York luxury hotel, claiming that they got bedbugs during their stay, took them home with them, then had to evacuate their house for six weeks. Hopefully they're suing for comped suites.
A public housing cleaner found a mattress she feared had bedbugs. She dragged it into the hallway, lit it on fire, and ran away. Now she has been charged with arson. (N.B. "Call an exterminator" is the correct response.)
