Where Did All the Bed Bugs Go?

Author

Lauren Friedman, Cuny Graduate School of JournalismFollow

Graduation Date

Fall 12-13-2023

Grading Professor

Emily Laber-Warren

Subject Concentration

Health & Science

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Abstract

In the early 2000s in New York City, everyone was talking about bed bugs. The disc-shaped, bloodsucking pests had been a common domestic nuisance up to the World War II era, but in the decades since, they’d mostly faded into obscurity. That was until bed bug infestations, which are often psychologically distressing and sometimes impossible to overcome, suddenly became routine across the five boroughs, driving people from their apartments and stoking fear about everything from upholstered theater seats to thrift stores.

But then, just as quickly as bed bugs had invaded, they seemed to fade away. In a 2022 study published in PLOS ONE, researchers found that complaints about bed bugs in New York City have fallen precipitously in recent years. By 2020, complaints to 311 about bed bugs were just a third of what they were in 2012. Complaints about other pests, like cockroaches, did not follow a similar pattern. So what exactly happened to all those bed bugs?

It’s possible that more effective bed bug control strategies and greater awareness among the general public helped. But two policies enacted in New York City also likely played a key role—by making bed bugs a real liability for landlords, rather than something that could be kept quiet.

These policies and practices—which some researchers have suggested could be a national model—have protected most New Yorkers from worrying about the bed bugs that had so recently been a source of daily fear and vigilance. But the bed bug population has not been eliminated entirely. And the infestations that now remain are clustered in the city’s poorer neighborhoods, which cannot seem to shake them, and where the presence of bed bugs is unlikely to make front-page news.

This story uses insights from experts, research, and city data to explain the surprising decline—and persistence—of bed bugs in New York City.

Recommended Citation

Friedman, Lauren, "Where Did All the Bed Bugs Go?" (2023). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gj_etds/720