Beware the bedbug-infested subway benches
The butterflies are fleeing the bed bugs. (Photo by flickr user NewYork808)
While we’re know that the new subway fares aren’t deterring riders, the higher cost of a MetroCard swipe hasn’t stopped bedbugs from hanging out in the subways either.
According to a typical sensationalistic piece in the New York Post, bedbugs are taking over benches in the subways. Run for the hills!
Patrick Gallahue, John Mazor and Sylvia Harvey — how did it take three people to write a 143-word article? — write:
At a recent Department of Housing, Preservation and Development forum on the subject, a city bedbug educator admitted to seeing the pests on benches in subway stations - in one case, catching a ride on an unsuspecting straphanger’s caboose at Brooklyn’s Hoyt-Schermerhorn station, according to people at the meeting.
The official, identified as Edward Brownbear, also reported seeing the bugs on wooden benches at the Union Square and Fordham Road stations in Manhattan and The Bronx, respectively.
Sharis Lugo, 20, of Brooklyn leaped off a bench at the Union Square station when she heard the news, saying, “Ewww! That’s nasty . . . They’ve got to take these benches out of here!”
The bedbug news first broke a few days ago in this post on the bedbug meeting on Miss Heather’s New York Shitty blog, and now that the reputable Post and Yours Truly are picking up on the story, it’s bound to keep spreading.
Stainless steel benches would be so much more hygienic for so many reasons. Maybe this disturbing and disgusting news will be just what the MTA needs to get the ball rolling on replacement benches.
Next thing you know those bedbugs will be running naked through the tunnels, crack pipe in hand!
Wouldn’t it be easy enough to just put metal benches in there instead of wooden ones?
Thanks Ben, now I won’t be able to sleep tonight.
Eesh, I’ve always thought those wooden benches were nasty. Metal please!
the dc metro has granite benches. not too comfortable but super-clean..no where for the bugs to go!
Okay never sitting on those ever again. Thanks for sharing that gross but necessary story.
Metal is better than wood, but not by much. Next thing you’ll know, over the years the rainwater will rust these benches and wackos will be chipping out of these bences, metal is more convenient for graffiti painters,and it is harder to clean than wood. I don’t know, though. We live in a crazy city.