Bugs in a rug… and everything else

We’ve all been there: On the way home from the subway, you spot the La-Z-Boy recliner of your dreams waiting for you by the gutter. It looks normal, there’s no creaking, no weird smells…and it’s free. Alas, vermin like bedbugs love to hide inside crevices in wooden bookcases, hollow box springs, metal filing cabinets, alarm clocks (yes, you read right) and certainly in the plush fabric of a La-Z-Boy. Even if you can’t see a darned thing, the flat-bodied devils can lie dormant in cracks as thin as a MetroCard for ten months to a year and a half. But how likely is it that they’re there, waiting to come out of hiding in your heated home? We teamed up with two exterminators to investigate some of New York’s curbside castoffs.

Item 1: folding chair
Found: Forsyth Street between Broome and Delancey Streets“This is definitely an item susceptible to bedbugs,” says Timothy Wong from M&M Pest Control (32 Orchard St between Canal and Hester Sts; 212-219-8218, mandmpestcontrol.com). He points to little red-black stains on the fabric, most likely the result of blood from bedbug bites. Ick. Wong pulls back the cushion to reveal unfinished wood—a favorite hiding place for the tiny terrors. There are no cracks in the surface for them to have burrowed into, so he flips the chair over to check for more blood spots and droppings, which are “dark-brownish speckles” about the size of a pinhead—telltale signs of infestation. “In many countries, they’re called ‘wood bugs’ or even ‘stinky bugs’ because when you press on them, they stink,” Wong says with a chuckle. (I cringe.) He points to a brown stain, explaining that it looks like the remnant of an oil-based chemical spray like Raid. Clearly the previous owner knew something was up.
Risk assessment: “This would be a good candidate not to bring home,” Wong declares. Enough said.

Item 2: bed set»