Evidence of bedbugs found at UN

UNITED NATIONS - There are a few emissaries at UN headquarters that won't be able to count on diplomatic immunity: bedbugs.

Bedbug-sniffing dogs twice this month found evidence of the insects in furniture in two UN buildings, and the furniture was moved to unoccupied areas of the complex to be fumigated, Martin Nesirky, spokesman for the secretary-general, said .

Infestations by the tiny reddish-brown critters have become increasingly common in New York City in the past three years, with outbreaks reported in a Times Square movie theater, stores, luxury apartment buildings and even the office of U.S. radio show host Howard Stern of Sirius XM Radio.

Experts say infestations of this scale have not been seen since World War II and believe that increased global travel and the outlawing of certain chemicals such as the dangerously toxic DDT, once used to treat bedbugs, could be contributing to the resurgence.

At the UN, no staff or other occupants of the complex overlooking the East River have reported bites, Nesirky said. He also said that the bedbug-sniffing dogs are unable to distinguish between insects that are alive or dead.

Nesirky said a bedbug infestation reported last fall at the Albano building, a midtown Manhattan building on East 46th Street where the UN is housing some offices during a major renovation, was cleared up by several rounds of fumigation. An insect discovered at the site after fumigation in May was deemed not to be a bed bug but a clover mite, which is not harmful to humans or furniture, he said. - AP