Bed bugs living in new or refurbished mattress

Victoria Corderi Correspondent • Profile

BROOKLYN - After decades in obscurity, bedbugs have returned to the United States to take up residence in a place where they can live long-term, rent-free and have all the food they need -- in mattresses all over the country. 

"I would say it's spinning out of control," says veteran entomologist Rick Cooper.

Cooper hadn't even seen a live bedbug until 1999. Since then, treating them has become almost a full time job for his company, Cooper Pest Management in northern New Jersey.   His colleague Jeff White says these small, blood-sucking pests sneak out during the night, feed, and then retreat. Sometimes the only evidence they leave behind are hideous welts running up arms and legs. 

"I've had people just be completely, completely upset about it, I mean, literally hysterical," says White.

The first time Dateline came face to face with a bedbug was in 1996, when we investigated the mattress business -- specifically, reconditioned mattresses that are supposed to be stripped and sterilized, re-covered and sold for less than what you'd pay for a new one.

Back then, we bought nine mattresses and opened them up. What we found was shocking.

Beneath new covers, filthy old materials were contaminated with urine, fecal matter and dangerous fungi, all of which can seep out through the cover over time. We also found a dead bedbug with its eggs.

With the Orkin pest control company now reporting bedbug infestations in all 50 states, we decided to take another look at reconditioned mattresses to see if the companies that produce and sell them are doing a better job than they were 11 years ago.

Right away we found that some things have changed for the better.

In 1996, 19 states had laws in place regulating the sale of reconditioned mattresses.  This year that number is up to 26.  We started our investigation in New York, where state law requires them to be labeled clearly with yellow tags marked "used materials."  Not disclosing that information is also against federal law.

Saying "Have no fear, lay down," a salesman in 1996 tried to sell us rebuilt mattresses as if they were new.

But this year was a different story.

"These are the refurbished ones right here," said one salesperson.

In the small Mom and Pop stores in low income communities where most of these mattresses are sold, clerks readily told us the mattresses were rebuilt.

Dateline saw one full size set selling for $49.99, compared to new sets which start around two hundred dollars. 

"If it has a yellow ticket it's refurbished," said the salesperson. "We don't tell our customers it's brand new if it's not.  We don't lie to our customers."

The yellow tags also clearly say the mattresses are sterilized.  In shops and factories, we were told they were clean. 

"They clean them and fumigate them," said one salesperson.

Owner Francisco Chavez told us, "We clean, we’ve got to spray, we spray with alcohol, not just regular alcohol, special alcohol."

Reconditioned mattresses begin their journey once they're thrown out to sidewalks or garbage heaps. At dawn, in many American cities, men with vans come out and cart them off to factories, where we were told they sell for five dollars a piece.

We asked entomologist Rick Cooper to ride along with us as we documented what happens to them. Here in Brooklyn, we found these mattresses tossed to the curb. Right away Cooper found a bedbug, fat from a recent feeding. 

"Now this has a fresh blood meal in it you can see," said Cooper.

Cooper says adult bedbugs are easy to spot, but eggs or brand new hatchlings are nearly imperceptible.

"All those little pearly white things are eggs, they're bedbug eggs," he pointed out. "They're a millimeter in size and they're clear. Think about a period on a piece of paper, but make it translucent.  And put that inside the expanse of a mattress."

His colleague Jeff White added, "It would be very difficult to detect, you're talking about worse than a needle in a haystack."

As for those bedbug infested mattresses we found, we came back the next day at dawn to check on them.

Two were gone. We watched a man pick up the remaining one and load it into this white van.

So we followed the van. He picked up more mattresses. That's the one with bedbugs up on the top.

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