New York’s bedbug problem has gotten so bad that the feared bloodsuckers are even in the city Health Department — just blocks from City Hall.
Workers in the department’s tuberculosis-prevention unit complain that the painful pests have invaded their offices on the eighth floor of 346 Broadway for the second time.
“People are really upset,” one worker said, adding that while it was never made public, a bedbug colony took up residence on the same site two years ago.
“They told us we were crazy,” the worker said, referring to higher-ups. “I said, ‘I know what I saw. I’m not crazy.’ ”
Officials confirmed that bedbugs were found in the TB unit in 2007 and again within the last few days. In both cases, exterminators were called in.
“It’s fairly common to have a couple of bedbugs brought in by an individual,” said department spokeswoman Jessica Scaperotti. “It’s not an infestation.”
Meanwhile, in Midtown, John Jay College of Criminal Justice students got some unexpected time off when school officials shut down North Hall until Tuesday — because bedbugs had taken over three of the first four floors.
Richard Cooper, a bedbug expert on Mayor Bloomberg’s advisory board, said the creepy crawlers were “essentially eradicated” before 1999 but have staged a comeback and are spreading at “an alarming rate.”