Bedbugs are itching to get into Big Apple schools.
As the city grapples with a resurgence of the pesky critters in hot-sheet motels and Park Avenue penthouses, it appears the tiny bloodsuckers are hitchhiking their way into classrooms on the coats of schoolchildren.
There have been 34 confirmed cases of bedbugs in 24 city schools since Oct. 1, according to the city Department of Education.
Whether the cases reflect a rise in bedbugs in schools is impossible to know because the department only began informally asking schools to record sightings this fall in response to a surge of infestations across the city.
A department spokeswoman insisted the pests were not running rampant.
“There have been absolutely no infestations,” said the spokeswoman, Marge Feinberg. “There are one or two [bugs] in each case.”
Although bedbugs are not considered a major health threat because they do not transmit disease, they can leave nasty, itchy welts and be expensive to exterminate.
“We were so scared that we would bring it home,” said a staffer who requested anonymity at PS 70 in Long Island City, one of several Queens schools to report bedbugs this fall. “It was all over the neighborhood, [so] the bodegas started carrying bedbug spray.”
According to the DOE, there were 16 confirmed bedbug cases in Queens schools, 15 in Brooklyn, two in Manhattan and one in a Bronx school.
Health staffers with the United Federation of Teachers said they’ve seen an increase in bedbug cases in relation to the rise across the city – and expect a sharp jump as kids begin bundling up in heavy clothing that is cozy for the clingy creatures.
Current protocol requires schools to capture a suspected bedbug and mail it to the Health Department.
Parents of a child found carrying a bedbug are notified. But the decision to issue a letter to the school community is made on a case-by-case basis by the Office of School Health.
Nellie Merced, mother of a first-grader at PS 150 in Long Island City, was mortified to learn from a reporter that there was a confirmed bedbug case at the school this fall.
“Something like that, we should know,” she said. “It’s the worst thing to get rid of.”
A DOE spokeswoman said the principal claimed to have contacted all the parents of the students in the classroom where the bedbug was found and sent a letter home.