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FDNY: Pouring Gas on Mattress NOT the Solution to Bed Bugs
By
John Del Signore
Published Dec 21, 2009
Modified Dec 21, 2009
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By
John Del Signore
Published Dec 21, 2009
Modified Dec 21, 2009
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There are many different strategies for ridding your apartment of bed bugs. Experts recommend dry cleaning your clothes and keeping them in sealed plastic bags, and hiring an exterminator. But there's one radical method for battling the parasites that has the FDNY rather alarmed: Some bed bug victims are pouring gasoline or kerosene on their mattresses. The FDNY says that's not only ineffective, but also dangerous, because mattresses really shouldn't be flammable. Yet it appears that Astoria residents are not only gassing up their beds, but their bodies, too.
Several Astoria residents called 911 over the past few months after they smelled gasoline coming from adjacent apartments, the Queens Gazette reports. Firefighters responding to the calls found that residents had poured gasoline on mattresses to kill bedbugs. They had also wiped gasoline on their limbs and their children’s bodies to thwart the bugs! Queens fire officials have now issued a warning, reminding potential Darwin award winners that "gasoline is a highly explosive compound that could ignite and 'pop' from something as simple as flicking a light switch." [Via Queens Crap]
Tagged
astoria
bed bugs
gas
gasoline
mattress
nyc
queens
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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