Bedbugs invading New York

NEW YORK, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- New York is considering a bedbug task force to deal with a massive infestation biting the city's rich and poor alike.

"It's great that we're not smoking as much, and great that we're not eating trans fats, but we need to focus on bedbugs in the same aggressive manner," City Councilman Gale Brewer told the New York Daily News.

Brewer wants to form a bedbug task force and ban the sale of reconditioned mattresses, the Daily News reported Sunday.

The infestation has hit every part of the city, including upper East Side luxury apartments on 72nd Street owned by Gov. Eliot Spitzer's father, the Daily News reported.

Several tenants of Bernard Spitzer have complained to the city about infestations, including one tenant who said he had to throw away rugs, bedding, curtains, 20 cashmere sweaters, an Armani suit and a sofa.

A spokesman for Bernard Spitzer said Rose Associates, the building's management company, was working "aggressively" to exterminate the insects.