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Movie date can be dinner date for bedbugs

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NEW YORK, July 5 (UPI) -- Moviegoers in New York could be snuggling up with bedbugs, bug experts say.

Experts warned theater seats pose a bigger bedbug threat than clothing racks, despite last week's reports about bedbug infestations at two popular clothing stores, the New York Daily News reported Monday.

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"In a movie theater, you are sitting in one spot for 2 hours. They have the opportunity to feed on you," said Jennifer Erdogan, director of Bell Environmental Services, a pest control company that fumigates movie theaters, offices and stores.

The Daily News said none of the pest control experts it contacted would say which theaters or stores have been treated for bedbugs, citing confidentiality agreements. But they all agreed that New York's bedbug problem has crawled beyond apartments and into public spaces.

"This shouldn't be a surprise. We have more homes infected by bedbugs. All those people go to school, the office. (Bedbugs) go wherever people go," entomologist Richard Cooper, a member of the city's Bed Bug Advisory Board, told the Daily News. "It is a crisis. Virtually any place in New York City is at risk."

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