I've lived in Astoria for about 8 years. Last spring, I discovered I had bed bugs in my apartment. Firelight 79 is exactly right on all her accounts. Your landlord is responsible for taking care of extermination for the bed bugs - it is required by law, especially if your apartment is rent stabilized. I basically had to inform my landlord of this and threaten legal action. Turns out the entire building was infested with them (they just travel thru the walls to everyone's apartments), and the entire blg had to be exterminated. The exterminator has to come at least twice. It does not matter how clean, dirty, rich or poor you are, if you have blood, they will be there. They are extremely hard to get rid of. Vaccuum like crazy, and throw out the vaccuum bags. Throw out your mattress if possible. Wash everything in hot water. Keep everything that's been washed in plastic bags while your place is being exterminated (so more bugs don't get in them). You are not safe after the first extermination, but perhaps the second. In my case, I was getting bit for 2 months before I saw one walk across my desk. You tend not to notice the actual bugs until it's far too late, I just thought I had a mosquito problem or hives. It was the last straw and I decided not to resign my lease. After 3 exterminations, I put a bunch of stuff I could not wash into vaccuum sealed bags (they love books), and put them into storage for 4 months. Then I moved. From all the research I did, I learned the best thing you can do is move, especially if your neighbors have them - you'll probably just get them again, unless the whole blg is done, and your neighbors are as vigilant as you. In my case, I knew they wouldn't be. The exterminator said this is a huge problem in Astoria, he gets calls all the time, and it's due to the large amounts of immigrants here. But in general, it's a huge problem in nyc. These buggers are in general hitchhikers, and you can pick them up anywhere. It was a nightmare, but I'm hopefully bug free now. Best of luck, and please don't worry about your mess. Just call the landlord- your body will be happy you did.