More Bed Bugs Spotted In Queens Subway Facility, MTA Says

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS — The bed bugs that messed up subway service on five different lines last week were spotted again, according to MTA officials.

Transit workers told the New York Daily News they discovered even more of the pesky critters Monday in the Forest Hills control tower where they were spotted five days earlier.

That sighting prompted the transit authority to shut down the facility to fumigate and caused extensive delays on the E, F, M, R and W lines.

Tim Minton, an MTA spokesperson, told Patch that "one apparent bedbug" was spotted Monday afternoon and that exterminators fumigated the tower Tuesday morning with "no impact on subway service."

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"No other bedbugs have been observed at any time," he said in an emailed statement.

It's unclear where the bed bugs came from, Minton said.

Workers at the facility, the Continental Master Control Tower in Forest Hills, told the Daily News they've complained for weeks about bed bugs living in a set of cloth chairs there and accused the agency of trying to cover up the situation.

The MTA took the four chairs "on which no bugs were observed, but that were a concern for employees" out of the tower Monday and replaced them with smooth-surfaced chairs, Minton wrote in an email.

Exterminators previously fumigated the tower on Jan. 8 and again on Jan. 22, according to Minton. The tower is where workers control track switches at the Forest Hills-71st Avenue subway station.

The Jan. 22 bed bug sighting resulted in 236 delayed trains and 117 canceled trains, the Daily News reported, citing an internal MTA report.

MTA conductor and union activist Tramell Thompson claimed to Gothamist last week that bed bugs are a "common" feature in their facilities.