What 722,000 New York Bed Bug Filings Show
New York City landlords have to tell their tenants, and the city, how many apartments in the building had bed bugs last year. Those filings show the reported infestation rate falling from 10.36 infested units per 1,000 in 2019 to 2.64 in 2025, a drop of three quarters. They also show something rarely visible anywhere in pest control: how often treatment fails. Between 15 and 21 per cent of infested units in most boroughs were re-infested, and in Queens the figure was 21.4 per cent.
Almost everything published about bed bug prevalence comes from pest control companies counting their own callouts. New York is the exception. Under the city’s bed bug disclosure law, building owners file an annual report covering the previous year, and those filings are public. We analysed the full dataset, 722,511 filings, to see what it shows.
The trend
The direction is unambiguous and it holds on every measure we checked.
| Filing year | Units covered | Infested units | Rate per 1,000 | Filings reporting any infestation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 2,132,889 | 22,087 | 10.36 | 17.2% |
| 2021 | 2,721,176 | 16,782 | 6.17 | 5.2% |
| 2023 | 2,732,275 | 9,161 | 3.35 | 3.4% |
| 2024 | 2,699,562 | 8,152 | 3.02 | 2.9% |
| 2025 | 2,562,836 | 6,760 | 2.64 | 2.6% |
Infested units fell in absolute terms too, from 22,087 to 6,760, so this is not simply a larger denominator. But the denominator did grow: filings rose from 54,267 in 2019 to 118,830 in 2025 as compliance widened, and the buildings that joined later were disproportionately ones with nothing to report. Some of the decline is a reporting effect, and we would not claim the fall is as steep as the headline rate implies.
Where they are
Brooklyn reports the highest rate at 3.33 infested units per 1,000, and Staten Island the lowest at 2.04. The spread between boroughs is narrower than most people would guess: the highest borough is about 1.6 times the lowest, in a city where almost every other housing indicator varies far more than that.
Manhattan is the interesting case. It has by far the most units covered, 974,310 in the 2025 filings, and one of the lowest rates at 2.26 per 1,000. Bed bugs are not a poverty indicator in this data in the way people often assume.
The number nobody else publishes
The filing asks separately how many units were infested, how many were eradicated, and how many were re-infested. That last field is unusual, because it makes treatment durability visible in public data.
In the 2025 filings, re-infested units ran at 21.4 per cent of infested units in Queens, 18.6 per cent in Brooklyn, 15.7 per cent in Manhattan and 15.1 per cent in the Bronx. Staten Island, with the smallest sample by far, reported 2 per cent.
Read carefully, that is roughly one in five treated apartments in the worst borough coming back. It is consistent with what the biology predicts: bed bugs survive long periods without feeding, they travel between adjoining units, and treating one apartment in a multi-unit building without inspecting its neighbours is a well-known way to lose the job. The stages and evidence are set out in bed bug identification, and why heat treatments are priced the way they are in bed bug treatment costs.
What this means if you rent, or own the building
- Tenants can ask for the filing. The disclosure exists for you. A building’s history is a reasonable thing to request before signing a lease.
- A single infested unit is not a building-wide emergency, but it is a building-wide inspection question, which is exactly what the re-infestation numbers argue for.
- Owners should read re-infestation as a treatment quality signal. If the same units keep reappearing, the issue is usually scope rather than product.
- The legal position on who pays varies, and is covered in landlord and tenant pest control responsibilities. For multi-unit buildings generally, see apartment and condo pest control.
How we did this
We queried the full bed bug disclosure dataset published by the city, covering 722,511 filings, and aggregated by filing year and borough. Three decisions shape the numbers.
- We excluded filings reporting more than 5,000 dwelling units in one building. One Queens filing claimed 414,754 units, all infested, and appeared twice. Left in, it alone produced an apparent citywide infestation rate of 237 per 1,000, which is obviously wrong. New York’s largest residential building has a few thousand units.
- We report a rate per 1,000 units rather than raw counts, because buildings sometimes file more than once in a year. A duplicate filing inflates the infested count and the unit count together, so the rate is unaffected.
- We excluded the 2026 filing year because it is incomplete.
The main caveat is self-reporting. These are landlord declarations, not inspections, and there is an obvious incentive to under-report. The trend and the borough comparison are the useful outputs; the absolute level is a floor.
Frequently asked questions
Are bed bugs getting better or worse in New York?
Better, on the reported data. The rate fell from 10.36 infested units per 1,000 in 2019 to 2.64 in 2025, and infested units fell from 22,087 to 6,760 in absolute terms. Part of the decline reflects wider compliance bringing in buildings with nothing to report, so the true improvement is probably smaller than the headline.
Which borough has the worst bed bug problem?
Brooklyn, at 3.33 infested units per 1,000 in the 2025 filings, followed by Queens at 2.79. Staten Island reports the lowest at 2.04. The gap between the highest and lowest borough is smaller than most people expect.
How often does bed bug treatment fail?
In this data, re-infested units ran between 15 and 21 per cent of infested units in the four larger boroughs, highest in Queens at 21.4 per cent. That is the closest thing to a public measure of treatment durability that we are aware of.
Do landlords have to disclose bed bugs in New York?
Yes. Building owners file an annual report covering the previous year’s bed bug activity, including infested, eradicated and re-infested units, and the filings are public. Tenants can ask for their building’s history.
Why is the infestation rate so low compared with what I read elsewhere?
Because this measures apartments in buildings that filed, not households that ever had an issue. It is also self-reported by landlords, who have an incentive to understate. Treat it as a floor and a trend, not a prevalence estimate.
Does a high-rent building mean fewer bed bugs?
Not in this data. Manhattan has the most units covered and one of the lowest rates, but the differences between boroughs are modest. Bed bugs move on luggage and furniture rather than tracking income.
What should I do before signing a lease?
Ask for the building’s bed bug filing, inspect the bedroom yourself around the mattress seams and frame joints, and keep luggage off the bed on move-in day. Identification guidance is in our bed bug identification guide.
Sources
- NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development, Bedbug Reporting dataset, NYC Open Data. data.cityofnewyork.us
- Analysis by The Pest Control Brief, September 2026, covering 722,511 filings.
