Bedbugs are plaguing New York City public schools like never before, according to the latest stats from the Department of Education.
City schools reported 1,700 confirmed bedbug cases in just the first five months of the school year -- a rate that's on pace to triple last year's total of 1,019 cases.
The parasitic pests have thrived in the winter season, it appears, with 80 percent of cases having been reported during November, December and January.
"It's just an outbreak and I don't know how they can stop it," said Wendy Tatum, a mother at PS 54 in Bedford-Stuyvesant, one of hundreds of schools to have had at least one confirmed case.
The Dept. of Ed is required to record any incidents where an infestation is found, but spokesperson Marge Feinberg said this uptick in cases is fueled not by infestations but by individual students who come to school with bedbugs.
"It is important to know that schools are not hospitable places for bedbugs," Feinberg said. "They are brought into schools from the clothing."