sofas such on the street - BEDBUGS!!

You are correct about this nasty problem. Bedbugs, mites, and bugs in general are on the rise!

Wrap your mattresses in plastic and keep your space clean. These boogers bite at night and are rarely seen.

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/articles/050404ta_talk_singer
...According to Andy Linares, the proprietor of the Bug Off Pest Control Center, in Washington Heights, New York is witnessing “without a doubt, a dramatic increase in bedbug activity. We hadn’t seen bedbugs in New York in sixty years. Then, all of a sudden, bingo. Who’da thunk it?”


http://www.metcouncil.net/factsheets/bedbugs.htm
...Today bedbugs can infest any bedroom, rich or poor, and hygiene has little to do with the problem. Bedbugs (Cimex lectularius linnaeus) are small (1/3 to 1/4 inches long), brownish, and wingless insects. They hide in the mattress or bed during the day and come out at night to bite while the person is sleeping. While biting, they inject special saliva into their victims to keep the blood from coagulating. This is what creates the itching bite on the skin. The bugs turn reddish and get larger after they have fed on blood. Bedbugs are spread when luggage, clothing, or bedding is taken from an infested area to a new place. The bugs hide at first in the bedding of their new home, but can later move to the floors, walls, and other furniture. They are hard to get rid of because they can go over 100 days without a meal, and they are good at hiding during the day. They look for out-of-the-way cracks and clothing folds, and hide in electrical outlets and wiring conduits, under wallpaper and in unused furniture. So merely getting ride of infested furniture and bedding won't always solve the problem.

On some blog somewhere I read a story about a girl who had a bedbug infestation so bad that she and her roommates threw everything out and moved. Yikes.