NY still bugs some people

I read "NY still bugs some people" by weekly ST Essay online.


a. The words I did not know.

1)creature

Sentence:
Earlier this year, I read an article in a newspaper, which said, considering the many creatures that had attacked New York over the years in movies, it was surprising that when a real creature should attack and terrorize the city, it should come in so tiny a form as the bedbug.

Definition:
living thing;anything that is living, such as an animal, fish, or insect, but not a plant:

Synonyms:
baby, being, bird,

2)bedbug

Sentence:
same as above

Definition:
an insect that sucks blood and lives in dirty houses, especially in beds

Synonyms:
bear hug, debug, earplug, firebug,

3)resident

Sentence:
Surely the residents of a city that has been mauled by King Kong and Godzilla and various forms of aliens, dinosaurs, mutants, and zombies could handle the bedbug.

Definition:
someone who lives or stays in a particular place:

Synonyms:
denizen, dweller, habitant,

4)maul

Sentence:
same as above

Definition:
if an animal mauls someone, it injures them badly by tearing their flesh:

Synonyms:
handle roughly


c. Comments about the essay.

Bedbugs are called Nan-kin-musi in Japan. I read about English name in this essay for the first. I thought English name is simpler than Japanese name, and I searched Nan-kin-musi by some dictionaries. Then I knew its official name is Toko-jirami in Japan. Toko means bed in English. Si(-ji)rami means bugs in English, too. This was interesting for me. I was grad a little that there is a same image between people who live in different countries. I want to know another English name of Nan-kin-musi.