In response to a growing bed bug epidemic, a number of cities across the nation have adopted new measures to identify and eradicate bed bug infestations — and others, including New York, are exploring such moves.

In Boston and in San Francisco, regulations imposed in the past few years outline strict protocols for exterminating bed bugs and for disposing of infested mattresses and belongings.

“I do not think New Yorkers have a place to go now,” a City Council member who has been a vocal proponent of stricter bed bug regulations, Gale Brewer, said. Ms. Brewer, who has called for legislation governing the sale of used mattresses, last month sent a letter to the mayor’s office requesting a meeting of the agencies tasked with bed bug-related issues, including housing and health and mental hygiene.

“I do think the mayor’s office, led by the health department, should be coordinating these agencies,” she said in an interview, in which she called for a bed bug task force that would meet regularly and would lead a response to the city’s bed bug problem.

In San Francisco, bed bugs are considered a “public health nuisance” and in 2007, the city’s Department of Public Health published guidelines for controlling infestations. Under the guidelines, residents are discouraged from placing contaminated items on the curb without sealing the items in plastic and marking them as infested.

Regulations also require property managers to respond to bed bug complaints within 48 hours and to execute a plan of action within 72 hours. Exterminators are instructed to apply pesticide no fewer than three times — or at least once every two weeks, three times in a row.

Failure to comply with the rules carries a fine of up to $1,000 or up to five days in jail, according to the author of the guidelines, Johnson Ojo, who is a principal health inspector for San Francisco’s health department. Mr. Ojo said the rules were established to address an increase in bed bug complaints. Mr. Ojo said that in 2006, when the rules were put into effect, the department received 308 bed bug complaints, up from 24 in 2003. “We wanted to address the needs of our citizens without ignoring the problems that they wanted to see the officials address,” he said.

In Boston, a bed bug sighting warrants a visit from the city’s Inspection Services Department, which documents the problem. The property manager or owner then has to file an integrated pest management plan for dealing with the problem, and inspectors follow up until the case is closed.

Owners also must “treat all horizontally and vertically adjacent units,” according to the Inspectional Services Department, and those disposing of infested mattresses, clothing, or other belongings must use bright orange stickers to identify the infested items.

In New York City, the lack of similar regulation so far stems from a disagreement over which city agency should handle bed bugs, according to some critics, including Ms. Brewer.

In most cases, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development responds to complaints about bed bugs. The health department does not, since bed bugs are not known to transmit disease.

But Ms. Brewer said the health and mental hygiene department is ignoring the anxiety and mental health issues experienced by individuals whose homes are infested. “They will not take responsibility on the health front, period, end of discussion,” she said. “I’m told by the Commissioner of Health, ‘Gale, bed bugs don’t create any illness,'” she said. “They refuse to believe there is any physical harm from bed bugs.”

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Jessica Scaperotti, said agency officials know that bed bug infestations can be unpleasant and stressful, and she said the health department has focused on education and prevention through its fact sheet on bed bugs. Since the beginning of 2006, the health department has distributed 60,000 fact sheets in English and Spanish. “While bed bugs are a nuisance, they do not present a health risk, and they do not spread disease,” she said.