Cases of bed bug infestation are still on the rise, especially in these summer months. Tourists have to be aware of the mattresses they sleep on. I mean, it’s creepy to see a bug as big as one shown in the photo (that’s a really huge one!) but bed bugs generally come in smaller sizes, and yes, they are still just as bothersome.

Since the new millennium began, pest-control companies have reported a 70 percent or higher increase in bed-bug calls, and some entomologists predict that rate to continue or even grow. “No place is immune. No person is immune. The insect has the ability to appear almost at will,” said Orkin Inc. technical director Frank Meek. Mr. Meek, after being bitten by a bed bug in an Orlando, Fla., hotel in 1999, became a pioneer in identifying and combating the resurgence of the pest. Bedbugs were fairly common before World War II, but practically disappeared in the United States with the widespread use of DDT and other powerful insecticides. The shift to short-lived, more environmentally-friendly pesticides and an increase in international travel are generally touted as the main reasons for the bloodsuckers’ comeback, Clemson University urban entomology Professor Eric Benson said. Mr. Benson said he went through undergraduate and graduate school without ever seeing a live bedbug.

Most of the cases Mr. Benson’s seen in South Carolina occurred along the coast — the state’s leading tourism destination. And Randy Bishop, owner of Charleston, S.C.-based All Pro Pest Management, said bedbug calls increase in the summer, the peak season for tourists. John Dunbar, technical director at Terminix in Columbia, said they’ve averaged a least one bedbug call a week somewhere in the Carolinas for the last year and half. “They’re back. They’re on the rise, and people need to realize that,” Mr. Benson said.No one counts the number of infestations nationwide. Because the insects have not been known to spread serious diseases, the federal government does not require city or state public health departments to report the number of cases they come across.

Orkin says “bedbugs” is the No. 1 search term it registers on www.orkincommercial.com, and reports that the number of states in which its exterminators have done battle with the bugs jumped from 35 in 2003 to 48 now.

American Pest Management, a company the White House uses for some of its pest-control needs, reports that its revenue from bedbug treatments has soared more than fivefold since 2003, company President Jay Nixon said.

Another unscientific measure of the problem is an assortment of Web sites operated as victim-support groups, such as www.bedbugger.com, where the afflicted trade stories and tips.

Travel-related sites such as www.hotelchatter.com and www.tripadvisor.com devote sections to travelers’ accounts of the bedbug encounters they endured in hotels across the United States and overseas.

Garage sales and eBay-purchased items also can be a source. Once inside, they make themselves at home not only in mattresses, box springs, closets, drawers and books, but also in children’s toys, telephones, showerheads, microwave ovens, radios, speakers and fireplaces.

The bugs also show no preference in their prey — any warm-blooded creature will do.

via Independent Mail

Tags: bed-bugs, bedbugs, bitten_by_a_bed_bug, MATTRESS News, MATTRESS Safety, MATTRESS Tips, mattress-bugs, pest_control_companies, public_health_departments

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 10th, 2007 at 10:47 am and is filed under MATTRESS News, MATTRESS Safety, MATTRESS Tips.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.