Bed Bugs – the New House Herpes

By Nick Gromicko and Rob London

 

Bedbugs are small, wingless, rust-colored parasites that feed on the blood of sleeping humans and other warm-blooded animals. Inspectors should learn the telltale signs of these pests and be capable of providing information to their clients.

 

Bedbugs were diminished to an historical footnote after their near-eradication in the 1950’s, but they are reemerging in a big way. At the EPA’s National Bed Bug Summit in 2009, researchers decided that the parasite’s revival is more appropriately termed a pandemic rather than an epidemic, noting its rapid spread across large regions. But in areas hardest hit by the outbreak, some prefer the moniker “house herpes”. The United States has seen a 50-fold increase in bed bug infestations over the last five years, according to the National Pest Management Association. An entomologist told MSNBC “it’s like the return of the wooly mammoth”, as many of his peers had never seen a bed bug in their career. The outbreak has affected most parts of North America and Europe, especially in urban areas. 

 

Researchers believe bed bugs have roused from a half-century of hibernation for two reasons; the termination of the use of the pesticide DDT, and a rise in international travel. DDT, a powerful synthetic pesticide, was used widely in agriculture until a public outcry concerning its safety lead to a US ban of the chemical in 1972 and subsequent international bans. Unbeknownst to the environmentalists of the time, these laws would permit future outbreaks to grow unchecked, which is precisely what happened when travel increased from countries where bed bugs were never subjugated, such as India.

 

Hotbeds of international travel, such as New York City, have hosted the bulk of the carnage. The bugs hitch from country to country in suitcases and creep into hotel rooms, where other guests are then exposed and spread the parasites to movie theatres, cabs, busses, hospitals, houses and everywhere in between. In New York City, bed bug reports increased 800% from 2008 to 2009, a year in which the Department of Housing Preservation and Development received 13,152 bug infestation complaints.

 

The unpleasantness of a typical rodent or insect extermination is largely the fee charged by the exterminator, but with bedbugs, this fee is just one piece of a greater nightmare. Because bedbugs are adept at hiding almost anywhere, an alarming quantity of possessions, from curtains to books and picture frames, must be discarded or quarantined. In one posh New York City rental tower, a tenant was forced to part with carpets, bedding, curtains, 20 cashmere sweaters, an Armani suit, a couch, a headboard, a night table, a bedframe and an exercise bike, according to the New York Daily News. Other victims have had to throw away their books unless they are willing to inspect each one page-by-page. Some possessions may be salvaged if they are sealed in special casing long enough for the bed bugs to die, which can takes many months. During this time, residents may be forced to take up temporary residence elsewhere.

 

Fortunately, the health dangers posed by bed bugs seem to be limited to temporary skin irritation and inflammation akin to mosquito bites. There are no known cases of disease transmission from bed bugs to humans, despite the fact that the parasites seem just as capable of doing so as other parasites that transmit disease, such as fleas and ticks. Anaphylactic shock, however, may be experienced by a small percentage of the population and measures should be taken to prevent bacterial infection of bitten areas.

 

Detection

Adult bed bugs are flat, apple-seed sized with rusty colored oval bodies. Newly hatched bed bugs are semi-transparent, light tan in color, and the size of a poppy seed. Yet due to their elusive nature, their presence is usually discovered through peripheral clues rather than seeing the bugs themselves. Some of these signs include fecal spots, blood smears, crushed bugs or the itchy bumps that may result from bites. Bugs may be disturbed while feeding and leave a cluster of bumps, or they may bite in a row, marking the path of a blood vessel. The parasites emit a characteristic musty odor that can be offensive in severe infestations, but it has allowed for the implementation of dogs in bed bug detection. Properly trained dogs can find bed bugs in wall voids, furniture gaps, and other places that humans may overlook, and in doing so they focus the area in which exterminators must spray.

 

Inspectors may want to recommend the following tactics before homeowners hire a bedbug exterminator:

-       Thoroughly wash, vacuum or clean all surfaces and bedding.

-       Wash or dry-clean bedding and affected clothing. Use hot water and a dryer on the hottest setting whenever possible.

-       Vacuum mattresses, seal them in plastic and leave them outside in the hot sun for as long as possible.

-       Steam clean carpets.

-       Remove bed skirts, as they provide easy access for the bugs to travel from the floor to your bed. If you must have bed skirts, make sure they do not reach the floor.

-       Move the bed a small distance away from the wall. Bed bugs cannot fly, but they can climb walls in order to fall onto the bed.

-       Place furniture legs in tin cans, since the bugs cannot climb metal. They also have difficulty climbing glass or crossing petroleum jelly.

-       Place a strip of duct tape at the base of furniture, sticky side out. This tactic can be used to confirm the presence of bed bugs because it will trap them in place.

-       Spray cracks and crevices with an insecticide designed to control bedbugs. Follow the label directions carefully. Do not treat bedding with insecticide.

 

Homeowners can limit their chances of bed bug exposure by only purchasing new furniture, as stowaway bugs can hide in chairs and mattresses. Hostels, hotels and motels host many travelers and are obvious breeding grounds for bed bugs, and many hostels ban sleeping bags for this reason. Unfortunately, person-to-person contact is difficult to avoid.