Goodnite...
Sleep tite...
Posted on 01/25/2004 4:50:14 AM PST by sarcasm
It's time to sleep tight. The bedbugs are back, and they do bite.
The ominous critters from the quaint bedtime rhyme all but disappeared from the United States in the 1940s with the advent of powerful pesticides such as DDT.
But less aggressive extermination methods and increased international travel in recent years have given the vampiresque vermin another chance to suck blood as people slumber, pest control experts say.
"We used to get one or two calls a year," said Cindy Mannes, spokeswoman for the National Pest Management Association. "Now we're getting four calls a week. Their only food source is a blood meal, which is essentially us."
Bedbugs, or Cimex lectularius, surfaced in the late '90s at hotels in Orlando, New York, San Francisco and other travel hubs, said Frank Meek, national technical manager for Atlanta-based Orkin Inc. Now the wingless insects -- the size of an apple seed -- have been found in all but seven states: Alaska, Idaho, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota and South Dakota.
They're creeping into dorm rooms, condos, apartment buildings and houses, quadrupling Orkin's bedbug business last year. "I've even had infestations on aircraft and cruise ships," Meek said.
Atlanta-based Arrow Exterminators started to get calls for bedbugs last spring for the first time in years, said Rick Bell, vice president for technical services. Most involved single-family homes of people who had recently traveled overseas.
Bedbugs appeared last fall in a room at a resort in Vermont, said the resort owner, who would not be named. After several pesticide treatments, the insects vanished. The owner said a nearby resort also reported bedbugs.
"There is a reluctance to talk publicly and acknowledge in our industry that it is becoming a problem," he said. "It's a PR issue."
Not just in beds
The American Hotel & Lodging Association would not say how widespread the problem is, but spokeswoman Tia Gordon said the group "encourages the entire hotel community to continually evaluate its existing housekeeping policies and practices as a precautionary measure."
Georgia is not immune, notably metro Atlanta and Athens, which draw many global travelers, said University of Georgia entomologist Nancy Hinkle. "We've definitely been getting more calls in the last couple of years," she said.
A quarter-inch long, bedbugs are brown and flat. Their saliva numbs victims' skin, enabling them to sip blood without interrupting a snore. They triple in size after feeding, often leaving excrement on sheets. The welts they create can itch and bleed, sometimes causing inflammation or secondary infections.
When hordes of bedbugs are around, they give off a sickly sweet soda pop smell, entomologists say.
Bedbugs don't always stick to the confines of their name. They thrive in mattresses, bed frames and headboards, but they also reside in window casings, picture frames, dressers and chairs -- even behind wallpaper, under carpet and inside electrical outlets. And they'll drink from Fido or Fluffy if the pets are nearby.
They're nocturnal, hiding in cracks and crannies by day and crawling toward the nearest warm body at night.
Despite their association with filth, bedbugs don't care if they stay in flophouses or posh resorts. Experts say their presence has more to do with suitcases than sanitation.
"You may see them as much at a five-star hotel as a two-star hotel," Mannes said. "They're great at hitchhiking. You might take them in your luggage, your shoes or a box you're carrying."
Bedbugs don't seem to transmit disease, but health officials haven't completely ruled that out. Researchers at the University of Toronto reported last month that bedbugs can be infected with plague, tularemia and Q fever and carry those pathogens for long periods. They may potentially play a minor role in transmission of hepatitis B.
Disease risk unknown
Bedbugs are closely related to reduviid, or "kissing," bugs. Those bugs can cause Chagas' disease, a sometimes fatal malady causing brain, heart and digestive problems mostly in Central and South America.
If bedbugs are interrupted while feeding on one person and quickly move to another person, they can theoretically infect the second person with germs from the first, said Phil Koehler, an urban entomologist at the University of Florida. But they usually drink their fill of one victim and crawl away.
While there is no proof that bedbugs spread disease, said Bill Brogdon, an entomologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there is also no proof they don't. "That's the best we know now, but we have to be prepared every day to be shown something different," he said.
Brogdon is studying bedbugs for another reason: to see whether they are becoming resistant to permethrin and other pesticides used on bed nets in countries with malaria. Bed nets are designed to protect against malaria-carrying mosquitoes, but have also kept out bedbugs -- until recently. In Tanzania and elsewhere, Brogdon said, many people have stopped using bed nets, claiming they no longer work against bedbugs.
Experts say bedbugs are common in parts of Africa and Europe but may also be found in Asia and South America.
In the United States, pest control companies sometimes use permethrin or its chemical cousin, deltramethrin, to kill bedbugs. Some also use malathion, silica aerogels or other pesticides. For mattresses and upholstered furniture, Orkin and other companies prefer steam cleaning. A special high-temperature, low-moisture machine can vaporize bedbugs in fabric folds and seams, Meek said.
Decades ago, exterminators applied broad streams of DDT or other powerful pesticides to get rid of most pests, wiping out cockroaches, ants, flies and other creatures -- including bedbugs -- in one sweep. But DDT, a probable human carcinogen linked to the thinning of bird eggshells, was banned in the 1970s.
Today, "integrated pest management" calls for target-specific baits or traps with low doses of less potent pesticides that usually attract only the pest that has been reported.
"It's terrific for the environment and the general safety of the public, but it's also good for other bugs," Meek said.
Most pest control experts say homeowners shouldn't battle bedbugs alone, since they can lurk for weeks after seeming to disappear. But calling in the pros can be costly: Pest control services may require several visits, costing $150 to $1,000 or more.
"It often requires a pretty intensive search, find and destroy mission to get rid of them," Koehler said.
Do-it-yourselfers can try a few strategies:
• Suck the bedbugs up with a vacuum cleaner or direct a blow dryer into their nest. "They really dislike heat," Koehler said.
• Move beds away from the wall, don't let dust ruffles touch the ground, and place each foot of the bed in a jar of machine oil. "Make your bed a little island in the bedroom," Hinkle said. "People did these things before we had pesticides."
• To keep bedbugs out of your home, vacuum suitcases outdoors after a trip. "It sounds weird," Mannes said. "But they really like the crevices."
Goodnite...
Sleep tite...
Meet Mr. Bedbug.
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