Daily Archives: June 22, 2017

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Bed bugs disappeared for 40 years, now they’re back with a vengeance. Here’s what to know – USA TODAY

Posted on June 22, 2017 by pcenet Click Here For Article

Our biggest fears can have our minds racing with scary images of bed bugs, but could you spot one? Angeli Kakade (@angelikakade) has the story. Buzz60

Recently fed adult bed bugs and just-hatched baby bed bugs. The white morsels are eggs.(Photo: M.F. Potter)

They're small, blood-sucking parasites perhaps living in the corners and crevices of our beds, feeding off us while we sleep.

Bed bugs, for decades, existed as myths,part of a rhyme our parents told us beforebed. Nowthey've made anunwelcomereturn and thosewho know the buggers best say it's high time we starttaking them seriously.

After all, getting a bed bug infestation "is a bit of a crap shoot," concededUniversity of Kentucky entomologist Michael Potter, meaning all of us are at risk.

Bed bugs used to be "incredibly common" in the early 20th century, Potter said. Back then, peopleroutinely checked for them and carried insecticide while traveling.

Read more: Is your city crawling with bed bugs?

Read more: Bedbugs kill woman, caretaker faces charges

Read more: Frustrated Maine man tosses bed bugs on city employee

But the introduction ofpotent insecticides killed most of our bed bugs, banishing them from our homes and consciousnesses. The bugs,Potter said, disappeared from about the mid-1950s to the late 1990s. They became so rare people could no longer identify them and a new generation of pest control professionals weren't equipped to fight them, noted University of Florida research scientistRoberto Pereira.

But then they came "roaring back in the last five to seven years," Potter said, creeping into our couches, our apartments and even into the hotel rooms of our NBA stars. The reason why is a mystery, although Pereira and Potter suggest it's because the once potent insecticide is now banned, people travel more and the bugs have grown resistant to modern insecticides.

Now we're left avoiding them. But there are ways. Here's what you need to know:

If you've never seen one, bed bugs are small, flat, reddish-brown bugs about the size of Abraham Lincoln's head on a penny.

They have an oblong shell and a tiny head. They typically live in areas where people sleep because at night they feed on our blood.

Unlike ticks or fleas, bed bugs don't latch on when they feed. They bite then scurry away to digest. "It's a creepy parasite," described Potter. "It's a little bit like Dracula."

Bed bugs have to feed on human blood about once a week, Potter said. However, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention claims they can live several months without a "blood meal."

Potter said bed bugs will adapt to your schedule. For instance, if you work the overnight shift, they'll learn to feed on you during the day.

The black spotting on this blanket are fecal marks left by bed bugs. Such spotting is a tell-tale sign of a bed-bug infestation.(Photo: M.F. Potter)

Bed bugs don't form colonies or nest, but they do aggregate, usually within about eight feet of where a person sleeps.

It's popular to find clusters of them on beds and recliners. Very skittish, bed bugs don't like movement, which is why they feed on us while we sleep.

Popular places for them to congregate are in the seams of mattresses, in bed frames, headboards, dressers andbehind wallpaper or clutter. A bed bug, notes the CDC, can travel more than 100 feet in a single night.

Bed bug bites look like raised welts and can cause serious allergic reactions in some people.

But a third of people don't experience any reaction. This only helps the infestation spread because people don't know they have the bugs.

Bed bug fecal spots on a bed.(Photo: M.F. Potter)

The stigma that a filthy home is more at risk of getting bed bugs just isn't true, Potter claims.

Unlike cockroaches, rats or flies, who feed on filth, bed bugs feed on blood. They only need a body. Bed bugs, the CDC said, have been found in five-star hotels and resorts.

Bed bugs are mostoften found in major metropolitan areas. However, over time, the pests have found their way to rural areas.

Anywhere there are close quarters, Potter said, the odds are better. It's a numbers game, he said, because the more people coming and going from a building increases the odds the bugs will find their way there.

Low-income housing also is a target because many people use old bedding and building staff may not take the steps to address the problem.

They don't carry disease

Bed bugs do not carry disease. At most, they're annoyances which cause itching and a lack of sleep.

Experts say people bring an infestation into a home after they've gone to a place with bed bugs and somehow brought them back to their house.

This can happen just about anywhere: At hotels, while ridingbusses and trains, vacationing on cruise ships and bunking in dorm rooms. They attach to stuff, Potter said, not people. He's seen them on the bottoms of shoes, baseball caps and even Beanie Babies.

But it's unlikely you'll get them from places where people don't sleep. The places where peopleget some shut-eye are most at risk.

Potter advises people check aroundhotel beds whenfirst checking in. Pull back the sheets, check the seam and corners of the mattress near the pillows and the headboard. Look for black spots, the bugs themselves or yellowish skins that bed bugs shed.

Try not to spread out in your hotel room. Don't place your open suitcaseagainst a wall. Try to keep it closed and set it on a hard surface. Don't spread clothes across the hotel room.

Potter said each of us needs to strike a balance as to how paranoid we'll be in avoiding bed bugs.

"You got to be careful because you take all the joy out life," he said. "People just have to decide how apprehensive do they want to be."

Follow Sean Rossman on Twitter: @SeanRossman

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Bed bugs disappeared for 40 years, now they're back with a vengeance. Here's what to know - USA TODAY

Posted in Bed Bugs Florida | Comments Off on Bed bugs disappeared for 40 years, now they’re back with a vengeance. Here’s what to know – USA TODAY

Bed Bugs: An Expensive Pest Problem That Low-Income Renters Often Pay For – Texas Public Radio

Posted on June 22, 2017 by pcenet Click Here For Article

Bed bugs can be especially overwhelming for low-income families. The pests are drawn to apartment complexes with lots of people packed into small spaces, and they cause pain, anxiety and financial stress.

Some apartment complexestreat theinfestations, then send the bill straight to the tenants.

Something Wasnt Right

When her little girls started waking up each morning with red welts on their faces, Shelby Rodriguez was worried. It was summer though, so sheassumed theywere mosquito bites.Besides, she had already checked their mattresses thoroughly and had seen no sign of bed bugs.

But the bites kept appearing and she couldn't shake the nagging feeling that something was in the house. So she pulled her toddlers' bunk bed away from the wall and investigated with a flashlight.

"And that's when I found them, so all along the frame, the floorboards and then in the crevices and the screw holes of the beds is where they were hiding out. From eggs, to the early stages of the bed bugs, and to the ones that had been feasting on us which you could tell because they were the darker, brownish-red color, she says.

Taking Action

So Rodriguez and her husband called the apartment manager to report the problem, they lived in Euless at the time.After a week with no action, they showed up in person, requesting pest control, still nothing.Three weeks later,they went to the Texas Tenants' Union for advice, thenmade a formal request in writing. At this point, the bedbugs were everywhere. They threw out two beds, a crib, all the mattresses and their living room set.

"Everything that we had tossed we had only had for about three months. So that was a few thousand dollars that went out the window, she says.

The apartment complex did respond to the written request and treated theapartment for bedbugs. The Rodriguez family was shaken though, and didn't want to finish out their lease. The complex denied their request to leave earlyand charged them the final three months rent.

A Low-Income Issue

Mike Merchant isan urban entomologist for theTexas A&M Agrilife Extension Service. He says a lot of North Texastenants just like Rodriguez are fighting bed bugs. Unlikeher, many of them are stuck paying for the treatment themselves -- or just going without. That's because many rental companies have added a page to their lease that puts responsibility on the renter.

"They're usually asked to sign a statement saying they've inspected the apartment and there are no bed bugs in their apartment, he says.

Merchant says there's just one problem with that.

"Even a professional cannot go into a freshly painted, cleaned up, empty apartment and be able to tell whether there's bed bugs lurking in the walls."

The reason why is pretty unsettling. Bed bugs have no interest in empty apartments because there's nothing to eat. They're hiding out, waiting.

"They've got us to feed on and it has nothing to do with how sanitary we are, or aren't, Merchant says. It's just we're providing blood for them at night, and all they need is a place to hide during the day."

Trying To Fix An Expensive Problem

So tenants move in, report that their apartment is clear, even though bed bugs may just be out of sight, then discover them weeks or months later. But they've signedthatextra page on thelease, so the cost of extermination is on them. It can run from $300-$1,500. And that's not an option for many low-income families. Merchant says they'll often try to treat the problem themselves, which doesn't work. Then some families give up, and move out. Bringing the bed bugs with them.

"For someone with money, it's going to be frustrating, but is something you can take care of. But if you don't have enough money to pay the pest control, then you're just going to be stuck with it, Merchant says. Perhaps for years.

And that's something Shelby Rodriguez wouldn't wish on anyone.

"I mean my kids were sleeping on the floor at one point, crying, not understanding what's going on. So you feel powerless, and everywhere you go, you just feel like you're on the lookout for bed bugs, she says.

And even 10 months later, settled into a new, pest-freeapartment in Bedford, she doesn't expect that feeling to go away anytime soon.

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Bed Bugs: An Expensive Pest Problem That Low-Income Renters Often Pay For - Texas Public Radio

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