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Each night a couple years ago, Louis Salgado fell asleep knowing he would wake up a few hours later itching all over his body.

The West Covina apartment he and his late wife shared for two decades was infested with bed bugs for the better part of 2015.

I couldnt sleep, Salgado, 64, said recently as he recalled the most uncomfortable experience of his life. It got to the point that Id be up in the middle of the night with a flashlight and Id be seeing them crawl all over the carpet and Id try to kill them, try to stomp on them tried whatever I had available.

Turns out bed bugs, those not-so-cuddly insects our parents mentioned when they tucked us in at night and that we didnt give a second thought to, are very real these days.

And, yes, they bite.

Indeed, experts say the reddish-brown bed bug that is about the size of a grain of rice has made an extraordinary comeback after a roller coaster of a century.

In the early decades of the 1900s, the bug was widespread across the U.S. But the advent of DDT during World War II changed that, killing off huge numbers in the 1940s and 50s.

We thought it was gone forever, said Dini Miller, professor of entomology at Virginia Tech University. When you think about it now, that was kind of stupid.

After lying low for decades, the dreaded insect that was mentioned in medieval European literature is enjoying a renaissance of sorts. Since 2000 its numbers have multiplied.

Its just exploded, Miller said.

Today theyre everywhere.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, theyre in apartments, houses, shelters, college dormitories, cruise ships, buses and trains. They typically live within an 8-foot crawl of where people sleep.

And if you thought your car was a refuge from the blood-sucking pests, guess again. Miller said bed bugs are fond of automobiles for good reason.

The food comes and sits down on a regular basis, she said. And everybody gets something to eat.

The crazy thing is, you dont know when your blood is being slurped through the bed bugs version of a straw an elongated beak for a meal. The CDC says the bug injects an anesthetic and anticoagulant that renders its bite painless.

Itchy, bite marks do appear in a few days. They are similar to marks from a mosquito or flea bite, a slightly swollen and red area, the CDC said.

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Scratching sometimes causes infection. But many people have no reaction at all.

In any event, bed bugs arent considered dangerous.

They do not transmit any diseases, said Dong-Hwan Choe, an urban entomologist and assistant professor of entomology at UC Riverside.

Choe is working to develop a device that can detect bed bugs for hotel chains and other businesses.

It has to be simple. It has to be cheap, Choe said. It has to be small so that it can be placed without being noticed by the people staying in the hotel.

Disease bearing or not, the thought of being dined on is enough to make ones skin crawl.

Choe said the bugs feed mostly at nighttime, which creeps people out.

And dont think you can fool them if you work a graveyard shift and sleep during the day.

In a 2015 article titled, Your Guide to Bed Bugs, University of Kentucky entomologist Michael Potter said the pest will adjust its schedule to yours.

Sleeping with the lights on is also not likely to deter hungry bed bugs, Potter wrote.

Potter said a feeding takes three to 10 minutes. Then the bug crawls back into its hiding place to digest the meal. Its flat body enables it to hide in tiny crevices in mattresses, box springs and bed frames.

When it comes to the creep-out factor, there is at least one thing in our favor: unlike other insects, bed bugs cant fly, Choe said.

But theyre speedy. The CDC says the bugs can crawl more than 100 feet in a night.

The nations big bad bed bug blow-up can be traced to a number of factors, experts say.

For one, DDT is long gone. The EPA banned it in 1972.

Even so, the bugs were building up resistance to DDT, Miller said. And, gradually, they are building up a defense against insecticides being used today.

She said some have developed thick, protective skins.

Others produce enzymes that break down toxic ingredients and render insecticides harmless.

We like to call those the hard-drinking bugs, she said.

Still other bed bugs have mutated.

They meet, fall in love and make other genetically immune babies, Miller said.

Perhaps we have ourselves to blame, too.

With the bugs out of sight and out of mind for decades, we have been slow to rally against them.

Plus, we travel a lot these days to faraway places, experts say. And the bugs are good at hitchhiking a ride home on our luggage.

Los Angeles is the nations sixth worst metro area for bed bugs, according to Atlanta-based Orkin. In the firms 2017 ranking, L.A. followed Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Chicago, New York and Columbus, Ohio.

For the Orkin survey, the L.A. area was defined as Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties.

Miller noted Terminix puts out an annual ranking, too. In its most recent report, Detroit was No. 1 on the list. L.A. was No. 4.

You have to take all of this with a grain of salt, Miller said. But, its one of the few indicators that we have.

During the fiscal year ending June 30, Los Angeles County received nearly 1,500 bed-bug complaints about 19.5 percent fewer than the previous year according to data from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, which does not track Long Beach, Pasadena or Vernon because those cities have their own health departments.

Sixty-two of those complaints originated from communities within the San Gabriel Valley, the data showed.

Between July 1, 2016 and June 30, 2017, the Pasadena Environmental Health Division received 25 bed-bug complaints, according to city data. It received 26 complaints during the same period the previous year.

Not including Pasadena, residents in El Monte filed the most bed-bug complaints 15 with the county during the year ending June 30, according to the county data.

Choe, the expert from UC Riverside, said densely populated cities such as El Monte are more prone to infestations than sparsely populated ones.

They tend to have more frequent problems with bed bugs because they have more units and more people living close together, Choe said.

Some apartment units are treated repeatedly.

That may seem over the top. But its in line with the industry experience.

Salgado, who moved to La Puente earlier this year, said his West Covina apartment was only treated once and once was enough.

They spray your mattress, we had to throw couches away, everything was infested, he said. It was a big ordeal.

According to a national survey, two to three treatments is typical when insecticide is sprayed.

Survey results were detailed in Bed Bugs Across America, a 2015 report by University of Kentucky entomology professors Potter and Kenneth Haynes, and Jim Fredericks, vice president of technical services for the National Pest Management Association.

More expensive heat treatments are more likely to knock out an infestation in one visit, the report stated.

Because heat treatment can take most of the day, said Glen Ramsey, Orkin technical services manager, conventional treatment is more common.

Heat treatment takes longer than conventional treatment, as the affected areas need to be warmed up to 125 degrees, held for one hour and then cooled back down, Ramsey said.

The report said treatment costs averaged $1,225 for single-family homes and $3,128 for multifamily buildings in 2015, though some apartment managers spent as much as $50,000.

That places Plymouth West at the high end of the range. Davis said LOMCO spent $400,000 for treatments there from 2013 to 2016.

Before an exterminator ever steps foot in the door, extensive preparations are made.

Residents strip beds of sheets and blankets, empty dressers and closets, and wash and bag clothes.

The key is to put them through the dryer for an hour at high temperature, Long Beach resident Gary Shelton said.

Shelton had to leave his apartment for several hours. He returned the same day. Other renters spent a night in a motel.

Underscoring the difficulty involved in eradicating bed bugs, Sheltons unit was sprayed three times. Even then exterminators didnt get everything.

They said they couldnt get the bed bugs out of the bed frame, Shelton said.

So he threw it out and bought a new one.

Life is getting back to normal now. Its been anything but since that fateful day in late November.

A friend was over and noticed a live bug in the middle of the bed spread, Shelton said.

He was stunned. I wasnt getting bites that I was aware of, he said. But he promptly called the apartment manager.

After seeing one, he started seeing a lot more bugs.

Once you see them, youll see them in your mind, Shelton said. Youll see them everywhere.

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BEDBUG (NOT SO FUN) FACTS

Size: 1 mm to 7 mm, roughly the size of Lincolns head on a penny

Color: Reddish brown, similar in coloration to an apple seed

Food: Human blood

Home: Within 8 feet of sleeping quarters. Known to live in apartments, houses, hotels, shelters, cruise ships, buses, trains and dormitories

Travel: Cant fly or jump, but can crawl fast up to 100 feet per day

Bite: Similar to mosquito, flea bites; does not carry disease

Evidence of presence: Bedbugs in folds of mattresses and sheets, rusty-colored blood spots; a sweet, musty odor

Treatment: insecticide, heat; significant preparation required of home occupants in advance; professional treatment recommended

No-nos: Do not spray bed sheets, blankets or clothes; do not apply bleach or alcohol. Applications of rubbing alcohol have sparked fires.

Sources: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Your Guide to Bed Bugs, by Michael Potter; news reports

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Bed bugs make unwelcome return to Southern California - The San Gabriel Valley Tribune

RALEIGH, N.C., Aug. 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --Delta Five offers an innovative and effective solution to combat bed bugs. The company is the inventor of the Automated Insect Monitoring System, which has a proven 98 percent success rate at detecting bed bugs and other insects while preventing pest encounters. The devices are already in locations across the United States and around the globe. Delta Five's bed bug monitoring system couldn't have come at a better time. Cities across the country from New York to Southern California and everywhere in between are seeing an increase in bed bug infestations, and the pesticides known to treat them aren't always working effectively.

In the 1940s and 50s, DDT was used to kill off the widespread bed bug problem, and many thought they were gone forever. But after a few decades of being dormant, bed bug infestations have had a resurgence. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes bed bugs are found in hotels, apartments, houses, college dormitories, and modes of transportation like buses and trains. DDT was banned by the EPA in 1972, but even so, bed bugs had started forming a resistance to it as they are today with other insecticides.

This is echoed in a research study Delta Five has been conducting on their Automated Insect Monitoring System. The company has been monitoring and tracking 762 installations across five branded hotels chains, two casinos, and one beachfront property. What Delta Five found was that even after these locations received the typical pesticide treatment for bugs, the monitoring system caught bugs in 3-4 percent of places, and nearly 1.5 percent of the time it was bed bugs that were caught. Even more impressive was within the first four months when the bed bug lure was new, the monitoring system caught bugs that were not seen or caught first by hotel staff, guests and others. Some locations even went as far as to use the devices with the original lure for 120 days, well-past the lure expiration, and it was still catching bugs.

The lure is simply bed bug pheromones used to draw in the bed bugs but it also draws in other similar insects like silverfish, roaches, fruit flies, and carpet beetles, among other insects. Some locations have found that placing more devices in a room that has caught a bug is a better prevention measure than spraying the pesticides, which can be harmful to people and the environment.

"Using the Delta Five Automated Insect Monitoring System, hoteliers are catching more bed bugs and other insects and doing a better job at prevention while saving money on costly inspections, room down time, and pesticide treatments," says Dr. Jason Janet, CEO of Delta Five. "The Automated Insect Monitoring System is the first and only 24/7, safe, Wi-Fi-enabled bed bug solution. It's discreet and compact and provides unprecedented early detection. Most important, the system is organic and chemical-free, protecting the health of people and the environment."

The system is also compact and easy to use. It attaches easily to out-of-sight surfaces and provides remote 24/7 monitoring with real-time notification. It utilizes an all-natural, odorless lure to attract bed bugs and other insects, which are noticed by the device's internal cameras that, in turn, activate the traps. The WiFi enabled system immediately notifies users via email or SMS. Users can simultaneously track thousands of sites, view images of captured pests and see alerts on the Delta Five dashboard. Because the system traps the insects, disposal is also easy.

The system provides a cost-savings to those that use it, and maybe just as important, it saves their reputation. Hotel guests are likely to change hotels in the event of finding what they believe to be a bed bug and potentially complain on social media. Once a hotel has a reputation of having issues with bed bugs, they can lose potential guests. Hotels that are innovating with the Delta Five system are staying ahead of the curve with early detection and prevention while limiting their guests exposure to pesticides.

To learn more about Delta Five's Automated Insect Monitoring System, visit DeltaFive.com.

About Delta Five

Delta Five is innovating hospitality as well as property-and pest-management with automated technologies that enhance guest and resident satisfaction while boosting business profits and reputation. For more information, visit DeltaFive.com.

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As Hoteliers Look to Combat Bed Bug Rise Delta Five Offers Researched Solution - Markets Insider

Gary Shelton tossed clothes, a wooden bed frame, a directors chair and cardboard boxes stuffed with papers from his community-activist campaigns.

Other clothes the 68-year-old Long Beach man washed, dried and bagged.

Then he waited. And waited. And waited.

An exterminator sprayed his ninth-floor Plymouth West apartment three times for bedbugs December, January and February.

If there is any evidence of bedbugs, they treat again, he said.

Finally, in March, Shelton was given the all-clear.

Its like living out of an overnight case for three months, he said of the lengthy process.

Comeback bug

Experts say the reddish-brown bedbug, which is about the size and shape of an apple seed, has made an extraordinary comeback after a roller coaster of a century.

In the early decades of the 1900s, the bug was widespread across the U.S. But the advent of DDT during World War II changed that, killing off huge numbers in the 1940s and 50s.

We thought it was gone forever, said Dini Miller, professor of entomology at Virginia Tech. When you think about it now, that was kind of stupid.

After lying low for decades, the dreaded insect that was mentioned in medieval European literature has been enjoying a renaissance of sorts since 2000.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, theyre in apartments, houses, shelters, college dormitories, cruise ships, buses and trains. They typically live within an 8-foot crawl of where people sleep.

If you thought your car was a refuge from the blood-sucking pests, guess again. Miller said bedbugs are fond of automobiles for good reason.

The food comes and sits down on a regular basis, she said. And everybody gets something to eat.

But you dont know when your blood is being slurped through the bedbugs version of a straw an elongated beak for a meal. The Centers for Disease Control say the bug injects an anesthetic and anticoagulant that renders its bite painless.

Itchy bite marks can appear in a few days. They are similar to marks from a mosquito or flea bite a slightly swollen and red area, the Centers for Disease Control said.

They do not transmit any diseases, said Dong-Hwan Choe, an urban entomologist and assistant professor of entomology at UC Riverside.

The bugs feed mostly at nighttime, which creeps people out, Choe said.

And dont think you can fool them if you work a graveyard shift and sleep during the day.

Sleeping with the lights on is also not likely to deter hungry bed bugs, University of Kentucky entomologist Michael Potter wrote in a 2015 article, Your Guide to Bed Bugs.

A feeding takes three to 10 minutes, according to Potter. Then the bug crawls back into its hiding place to digest the meal. Its flat body enables it to hide in tiny crevices in mattresses, box springs and bed frames.

Unlike other insects, bed bugs cant fly. But they can crawl more than 100 feet in a night.

The nations big bad bedbug blow-up can be traced to a number of factors, experts say: DDT is long gone; the EPA banned it in 1972.

Even so, the bugs were building up resistance to DDT, Miller said. And they are building up a defense against insecticides being used today.

Some have developed thick, protective skins. Others produce enzymes that break down toxic ingredients and render insecticides harmless.

We like to call those the hard drinking bugs, she said.

Still other bedbugs have mutated.

They meet, fall in love and make other genetically immune babies, Miller said.

Inland Empire bedbugs in decline

Bedbug outbreaks reported to the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health have actually gone down in recent years, according to spokeswoman Lana Cao.

In 2015, the department received 188 calls regarding bedbugs. In 2016, that had dropped to 163. And as of July 17, the department had heard only 71 complaints.

Cao suspects educational programs offered by the departments mosquito and vector control program are part of why reported outbreaks are declining in San Bernardino County.

The education is super helpful, she said. They let you know what they look like and what to look for.

Still, thats of little comfort to those covered in itchy bites delivered by surprise bedroom guests.

Once you get an infestation, its pretty bad because they spread like wildfire, Cao said. They dont really transmit any diseases. God forbid if it does.

Riverside Countys Department of Environmental Health does not track calls related to bedbugs, but provides educational information and directs callers to pest control companies instead. But calls for service in Riverside County have been going up for Green Dog Pest Service, according to owner Deanna Sparks Kjorlien.

Its gone up, for our inspection business, 50 percent over the past year, Kjorlien said. Were getting twice as many calls for Riverside County.

Her company, which was founded in Hemet, but moved to Solano Beach earlier this year, uses bug-sniffing dogs to detect bedbugs.

She attributes the rise to changes in bedbugs and changes in Inland Empire residents:

The bugs are building up a resistance (to insecticide), and theres a lot more travel, Kjorlien said. Any time you have travelers and anyone who has their luggage with other luggage, going from hotel to hotel, the nature of bed bugs is that theyre hitchhikers.

And even when Inland Empire residents are staying home, more are living closer to other people.

Were not all single-family residences in the Inland Empire any more, Kjorlien said. Theres lots of apartments and shared-wall houses.

And thats especially true at senior living communities, such as the Plymouth West community in Long Beach.

They go from apartment to apartment to see their friends. Or they go to the shared dining hall, Kjorlien said of residents. If one person gets infested, its spread. If you dont get all the apartments treated, everyone gets them.

L.A. region a hot spot

As for the region overall, Los Angeles is the nations sixth-worst metro area for bedbugs, according to Atlanta-based Orkin. In the pest control firms 2017 ranking, L.A. followed Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Chicago, New York and Columbus, Ohio.

For the Orkin survey, the L.A. area was defined as Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties.

Miller noted Terminix puts out an annual ranking, too. In its most recent report, Detroit was No. 1 on the list. L.A. was No. 4.

You have to take all of this with a grain of salt, Miller said. But, its one of the few indicators that we have.

Theres no denying that Sheltons home is in one of the hardest-hit properties.

Davis said 84 of Plymouth Wests 196 units have been treated in the past 12 months.

Some units have been treated multiple times.

A friend was over and noticed a live bug in the middle of the bed spread, Shelton said.

He was stunned. I wasnt getting bites that I was aware of, he said. But he promptly called the apartment manager.

After seeing one, he started seeing a lot more bugs.

Once you see them, youll see them in your mind, Shelton said. Youll see them everywhere.

Staff writer Beau Yarbrough contributed to this story.

Size:1mm to 7mm, roughly the size of Lincolns head on a penny

Color:Reddish brown, similar in coloration to apple seed

Food:Human blood

Home:Within 8 feet of sleeping quarters. Known to live in apartments, houses, hotels, shelters, cruise ships, buses, trains and dormitories

Travel:Cant fly or jump, but can crawl fast up to 100 feet per day

Bite:Similar to mosquito, flea bites; does not carry disease

Evidence of presence: Bedbugs in folds of mattresses and sheets, rusty-colored blood spots; a sweet, musty odor

Treatment:insecticide, heat; significant preparation required of home occupants in advance; professional treatment recommended

No-nos:Do not spray bed sheets, blankets or clothes; do not apply bleach or alcohol. Applications of rubbing alcohol have sparked fires.

Sources:U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Your Guide to Bed Bugs, by Michael Potter; news reports

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Bedbugs make an unwelcome comeback in Southern California - Press-Enterprise