The Return of Bedbugs
Posted on August 11, 2006
The Associated Press is reporting that there has been an alarming rise in the number of reported bedbug infestations at homes and hotels in the United States. The AP says bedbugs dissapeared out of the public eye after the 40s and 50s because of increase hygiene and use of DDT.
Dan Suiter, an associate professor of entomology at the University of Georgia, told the AP, "It's no secret that bedbugs are making a comeback."
The disturbing report was published on CBS News and includes an anecdote about a man finding the bugs in his sheets at night.
After waking up one night in sheets teeming with tiny bugs, Josh Benton couldn't sleep for months and kept a flashlight and can of Raid with him in bed."We were afraid to even tell people about it at first," Benton said of the bedbugs in his home. "It feels like maybe some way you're living is encouraging this, that you're living in a bad neighborhood or have a dirty apartment."
Now bedbugs have returned and reports continue to escalate. The article says bedbugs infestations have increased significantly in places with high turnover rates like hotels, hospitals and college dormitories.
This isn't the first article about the return of bedbugs. Bedbugs can survive without food for four months, which makes it easy for them to survive on a long journey from one place to another, such as in a traveler's luggage. Last November, we discussed an increase in bedbugs in New York City -- one of the cities that has seen a large rise in reported bedbug problems. That blog post also contains links to several more resources about bedbugs.