Coming to a Bed Near You

Bedbugs are back—and these pests are hard to get rid of...

One morning a few months ago Sarah Walker-Martin and her boyfriend, Kevin O’Connor, woke up with itchy pink raised welts on their arms and legs. Since they often spend hot nights with their windows open, they thought the problem was mosquitoes. But when the bites got worse and no flying culprit appeared in their New York apartment, the pair turned to the Internet. The real perp? Bedbugs.

Those childhood warnings to not let the bedbugs bite are taking on new meaning in beds from New York to Los Angeles—and many beds in between. Although the insects do not transmit disease, living with these bloodsuckers can be traumatic. And the problem is growing in both cities and the suburbs. According to the National Pest Management Association, bed bug calls nationwide jumped more than 63 percent between 2000 and 2004. Today, the infestations are “nearly an epidemic in Manhattan and other U.S. cities,” says Robert Pineiro, a supervisor for Terminix in White Plains, New York.

“Of all the insects that invade your home, bed bugs are the worst, because they are hard to control and even harder to prevent,” says Richard Pollack, Ph.D., an entomologist at the Harvard School of Public Health. The bugs hide close to their warm-blooded prey in mattresses, box springs, floorboards and clothing. They usually remain out of sight during the day, making them hard to find and difficult to completely eliminate. Even when you’re bitten, the anesthetic the bugs inject numb you to the fact that it is happening. The only trace they’ll leave—apart from the welts—is blood or feces stained sheets.

Bed bug infestations have nothing to do with cleanliness. The bugs are great “hitchhikers,” says Fred Rozo, an associate certified entomologist at Western Exterminator Pest Control in Southern California. A bug can crawl into your suitcase or your jacket pocket, and once you bring it to your house, you can have an infestation. “You can pick up bed bugs at the best or worst hotels,” Rozo says.

What’s behind the bedbug renaissance? One reason could be the more-targeted, less powerful pesticides in use today. Increased international travel and immigration from the developing world are other possible explanations.

Prevention is not easy. Experts advise that you vacuum your suitcase and wash all of your clothes in hot water after you return from a vacation where you’ve seen signs of the pests. If you have the bugs in your home, wrapping your mattress and box spring with a plastic or allergen cover and placing the bed legs in cups of water may keep the insects out of your bed. Filling cracks in walls where bugs may crawl in from other rooms or buildings is another recommendation. Multiple pesticide treatments from professional exterminators are necessary...

USA Today Reports Bedbugs on the Rise

Travelers everywhere woke this morning to a disquieting news story; USA Today reports that bedbugs, nocturnal, elusive and transient pests, are on the rise nationwide. Attributing the increase to a booming international travel industry, the paper states, "Bedbugs, the houseguests nobody wants, are back in growing numbers across the USA, and booting them from your bunk can be a lengthy, costly process."

Bedbugs take bite after bite in Big Apple

They’re the scourge of hobo encampments and hot-sheet motels. To impressionable children everywhere, they’re a snippet of nursery rhyme, an abstract foe lurking beneath the covers that emerges when Mommy shuts the door at night.
But bedbugs on Park Avenue? Ask the horrified matron who recently found her duplex teeming with the bloodsucking beasties. Or Helmsley Park Lane, which was sued two years ago by a welt-covered guest who blamed the hotel for harboring the critters. The suit was settled last year.

Bedbugs, stealthy and fast-moving nocturnal creatures that were all but eradicated by DDT after World War II, recently have been found in hospital maternity wards, schools and a plastic surgeon’s waiting room.

Infestations have been reported sporadically across the United States over the past few years. But in New York, bedbugs have gained a foothold all across the city.

Last year the city logged 377 bedbug violations, up from two in 2002 and 16 in 2003. Since July, there have been 449. “It’s definitely a fast-emerging problem,” said Carol Abrams, spokeswoman for the city housing agency.

In the bedbug resurgence, entomologists and exterminators blame increased immigration from the developing world, the advent of cheap international travel and the recent banning of powerful pesticides.

Lawyer: Women 'Eaten Alive' By Bedbugs

NEW YORK -- Sleep tight and don't let the bedbugs bite!

But two Swiss businesswomen charge they were eaten alive by bedbugs at a New York City hotel where they spent a week in September. The women, Ksenija Knezevic and Marlies Barisic, are suing Manhattan's Hotel Pennsylvania. They said they had a lousy time trying to sleep.

The women said the bedbug attacks began the night they checked into the hotel across from Madison Square Garden.

The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan's state Supreme Court, said they suffered bedbug bites over their torsos, arms and legs. Their lawyer, Alberto Ebanks, said bugs also bit their cheeks and necks and caused possibly permanent scarring.

Ebanks said the women had to seek medical treatment while in New York, where they were given antibiotics, and when they returned to Switzerland. He said photographs of the women's wounds are "gruesome."

"They were eaten alive," Ebanks said Wednesday. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.

Ebanks said that when the women told employees of the Seventh Avenue hotel that they were uncomfortable and something was wrong, one immediately exclaimed, "Bedbugs!"

The suit charges "extreme and outrageous" negligence on the part of the hotel, because employees knew about the bedbug problem and did nothing. A spokeswoman for the hotel said they don't comment on pending legal cases.

Bedbugs evolve rapidly to withstand pesticides.

The first comprehensive genetic study of bedbugs, the irritating pests that have enjoyed a world-wide resurgence in recent years, indicates they are quickly evolving to withstand the pesticides used to combat them.

The new findings from entomologists at Ohio State University, reported Wednesday online in PLoS One, show that bedbugs may have boosted their natural defenses by generating higher levels of enzymes that can cleanse them of poisons.

In New York City, bedbugs now are 250 times more resistant to the standard pesticide than bedbugs in Florida, due to changes in a gene controlling the resilience of the nerve cells targeted by the insecticide, researchers at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst recently reported.

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