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Bed bugs could be your worst nightmare

Pam Spence says she’s the “bed bug lady” at the Guilford County Department of Public Health.

It’s not good that Guilford County needs a “bed bug lady,” but calls about the blood-sucking pests have been increasing. Spence, a community health educator, answers them.

My call Monday was prompted by a friend’s misfortune. What he first thought was an outbreak of poison ivy turned out to be bed bug bites. An examination of his High Point apartment found an infestation, which has been treated twice so far — I hope successfully. But with bed bugs, it’s hard to be sure.

“They’re very hard to get rid of and very costly to get rid of,” said Burns Blackwell, vice president and chief operating officer of Terminix in Greensboro.

Once nearly eradicated in the days of DDT, bed bugs are making “a very, very big comeback,” Blackwell said. One reason is international travel — bed bugs are “big hitchhikers” — and another is “lesser use of pesticides for environmental reasons.”

Some U.S. cities have huge bed bug problems, probably none worse than New York. In a January editorial, the New York Times chided Mayor Michael Bloomberg for not making bed bugs a “big deal.” In March, a city news release proclaimed a stepped-up effort: “New York City Council to Bed Bugs — Drop Dead!”

If only. They hide out in the smallest places, often in beds, creeping out at night to feed on the blood of people or pets. They multiply like crazy and travel in furniture, luggage and other household items.

While they don’t transmit diseases, they can make life really miserable.

“They can cause scabbing and scarring and mild to serious secondary infections,” said Spence. And they keep people awake. She’s heard from teachers whose students lose sleep because of them.

I asked Jung Kim, an environmental senior specialist in public health pest management with the N.C. Division of Environmental Health, whether bed bugs are a public health problem.

“It depends on who you ask,” he said. The Centers for Disease Control says no, “but if you ask somebody who has bed bugs, they’d feel it is.”

“Most of the time it’s just an extreme annoyance,” Spence said.

Sometimes people don’t report bed bugs because of the stigma or for fear a landlord will evict them. That’s the wrong attitude.

“A lot of folks think it’s a lack of sanitation and it’s really not,” Spence said.

And waiting to fight back against the nasty creatures guarantees the infestation will get worse quickly, possibly migrating from one apartment to another in a building.

“Early identification is the key,” said Blackwell of Terminix. With luck, eradication might cost only a couple of hundred dollars. An extensive infestation will run much more, take multiple treatments — itself a complex “integrated pest management” process — and could require discarding furniture.

Which means be careful what you buy at a flea market or yard sale, or pick up from the curb.

North Carolina requires sanitation — two hours of high-heat treatment — for any used mattresses sold, a precaution that probably cuts down on the spread of bed bugs, Kim said. But the pests are getting around anyway.

Bed bugs are “a growing problem, and a creepy one,” said Karin Mahoney, communications director for the International Sleep Products Association. I could practically feel her shudder over the phone. She referred me to Ryan Trainer, executive vice president, who’s become ISPA’s bed bug guy as the industry promotes safer practices for handling bedding.

Traveling? Don’t leave your suitcase on your hotel bed, Trainer advises. You might carry home unwanted visitors, or hundreds of eggs.

Not that we don’t have enough already. Kim is hearing more about bed bugs here but can’t quantify the increase because no one is required to report infestations.

In Greensboro, Spence was getting so many calls a few months ago that she contacted churches and synagogues to ask for help buying plastic covers for infested mattresses. “Encasement” products for beds and box springs can seal in the bugs and prevent further infestation. There are also efforts in the community to replace beds for people who can’t afford them. But it’s essential to destroy every bug and all eggs in the residence or the battle isn’t over.

Bed bugs are no small problem for people afflicted, like my friend. They require professional treatment and  extreme care to prevent their return and to protect against passing them on. They can beset anyone, anywhere.

Don’t let them bite.

Thanks for reading. Feel free to give me a call at 373-7039, send me an email at dgclark@news-record.com or post a comment here.

More on bed bugs:

http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/301/13/1398

http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef636.asp

http://www.medicinenet.com/bed_bugs/article.htm

http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7454.html

Some hopeful developments:

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/06/11/bedbug-pheromones.html

And an embarrassing defeat:

http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20090630/UPDATES01/90630010/Annual+sofa+round-up+canceled+due+to+bed+bug+concerns+