Bed Bugs: No Area Unbitten!

Forget Twilight vampires, the bloodsucking scourge that is spreading like wildfire in the United States is the bed bug:

The tiny, sneaky insects are spreading so rapidly across the United States that almost no region or area is unbitten, a new survey suggests. Calls to exterminators nationwide about bed bugs are up 57 percent nationwide in the last five years, according to a new survey by the National Pest Management Association and the University of Kentucky. More than 95 percent of 519 U.S. exterminators participating in the survey reported finding at least one bed bug infestation in the past year.

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Previously on Neatorama: Bedbugs attack Hollister | What's Eatin' You?


Bring back DDT and other hard insecticides. Damn green bastards have been trying to make the world a more miserable place to live than it already was. Let them move to the third world and enjoy being "at one" with nature if they aren't keen on civilization.
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Get a bug-proof mattress cover (Aller-zip - I got them on Ebay)for your mattress and boxspring, so that if you do get an infestation, you can attack them with a steamer and diatomaceaous earth. Take every precaution to avoid infestation. Some exterminators won't even do it, and you will be doing most of the work yourself, anyway. Part of the reason they spread so easily is that 30% of people don't react to their bites, so they don't know they have them.
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Unfortunately, SuperCrap, most bedbugs are now resistant to DDT - in fact studies done in Africa suggest DDT makes them more active.

You do have a point though, if DDT was used to properly eradicate them before it was banned we wouldn't be having this issue.

Further, I suspect that part of the reason for this influx is people being "green" and washing their bedding in cold water (with cold water detergents and high efficiency washers). Items with bedbugs on them need to be washed in very hot water. When everyone washed their bedding in hot water it likely killed off many infestations before people even knew there was one.
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I've experience this frustrating phenomenon, and I've read about in numerous press outlets. The one thing that I haven't seen addressed is the question of: why now? Bedbugs have been here all along, but what accounts for this sudden insurgency? The weather? Evolution? The economy? There has to be a reason why this is happening now rather than 10 or 20 years ago.
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