“Don't let the bedbugs bite? Easier said than done” |
| Don't let the bedbugs bite? Easier said than done Posted: 18 Sep 2010 06:56 PM PDT RALEIGH, N.C. -- For anyone hoping there's a quick, easy treatment for bedbugs in the near future, take note of the hesitation in Coby Schal's response. Schal is a North Carolina State University urban entomologist - the academic title for a guy who studies cockroaches and, of late, bedbugs - and he gets asked all the time whether a miracle might soon hit the market to stem growing infestations of the blood-sucking pests. Pause. Long, scary pause. "I wish I had a short-term answer to that," he says. Another pause. "But I don't." Oh, agony and woe. And the pessimism among leading bug scientists is nothing compared to the downer from exterminators, who now rank bedbugs among their worst and most prevalent problems. Donnie Shelton, owner of Triangle Pest Control in Raleigh, said his bedbug business has increased 400-fold - just this year. He bought a dog, named Scout, who is specially trained to sniff out bedbug infestations. Next month Shelton will offer a heat-based eradication system, which uses industrial heaters to roast the bugs dead in their tracks. Pesticides, he says, are increasingly ineffective. "They become more resistant every single day," Shelton says. "They're insane. You can't do anything with them. Everything in the arsenal isn't working." Overuse of pesticides has likely contributed to the bedbugs' resurgence, and that exact process is one of the mysteries Schal's team at NCSU is trying to figure out. Until only recently, bedbugs seemed to be a scourge of the past, but their comeback has been a triumph of selective resilience that would be a marvel if it wasn't so creepy. "Bedbugs just drive people mad," Shelton says. "The thought of an insect coming out and biting you when you're sleeping - it makes people crazy." Infestations have hit area hotels, North Carolina State University and Wake Forest University dorm rooms, a home for the elderly in downtown Raleigh and untold numbers of private residences. Treatments can be extensive and expensive, requiring repeat visits that can run costs to well over $1,000. When bedbugs first started showing up in North Carolina four years ago, Shelton says, a pesticide that relied on the chemical compound pyrethroid worked well. That didn't last. Exterminators then switched to another chemical, also a pyrethroid-based compound, and it, too, failed. Schal says he has dunked bedbugs in pyrethroid - literally soaked them - and they live. "They just walk away," he says. Bedbugs can go months without a meal, burrow deep into furniture and walls, and are creative in where they hide their progeny; eggs have been found in picture frames, behind baseboards, even along the threads of headboard bolts. Pest experts note that such survival skills make it hard for trained exterminators to clear an infestation, let alone do-it-yourselfers. Mike Waldvogel, another NCSU entomologist, says there are steps people can take to prevent infestations in the first place. He says people who travel should check their hotel rooms for tell-tale signs of bedbugs, notably brown stains along the seams of mattresses, and keep their luggage off the floors, beds and chairs. Once they return home, he says, people should unpack in the bathtub, where they're more likely to see a hitchhiking bug, and immediately wash and dry all their clothes. He also recommends sequestering the suitcase outside or in the garage. And while Waldvogel urges diligence, he also says there's no reason to panic. "You can't just stay at home and hunker down and watch TV and never invite anyone into your house," he says. Then again, that doesn't sound quite so bad. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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