From the Daily Herald via C & M Management
Some great advice in the third last paragraph.
The most common question overheard at the sold-out North American Bed Bug Summit summit starting today in Rosemont might just be, "How's your hotel?"
Once relegated to third-world nations, grandparents' memories and old nursery rhymes, bed bugs have enjoyed a resurgence more dramatic and surprising than the Bears' Super Bowl hopes. The bloodsucking pests are popping up everywhere from homeless shelters to four-star hotels.
That's creepy news in the suburbs, where every business trip, softball tourney, college dorm, summer camp or sleepover could result in a bed-bug infestation at home.
"Ten years ago we got about one call about bed bugs a year, and now we get at least one call a day," says Melaney Arnold, spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Public Health.
Bed bugs have been around as long as man. Wingless and only about a quarter-inch long, the bugs used to hide in caves and drink the blood of the bats that lived there. When early man moved into those caves, some of the bugs developed a thirst for human blood and evolved into a separate species with the scientific name of Cimex Lectularius.
"They were a big deal 60 or 70 years ago," says Curt Colwell, entomologist with the Illinois Department of Public Health. "They were more of a big deal than cockroaches."
Pesticides curbed the bed bug populations after World War II.
"I'm an entomologist and up until about the last five years, I saw one or two bed bugs in my life, and they were dead," says Colwell.
The United States is experiencing "an alarming resurgence in the population of bed bugs," according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, because the pests have developed a resistance to pesticides and are able to spread so much faster because of increased international travel.
"Bed bugs are hitchhikers in backpacks and purses," says Colwell, warning that the tiny bugs hide and lay eggs in the crevices of suitcases, mattresses, box springs, curtains, baseboards, picture frames, peeling wallpaper, furniture, door frames, baseboards, clothes and other hiding places. "You could easily bring one or a dozen back in your luggage from an infected hotel."
The bugs don't spread malaria or other blood-borne diseases. Their beaklike mouths generally pierce the skin without causing enough pain to wake their victims.
"They come out at 2 in the morning when you are least alert, feed on you for 5 minutes or so, and then go back into hiding," Colwell says. "A high percentage of people don't react at all."
A few might react with quarter-size welts that could develop a secondary infection. Others may only discover the problem after getting a whiff of a musty raspberry fragrance, finding tiny exoskeletons left by molting bugs or seeing the rusty blood spots of bed bug fecal matter left on their bed. None of which generally causes physical health problems, but certainly weighs on the mind.
"It's an emotional problem because there is no one out there who wants bugs feeding on them during the night," Colwell says, noting the bugs lead to anxiety and insomnia. Since bed bugs don't spread diseases, most public health departments (including Illinois') don't require residents, landlords or hotels to report infestations.
"That's sort of part of the problem. There is nothing that says who is responsible," Colwell says. Not only are experts unsure of all the areas with bed bugs or how many there are, "we don't have it defined what percent of bed bugs are resistant (to pesticides) or to what degree they are resistant."
While professional pest experts generally can eliminate a bed bug infestation, the bugs are hardy and, if the conditions are right, can survive for more than a year between feedings, Colwell says. They can crawl along pipes to go between rooms and "will sometimes walk underneath your door, walk down the hall and go under somebody else's door."
Hotels and motels have developed a protocol for preventing and eliminating bed bugs, says Jim Gould, general manager of the Hyatt Regency Woodfield, regional vice president of operations for Portfolio Hotels and Resorts, and chairman of the Illinois Hotel and Lodging Association.
"The hotel association provides training on bed bugs, information to our members and services that helps remove bed bugs," says Gould, who adds that he's only heard of bed bugs at one suburban hotel, which is no longer in business. "We want to help make sure bed bugs are not an issue at hotels. It's a vigilant effort on the part of the housekeepers knowing what to look for when they clean the room."
Lots of folks get the willies just thinking about bed bugs, which can set off the same alarms in suburban households as kids with head lice.
"Bed bugs are worse because you know where the lice are. They are on your head," Colwell says, noting lice die after a few days off a head. "Bed bugs can be everywhere."
Prevention is easier and cheaper than removal, which often costs as much as $1,000, Colwell says. Since the bugs don't chew through barriers, a simple mattress cover can confine any bugs to your mattress, where they eventually will die. But Colwell takes further precautions whenever he spends the night at a hotel.
"The first thing I do is pull the headrest away from the wall (and look for bed bugs)," Colwell says. "I take in as little as possible, and what I bring in I seal in garbage bags overnight, or even double-bag it."
Even with the resurgence, most people have never seen a bed bug. Some probably assumed bed bugs were a myth akin to monsters under the bed after hearing the "Sleep tight, and don't let the bed bugs bite" mantra as kids.
"We all grew up listening to that and not know what it really meant," Colwell says. "Now we do."
Ooroo,
thathurts
Some great advice in the third last paragraph.
The most common question overheard at the sold-out North American Bed Bug Summit summit starting today in Rosemont might just be, "How's your hotel?"
Once relegated to third-world nations, grandparents' memories and old nursery rhymes, bed bugs have enjoyed a resurgence more dramatic and surprising than the Bears' Super Bowl hopes. The bloodsucking pests are popping up everywhere from homeless shelters to four-star hotels.
That's creepy news in the suburbs, where every business trip, softball tourney, college dorm, summer camp or sleepover could result in a bed-bug infestation at home.
"Ten years ago we got about one call about bed bugs a year, and now we get at least one call a day," says Melaney Arnold, spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Public Health.
Bed bugs have been around as long as man. Wingless and only about a quarter-inch long, the bugs used to hide in caves and drink the blood of the bats that lived there. When early man moved into those caves, some of the bugs developed a thirst for human blood and evolved into a separate species with the scientific name of Cimex Lectularius.
"They were a big deal 60 or 70 years ago," says Curt Colwell, entomologist with the Illinois Department of Public Health. "They were more of a big deal than cockroaches."
Pesticides curbed the bed bug populations after World War II.
"I'm an entomologist and up until about the last five years, I saw one or two bed bugs in my life, and they were dead," says Colwell.
The United States is experiencing "an alarming resurgence in the population of bed bugs," according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, because the pests have developed a resistance to pesticides and are able to spread so much faster because of increased international travel.
"Bed bugs are hitchhikers in backpacks and purses," says Colwell, warning that the tiny bugs hide and lay eggs in the crevices of suitcases, mattresses, box springs, curtains, baseboards, picture frames, peeling wallpaper, furniture, door frames, baseboards, clothes and other hiding places. "You could easily bring one or a dozen back in your luggage from an infected hotel."
The bugs don't spread malaria or other blood-borne diseases. Their beaklike mouths generally pierce the skin without causing enough pain to wake their victims.
"They come out at 2 in the morning when you are least alert, feed on you for 5 minutes or so, and then go back into hiding," Colwell says. "A high percentage of people don't react at all."
A few might react with quarter-size welts that could develop a secondary infection. Others may only discover the problem after getting a whiff of a musty raspberry fragrance, finding tiny exoskeletons left by molting bugs or seeing the rusty blood spots of bed bug fecal matter left on their bed. None of which generally causes physical health problems, but certainly weighs on the mind.
"It's an emotional problem because there is no one out there who wants bugs feeding on them during the night," Colwell says, noting the bugs lead to anxiety and insomnia. Since bed bugs don't spread diseases, most public health departments (including Illinois') don't require residents, landlords or hotels to report infestations.
"That's sort of part of the problem. There is nothing that says who is responsible," Colwell says. Not only are experts unsure of all the areas with bed bugs or how many there are, "we don't have it defined what percent of bed bugs are resistant (to pesticides) or to what degree they are resistant."
While professional pest experts generally can eliminate a bed bug infestation, the bugs are hardy and, if the conditions are right, can survive for more than a year between feedings, Colwell says. They can crawl along pipes to go between rooms and "will sometimes walk underneath your door, walk down the hall and go under somebody else's door."
Hotels and motels have developed a protocol for preventing and eliminating bed bugs, says Jim Gould, general manager of the Hyatt Regency Woodfield, regional vice president of operations for Portfolio Hotels and Resorts, and chairman of the Illinois Hotel and Lodging Association.
"The hotel association provides training on bed bugs, information to our members and services that helps remove bed bugs," says Gould, who adds that he's only heard of bed bugs at one suburban hotel, which is no longer in business. "We want to help make sure bed bugs are not an issue at hotels. It's a vigilant effort on the part of the housekeepers knowing what to look for when they clean the room."
Lots of folks get the willies just thinking about bed bugs, which can set off the same alarms in suburban households as kids with head lice.
"Bed bugs are worse because you know where the lice are. They are on your head," Colwell says, noting lice die after a few days off a head. "Bed bugs can be everywhere."
Prevention is easier and cheaper than removal, which often costs as much as $1,000, Colwell says. Since the bugs don't chew through barriers, a simple mattress cover can confine any bugs to your mattress, where they eventually will die. But Colwell takes further precautions whenever he spends the night at a hotel.
"The first thing I do is pull the headrest away from the wall (and look for bed bugs)," Colwell says. "I take in as little as possible, and what I bring in I seal in garbage bags overnight, or even double-bag it."
Even with the resurgence, most people have never seen a bed bug. Some probably assumed bed bugs were a myth akin to monsters under the bed after hearing the "Sleep tight, and don't let the bed bugs bite" mantra as kids.
"We all grew up listening to that and not know what it really meant," Colwell says. "Now we do."
Ooroo,
thathurts
