Creepy critter infestations are up, pest experts say

By Lee murray

TheNewsOutlet.org

youngstown

Here’s something that will keep you up at night. In a survey released in April, 99.6 percent of American pest-management professionals say they have encountered a bedbug infestation this year.

The survey, conducted by the National Pest Management Association, found that the amount of bedbug infestations rose again over the last survey, which was taken in 2011.

And, one in five Americans has either an infestation at home or knows someone who has had one.

“There absolutely has been an increase, without question,” said Dale R. Hodgson, an entomologist from Cuyahoga Falls.

Mark Hubbard, a resident of International Towers in downtown Youngstown, found out about the increase the hard way. He found a bedbug in his bed and another in his couch. Before long, the bedbugs found him, too.

“I have bites up my legs,” Hubbard said, “and now my lady friend has bug bites, too.”

Hubbard said he awoke one morning to printed signs on the doors of apartments on several floors of the building warning visitors not to go inside. One read: “Please refrain from visiting other residents at this time until further notice.”

Hubbard said he was told that the signs were to prevent further spread of the problem.

He caught some of the bugs in an old pill bottle and took them to the health department for identification.

Bedbugs feast on blood only and thrive in densely populated areas such as apartment buildings, hotels and motels. International Towers is a 12-story, low-income, senior-citizen apartment building that operates near capacity with 168 of its 174 units filled.

It’s going to take awhile to eliminate the problem entirely, said Susie Burnham, the public health nurse who has been working with the building’s management.

“Almost every large building like this ... has a problem at one point or another,” Burnham said.

Hubbard has lived in International Towers for more than a year. He met with the apartment managers and representatives from Millennia Housing Management, the Cleveland-based company that purchased International Towers in 2009 for just under $5 million, to discuss how to avoid spreading the infestation.

“The last time I spoke with Millennia, they had contracted Terminix to do 15 units per week — five every Monday, Wednesday and Friday,” said Erin Bishop, acting health commissioner in the Youngstown City Health District. “They are treating every unit.”

The health department said bedbugs have a tendency to migrate upward, so the top floor is being treated first and exterminators will work their way down, spraying common areas as well as apartments. If Terminix remains on schedule, it will be finished by mid-August.

Alan Weckerly, Millennia’s vice president of operations, declined an interview. He did not reply to multiple calls and an email inviting him to comment on the situation.

Hodgson said there is no consensus among entomologists — the subset of the scientific community that studies insects — as to why the population has increased, but there are some popular theories.

“Could be a lot of different reasons why. An increase in international travel, or the declining use of older pesticides that have been taken off the market,” Hodgson said, “but some strains of bedbugs are showing resistance to the pesticides.”

Bedbugs are unpleasant, and it’s best to deal with the problem as soon as you know that you have one.

Hodgson offered this advice for people who are worried about bedbugs in their homes:

“Watch for the signs. Look for spotting on your sheets. If you find a bug, call your local pest-control operator or health department or certified entomologist and have them identify it.”

The next step, Hodgson said, is to arrange extermination.

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