by Janet Hackert, regional nutrition and health education specialist
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My mother used to say, "Don’t let the bedbugs bite." This year on vacation we took that saying as sound advice and returned home safely without any unwanted hitchhikers!
Bedbugs have been around since Aristotle’s time, but use of long-lasting residual insecticides like DDT in the 1960’s wiped out most populations in the United States – until about 1999. University of Minnesota Assistant Professor of Entomology, Stephen Kells, is studying how to destroy them without using dangerous chemicals. He found that even dipping the insects in insecticide spray did not kill them. In fact, spray-dipped bugs laid eggs with viable young! He is studying nonchemical options for eradicating them, such as steam and heat.
In the meantime it is best to keep them out of our homes in the first place. Bedbugs are very difficult to get rid of and they are great little hitchhikers, clinging on clothes and hiding in the crevices of mattresses and couches. During this season of wonderful bargains at yard sales, avoid picking up second-hand beds, mattresses and couches that may be infested with this pest.
When staying at hotels or motels, University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service Entomologist Michael Potter recommends, "examining the bed sheets and upper and lower seams of the mattress and box spring, especially along the head of the bed." If there are bedbugs present, they could be the 3/16 inch long reddish-brown, oval, flattened adults, the smaller nymphs or the tiny, pin-point sized, straw-colored eggs. Where there is an infestation, there is also likely to be dark spots, indicating the bedbugs’ excrement. Also, bedbugs tend to come out and bite (and suck the victim’s blood) at night and hide during the day. Bug bites that show up in the morning that were not there the night before may be a sign of a bedbug problem.
Travelers should check motel or hotel bedding before unpacking. Do not leave luggage on the floor. Place on a table or up on another hard surface. If any bedbugs are suspected, ask for another room away from the effected room. Wash clothing immediately on returning home, before unpacking.
For more information go to http://www.cfans.umn.edu/Solutions/Spring_2010/Sleep_Tight/index.htm and http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/entfactpdf/ef636.pdf.