Bedbugs Spread Across US (caused by "international travel" hmmm - is that PC for "immigration"?)

AP via Yahoo News ^ | Feb. 13, 04 | AP via Yahoo

[churchillbuff]

IOWA CITY, Iowa - Bedbugs have bitten in 35 states, including Iowa, and continue to spread across the country, pest control experts say.

Bedbugs are tiny bloodsucking insects that smell like soda pop syrup and are shaped like apple seeds. They live in bedding or furniture, or hide behind baseboards and wallpaper.

They don't carry diseases, but they bite while you sleep, turning brownish-red after feeding on your blood.

Infestations are on the rise across the country in metropolitan cities with high travel populations, according to Orkin Exterminating Co.

Reports show a 300 percent increase in calls about bedbug infestation in homes and commercial buildings from 2000 to 2001 and 70 percent increases in both 2002 and 2003.

In Iowa, they have been sighted in Sioux City and Waterloo.

There are two major reasons for why bedbug sightings are increasing, Orkin spokeswoman Martha Craft said. One is that the ease of international travel has helped spread bedbugs from other countries to the United States. The other is that pest control methods have changed, she said.

In the past, Orkin would spray a chemical along the baseboards of homes, apartments or commercial businesses, said Orkin entomologist Frank Meek. That changed when the company started using heat and steam, which uses fewer chemicals, he said.

Meek encountered a bedbug firsthand in 1999 when he stayed in an Orlando, Fla., hotel.

"Preventing bedbugs is to know what to look for," Craft said. "People haven't seen bedbugs in a long time."

Bite marks usually show up as little red spots with a lighter red area around them. Unlike chigger bites that tend to be grouped in one area or pattern, bedbug bites can be all over.

Laura Jesse, an extension entomologist at Iowa State University, said it's tough to stop bedbugs from spreading.

"It's hard to find out whether infestation has been there or treated. But I'm sure they've been in and out of every town," Jesse said.

[Joe 6-pack]

It was just a matter of time before buggery became mainstream...

[OXENinFLA]

If I see that in my bed, I won't need a rolled up magazine, I'll need my GUN!

[txzman]

The really nasty part of this is that once they get into your house, it takes a miracle to get rid of them. They can hibernate for up to a year without blood and retreat to sheetrock, floors, wood, ceilings and under carpets. And when fed they breed like crazy.

Yuck.

[ApplegateRanch]

They don't carry diseases, but they bite while you sleep, turning brownish-red after feeding on your blood.

Related story:
___________________________________________________________

Family sues over bugs in Md. hotel
By Keith Herbert Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted on Thu, Feb. 12, 2004

click here

The Dugans allege that they suffered bites as late as Aug. 20. The infestation drove them from their home for six weeks, and prevented them from using their van for a week, according to the lawsuit.

The complaint states that the Worcester County (Md.) Health Department contacted them and confirmed the seriousness of the bedbug infestation.

The lawsuit also claims that bedbugs can transmit HIV, hepatitis, and other blood-borne illnesses, and that the family will have to be monitored.
__________________________________________________________

Correct me if I'm wrong; it seems to me the suit would have the right of it, in that any blood-sucker has the potential for exchange of fluids during the feeding process. All I would question is which diseases can survive in them long enough to transfer.

[Publius]

they breed like crazy.

The male bedbug does not wait to insert his penis into the female bedbug's genital opening. His penis, built like a stiletto, actually perforates the female's abdomen during copulation. Amazingly, the female bedbug has evolved a way to move the male's sperm to the necessary location without receiving it via her genital opening.

The term "horny as a bedbug" is on the mark.

[sandbar]

>WE know the answers; YOU just don't want to admit them >because they are so un-PC.

Don't be so quick to bash immigrants. They are spread through immigration, but bed bugs stopped spreading before because we used Deet. That chemical is no longer used, so the infestation has risen.

[Porterville]

You are blaming bed bugs on illegals now? Is their nothing that isn't their fault in your mind? You are so afraid or, or, you want to make everyone afraid; pretty small stuff.

[Bikers4Bush]

Bad news for you. This is not the first article on this subject and previous articles have linked the spread of the bugs to cities with large populations of illegals.

The origin of the bugs has been traced to our third world country friends to the south.

[Bikers4Bush]

If you don't believe me run a search on bedbugs by title and do some reading.

[Porterville]

Like I said, your rhetoric is pretty small stuff.

[Bikers4Bush]

So you now consider news articles and documented evidence that matches the bugs to those in mexico and south america to be rhetoric?

Must be nice to go through life with blinders on while the rest of us have to live in the real world.

[Bikers4Bush]

Facts are facts, if you don't like it become a defense attorney and at least put your dislike to good use.

[Chris Talk]

Article SAYS "bedbugs," but these look suspiciously like "Chinches" to me!

These only bite persons that no American was willing to bite.