Bedbug Outbreak: Grim Summit on How to Fight Infestation - Yahoo! News
It's possible that bedbugs are simply the latest in a long string of public panics over epidemics that eventually proved to be manageable, from killer bees to bird flu. But that would not quite capture the grim mood of a big bedbug summit, held the past two days at a hotel near Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. More than 350 people gathered at the two-day event, which sold out five weeks in advance.
One scientist showed, using DNA evidence, how the bugs hop blithely from continent to continent on clothing, carry-ons, backpacks and purses. Another tracked the eruption of bedbug colonies through a single multistory apartment building. Another flashed a photograph of a robust bedbug literally glistening with drops of poison rolling off its back.
Judging by the number of note-taking exterminators at the summit, however, even pest-control professionals are still searching for tips. There is no perfect insecticide. Even if DDT were magically restored to the market, bedbugs have evolved a resistance to their once mortal foe. Many professionals advise clients to zip their mattresses and box springs into impermeable casings, but not all products are created equal. Summit organizer Phillip Cooper says he has seen hungry bugs squeeze between the zipper teeth of ineffective mattress cases.
The exhibition hall in Chicago suggested the range of bedbug-fighting strategies. Mobile ovens offered to bake the bugs to death. ("Heat is the bedbug's Achilles' heel," says White.) Powerful vacuums proposed to suck them to oblivion. Some experts favored steaming; some favored poison dust; some suggested electrocution. A woman from Australia claimed to have eliminated her infestation by installing simple barriers on her bed legs and waiting patiently for the bugs to starve.
A better solution, experts agree, is to avoid importing bedbugs in the first place. Be cautious in public places where upholstered or wooden surfaces meet backpacks and purses - movie theaters, public libraries, even changing tables in public restrooms. Travelers should inspect hotel beds and headboards for signs of bedbugs; keep suitcases off the bed; unpack outside upon returning home; and put travel clothes immediately into a hot-water wash. At least one vendor offers plastic bags that dissolve in the laundry, so that travel clothes can be sealed at the hotel and dropped directly into the hot-water cycle. If you really want to be thorough, you can buy a $330 PackTite oven designed to bake your luggage to a bug-killing temperature. Otherwise, it might help to seal your suitcase in a plastic garbage bag.
The good news about bedbugs is that they don't appear to transmit diseases. And summit organizers think awareness and innovation should eventually make bedbugs a manageable problem for most people. "Mark my words: In the next 10 years, a silver bullet will be found," says organizer Phillip Cooper. "Somebody will figure out how to deal with bedbugs, and after that, it will be just another pest, like roaches or yellow jackets."
- With reporting by Dawn Reiss / Chicago
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