Doing battle with bed bugs

By LISA HOFFMAN
Scripps Howard News Service
Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Bed bugs are tough critters, capable of surviving more than a year without eating. They're accomplished hitchhikers that can easily travel around the world undetected in your suitcase or even the cuff of your slacks. Usually about the size of an apple seed, brown to reddish in color, and flat until they plump up with a meal of blood, they can scoot 1.5 inches a second and pass between rooms via electrical outlets and water lines.

While they are not believed to carry disease, bed bugs can make life miserable, particularly if you are sensitive to their bites. They also are notoriously hard to eradicate. Extermination costs can reach $5,000 for a single-family home.

Experts at the Harvard University School of Public Health; Orkin, Inc.; the University of Tennessee and bedbugresource.com offer the following tips for preventing or battling bed bugs:

-- When traveling, inspect your hotel room by examining mattress tufts and folds, bed frames, headboards, carpets, drapes, desk drawers and behind picture frames. Look either for the bugs themselves, their fecal deposits (dark brown or reddish spots) or their cast-off skins. Equipped with stink glands, bed bugs in large numbers can also be detected by the coriander-like odor they emit.

-- Because many people exhibit a delayed reaction of several days -- or none at all -- after being bitten, small blood stains observed on sheets can be the only immediate indication of the presence of bed bugs.

-- Keep your clothes in your suitcases rather than in dresser drawers, and thoroughly inspect them before -- and after -- returning home. Bed bugs have even been known to park themselves in between the teeth of unzipped zippers. When you return home, launder your clothes in hot water and dry them with high heat. Vacuum your suitcases.

-- Don't purchase used mattresses or other furniture without a thorough inspection.

-- At home, consider encasing your mattress and box springs with special plastic bags that trap the bugs inside, where they eventually will die. Keep furniture away from walls and baseboards. Some people even place bed-frame legs in dishes of mineral oil to foil those trying to climb up to the bed.

-- Caulk and seal all holes where pipes and wires enter the walls or floors.

-- Do not try to eradicate an infestation yourself. If treated incorrectly, bed bugs can spread, go dormant or grow resistant to the pesticide used. Even with professional exterminations, it can take multiple visits over several months to rid your residence of them.

(For more information go to scrippsnews.com)