Bed bugs have been around for years and their bites have caused several 6-figure lawsuits and awards to plaintiff hotel-guests in Las Vegas and New York.
Anyone who has seen the movie Ocean’s Thirteen and the treatment given the “5-Diamond hotel critic” can appreciate the devastation that bed bug bites can cause.
With the rising number of complaints to municipal and health agencies, the federal government is now waking up to what has become a nightmare in many parts of the country.
Normally, bed bugs have infested mattresses, sofas and sheets * in hotels, hospitals, shelters and college dorms. They live in the crevices and folds and they feed on human blood.
Photo courtesy of the CDC
When they bite, they release an anticoagulant to get blood flowing and they excrete a numbing agent so that their bites do not stir a victim’s slumber.
Unfortunately, because the EPA has banned many of the chemicals that were most effective in fighting this infestation like DDT, and with the rise of international travel, the bugs have re-infested US public bedding and given rise to public health concerns for their continued spreading from public to private bedding and homes.
The urban poor are often the hardest hit as they can not afford to throw out the belongings and furniture and can not take the sanitation measures necessary to get rid of them.
Unfortunately, private landlords are getting caught in this dilemma also and many areas of the country have made it the landlords’ responsibility to get rid of them.
Some of the BEST resources for this are http://thebedbugresource.com/?page_id=194 and
http://blogpestcontrol.com/2009/04/bed-bugs-and-pest-control/
Property managers and landlords should be aware of this potential problem and be ready to fight the infestation and not pass the responsibility off to residents too quickly.
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