Bed Bug Task Force

I bet your Christmas list doesn’t include “bed bugs” on it, but unfortunately, you may not have a choice because more and more bed bugs are hitching rides home with people.

Members of a bed bug task force.Bed bugs are little insects that feed off of the blood of humans. Although most commonly associated with hotels, they can be found anywhere, not just in your bed.

More than 140 landlords attended the first meeting of a bed bug task force. Out of the 140, only five said they’ve never had a problem with bed bugs.

What’s that say about the rest of them? One pest control company, Adams Pest Control, has bed bug complaints that have risen 25 percent within the last year.

A woman named Debbie Amrani has been getting bitten by bed bugs ever since she returned home from Miami, where she believes the bed bugs accompanied her home.

She’s spent 2,300 on a new method developed in the Twin Cities to get rid of bed bugs. This cost doesn’t include replacing the bed sets in her home. A quote from the Amrani article states:

I’m emotionally scarred, they can live for a year without feeding, so I still haven’t gone out and bought a mattress and box spring.

Stacy O’Reilly, the president of Plunkett’s Pest Control, which her grandfather started, says that 100 years ago, bed bugs were so common people would put the foot of their bed in a can of kerosene to keep the pests from climbing onto the bed.

When her father took over the business, they began using DDT to eliminate bed bugs which worked very well, but it was also killing eagles and other victims, so it was banned, and the bed bugs came back.

5 replies
  1. antonella says:

    How crappy is it when you neighbors have been throwing beds out in the yard you share over a years time,then have an exterminator come visit and pay him 500 bucks to spray for them,but never say a word to us or our landlord about the situation!!then our family ends up with them,and we have 11 month old twins and a 6 yr.old!!!! Where my husband works also has had problems with them(bed bugs) from time to time since he worked there for a yr.however we never had an issue till the neighbors got treated,so whose to blame?? This is what we wonder??

    Did we bring them in or did they….luckily since the employers had the problem they were willing to treat our two family house from top to bottom(which should have been done to begin with)they will be coming back 2 more times to spray,but what a hassle….our church helped with gift cards and the employers bought us new beds for our daughter and us and I am now trying to keep up with all the hard work it takes to get them gone for good!! My fear is that they are not doing the same upstairs!!so our plan is to get cleaned up ,get rid of a LOT,and move this spring when our lease is up!!!THESE BED BUGS SUCK!!!and can consume you and ruin your life if you let them!!

  2. Jess says:

    Hi Carmela. If your house has bedbugs, then yes your cat would be bringing MORE into bed. If there are bedbugs under your bed then they are IN your bed too. However, if you do not have any bed bugs already IN your home then your cat would not get the bugs on it because you do not have any in your house. Hope this helps.

  3. Bed Bug Girl says:

    Hi Mary,

    No you don’t, you can see them with the unaided eye. I should also add that you NEVER want to use one of those hand held black lights at a hotel or you will NEVER stay at another hotel! There are some things better left undiscovered!

  4. MARY says:

    Do you need a black light to find them?

  5. Carmela Petersen says:

    Can bedbugs live on my cat? If she sleeps under the bed during the day, then crawls in bed with us at night, could she be carrying them in to the bed?

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