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Bedbugs in the U.S.

Bedbugs, which are small, brown insects that feed on human blood, are infesting cities and towns throughout the United States.The parasites were named for their habit of hiding in the folds of bedding during the day, and crawling out at night to bite sleeping human hosts. They arrived with early settlers during the 17th century and were a common problem in most American cities until the 1950s when the nation's booming new chemical industry introduced DDT, a commercial insecticide that virtually eradicated them. But over the past decade, bedbugs have staged an amazing comeback and fighting the new generation is becoming a serious challenge.

International Travel
- Scientists believe increased international travel has brought bedbugs back to American cities and towns. Although the bugs had virtually disappeared during the latter half of the 20th century, they have been a common and consistent pest in Asia, Eastern Europe and Africa. Bedbugs prefer to hide in nooks and crannies near beds where they can find their meals, but they they will crawl into almost any tiny space, crack, flap or folds of clothing and wait for opportunities to feed. Experts believe travelers from places where bedbugs are still prevalent have carried them to the United States in luggage, clothing, bags, purses, and other places where they can hunker down until they reach a new environment with new human hosts.
Bed Bug Biology
- Bedbugs have re-established themselves in the United States in part because evolution has given them a set of extraordinary survival skills. Females can lay several eggs a day and, under the right conditions, a bedbug can hatch and grow to maturity within a month. But even under difficult conditions, when the bugs have difficulty finding blood meals, they live to bite another day. Bedbugs can survive up to a year without feeding, and while nymphs need blood meals to mature, the lack of food doesn't kill them, it just slows down their development.
Breeding Grounds
- Once bedbugs arrive in a particular setting, they settle in and spread out. Hotels, dormitories, prisons, shelters, large apartment complexes, and any place where the bugs have access to large numbers of sleeping humans is fertile ground for new infestations. The bugs are active at night and their bite is painless, so in many cases problems initially go undetected. People who wake up with itching welts often attribute the bite to something other than a bedbug.
Used Furniture
- The second-hand furniture business has been blamed for spreading bedbugs to new homes. Boston has mounted a citywide campaign to stop students from picking up new items of furniture from one of their favorite places: the curb on trash day. Although bedbugs have probably been spread by recycling old sofas and easy chairs, the larger problem is there are no easy treatments or completely effective pesticides to get rid of them. DDT, the one chemical that was successful in battling the bugs, was banned in 1972 because of environmental and health risks. Although the Environmental Protection Agency has approved pesticides that can be used, bedbugs seem to be developing resistance to many of them.
Treatment and Prevention
- The EPA suggests that people at risk for a bedbug infestation prevent the problem by continually checking for telltale signs such as molted shells or brown stains from bug excrement on mattresses and box springs. The agency also advises people to seal cracks in walls and windows and keep household clutter to a minimum. Unlike cockroaches, bedbugs aren't fans of filth, but piles of clothing and stacks of newspapers and books provide new hiding places. Vacuuming and washing clothes at high temperature to kill bugs and eggs is also recommended.

Insects & Science