Bed Bug Population Booms

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Public Officials fear that the bed bug population is reaching epidemic levels.  Calls to exterminators nationwide are up 56 percent, according to a new survey by the National Pest Management Association. 

Health Officials say the number of infestations is also up here in Middle Georgia.   The Bibb county health department has investigated five possible bed bug infestations in the past year, all of them, at hotels or motels.  In Houston county, there have been 10 reported infestations, one of them at a tourist accommodation.
Sharon Pettit of the health department in Houston county describes what she saw inside a room at the Swan Motel.

"The bed bugs were in the windowsill, they were in the cracks and crevices along the wall, in the ceiling, they were all over the nightstand, the headboard, the mattress.  I had never seen anything like that before. I didn't want to go in the room--it was just that bad," she said.

That was in 2008, the owner of the motel says an exterminator has fixed the problem and he passes the health department's inspections twice a year. He also says a pest control company sprays the rooms every month.

A new study shows the number of bed bug infestations has gone up more than 500 percent in recent years, and a survey of 700 hotel rooms found 1 in 4 infested.

"There has definitely been an explosion within the last year," said Sharon Pettit.

The health department says the most common infested areas are inside homes. Bed Bugs can live behind headboards, inside mattresses, and anywhere humans or pets sleep.

Fred Folsom, general manager of Barnes Exterminating based in Macon says the majority of infestations go unreported and that bed bugs will go anywhere the food source is--blood. 

He recommends not bringing used furniture into your home without checking it out for bed bugs and inspecting all hotel or motel rooms before bringing your luggage inside.  

Some signs that your home, or hotel room may be infested are small bloodstains on sheets and mattresses, specks of blood behind wallpaper, insect waste in furniture crevices and walls, and an intense, sweet odor caused by bed bugs' oil secretions.

You should call an exterminator immediately, and report it to the department of public health.