The Decade of Bedbugs and Fear

Open Access Full open access to this and thousands of other papers at Rolling Stone and Time magazine recently put the past summer's bedbug " crisis " into perspective in the United States (U.S.). Many of us have transferred our fear and anxiety of bioterrorism attacks or socialism into attacks of the " tiny " on our personal lives. Some of us have developed continual anxiety of potential bedbug infestation from travel contacts, visits from foreigners, visits from anyone with a suitcase or backpack, or packages arriving from major cities into our comparatively sanitary homes. A perceived conspiracy of a loathsome, sick group of bedbug-harboring travelers has begun to unravel our peaceful bite-free sleep. The recent second-round of news on the bedbug infestation in 2010 in the U.S. was actually a continuation of bedbug infestations first identified in 2006. The U.S. bedbug infestations followed infestation increases in Australia and other parts of the United Kingdom (U.K.), although actual government reporting was low. News reporters in the U.S. do not usually mention the development of the international bedbug infestation trends, but bedbugs travelling along international trading and vacationing venues, quietly took root in places previously free from this pest. As bedbug and human populations grew in many countries, and as trade and travel have increased, bedbugs have been traveling unnoticed as well. Another unnoticed change, decreased pesticide-use, occurred in the U.S. and other countries during the same time period. " Natural " pest control methods were promoted, while pesticides having residual control capabilities were being removed from pest control use. Bedbugs were increasing at the same time that use of the most effective pesticides was declining. International reporting on pest populations (including bedbugs) was poor—if there was any at all. Since the bedbug does not transmit infectious disease, no records of bedbug populations are recorded by World Health Organization (WHO), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),or other health organizations. Therefore, official government action was not seen as necessary until upscale hotels began identifying bedbug infestations and patrons began filing related lawsuits. When basic population ecology is applied to the " astounding " and " horrifying " increase in bedbug infestations, a normal population curve emerges. Insects exhibit R-type reproduction strategies (large numbers of unattended eggs) where the young, including bedbugs, appear much like the adult, just smaller in size. All of the young developmental stages (including nymphs) feed …