Bed Bugs Make Resurgence in Homes

When Brian White and his crew show up to exterminate bedbugs, which they do often in the city these days, they're sometimes met with an exasperated show-and-tell from the humans on the menu for the nocturnal parasites.

"If the tenants are around, they're showing you their arms and legs and all the bites and saying, 'We never see the bugs. How can they be doing all this to us?' " Mr. White said.

Sometimes he lifts up the box spring or platform under a mattress and peels back the felt on the bottom to reveal the tiny bloodsuckers lurking inside.

"Once I show them, they never want to sleep on that bed again, and I don't blame them," said Mr. White, owner of Pro-Tech Pest Control.

All but eradicated from developed countries by the middle of the 20th century, bedbugs began making a robust comeback about six years ago for reasons that aren't entirely understood but may include increased travel abroad and federal bans on certain pesticides.

The unpleasant trajectory of the bedbug resurgence in Worcester is clear in the number of reported infestations logged by the city's Department of Inspectional Services.

The department got just three calls about bedbugs in 2006. The number of calls had increased to 20 by 2008 and then to 74 by 2010. Last year, the city got 96 bedbug calls, according to the department's records.

And those are just the cases when a tenant complained to the city. In other instances, a landlord or property-management company takes care of the problem without involvement from the city.

"The bedbug issue is one of the more costly pest control issues we've ever dealt with. It absolutely exploded over the last few years," said Sandra Katz, president of the Worcester Property Owners Association. "I had a landlord who spent close to $10,000 on extermination for just one building."

Pro-Tech's Mr. White also can vouch for the extent of the parasite problem, which has had the opposite effect on his bottom line.

"I get a call for bedbugs every single day. That's no joke," Mr. White said. "There are more bedbugs in the city than roaches. I can tell you that for sure. It's flipped."

Amanda M. Wilson, Worcester's director of housing and health inspections, said she's been asked to speak to charity and community groups about bedbugs as the biting pests become an increasingly vexing problem for their clients and staff.

"I've seen infestations where, as soon as you flip up the fold at the edge of the mattress, you see the old shells where they've molted, live ones, eggs and the clear babies that haven't fed yet," Ms. Wilson said. "The other sign is tiny blood spots on the mattress. After they feed and walk away, they can leave a little trail of blood."

With bedbugs living inside heated homes near their food source, the infestations continue to plague residents through the winter. The department typically learns of bedbug infestations from tenants, but some cases are reported by visiting nurses, social workers and even educators who notice children with itchy, red welts on their arms and legs.

While the city sometimes allows landlords of smaller properties to take a crack at getting rid of mice or roaches on their own, it requires professional extermination of bedbugs in every case. The parasites are tricky to eradicate because they can't be baited with poison like mice or roaches, and because they can survive months without feeding, Ms. Wilson said.

Bedbug extermination also entails a much higher degree of inconvenience for and cooperation from tenants, which isn't always forthcoming, said Ms. Katz of the Worcester Property Owners Association.

After bedbugs began making a comeback here, the Worcester Housing Authority grew so concerned that the biting insects would migrate throughout buildings as tenants visited each other, officials set up a protocol of regular inspections.

"One day, out of the blue, somebody said, 'Oh, we have some bedbugs.' It was the first we had ever heard of it, and we had to start from scratch," WHA Executive Director Raymond V. Mariano said.

The housing authority found vendors who use specially trained beagles capable of sniffing out bedbugs and their eggs in bed frames, walls and other hiding spots. Mr. Mariano said all of the authority's roughly 3,000 apartments are checked for bedbugs by the dogs at least once a year now.

"I remember growing up saying, 'What's a bedbug?' I thought it was just some silly saying. 'Don't let the bedbugs bite.' Now I know it's not," Mr. Mariano said.

Dominique Nicolay and Andrew Valk of Worcester learned just how real bedbugs are the hard way a few years ago. They stayed in a nice hotel in Boston and, in the morning, discovered they weren't the only guests in the room that night.

"I had a rash with welts all over my stomach," Mr. Valk recalled.

Not long after, his son's Boston office had to be treated for bedbugs, and his daughter moved into a house in Shrewsbury and started getting bitten. Ms. Nicolay was looking to start a business, so Mr. Valk suggested she get into what appeared to be a growth industry.

The couple bought two dogs from a Florida canine academy, completed the handler training and then got certified by the National Entomology Scent Detection Canine Association and another industry group.

Their home-based business, Mass Bed Bug Busters, now has clients all over the state and region as the bedbug problem spreads and worsens. They have a beagle named Nicki and a beagle-Jack Russell terrier mix named Malamar trained to sniff out the elusive, tiny insects.

The dogs have found bedbug infestations in places ranging from computer keyboards to picture frames. Typically, bedbugs take up residence near where people sleep or sit still for long periods of time. Because the bites are painless, people don't have to be asleep to become dinner for bedbugs.

Ms. Nicolay recently brought her dogs to the home of a woman who was getting bit but could find no signs of the bugs on her mattress or bed frame. Following their noses, Nicki and Malamar zeroed in on a couch.

"I flipped over the cushion and, sure enough, bedbugs were scurrying around underneath it. The woman showed me her bites, and she had welts all over her back," Ms. Nicolay said.

The couple have been hired to bring their dogs to gritty urban neighborhoods and leafy suburbs alike. They've searched houses, apartment buildings, residential care facilities, movie theaters, libraries, buses and cars over the years.

Whether an infestation is discovered by dogs or the people feasted upon, the next step requires pest-control technicians to get to work using special pesticides and, in some cases, portable heaters that kill the insects by baking a room or entire building.

The initial treatment for a typical three-decker costs about $1,200, and follow-up treatments often are necessary at additional expense, Mr. White said.

The Worcester Housing Authority handles routine infestations in-house but calls in pest-control companies in difficult cases. The agency's treatment protocol requires tenants to have their clothes and linens commercially laundered at high temperatures. They also are asked to store possessions in special containers, and sometimes furniture in the unit has to be sealed in plastic bags and discarded.

"We rip it up before we throw it out, so people don't pick up the furniture and bring it back in," Mr. Mariano said. "Bedbugs are really hard to get rid of if you don't do it right. You wouldn't want to wish this on your worst enemy."