It can come from any income level and any hotel, regardless of cost. Whenever we check into a hotel room we take a good look at the head boards and I wipe around other adjoining tables etc with a cleansing cloth, not being sure what this will accomplish.

I take a look at matress seams and edges for signs of a blood spatter or excrement.

A careful look in closets etc where luggage is stored is wise. International travelers seem to bring in more bedbugs than before, but this is anecdotal evidence from travelling friends and other travelling people, such as business acqaintances.

Some attribute this to the elimination of ddt,I don't know.

I do know my daughter and her boyfriend had a difficult time after aiding a homeless person with temporary accomodations. Cheers;

In asking "why bedbugs now?", the article misses one obvious reason. That is the amount of stuff coming from China and other third-world countries. With their poor quality control in everything from manufactured goods to tainted drywall to food to fabric, it would actually be surprising if there were no more surprises.

My suggestion would be to look carefully at where they are manufactured before buying new mattresses, bed linens and other products that could harbour these critters.

Its beginning to look like some type of plague. Thats hitting everywhere, no matter how rich or poor a person may be.
JMO

Forget the DDT- Use FOOD GRADE DIATOMACEOUS EARTH!
Lightly dust mattress/box-spring and watch the suckers die. Cheap,non-toxic- what's not to like. Also good for internal parasites, our cat is dosed 3 times a week and hasn't had worms since we started!

what's 'surprising' is that it takes government several decades(if only) to cause then analyze a problem and find the solution...

whereas the average joe would evaluate cause and effect and turn to the solution and implement it in minutes...

if i may be frank...when i was a younker i seemed to attract papillon d'amour at every turn....the prophylactic was DDT sprinkled liberally in the groin area fore and aft...

and yes...i have children...many actually and every man jack and girl jill of them has only one head and four limbs...and all have a protestant work ethic....even tho i'm a dogan.

well, i do have one worry ...one boy seems to be a clone of mineownself....a slice off the olde ham i tells the old woman...

our cat is dosed 3 times a week and hasn't had worms since we started!
~Roge

All parasites can be managed with an acidic diet.
Lots of acidic fruit and vegetables will make a person/pet unpalatable to parasites.

That said, my wife and I wanted to visit Banff last year to give our failing dogs one last shot at the vacation spot we loved and had visited so often together.
We were already aware of the bedbug plague which had become public knowledge by late 2009.
We stayed home because of it.
I guess we are ahead of the awareness curve.

Welcome back!

Makes me wonder if bedbugs can infest a foam mattress without seams, etc. There would be no place to hide.

Anyone know?

Woo Hoo your back! Congratulations. :O)

I recently stayed in Toronto, I left my luggage on the metal stand then proceeded to inspect the bed. Tore the whole thing apart with close examination with a flashlight, no sight of bed bugs all was safe.
When I checked out and took the complimentary ride to the airport the chauffeur enlightened me that the cleaning staff enter the rooms with a ultra-violet lamp to inspect for bedbugs and germs.
The most contaminated item in the room, remote control.

Rule of thumb: When buying anything you suspect might be contaminated -- things made in China or any other unregulated country (well, it won't work with a mattress) -- put said item in the dryer for 10-15 minutes or in the freezer. 'Same goes for anything you buy at Value Village or Thrift Shop. You never know.

A tip I picked up in the tropics, to avoid nasties in your bed at night, was not to make your bed in the morning. Leave it a mess or strip it down to the bottom sheet and add your other coverings when you get into bed. Bed bugs and other creepy-crawlies like dark places in which to hide. There are no dark places in an unmade bed.

john begley

Back in the day, newly returned guests of the bad guys(POWs) had DDT dust blown up our sleeves.
We have many obvious service related health problems but most of our problem is that we have simply turned too many calendar pages.
DDT banning was to justify the new agencies EPA and WHO( poltical). Laying hens and convicts were fed DDT daily for about 2 years and no ill effects noted.
I often wonder how much DDT and 24D are responsible for the increase in life expectancy and prosperity. Likely signifigant because they were atacked before energy by the anarchists.
Paul Erhlict inadvertantly admitted as much......

Is it possible that Moslem terrorists are spreading them around? Adds to cost of living. I agree with the airing the bed all day comment.

Anybody ask Gore or Suzuki for their thoughts on the cause? Figured those are two fellows who might know a thing or two about parasitism...

Our cold climate isn't enough to stop bedbugs from spreading so a Calgary company is turning up the heat on the pests to eliminate them. Sean Throndson uses high temperatures rather than pesticides to get rid of bedbugs.
‘What we do is raise above kill temperatures, about 120 degrees Fahrenheit," said Throndson, "We strive for about 140 degrees, and what we want to do is maintain constant equal temperature for a minimum of two hours, typically we like to do a little extra and go four hours."
Throndson says bedbugs can't escape the extreme temperatures because the heat penetrates the walls to kill all the pests and their eggs.

http://calgary.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20110225/CGY_bedbugs_110225/20110225/?hub=CalgaryHome

Im waiting for an SDA regular to exclaim they have to be left wing bedbugs for sure.

It has been exceptionally bad here in Winnipeg. A lot of social housing is infested, even some movie theaters and there's rumors of a wal-mart having bed bugs.

I've heard Vegas is really bad too.

Makes me wonder if bedbugs can infest a foam mattress without seams,Posted by: anne (not from cornwall) at March 20, 2011 8:14 AM

We've had "the experience" in our family. A certain apartment complex in Saskatoon is INFESTED. Rona sells an "early bedbug detection system" consisting of sticky traps that you place strategically. Including behind the headboard, so my answer would be, yes, a foam mattress could be infested. No there aren't seams, but those things will live anywhere. A generation ago, it was common knowledge that whenever you changed sheets, check all seams of the bed and I would say everywhere!, for the tell-tale signs.

Ask any pest control company in Ontario just how difficult if not impossible it is to rid a home of these. Ever since McGuinty banned the use of pesticides, they have to rely on "natural" products. These don't work, of course.

So, beagle, I'll rise to your challenge: Since the lefty/greenies moved to ban pesticides and since the political leftards brought in very lax immigration policies allowing an influx of immigrants from countries where bedbugs are common, for the votes, bedbugs have become increasingly more of a problem in North America.

These are facts, not value judgments, lest you jump to ill-considered conclusions.

Any other connections you'd like?

This is what you get when you ALLOW your government to import voters from god knows where and don't bother to educate the newcomers.

My theory on the rise of bed bug infestations in quality hotels is the new green model for changing the bed linens. It used to be standard to change the linens every day. Now they are not changed unless the guest specifically asks for it. Combine that with some chambermaids likely cutting corners and not actually changing them when requested and you can see how the problem could be increasing.

Im waiting for an SDA regular to exclaim they have to be left wing bedbugs for sure.

Posted by: beagle at March 20, 2011 11:50 AM

Not necessarily. All left-wingers are bugs - but not all bugs are necessarily left-wingers.

Pyrethrin works fine to get rid of bedbugs. Traps of talc & diatomaceous earth in cheap bowls under bed legs work to determine the success of the treatment.

Launder everything, dry on high. Two pesticide treatments, two weeks apart.

We dealt with an infestation in our house about 15 months ago. If you follow procedure, you can easily get rid of bedbugs. If you don't follow procedure, you will have ongoing problems.

Psalms 91:10 (KJV)
[10] There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.

Bedbugs do not infest matresses.
What they do is hunt for food (human blood) by scent.

Adults find their way into the beds by following their sniffers and lay eggs in crevices.

Thorough cleaning will eliminate nearly all of the adults and juvenile bugs...

Eggs are mmore problemetic ... the only way to get them is to cook them ... hence the heat method.

Fumigation methods rely on contact and residual strength of the poisons they use. The focus of the application is on crevises like baseboards and furniture frames .... electrical outlets.

Hotels have been using ozone saturation to clear bacteria, mold and odors for a while now ..... this also kills any live bugs.

But eggs persist.

Anybody ask Gore or Suzuki for their thoughts on the cause? Figured those are two fellows who might know a thing or two about parasitism...
Posted by: Jamie MacMaster at March 20, 2011 10:55 AM

Wonderful question. It will never be answered by those Elitists.

This site is no different from all others. Left saying "It's the Rights fault" and vise versa.
I'm so glad some think they have their own personal problems solved or at least controled. Thank you for your hints, but fanatics play to a crowd and the crowd follows blindly thing they know nothing about. Mobs led by activists, paid or devinely inspired, or by criminal intent.
There are world wide problems and I believe where there is unrest there is corruption to be weeded out.
It's always best to start at the top.
Problems are always solved by openness.