the insects are spreading rapidly, infesting all kinds of public buildings and spaces/"We've never seen anything like this,'' agreed Mike Deutsch, an entomologist with Arrow Exterminating, saying bed bug colonies were being found in lamp bases, clock radios, televisions as well as snuggled up in the pages of books.
"We certainly know that bed bugs are not restricted to beds and upholstered furniture, but now we're finding them in places even we never thought possible.''
Of note in this story:
1. The pests enter by sneaking across the border together with benign visitors.
Frequent international travel and hotel stays have helped bed bugs stage their comeback after near extinction in the US, hitching a ride back into the country in suitcases.
2. After certain defeat, they re-grouped when we announced unilateral disarmament.
The bugs' dramatic reappearance also coincides with the withdrawal from the market of powerful chemicals such as DDT3. The administration has announced the U.S. must be more humble in its approach & signaled its willingness to meet with the bugs "without preconditions."
Few of the remaining chemicals have proved as effective against the tiny invaders, and some kinds have even developed a resistance to them.
[snip]
One Democratic MP now plans to throw the full force of the Congress against the itchy little pests, with plans to reintroduce the "Don't Let the Bed Bugs Bite Act of 2008.''
That bill failed to get passed last year, but it aims to provide funding for public housing authorities to exterminate the unwanted visitors hidden in their midst.
Maybe if we called them bed pirates....
Curtsy: Tim Blair
