Bedbugs make a comeback in region

AMESBURY — Up until several years ago, the most troubling bloodsucking creatures Greater Newburyport had to worry about were greenheads, deer ticks and mosquitoes.

But there's a new pest in town that could be coming to a home near you. And its creepy nocturnal habits are the stuff of nightmares.

It turns out bedbugs thrive just as well in the Greater Newburyort area as they do in metropolitan centers like New York City and Los Angeles, where the creatures first re-emerged after decades of complete eradication in the United States.

Amesbury health agent Jack Morris, who oversees health offices in Newburyport and Salisbury, said infestations of the insects were reported this past summer and fall in Amesbury. And he said it's likely the creatures have spread across the region.

"There's been a resurgence," Morris said. "I think that they're present in the environment now."

Morris reported to the Board of Health that an apartment building on Lions Mouth Road and another multi-unit building on Market Street, were dealing with an infestation of bedbugs. And though he hasn't received any complaints from residents in Salisbury and Newburyport, that doesn't mean they're not in those communities, too.

"Generally how we find out is if someone files a complaint," Morris said. "One of the (infestations) was a single apartment and the owner acted promptly and abated the problem. The other one was back in the summer, and the owner had a treatment there as well. They removed the bedding and threw it away."

'More and more'

Pest control expert John Duermyer of Dura Tech Pest Control in Amesbury said he's received calls from several homes in the greater Newburyport area about bedbugs, though his company didn't get the call to eradicate the critters. Duermyer said the bugs have been here for some time — probably hitchhiking on the clothes of unsuspecting human hosts traveling from points across the globe.

"We are seeing more and more of it," Duermyer said. "It's a problem that's been coming to the North Shore for the last two or three years. Boston is loaded. Back Bay is loaded. It's been pushing its way up farther and farther north. But it's here."

Duermyer directs residents to the bed bug registry online if they want to know how many infestation reports have been made. There they can find a map of the United States and multiple red pin points to show where bites have been reported.

From the looks of the map, Massachusetts appears to be swarming with the little critters.

Duermyer said the first sign people will notice with an infestation are a number of red bite marks on their arms, legs or face.

"They're attracted to the carbon dioxide so your breath, as you breath at night, is what they're attracted to," Duermyer said. "They usually will feed between three to 10 minutes on a person."

The bugs will typically move from place to place on your body, he said, looking for an easy access "blood meal," which they can detect by the heat coming off your capillaries. A female bedbug can lay anywhere between one to five eggs a day, and the insects molt five times in their lifetime as they grow to maturity. By the time someone notices the bite marks, he said, the infestation is well established.

But no matter how horrific the idea of bedbugs is to the public at large, Richard Pollack, Ph.D with the Harvard School of Public Health, Laboratory of Public Health Entomology, feels the situation is nothing to panic about. While he agrees they're here, he doesn't believe they're here in as great a number as the Bedbug Registry would infer.

"Massachusetts doesn't hold a monopoly on bedbugs," he said. "I'm sure there's not a state in the union that's not without bedbugs — no community that doesn't have some infested dwellings. These things are here. They are back. But most bugs that you find on the beds of people are not bed bugs."

Pollack, who consults with the state and with other countries on outbreaks of malaria, Lyme and Eastern equine Encephalitis, said half of the bug specimens sent to him under the auspices of being bedbugs are in fact not bedbugs. But they're here and growing in population, and efforts to eradicate them in towns around Boston like Allston and Brookline, probably won't be successful, Pollack said.

"Eradication is a lofty goal, but it's unattainable," Pollack said. "We have no means to eradicate bed bugs from a community short of a thermal nuclear device. And that's probably not the way to go."

Precautions

As a world traveler himself, he does offer some worthwhile advice to anyone not wishing to bring an infestation unwittingly into their homes.

"I do a lot of traveling, and I stay in hotels sometimes that I know are heavily infested with bedbugs," Pollack said. "Sometimes that's your only choice. I always inspect the room before I open up my suitcase. I know what to look for."

Pollack advises people staying at a hotel to look at the mattress and comforter for signs of former or current infestation or blood marks, and behind any picture frames in the room. And if there are no signs of an infestation, don't let your guard down.

"Even if I'm pretty sure there are none, when I get home, I practice what I preach, and that is I know longer dump my stuff on the bed as I used to do years ago," Pollack said. "I go immediately to the washing machine and wash them."

Pollack advises people to sweep out their suitcase and store it as far away from where they sleep as possible — in an attic or basement preferably, where they will eventually either cook in the high heat or die of starvation.

Pollack advises people to avoid collecting people's coats atop their bed during dinner parties as well, and to request hanging their own coat if attending a dinner party at someone's home.

The cost to eradicate bedbugs from your home could total about $1,000, he said, and it could take up to a year to be fully rid of them.

Morris said if an infestation occurs, the best remedy is to quickly phone an exterminator, and don't take the news personally. It doesn't mean you keep a dirty home.

"There's really not much you can do except abate the problem when it occurs," Morris said. "It has nothing to do with being cleanly. A sanitary environment helps but (getting them) doesn't mean that people are dirty."

Bedbug facts

Size: Grow to about 1/2-inch long

Appearance: Brownish color, oval shaped

What they do: Most active at night, they suck blood from their hosts. Usually hide during daylight

Telltale signs of a bite: itchy, reddish welts on skin

Life cycle: Six months or more

What to do: Call exterminator

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