Friday Freakout: Bed Bugs Right Here in Jet City

NOT ACTUAL SIZE! (CDC/ Harvard University, Dr. Gary Alpert; Dr. Harold Harlan; Richard Pollack. Photo: Piotr Naskrecki)

"They're out there. They're doing well," is what Dave Hickok, a health and environmental investigator for King County told the Seattlepi.com about bed bugs in Seattle, adding that the number of bed bug complaint calls have been increasing.

Bed bug infestations aren't tracked, so no one's got a number for you, but consider that if they're here, they're going to "do well," as Hickok says. Bed bug reports in New York have shot to 10,000 in 2009, from just 500 in 2004. (At the moment, Bedbugger.com is reporting on an infestation in Google's New York offices, which is not the Google trend anyone wants to see.)

During a bed bug summit here a year ago, a representative from pest exterminator Terminix's Seattle branch said: "Two or three years ago, I'd be lucky to get one bedbug call in a month. Now in my branch alone, I may get two dozen." Again, that was a year ago.

Maybe the best view we have of the infestation's progress is the Bed Bug Registry's citizen reporting. They have a page for bed bug incidents in Washington state, which shows the last two years' reports, and shows a habitat ranging from the Green Tortoise Hostel to the Edgewater Inn.

Seattle bed bug incidents, via Bed Bug Registry

Why the spike in population? Of the theories going around, one that's substantiated is that the bugs are genetically quick learners (and sharers) when it comes to pesticide resistance. (Bedbugger.com in Bedbugs 101 FAQ advises you not to even bother with foggers, they'll only make them worse. One study has indicated that DDT now affects the bugs like a stimulant.)

The louder people clamor for EPA approval of indoor propoxur use, the sooner the bugs will develop a resistance to that, as well. So far, high heat still kills them dead; seven minutes at 115 degrees will kill bed bugs at any stage of their life cycle. Though bed bugs aren't known to be a disease vector, no one wants to have them for long. (This post alone is making me itch.)

Putting an end to the bloodsucking, Learnvest says, will cost you about $1,200. Really, being Seattle is our only defense. We've long held that people shouldn't leave town (Why bother?) or visit us ("Familiarity breeds contempt"), and thanks to the Seattle "chill" most of us have never seen the inside of anyone else's house, so if any city has a chance to escape the worst of this scourge, it's us.