Recent Stories with tag exterminator

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.... (more)