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Bedbugs are back and biting
A jar of bedbugs
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TEXT OF STORY
Steve Chiotakis: The United States faces an enemy it hasn't seen in more than 50 years: bedbugs. The invasion is so bad, the Environmental Protection Agency is getting involved. Joel Rose reports.
Joel Rose: After World War II, bedbugs were basically eradicated from the U.S. Not anymore. The little brown pests have turned up in college dorm, apartments, hospitals -- even high-end hotels.
Greg Baumann: They're elusive. They can get in cracks and walls very easily. They're a flat bug. They're transient. They're great hitchhikers.
Greg Baumann is a senior scientist at the National Pest Management Association. He spoke to me from the EPA's bedbug summit in Virginia, which brings experts and industry together to talk about the problem.
Over the years, the EPA has pulled many of the most potent chemicals off the shelves because of environmental concerns. Baumann says pest managers can still kill the bugs, but the public needs to be patient.
Baumann: This is not a magic thing. This could take several visits.
EPA officials hope to come up with a new plan of attack before the summit wraps up today.
I'm Joel Rose for Marketplace.
Bedbugs are not the only offensive inhabitants sleeping with you at night. Mattresses are saturated with other bedfellows, such as, dust mites (and their excrement), sweat, dead skin, spores, and mold. As a result, your mattress can double its weight in merely 10 years. Appalling to say the least.
Check out my site @ sleepsonian.com.
It is probably appropriate to call bed bugs an invading enemy. It wouldn't surprise me if one of the tactics of anti-American saboteurs/terrorists is to release harmful insects and germs here. Angry and resentful visitors would find it easy to do that in the privacy of their hotel rooms.
Our company makes a certified bed bug mattress encasement, we are currently offering a free box spring encasement for every mattress encasement purchased, visit www.cleanrest.com to learn more
