Bed Bugs Are Back, With A Vengeance

To understand the influx of bed bugs in our city, Gale Ridge said, ​“Google what a J curve is.”

“A J curve,” explained Ridge, of The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven, ​“is a drastic upward slope, and that is what we have been seeing for the past two decades.”

Bed bugs came back as a result of an increase of international trade moving the insect around the world. At the experiment station, records show inquiries about bed bugs have steadily risen over the past 20 years in Connecticut from one in 1996 to more than 2,500 in 2014.

The latest infestation, at a Yale medical school dorm graduate dorm, forced the university to put 30 visiting admitted students up in hotel rooms this week instead of on campus.

Rafael Ramos, deputy director of New Haven government’s anti-blight agency, the Livable City Initiative, confirmed that complaints about bed bugs have risen in recent years.

“Bedbugs are a big problem. It’s nobody’s fault. You can pick one up anywhere — on a bus, on a train, at a school, at a hotel. It’s expensive to deal with,” Ramos said.

Ridge offered helpful tips and free services to be utilized in combating a bed bug infestation.

Take Action

But first, a brief history:

The human bed bug that we have here, also known as the ​“common bed bug” with the scientific name Cimex lectularius, is an apple seed-sized insect that has been leeching off human blood for hundreds of thousands of years. Scientists traditionally posit that bed bugs first preyed on cave-dwelling bats and were thus transferred to cave-dwelling humans, making them ​“cave-bat-bed-bugs.”

Ridge suggested this may not necessarily be true. With new research, scientists are uncovering evidence that suggests two human populations overlapped living areas nearly 400,000 years ago across Europe and Asia. This would imply that Homo sapiens sapiens, namely us, walked into the bed bug plague living with other human species like the Neanderthals and Homo erectus when we migrated out of Africa some 200,000 years ago.

Regardless of how we got stuck with them, bed bugs have dogged us throughout the ages, consistently being present at every historic event, like an unwanted uncle chaperoning the prom. Bed bugs have seen their share of war, and they were a major problem during World War II. Countless measures were taken to thwart this tiny terrorist organization. Some companies found cyanide gas to be super effective in solving their bed bug problems. This practice was short lived as it posed great danger to the soldiers.

After having survived the war, the shell-shocked bed bugs were thankful to find relief. But soon after, they were confronted by a new threat: DDT (Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane).

DDT is a toxic chemical that was used during the first half of the 20th century to eradicate the bed bug race. It has a three-year residual life, and was so common it could be found in the fabric of baby cribs. Unfortunately, the chemical was equally a danger to us as it was for the bed bugs. It was being used during a time in which humanity was ignorant of the dangers that noxious chemicals posed to our health. By the end of the 20th century, DDT was banned, and bed bugs stirred up a vengeful resurgence.

Nowadays bed bugs maintain ubiquity. Their presence waxes and wanes in certain areas, while staying consistently prevalent in others. The chemicals currently on the market are too weak to kill the bugs and every generation that survives our efforts grows more resilient to our methods. The human-bed bug relationship is like a chess game of survival. With every move we make, the bed bugs seem to be one step ahead of us. Their adaptation methods are thoroughly crafted to exploit our living situations.

For these reasons, getting rid of an infestation can be a pressing issue. Luckily for us, there are preventative measures to take against bed bugs. There are also steps we can take in managing infestations.

Take Action

Ridge suggests a three-step procedure in dealing with bed bugs when they are found.

Step 1: Identify the bug. If you find a bug in your house, take it into custody and place it in the refrigerator. The refrigerator will immobilize the insect in 10 minutes, and eventually the low temps will kill it. Ridge encourages New Haven residents to take a good picture of the bug and send it to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), where she can personally identify it. You can also put the bug in a plastic bag and bring it to 123 Huntington St., New Haven. Whatever you do, do not throw it out.

If you find bites on your skin, check under your bed, or on the walls/floor next to where you were bitten. Chances are the bedbug is close by, and will be easy to find.

Step 2: Home treatment. If your insect was found on a piece of furniture, simply take off all of the soft materials, blankets, pillows, etc, quietly and slowly. Bed bugs are ​“nervous creatures,” Ridge says. They hide in cracks and crevices and when out and about, and ​“they cling to anything that moves, so be careful and quiet. … If you see one moving and wish to catch it, just blow on it and it will stop moving.”

After you have removed your blankets etc., put them in the dryer for 20 minutes at a high temperature. This will kill any bed bugs hiding in the fabric. After this is completed, slowly vacuum all of the crevices and tufts in your infested furniture using a crevice tool attached to the hose. Repeat the vacuuming every ten days. This intercepts their biology. Ridge said that ​“since bed bugs cluster together, vacuuming is the most effective method in removing them from your home.”

Step 3: Call for help. Get professional help. Over-the-counter bed bug sprays and pesticides are notoriously ineffective. Only a professional can completely eradicate the infestation.

If you are a tenant, contact your landlord. Bed bug infestations can be controlled if discovered early. Ridge claims the reason bedbugs infestations go untreated is due to our own ignorance. ​“Public education and willingness to learn about the insects” is what Ridge suggests in becoming more effective dealing with bedbugs.

Layman’s ​“Advice”

Some residents choose not to heed the warnings. A New Haven man living in the Beaver Hill area has decided to take on his bed bug problem in a full-scale battle between man and insect.

“I am on the verge of calling a professional,” said the man (who requested anonymity). ​“They [the bedbugs] are getting out of hand. I spray pesticides all over my walls and floors once a week. The pesticides make me cough, even when I’m not spraying.”

He has experienced a lasting bed bug infestation for the past six months. He has tried everything from covering his bed with paint covers to lacing his walls with Vaseline. (Bed bugs are bad climbers, and Vaseline makes it even more difficult for them to climb.) The man claimed that ​“putting drain cleaner, like Drano, into a spray bottle is super effective in killing bed bugs. I sprayed one the other day with drain cleaner and it practically melted.”

Although his fervor is commendable, he admitted that he has not succeeded in suppressing the infestation.

Here are some temporary solutions that this man has discovered in keeping the infestation at bay:

• If you have bed bugs, you can temporarily wrap double sided tape around the legs of your furniture to prevent them from getting to you.

• You can dry your linens regularly to kill any lingering bugs.

• You can vacuum crevices in your walls.

I must stress that these strategies are only temporary. Above all, get a professional and follow the steps outlined previously.

“Bed bugs are a building pest and live nearly 100 percent of their time in cracks and crevices,” Ridge said. ​“They venture out only briefly to feed. It is no one’s fault that bed bugs move in, so early quick reporting should be welcomed by everyone. Then they have no chance to establish.”

Another crucial component of fighting bedbugs is composure. Keep calm. Do not react to the stigmas associated with bedbugs. Part of their strategy is to divide and conquer humanity through devious psychological games. Don’t buy into the propaganda.