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FROM LEFT: Terminix's Jaime Cisneros and Jesus Ibarra show places bedbugs commonly hide, including under a chair, Friday at a home in El Centro. (Joselito Villero) |
More than 40 years after bedbugs were eradicated in this country with the use of strong pesticides such as DDT, the infamous bedbug is making a comeback across the country and biting its way into Imperial County.
Bedbugs are about the size of an apple seed, said Sandy Fishell, owner of the extermination company Terminix of Imperial Valley.
The insect is flat, has no wings, it can’t jump but it can crawl very quickly like a cockroach, Fishell said.
In Imperial County, “we never had bedbugs,” Fishell said, adding she received her first bedbug job here in 2003.
After that, bedbug calls became more common, she said, and started “ramping up” about three years ago.
The county Public Health Department also saw a rise in complaints associated with bedbugs, deputy director Jeff Lamoure said.
In 2008 the department received three complaints associated with bedbugs — two from El Centro and one from Holtville — according to a report by the county Public Health Department.
In 2011 this number rose to 24 complaints and came from all cities in the county except Calipatria, according to the same report.
Most of this year’s complaints came from low-income extended-stay motels in El Centro, Lamoure said, adding that the area of State Street and Adams Avenue seems to be the most affected by bedbugs.
In 2009, Terminix got four bedbug calls a year, Fishell said. In 2010 that number increased to about two calls a week, she said.
There has been a steady rise of bedbug incidents in the county since 2008, said Gabe Cordero, president of Pestmaster Services.
But even with the rising number of cases, Cordero said he doesn’t believe bedbugs are an epidemic.
Still, it is quite an effort to bring bedbugs under control and eradicate them, he said.
The first cases of bedbugs in the United States started to reappear about 13 years ago, said Micah Nix, executive director of the National Bedbug Association.
But mapping an exact location of where and how the incidents started is difficult, Nix said, because such data wasn’t collected.
Even though it is unclear why there is a resurgence of bed bugs after all these years, Nix said, foreign travel and tourism are considered the main factors behind the resurgence.
Nowadays, “We have our own native colonies,” he said, “so we are responsible for spreading bedbugs across the country.”
Bedbugs live by sucking blood from hosts such as humans and are excellent hitchhikers, Nix said.
The insect can “hitch a ride pretty much to any location,” mostly by inanimate objects such as bags, luggage and furniture, he said.
Bedbugs are about the size of an apple seed, said Sandy Fishell, owner of the extermination company Terminix of Imperial Valley.
The insect is flat, has no wings, it can’t jump but it can crawl very quickly like a cockroach, Fishell said.
In Imperial County, “we never had bedbugs,” Fishell said, adding she received her first bedbug job here in 2003.
After that, bedbug calls became more common, she said, and started “ramping up” about three years ago.
The county Public Health Department also saw a rise in complaints associated with bedbugs, deputy director Jeff Lamoure said.
In 2008 the department received three complaints associated with bedbugs — two from El Centro and one from Holtville — according to a report by the county Public Health Department.
In 2011 this number rose to 24 complaints and came from all cities in the county except Calipatria, according to the same report.
Most of this year’s complaints came from low-income extended-stay motels in El Centro, Lamoure said, adding that the area of State Street and Adams Avenue seems to be the most affected by bedbugs.
In 2009, Terminix got four bedbug calls a year, Fishell said. In 2010 that number increased to about two calls a week, she said.
There has been a steady rise of bedbug incidents in the county since 2008, said Gabe Cordero, president of Pestmaster Services.
But even with the rising number of cases, Cordero said he doesn’t believe bedbugs are an epidemic.
Still, it is quite an effort to bring bedbugs under control and eradicate them, he said.
The first cases of bedbugs in the United States started to reappear about 13 years ago, said Micah Nix, executive director of the National Bedbug Association.
But mapping an exact location of where and how the incidents started is difficult, Nix said, because such data wasn’t collected.
Even though it is unclear why there is a resurgence of bed bugs after all these years, Nix said, foreign travel and tourism are considered the main factors behind the resurgence.
Nowadays, “We have our own native colonies,” he said, “so we are responsible for spreading bedbugs across the country.”
Bedbugs live by sucking blood from hosts such as humans and are excellent hitchhikers, Nix said.
The insect can “hitch a ride pretty much to any location,” mostly by inanimate objects such as bags, luggage and furniture, he said.
