In keeping with the best of government traditions, the Federal Bedbug Work Group is hosting its second national summit Feb. 1-2 in Washington to brainstorm about solutions to the resurgence of the tiny bloodsuckers that have made such an itch-inducing comeback in recent years.
The summit, open to the public, will focus on ways the federal government and others can work together to manage and control the pests, which have been showing up in apartment buildings, college dorms, luxury hotels, movie theaters, retail stores and, increasingly, office buildings, according to officials and pest-management firms.
Several federal agencies participate in the Federal Bedbug Work Group: the Environmental Protection Agency; the departments of Housing and Urban Development, Agriculture, Defense and Commerce; the National Institutes of Health; and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The EPA organized the first federal bedbug summit last year. February’s meeting is supposed to feature updates from federal, state and local governments, the research community and the housing and pest- management industries.
The National Pest Management Association, based in Fairfax, Va., will host what it has named the National Bedbug Forum in Denver on Jan. 5-7 to demonstrate new pest- control technologies. And the District of Columbia’s health department will host its second bedbug summit Jan. 20.
Industry officials say bedbugs are the most difficult pest to treat. Common household pests for centuries, bedbugs were virtually eradicated in the 1940s and ’50s by widespread use of DDT. The insecticide was banned in the 1970s, and the bugs developed resistance to replacement chemicals.
Unlike many household pests — ants, termites and cockroaches — bedbugs can live for months without a meal. They hide deep in mattress seams, box springs and baseboard crevices, behind wallpaper and in clutter around beds.
Experts attribute the rise in bedbugs to increased domestic and international travel, lack of knowledge about preventing infestations and increased resistance to pesticides. Bedbugs hitch rides easily from person to person, so they are showing up in all sorts of places, including hotel rooms and nursing homes.
The CDC is partnering with experts in medicine, epidemiology, entomology and environmental toxicology to better understand the bugs’ resurgence and the ways to control them.
Meanwhile, bedbugs have spread well beyond beds and residential areas.
“One of the most alarming trends we’ve seen recently is the beginning of what seems like major problems in office buildings,” said entomologist Wayne White. “They’re no longer associated with places where we sleep.”
