Oct 13 2008
Bedbugs increasing say Pest Control Co.
Pest control companies report a growing problem with bedbugs
Gail Banach will remember one thing about her visit to Omaha.
Not the shopping.
Not the restaurants.
Not even the zoo.
No, Banach, of Syracuse, N.Y., will remember the bedbugs.
Bedbug infestations are uncommon but are not unknown in Omaha motels and hotels, according to Reid Steinkraus of the Douglas County Department of Health. However, local pest control companies and an educator with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s extension office say the pesky critters are a growing problem in the city and are difficult to exterminate.
Banach stopped overnight in Omaha this past summer en route to Utah. Traveling with her daughter Leslie and her Siberian husky, Banach said her goal on Aug. 19 was to reach Lincoln before stopping for the night.
But she became drowsy, so she pulled off the Interstate. She called three motels before finding one with a vacancy. It had a two-diamond rating in the AAA guidebook, so she figured it would be fine.
When they awoke the next morning, Banach said, it was to a splatter of tiny bloodstains on the sheets from where they’d been bitten.
“It was such a disgusting experience,” she said from Syracuse recently.
She said she found a few of the bugs still crawling around, so she put them in a cup and marched into the office to show the clerk on duty, who suggested that Banach’s dog might be to blame.
“Yeah, we have a Siberian husky,” Banach said, “and she is cleaner than 90 percent of the people I know, and she has absolutely no pests on her whatsoever. But bedbugs? Dogs don’t carry bedbugs.”
Banach said the employee also asked why she and her daughter hadn’t made the complaint as soon as they woke up. (They showered first.)
After paying the full price of $85 for the room, Banach said, she and her daughter continued to Utah, where her daughter lives.
Banach, who is director of education at the Upstate New York Poison Center in Syracuse, said she reported the episode to the Douglas County Health Department about two weeks later. She said she was told that someone would visit the motel, the Relax Inn Motel & Suites at 4578 S. 60th St.
Steinkraus said an inspector did find bedbugs in at least one room of the motel and told the owner to destroy the mattress.
“Usually the mattress is the worst culprit,” Steinkraus said, “but we also make them get an exterminator in.”
Bedbugs “draw blood from their hosts by piercing the skin with a small beaklike apparatus,” according to the Web site www.bed-bug.org. The insects are not generally known to carry disease, the site says, although some people have allergic reactions.
Bedbugs are a growing problem locally, according to Mary McCumber, co-owner of Genie Pest Control in Council Bluffs.
“In the last few years, just from the calls that I take that come in, there have been more and more,” she said. “It definitely is on the rise.”
Barb Ogg, an extension educator with the University of Nebraska based in Lancaster County, said the increase in bedbugs is a worldwide problem.
“I’ve been doing this for 16 years, and probably the first 10 or so I hardly saw a bedbug,” she said. “We’re seeing a lot more of them.”
Ogg said she started seeing reports of infestations in 2002. “But the last couple or three years, we’ve really started to see an increase.”
The insects probably arrived with international travelers, she said.
Josh Mick, owner of Omaha’s Priority Termite & Pest Control Inc., agreed that the number of bedbugs seems to be growing. “In the next five to 10 years, I bet they’re going to be just like roaches.”
Bedbugs also are hard are to exterminate, Mick said.
They are resistant to common pesticides, Ogg said. “It takes a very thorough application and repeated application, and it could be very expensive.”
There hasn’t been a rash of bedbug complaints about Omaha hotels and motels, though, Steinkraus said. Banach’s report was only the second the office had received since May.
The other complaint, concerning a different establishment, was made a week or two after the occurrence, like Banach’s. Department inspectors in that instance found no bedbugs, Steinkraus said.
In Banach’s case, he said, “there was still evidence, so we could make a determination.”
The department will follow up with the motel to ensure that it complies with the order, Steinkraus said.
Mike Patel, owner of the Relax Inn, said the inspector “did find one bug,” but the problem had been dealt with.
“We’ve been in business for 20 years, we’ve never had problems,” he said.
Steinkraus said it probably was an isolated situation.
“We didn’t find any evidence of a widespread infestation at the motel,” he said.
Bedbugs can come into a room with luggage, furniture, clothing, boxes or pillows.
“You won’t get them from a dog,” he said.
Just as surprising as the bedbugs, Banach said, was that when she reported the incident to AAA’s 800 number, someone in membership services told Banach that the representative would not recommend a two-diamond hotel. The representative called two-diamond motels “sketchy” and “last-resort” lodgings, Banach said.
The official Triple A Web site defines a two-diamond rating as: “Properties appeal to the traveler seeking more than basic accommodations. They provide modest enhancements to the overall physical attributes, design elements and amenities of the facility, typically at a modest price.”
Rose White, spokeswoman for the automobile association in Nebraska, said the organization takes its ratings seriously and investigates incidents such as Banach’s.
White also said the response Banach reported from the AAA representative was an incorrect one.
“Every hotel that earns a diamond rating from AAA has been inspected and is required to meet very stringent requirements concerning safety (and) cleanliness,” White said.
AAA told Banach it would refund the cost of her motel room. Patel also said he would give her a refund.
White said the association receives complaints regarding about 1 percent of its recommended hotels every year and follows up on each complaint. The Relax Inn had “an impeccable record” before this incident, White said.
Quick Facts:
- Bedbugs are small, wingless insects that feed solely upon the blood of warm-blooded animals.
- Hatchling bedbugs are about the size of a poppy seed, and adults are about a quarter-inch in length. From above they are oval in shape, but they are flattened from top to bottom.
- Their color ranges from nearly white (just after molting) or light tan to a deep brown or burnt orange.
- While feeding, bedbugs inject a tiny amount of their saliva into the skin. Repeated exposures to bedbug bites over a period of several weeks or more causes people to become sensitized to the saliva of these bugs; additional bites may then result in mild to intense allergic responses.
- Bedbugs are not known to transmit any infectious agents.
