Posted: September 3, 2010

By Bill Cresenzo

bill.cresenzo@insidebiz.com

Bedbugs are back, and they're getting out of bed.

Not content to stay under the covers, the nasty, blood-sucking creatures are now venturing out into the business world.

In New York City, magazine offices, an Abercrombie & Fitch store and a movie theater reported infestations.

In Hampton Roads, bedbugs have been reported at hotels throughout the area, and a local exterminator predicts it's only a matter of time before they invade other businesses.

Charlie Church, owner of Getem Pest Control in Norfolk, said that he now deals with bedbugs every day. He predicts that the situation will only get worse, and more businesses will have to contend with getting rid of them.

"I started doing this in the 1970s, and I saw bedbugs once in that whole time," he said. "I never saw another bedbug until about two years ago. Now you see them every day. We have, on occasion, seen them in an office space. It's the tip of the iceberg and it's only going to get worse."

That's because the bugs have become resistant to pesticides. Before DDT was outlawed in 1972, it was the most effective pesticide on the market to kill bedbugs.

Bedbugs don't carry diseases, but they are physically and mentally taxing to people, causing bites, rashes, swelling and the heebie-jeebies.

They feed off blood, much like mosquitos, and are notoriously hard to kill.

Church said that heat is the most effective way to get rid of them. However, he doesn't use it - the apparatus needed to heat a room to 130 degrees, the temperature needed to kill the bugs, costs at least $20,000.

Bedbugs are hitchhikers. People can unsuspectingly pick them up, then carry them back to their homes, causing an infestation.

"We have had [some reports of bedbugs] in the past couple of weeks," said Norm Grefe, environmental health supervisor at the Norfolk Department of Public Health. "A lot of times the complaints are substantiated and other times they're not.

"We more or less tear the room apart and look for signs of them," he said.

The signs include the bugs themselves - they are about the size of a tick - as well as blood markings on mattresses and furniture.

Bedbugs can live on practically any surface, including wooden furniture, although Grefe said often it is only necessary to get a new mattress after an infestation. Or it's possible to seal the mattress, which will eventually kill the bedbugs, Church said, although an exterminator is always needed.

Church said he charges by the room for exterminations, with prices ranging from $250 to $700 for a treatment.

One of the best ways to avoid an infestation is to refrain from bringing in furniture or knick-knacks that you find on the side of the road. It's also important to check hotel beds just after check-in, Grefe said.

If you suspect an infestation, call an exterminator.

"They don't carry disease and they won't kill you," Grefe said.

The bedbug issue is one that apartment managers are likely to have to confront more and more. Last week, managers at Nusbaum Property Management, which manages 117 apartment complexes in Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland and Florida, decided that they would add bedbugs to the list that new tenants sign off on when inspecting their apartments.

If the apartment was bedbug-free and then later becomes a problem, bugs will be the tenants' responsibility, said Caroline Forehand, vice president of marketing for the company.nib