Bedbugs are on the rise and they tend to be at their worst at this time of year<\/p>\n
NEW YORK — Bedbugs are sometimes called the vampires of the insect world \u2014 hiding during the day and coming out at night to feast on human blood. Generations of children have been told: \u201cSleep tight. Don\u2019t let the bedbugs bite.\u201d<\/p>\n
Well, bad news: Bedbug infestations are increasing. This is the time of year when they tend to be at their worst. And some scientists think the reviled pests might be capable of spreading an antibiotic-resistant infection called MRSA.<\/p>\n
For centuries, the bugs have horrified homeowners and occasionally panicked the public. That happened in New York City in 2018, when at least a half dozen city buses were taken out of service after reports of bedbugs crawling on seats. It happened again in Paris in 2023, when reports of bedbugs at a movie theater, on trains and on buses popped up in the lead-up to the 2024 Olympics.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey certainly are out there,\u201d said Christopher Hayes, a North Carolina State University assistant professor who has been bitten by bedbugs more than 50 times in the course of research. \u201cAnd if you're unaware, if you're not on top of your game, it's easy to bring them into your home."<\/p>\n
Bedbugs are reddish-brown bloodsuckers about the size of an apple seed. Some researchers estimate they date back to the time of the dinosaurs, but they are best known for their unfortunate ability to live with \u2014 and prey on \u2014 humans.<\/p>\n
They can hide in narrow crevices in furniture and lurk in clothes, linens and mattresses. They are hard to see but can be detected through the small dark excrement stains they leave.<\/p>\n
The pests can be year-round problems but they have traditionally thrived in the summer. They tend to emerge at night, crawling onto people and using a beaklike body part to pierce human skin and suck blood for several minutes.<\/p>\n
The bite itself is painless. Some people develop itchy red welts a day or so later, but others have no reaction.<\/p>\n
That's a problem, because people unaware that they are repeatedly being bitten can quickly find themselves victims of an infestation.<\/p>\n
One of the more gruesome stories about bedbugs and human health was detailed in a 2020 medical journal case report from France.<\/p>\n
It told of a 70-year-old man who lived by himself in an apartment and fainted on the street one day. He was brought to a hospital emergency department in a Paris suburb where he was diagnosed with dementia \u2014 and with anemia caused by a longstanding loss of blood.<\/p>\n
He also had bedbugs feeding on his neck, head and shoulder. An investigation of his apartment detected thousands of them in his bed and on the floor, walls and curtains of his home.<\/p>\n
Some good news about bedbugs is there hasn't been clear evidence that they have spread diseases from one person to another. The bugs' digestion and anatomy seem to prevent germs from being passed on efficiently, said Chow-Yang Lee, an entomologist at the University of California at Riverside.<\/p>\n
But University of South Dakota researchers in 2023 published the results of an experiment \u2014 using blood capsules with an artificial skin \u2014 that demonstrated bedbugs could acquire MRSA during one feeding and spread it during a later one.<\/p>\n