Bedbugs Around the World

It seems that one of the most under-appreciated and unfortunate realities of the bedbugs issue is how easily they can go from one place to another such as from your hotel room to your home (and visa versa). Imagine, if you will, that you unknowingly have bedbugs in your home. Maybe a housekeeper brought them in, or they have found their way into your apartment from another's. You go on vacation or a business trip, and some of the little critters tag along in your suitcase. They hop off in your hotel room and cause an infestation there. The next person to occupy the room brings some to their home, and on and on it goes. Now imagine this occurring world-wide.

Let's look at a few bedbug articles from around the world:

Just this week it was reported that Goldman Sachs, the beleaguered investment bank, was found to have a bedbugs infestation in one of its offices in Jersey City, NJ. Click Here to read about it and view a video clip. The video clip also references major infestations in an apartment in Fort Worth, TX, in Seattle, WA, and New York City, where, ABC News reports, there were nearly 11,000 bedbug complaints last year.

In Canada, the Toronto Star reported June 18th, "Dogs sniff out bedbugs from G20 delegates’ rooms" and there's a hospital infestation there as well, reports Toronto's Metro News (link)

The bedbug blog bedbugger.com has links to BBC reports on infestations in a hospital in Fermanagh, Northern Ireland (link) as well as student residence halls at the University of Exeter (link)

The ABC News report says that since the use of DDT was stopped due to its dangers to people and nature, it's surmised that the bedbug population continued to grow and grow until it's become the big problem it is today.