Unsuspecting students might be infested with creepy crawling, blood-sucking bed partners
Luelana Bustamante
– Staff Writer –
They are a flat, reddish-brown insect, measuring one- fourth of an inch and have no wings.
They don’t transmit any disease, and yet millions of Americans are having problems sleeping because of them.
The bed bugs are everywhere, like small vampires, just waiting to suck human blood.
According to The Week magazine, calls to bed bugs exterminators in the U.S. have risen by 57 percent in the last five years.
“There is nothing to do with cleanliness. Once bed bugs get transported in, they are basically there. You can clean and clean, but unless you call an exterminator to get rid of them, they will be there forever sucking your blood,” said Jason Allen, biology professor at STLCC-Meramec.
According to Allen, bed bugs were almost exterminated in the ‘40s, when Dichlorodiphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT) was commonly used as a pesticide along with a substance called Dursban, which was used to sprayed mattresses. However, in the ‘90s, they were banned for being harmful to the environment and for human being.
Another aspect that contributed to the increase of the bed bugs population is that they are becoming resistant to the insecticides.
“It’s a combination of both factors. The bed bugs are becoming resilient to the pesticides and the substances used to kill them were banned by the government,” said Allen.
According to an article published on the CBS News website, experts say there is an effective weapon, a chemical called Propoxur, which kills bed bugs for up to five weeks.
However, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said the chemical could be dangerous to children and no more could be manufactured for indoor use.
Since bed bugs are so hard to get rid of and there are not a lot of ways to combat them, Allen said. Prevention is the best thing to do to avoid them.
“If you travel, always check your hotel room first. Look for dark stain spots in the mattress. Before coming back home, inspect your clothes and your luggage. Get a magnifying glass if necessary, and always wash everything with soap and water to make sure that they will die,” said Allen.
However, Allen said when prevention doesn’t work, the only thing to do is to call an exterminator and get your mattress incinerated.
“The bed bugs are parasites that can hide anywhere, including inside your mattress. Once they are in your bedroom, they go out when you are sleeping attracted by your body heat and they suck your blood, leaving little red bumps in your skin,” said Allen.
Cheryl A. Straham, nursing professor at Meramec said that the red bumps are allergic reactions to their saliva.
“In case of itching, it is recommended to never scratch and use a histaminic cream over the counter,” said Straham.
The good news is that the bed bugs don’t transmit diseases. “The worse they can do is to cause anemia in elderly or children in the case of a really bad infestation in the house,” said Straham.
Another side effect of these blood suckers is the possibility to develop a phobia regarding bed bugs, especially as they are more in our conscience thanks to the resurgence and the extensive media coverage lately, said Tom Quinn, Ph.D., professor of the Behavioral Sciences Department at Meramec.
“A phobia is a specific fear as opposed to a generalized anxiety. Some people who have had the misfortune to encounter bed bugs easily develop a high level of anxiety and sometimes this becomes a phobia. The result is that they are scared to go to bed, scared to go to sleep which in turn produces more anxiety from lack of sleep,” Quinn said.
When someone develops a phobia for bed bugs, it would probably be in their best interest to look the treatment option called systematic desensitization, facilitated by a therapist.
Quinn said that the objective of this treatment is to build up tolerance for bed bugs in the victim’s mind.
“There is something creepy about the thought of some kind of insect hiding in your bed, lying in wait to start feeding off of you. This is the stuff of nightmares and horror movies,” Quinn said.
