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Are you looking under the covers for bed bugs? You should be! |
September
26
2011
Updated: Monday, 26 Sep 2011, 6:26 PM EDT
Published : Monday, 26 Sep 2011, 6:26 PM EDT
By ROOP RAJ
WJBK | myFOXDetroit.com
WEST BLOOMFIELD, Mich. (WJBK) - "They come out at night and feed. They like it when you're quiet and resting. They don't like to live on your body when you're moving around," said Gene White with Rose Pest Solutions.
There are three bedbug cases at the Jewish Senior Life apartment complex in West Bloomfield and another six cases at the Oak Park campus.
Rose Pest Solutions has been called in to help. They say the number of bedbug cases has doubled in just the past year throughout Southeast Michigan.
"Culturally, we're traveling a lot more. We're shipping a lot more. People are moving from country to country, from state to state, from city to city and carrying bedbugs with them and spreading them as we go," White explained.
It has nothing to do with cleanliness. It has everything to do with the fact that these insects have become resistant to chemicals that were used previously. The experts are now using something else.
"We use temperature, high temperatures. We have specialized equipment with specialized workforce that applies that equipment to the apartments and the complexes and homes of whatever the situation is," White said.
Here's what you can do to bust the bedbug boom at your home. Invest in a mattress cover made especially with the critters in mind.
"The covers are made in such a way that it doesn't allow them to harbor in any cracks or crevices like a standard mattress cover would have or a mattress would have," said White. "There are a lot of seams and places on mattresses where bedbugs like to live and hide."
The covers cost anywhere between $60 and $150. They can be purchased at Bed, Bath and Beyond. The following are links to a couple of online retailers that also sell them:
Also, make sure to keep an eye on things you put down at other people's places. Purses, handbags and coats are perfect for carrying the critters.
As for the cases at the apartment complexes, Rose Pest Solutions has those under control.
The problem affects a lot of people in both apartments and homes. Cluttered or clean, it doesn't matter.
