August
20
2010
Freep.com
BY ROBIN ERB
FREE PRESS MEDICAL WRITER
Bedbugs -- they're hardly what you'd call picky.
"As long as you have warm blood, they'll take it," said Mark Sheperdigian, a member of the Michigan Bed Bug Working Group, a group of public health officials, housing and tourism officials and pest-control experts.
State and federal officials said they've noticed a surge in recent years of the parasites that survive Michigan's extreme temperatures, hitch rides on clothing and luggage and hide in nooks and crannies. They crawl at night for their choice meal: people.
"They don't pose a health risk at all, but they're very annoying," said James McCurtis, a Michigan Department of Community Health spokesman.
Roughly the size of an apple seed, they are not known to carry disease, but their bites leave swollen, itchy patterns.
Working with Sheperdigian and others to educate the public, Michigan's community health officials recently issued a manual on preventing and eradicating the bugs.
"We are in geometric growth. We've done twice as many calls this year as last, and twice as many that year as the year before. They're insidious," said Sheperdigian, who also works with the Troy-based Rose Pest Solutions, which has responded to more than 1,000 bedbug calls in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana this year.
Ohio health officials, in fact, met with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency this week. The infestations there are so severe that the state wants to use a pesticide that carries safety concerns for the EPA, according to news reports.
Recent reports in the upscale Riverfront Towers complex in Detroit don't surprise Don Hamel, manager of environmental health at Detroit's Department of Health & Wellness.
"When you get higher-end apartments and high-end hotels, those people tend to travel more, and there's greater potential they brought it back in their luggage or someone is coming to visit them," Hamel said.
Infestations are especially tough to control in multiple-unit dwellings, such as apartment buildings and senior housing complexes, said Sherry LaBelle, associate director of environmental health services for Macomb County's public health department.
The bugs can survive for up to a year without food. That means they can live in an empty house, waiting for the next tenant. Those who take in used furniture might unknowingly bring the infestation into their own homes.
Like so many other public health issues, ignorance stokes the problem because homeowners and tenants won't report the problem and try to treat the infestation themselves -- something that can pose more danger than the bites, officials said.
"It's hard for people to admit it and then deny it even if asked," Hamel said.
Contact ROBIN ERB: 313-222-2708
