Sleep Tight and Don’t Let the Bedbugs Suck Your Ankles

USA Today lets us know bedbugs are invading the U.S. and are gonna getcha in your sleep! And whose to blame? Foreigners and those who go visit them, of course.

Pest control companies blame the bedbug boom on increased foreign travel... The bugs are more common abroad, and they'll happily hitch a ride in a suitcase. The 46 million travelers landing in the USA in 2004 were an increase of almost 12% from 2003, according to the Travel Industry Association of America.

Bedbugs are hardy, too, capable of surviving a year between meals. Those meals consist entirely of blood. Fortunately, they don't appear to spread disease, [Richard] Pollack, [a researcher at the Harvard School of Public Health] says.

There's speculation that the industry trend away from spraying pesticides on baseboards has been a boon for bedbugs, he says. The practice has mostly been discontinued in favor of more targeted, less-toxic alternatives.

Whatever the reason, you may not realize you're living with bedbugs until your home is infested.

"If you wake up at 2 a.m. and something's sucking on your ankle, that's a pretty good sign," Pollack says. "But people generally don't see that, and they don't feel feeding. They're stealthy."

Be careful though, don’t start kicking until you’re sure its not your amorous significant other having woken up “in the mood”.