Justin Hedlund of Steritech, left, and Pittsfield Health Department Director James Wilusz talk bed bugs last week.
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The city's on a bed bug watch. While there were only a handful of reported cases of the tiny blood suckers last year, Health Department Director James Wilusz said the insects are a growing concern.
While the bug's lifespan is just over a year, they can lay about 200 egg in that time and spread far beyond their typical locations — homes and hotels — by hitchhiking. In recent years, bed bugs have been spotted in modes of transportation, such as trains, planes, buses, cruise ships. There have also been cases in which bed bugs have been found in movie theaters and businesses, such as rental stores.
The fast-crawling hitchhikers can migrate from beds to just about anything. "The best way to control bed bugs is first realizing the problem, how bad it is, and what treatments can be made in each case," said Justin Houlin Hedlund, an employee of Steritech Co., a pest control service.
Steritech and the Board of Health teamed up last week for a presentation at the Berkshire Athenaeum on the rising problem of bed bugs. About two dozen people attended the educational session.
A study last year by the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and Seoul National University in South Korea found urban bugs are becoming resistant to certain pesticides. New York City's bed bugs are particularly tough, becoming 264 times more resistant to a common insecticide.
Their resistance and travel techniques means the once rare critters are having a resurgence. While not deadly — they don't pass diseases such as HIV or malaria — their bites can cause reactions in people with allergies and, well, they're just nasty.
Bed bugs tend to stay near their host. When they sense carbon dioxide, they tend to quickly move about. Bed bugs, however, cannot thrive in cooler climates and any temperature below 55 degrees slows down the bugs' metabolism and stops development as a whole.
They tend to be active between the hours of midnight and 4 a.m., said Hedlund.
Forms of treatment start by finding the host. Methods of extreme heating or cooling are proven factors in eliminating these critters. There are also a few practical ways to eliminate these bugs as well.
"Commercial vacuums and simple mattress covers are the easiest way to prevent and eliminate them," said Hedlund.
He stressed that "most people are unaware of these little pests. All it takes is a few minutes to look. So spread the word, not the bugs."
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It is most disturbing that the media disseminates information like cooling gets rid of bedbugs. All cool temperatures do is slow them down, cool or even cold does not kill the eggs. Only heat above 48 degrees celsius for a prolonged period of more that 1.5 hours will kill all stages of bedbugs. This nonsense about putting stuff in the freezer is just ignorant. All it takes is one 2 eggs to create an infestation. Most infestation start by people unknowingly transporting bedbugs fro an infested place to their homes.Hotels are prime places to pick up a few hitchikers. Check your room, don't put luggage on the bed or carpet use the luggage rack or desk, use an allersac and bug zip bags, check your stuff before you bring it back home. If you do pick some up and catch it early wash everything in HOT water and then put everything in the dryer on HIGH HEAT.
There is so much mis-information in this story that I don't know where to begin. First of all bed bug's life span is much more than a year, the fact of the matter is that a bed bug can stay dormant without feeding for at least a year. The fact that bed bugs are less active in colder temperatures is also false, caves billions of years ago I don't believe were heated and the survived just fine. Also, infestation regardless of how bad or mild it is, needs to be treated the same.
Justin Hedlund of Steritech, left, and 
