O HIO STAT E U EN TO M O LO GY DEPA RT M EN T
COVE R STORY INFESTED Bedbugs and
their larvae are shown in a favorite hiding place, the piping of an infested mattress.
BATTLING THE BEDBUG EPIDEMIC Chemical controls, government action, and personal vigilance are all required to TAME THE OUTBREAK WILLIAM G. SCHULZ, C&EN WASHINGTON
BEDBUGS, an ancient scourge of human-
ity, have returned to become a national nightmare. Their stunning worldwide resurgence, public health experts say, is creating a wake of human misery, financial wreckage, and toxic hazards that few wish to contemplate given the level of disgust most people have for the topic. In acknowledgment of the growing epidemic, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention have issued a joint statement on bedbugs, noting their “alarming resurgence” and calling them a pest of “significant public health importance.” Chemistry, these agencies and many bedbug experts say, is essential in efforts to control the outbreak. Last month in Washington, D.C., EPA held its second National Bed Bug Summit, a visible effort to gather experts in a search for solutions, as well as to address public concerns and the need for accurate information about bedbugs and their control. EPA has also developed a highly praised
comprehensive website about bedbugs. But for many frontline workers, statements, meetings, information sheets, and websites are not enough. They fault EPA in particular for avoiding more direct actions—such as granting permission to use more effective pesticides that have been withdrawn from the market—that could help them get rid of bedbugs and protect people from other serious health and safety problems that have emerged in relation to the crisis. “There’s lots of pressure on federal agencies, but they have not done very much,” says Dini Miller, an associate professor of entomology at Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University who has become one of the leading authorities on bedbugs. Part of the problem, she says, is that it is not clear which agency—housing,
health, agriculture, or environment—has authority for any given aspect of the problem. “Bedbugs don’t fall under anybody’s mission, so they have fallen through the cracks,” she says. WHEN BEDBUGS invade, they take hold
in mattresses, box springs, chairs, nightstands—any sleeping area—emerging at night to take a blood meal from their human hosts. Entomologists say bedbugs likely sense CO2, body heat, other bodily emanations, or some combination of these that draw them to their target. Because the insects are stealthy, infestations are often not detected until they have become massively severe. Although bedbugs are not officially considered a disease vector, they can exact a steep physical, emotional, and financial
“I have toured apartments infested with bedbugs and nearly gotten sick.”
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
13
MARCH 7, 2011
M ICHAEL P OT T ER
COVE R STORY
toll: Their bites can trigger severe allergic reactions. When people find out they have bedbugs, health care workers say, they often suffer severe mental anguish and find sleep impossible. Professional extermination can cost thousands of dollars and take eight weeks or more. Many over-the-counter products kill the insects only on contact, pest control experts say, leaving behind reinforcements. IN THE MID-20TH CENTURY, bedbugs
were nearly wiped off the planet with the help of powerful chemicals such as DDT and organophosphate, carbamate, and pyrethroid compounds, to name a few. No one advocates bringing back unsafe pesticides that were banned for good reasons, but experts say regulators must acknowledge that only a very limited number of effective pesticides—mainly pyrethroids— remain to treat infestations. Besides, they say, bedbugs now show resistance to many of the older chemistries, including DDT. The search is on both in industry and academe for new compounds to fight bedbugs that are safe and effective. It is a race against the clock as the insects increasingly show resistance to chemicals that are in use. But chemicals must be used strategically and with caution, says Department of Agriculture entomologist Mark F. Feldlaufer, who studies bedbugs and possible chemical means of control. “Different approaches depend on different situations,” he says.
bedbugs. Even in one neighborhood, the bedbugs can all be different in terms of resistance, he says. “It’s not like one person gets the same strain as everyone else.” One new compound on the market is the pesticide chlorfenapyr, marketed as Phantom. Developed by BASF, the halogenated pyrrole can rapidly knock down infestations, Jordan says, and provide the residual kill that can prevent resurgence of infestations. Many factors contribute to the bedbug resurgence, but “no one can say there’s not a direct relationship with the reduction in available organophosphate, pyrethroid, “Where they are found may dictate the and other compounds,” says Jay Vroom, type of treatment. Chemicals are part of president of CropLife America, an industry that approach, but only part,” he group for makers of agricultural chemicals, notes, adding that the wrong some once used as indoor O chemicals in the wrong place Cl pesticides but now restricted. N can simply prompt the insects F C The chemicals pose risks, he 3 to scatter, only to return at a says, but they also offer benlater time. efits: They kill bugs, rapidly and Br CN “Everyone is searching effectively. for a silver bullet,” Feldlaufer “We have a pretty impressive Chlorfenapyr says. “But if the silver bullet is a arsenal of chemistries to deal with chemical,” the insects will likely develop other pests,” says Michael F. Potter, a proresistance. fessor of entomology at the University of The resistance problem is vexing, says Kentucky and an urban pest control expert. entomologist Kyle Jordan, a BASF market “But the arsenal is just really depleted for development specialist who works with bedbugs.” academic and other researchers seeking With fewer effective solutions, governnew chemical technologies to deal with ment officials have been scrambling to
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
TREATMENT A
technician treats a mattress with a pesticide approved for use against bedbugs.
14
MARCH 7, 2011
respond to the rapid spread of infestations nationwide. They say the insects are becoming increasingly difficult and costly to contain, often overwhelming public health agencies with already-strained budgets. They emphasize that the most vulnerable people in society—many immigrants, the poor, the homeless, and the elderly—stand to become permanent victims of an out-ofcontrol problem.
his district spent nearly $200,000 trying to get rid of an infestation, he says. “Who has that kind of money?” The people of Ohio need help, Mallory says. “The excuses have run out.” Mallory and other Ohio state officials have turned to EPA for help. They have pleaded with the agency for an emergency exemption to use the carbamate pesticide
THE STATE OF OHIO has become bedbug
ground zero, says Ohio General Assemblyman Dale Mallory of Cincinnati. He says the state is gripped by an epidemic now also taking hold nationwide. From a trickle of infestations first reported in the Cincinnati area in 2004, Ohio’s bedbugs have spread like wildfire up through Dayton, Columbus, and beyond. “Bedbugs are in every zip code. They are all over the state,” says Susan C. Jones, an associate professor of entomology at Ohio State University and an urban pest expert. She says reports of infestations in public housing, apartment buildings, hotels, movie theatres, retail stores, schools, and health care facilities continue to skyrocket. State officials say the costs of treating infestations, as well as the loss of business for retailers and others, have been profound. “The impact of these infestations has been most significant in lower socioeconomic areas where the cost of treatment and lack of information puts safe and effective control out of reach for many residents,” reads a report released in January by the Ohio Health Department’s Bed Bug Workgroup. Lacking resources, most local health departments “are unable to provide even minimal attention to prevent infestations from growing and spreading to other areas,” the report continues. “We have incapacitated seniors being eaten alive in their beds,” Mallory says. In Cincinnati public housing, he says, “it’s a never-ending battle for control. “I have toured apartments infested with bedbugs and nearly gotten sick,” Mallory says. In such heavy infestations, he says, the blackened trails of bedbug fecal matter are readily visible. “When you step on the bugs, you can see the blood.” He says some of his constituents have resorted to sleeping and spending their days in plastic chairs to keep the bugs away. The economic costs are enormous, Mallory says. “People are throwing everything they had away.” An apartment complex in WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
15
MARCH 7, 2011
propoxur, which is one of the few compounds proven to quickly knock back infestations and provide long-lasting residual kill. But they say it has been an uphill struggle against agency bureaucrats, including EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. Propoxur was removed from the market beginning in 2007, when EPA demanded safety and efficacy data that producers de-
I;7H9>?D=
