She thought they were hives. Large red welts cover her body. They started at her ankles and over time moved higher and higher. When Rebecca Wallace went to see her doctor he told her they were bites but didn’t specify what kind. It wasn’t until a friend from Malaysia saw the red splotches and told her what they were. Sure enough, to her disgust, when she went home and pulled back the sheets, she saw them. “They were there hiding, just waiting to feed on me,” says Wallace. She sat there in shock, feeling violated and dirty, knowing they had been hiding in the mattress for months. That night, she lay on her kitchen floor with a blanket and pillow and tried to sleep.

The marks left on her skin were evidence of the meals the insects had enjoyed at her expense. While she slept peacefully in her bed, they sucked on her blood. She had no clue that her apartment in the upper Haight had become infested with bedbugs.

In recent years, the bed bug population has exploded in major cities like New York, Orlando and here in San Francisco. Yet many people have no idea what they are, what they look like and if they have them. The problem has become worse in the last few years. Just recently the San Francisco Department of Public Health, along with local pesticide companies and frustrated tenants are doing whatever is needed to get the problem under control.

Bedbugs have been practically unheard of in developed countries for the last 50 years. Suddenly, there has been a huge boom in their reoccurrence. Many feel this is because people are traveling farther, more often and to more remote parts of the world. Trips to third world countries have become more commonplace. Along with souvenirs of the trip, people are bringing this parasite home in their suitcases, hidden amongst the clothing that returns with them.

Wallace hadn’t been on any vacations recently and couldn’t figure out where they had come from. She called her landlord and told him of the problem. At first he wasn’t quick to respond, saying that he needed to call a few people. After he researched the severity of the situation and what needed to be done, he had an exterminator at her doorstep right away. Later, she learned that another apartment in the building was infested and that they had more than likely traveled from that apartment to hers via the pipes. “You want to think it’s your private home,” says Wallace. “But in an apartment, you’re connected to everyone. And if your neighbor is a slob…”

WHAT’S A BEDBUG?

Bedbugs, otherwise known as Cimex lectularius to insect enthusiasts, are about the size of a lentil. They are dark brown in color, turning red after becoming fully engorged with a feeding of blood. They have six legs, no wings and unlike other parasites that live off of humans, these creatures are slow-moving and easy to see. They live in the cracks and folds of your mattress. If left untreated they will quickly spread to the drawers of the nightstand, under the clock, and behind wallpaper.

They shed skin, similar to a snake, every few days leaving behind a trail of disgusting evidence. They also leave dried blood marks on the sheets from their nightly feeds and defecate dried blood particles that look like specks of black pepper. Bedbugs are purely nocturnal creatures. Like their distant blood-sucking relatives vampires, they avoid direct light and only come out at night to feed. They are attracted to the warmth of our bodies and the carbon dioxide that is released from human beings with every exhale.

While they have always been associated with filth, they can be found in the cleanliest of places. The bugs live off blood not dirt, so they can live anywhere and adapt to the surroundings they find themselves in, as long as a host is present. Although they have been known to carry diseases in their bodies such as plague and hepatitis B, bedbugs have not been linked to the transmission of any diseases and are not considered a medical threat. But their blood-sucking personalities along with the itchy and swollen red welts they leave behind make them a highly disgusting and unwanted nuisance.

THE EXTERMINATION BEGINS

John (last name withheld) from Alert Pest Control said that the number of cases his company has seen in the last few years has increased exponentially. “Before, we wouldn’t get a call all year,” says John. “Now we get five to 10 a week.” Since bedbugs were almost unheard of for the last few decades, it wasn’t clear what pesticide worked best to eliminate their populations. It has taken a few tests and trials to get it right, but he and other exterminators in the city think they finally have a handle on what needs to be used, and how often, to rid the city of this bloodthirsty predator.

He also says that while exterminators are surely needed to defeat the bedbug problem, average people need to help solve the problem as well.

Apartments occupied for decades with rarely moved furniture are perfect examples of an exterminator’s nightmare. Everything needs to be bagged up, moved up or out and washed in hot water on the same day the exterminator comes knocking.
“People can’t live in a place where nothing is being done to fix the problem and expect us to spray once and have the situation under control,” says John. “If you do it right, they can be eliminated but it takes time, and cooperation.”

Wallace says that the whole process was horrible. Once she got over the initial shock and gross factor, she went to work. She bagged everything she owned. After the first few bags, she started to evaluate her belongings differently and began throwing things away, what she refers to as “shit canned,” just to lessen the amount she had to clean. Things she liked, things that were sentimental to her, in the moment it didn’t matter, it all got washed or tossed. It cost her $120 in laundry and dry-cleaning expenses. She also had to throw away her mattress and box springs, another expensive item to replace. “Honestly, it was such an ordeal,” says Wallace.

John the exterminator says that bedbugs are nothing to be embarrassed about. “They are easy to get and are hard to eliminate.” He agrees that most of the incidents he sees in private homes don’t come with dirty living conditions, but from a recent trip to some place exotic. He also says that he has been called to some four star hotels in the city. But he explains the nicer hotels take care of the problem quickly because San Francisco doesn’t want to be known as the “bedbug city” since tourism is such an important industry.

To have an exterminator come to rid your home of the bugs will cost you about $335 for three visits. Experts say that it takes at least that many times to make sure the problem has been taken care of effectively. While the initial treatment will take care of the adults, the pesticides are useless on the eggs, which lay dormant 14-18 days before hatching. Therefore the repeat applications need to be applied every two weeks to be sure to get the next generations.

While John says that he has seen an increase in calls regarding bedbugs in the last few years, the number has decreased in recent months. He believes this is because of new regulations that San Francisco has enacted to remedy the problem.

A PRO-ACTIVE CITY

The city of San Francisco has gone to great lengths in the last year to deal with the bedbug epidemic. On September 10, 2006, the department of public health instituted a new set of regulations to combat the problem. The regulation asks that everyone get involved in the problem to achieve a solution. (This includes the tenants keeping their apartments clean and washing their clothes on a regular basis.) Landlords are asked to address complaints immediately by calling pest control companies. Housekeepers and hotel workers are given instruction on how to recognize bedbugs and to alert the management of the problem. And exterminators are asked to follow up on the initial call with two more visits within the next six weeks.

There is also new protocol for disposing of furniture. Rather than dumping the possibly infected furniture on the sidewalk for people to carry into their homes, thus spreading the infestation, they are asked to bag the furniture and have it fumigated. New York City started tagging all furniture, especially mattresses, left on the street with bright orange large stickers that warn people of possible bedbug infestation risk.

Johnson Ojo works for the City of San Francisco and says with improved training, the newly established procedures and some basic knowledge the city will beat the infestation that has quickly overtaken many areas, especially in the Tenderloin and South of Market neighborhoods. “It’s too early to tell,” says Ojo, “but we hope to see a difference.”

Wallace says that the last few months have been agonizing and she feels that it could have been better if she had been informed about the problem. She hopes that others learn to identify bedbugs earlier to prevent not only their own suffering, but the spread to unknowing neighbors.

“Its been two weeks,” says Wallace. “It seems like the coast is clear, but I’m not buying a new bed until I’m sure.”