Bed Bugs Plague Modern Society

Feb. 27, 2012 - PRLog -- Last week, WRCB reported that the Chattanooga City Council was considering paying tens of thousands of dollars to rid a city owned senior housing property of a bed bug infestation. During the same week, it was reported that a school in Farmington, New Hampshire was also on the lookout for the pesky insects after a student was found with one on his body.  Additional bed bugs have since been found at the school.

Cases like these are occurring across the nation and the Mid-Atlantic region is no exception.  Although the presence of bed bugs has traditionally been seen as a problem in developing countries, it has recently been spreading rapidly in parts of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and other parts of Europe. Bed bugs have been found in five-star hotels and resorts and their presence is not determined by the cleanliness of the living conditions where they are found.

Bed bugs, scientific name Cimex lectularius, are small, flat, parasitic insects that feed solely on the blood of people and animals while they sleep. Bed bugs are reddish-brown in color, wingless, range from 1mm to 7mm, and can live several months without a blood meal.

Sussex Environmental Health Consultants (SEHC), a Delaware based building science consulting firm, has been on the forefront of helping people identify and stop these infestations.  “Bed bug infestations usually occur around or near the areas where people sleep,” reported Susan White, Ph.D., CMC, President of SEHC.  “They hide during the day in places such as the seams of mattresses, box springs and other places often making them difficult to identify.  Recently, new testing technologies that rely on advanced DNA based analysis have become available that allows for highly accurate environmental sampling of bed bugs,” she continued.

SEHC recently sponsored a public outreach video about bed bugs that can be seen at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfAt_UAgNqA



To learn more about bed bugs, or other environmental and indoor air quality (IAQ) issues, please visit http://www.sussexenvironmental.com, email susan.white@mchsi.com or call (302) 947-1810.

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About Sussex Environmental Health Consultants, LLC
SEHC is a certified woman owned business that provides environmental and health and safety consulting services. The company is located in the Mid-Atlantic and services customers nationwide. SEHC provides solutions to clients ranging from homeowners to international Fortune 500 Corporations.