WIRE: 07/25/2001 10:07 am ET

Researcher: Bedbugs a growing problem in big city hotels as tourism increases

The Associated Press

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) A University of Florida researcher says America's luxury hotels are increasingly playing host to some unwelcome guests: bedbugs.

Phil Koehler, an urban entomologist with the university's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, said Tuesday that the blood-feeding insect is being found more frequently in cities that have an influx of international tourists.

Infestations have been reported in hotels and motels, and, Koehler noted, not just seedy ones.

"Bedbugs are associated in the public's mind with filthy living conditions, but that's not the case," Koehler said. "They can be brought into any environment and are very good at hiding, so even upscale hotels can have infestations."

Pest-control companies have reported a tenfold increase in bedbug service calls in Florida since 1999.

According to pest-control experts, increased tourism has contributed to the problem because bedbugs are transported in luggage from overseas.

The United States had a record 51 million international tourists in 2000, up from 48 million in 1999 and 43 million in 1995, according to Commerce Department figures. Nearly 20 percent of international visitors last year came to Florida.

Another explanation for the resurgence of bedbugs is that bug exterminators no longer indiscriminately spray poisonous chemicals, pest-control experts said.

"When you suppress insects such as cockroaches in a targeted manner with insect baits, it allows for other parts of the insect ecosystem to rise up," said Mel Whitson, technical manager for Steritech Group Inc., a Charlotte, N.C.-based environmental safety company.

Adult bedbugs are about the size of a small ladybug and are flat, oval and wingless. They are brown unless engorged with a meal, when they turn a mahogany red.

Adults feed regularly but can live six months without eating.

Harold Harlan, senior entomologist with the National Pest Management Association in Dunn-Loring, Va., said that although bedbugs can harbor about 20 human pathogens, they do not transmit diseases.

-- Anonymous, July 25, 2001