Bed bugs. Tiny. Silent. Blood-thirsty. Hard to kill. Make you itch.Your skin crawls no matter how you describe these blood-sucking pests hiding in and around your bed.If you’ve had to deal with bed bugs you know they can turn your life upside down. And if you just realized you might have them, you’re probably starting to fear the worst. You have a lot of questions. And you need answers.

CINCINNATI — In this Ohio city, it seems, it really is tough to stop the bedbugs from biting. When complaints about the bloodsucking insects first trickled in to Cincinnati’s public health department three years ago, officials assumed it was an anomaly — or perhaps the overactive imagination of a bug-phobic public. After all, Cimex lectularius had all but vanished here by the 1950s because of the frequent use of DDT and other now-banned pesticides. But that trickle of complaints has grown into a flood: A recent public survey found that 1 in every 6 people here has had a run-in with the biting bugs in the last 12 months. Read More…..

Bed bugs can also be an unwanted souvenir from your vacation. Because hotel room traffic is so high with people in and out of rooms constantly, it’s easy for bed bugs to spread. For example: One person stays in a room that has an infested blanked brought from home. These bugs make their way from the blanket onto the bed and into the mattress. The person checks out, but the bed bugs remain hidden. Because they crawl over curtains, carpet and box springs, a simple sheet change from housekeeping won’t do. They’ll work their way over your belongings and come home with you.