Monthly Archives: February 2014

COLUMBIA, Mo. Bedbugs are back and good-night wishes wont keep them away.

Bedbugs are on the rise again here in the United States. Populations are growing, said Richard Houseman, University of Missouri Extension entomologist and associate professor in the MU College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources.

The National Pest Management Association reported a 71 percent increase in bedbug infestations between 2001 and 2009. The upscale clothing retailer Abercrombie and Fitch recently closed two infested stores in New York City, where a municipal hotline received more than 9,000 bedbug-related complaints from apartment dwellers in 2008up from just a few hundred in 2004.

Outbreaks arent confined to big cities. Communities across the U.S. are coping with an explosion in bedbug populations. Thats why Houseman is currently developing an instructional video for homeowners and pest-control professionals to demonstrate how to prevent or control bedbug infestations.

This once-common scourge of slumber had all but vanished in the 1950s and 60s, when owners of homes and lodgings made a regular practice of treating baseboards and crevices with insecticide sprays, Houseman said.

Changes in pest-control practices have mostly put an end to monthly visits from the exterminator. Baits and traps were cheaper, safer and highly effective against cockroaches and other common household pests.

But not bedbugs. If bedbugs are introduced to a home now, there arent any residual insecticides to knock out those early arrivers, Houseman said.

Our increasingly mobile and urban population gives bedbugs more opportunity to migrate. Shared-lodging facilities such as hotels, apartment buildings, dorms and campgrounds are especially vulnerable, but any building can harbor bedbugs. And not just messy places. Bedbugs arent interested in the crumbs on the floor. Its your blood they want. Body heat and carbon dioxide from our breath attract bedbugs searching for warm-blooded animals to feed on.

Bedbugs typically come out at night. They like to live in cracks and crevices. When the host is sleeping, they come out, feed on the host and go back to the cracks and crevices, he said.

That can make it hard to identify a bedbug problem early on. People may think theyre getting bit by mosquitoes, which produce similar symptoms.

Originally posted here:
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Bed Bugs Center - Kansas City, MO Kansas City Dermatologist Doctors for Bed Bugs

Type of Physician: Dermatologist

What is a Dermatologist?

A certification by the Board of Dermatology. Practitioners treat pediatric and adult patients with disorders of the skin, mouth, hair, and nails as well as a number of sexually transmitted diseases. They also have expertise in the care of normal skin, the prevention of skin diseases and cancers, and in the management of cosmetic disorders of the skin such as hair loss and scars.

Specialty: Dermatology

Common Name: Skin Doctor

John C Hall MD John C Hall 4400 Broadway St Ste 416 Kansas City, MO 64111 (816) 561-7783

Scott L Darling DO Scott L Darling 2521 Glenn Hendren Dr Ste 411 Liberty, MO 64068 (816) 792-3400

John F Bluhm MD John F Bluhm 1431 Thompson Blvd Sedalia, MO 65301 (660) 827-2034

Kansas City is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It encompasses 318 square miles (820 km2) in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties. It is one of two county seats of Jackson County, the other being Independence, just to the city's east. The city also serves as the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, second largest in Missouri, and largest with territory in Kansas (Wichita is the largest metropolitan area anchored in Kansas). (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas_City,_Missouri)

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