Bed bugs calling Alaska home at increasing rates

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Anchorage bed bugs in a glass vial

BILL ROTH Anchorage Daily News archive Buy Photo

Tiny, flat insects are scurrying around Alaska, hiding in furniture and sucking human blood at increasing rates, health officials say.

Bedbugs aren't so much a health hazard as they are a public nuisance, and their proliferation in recent years prompted the state Department of Health and Social Services to issue a bulletin Tuesday, alerting residents of their potential new roommates.

Joe McLaughlin, state epidemiologist, assured Alaskans that the bugs haven't just set up in the Last Frontier. The increase in these apple-seed-sized insects is happening worldwide, he said.

But why?

Health and pest control experts have some theories. More people are traveling in and out of the country, immigration rates have risen and some landlords just don't care, they said. Plus, bed bugs can latch onto a person, suddenly mobilize and then once at home in a new spot, they double in population every 16 days, the bulletin said.

"They're the ultimate hitchhikers," said Tony Barrett, the municipality's environmental health program manager. And, he said, they'll pretty much hang out, drink blood and lay eggs anywhere with a couch or a bed. "Bed bugs don't care if it's a four-star hotel or a no-star hotel," he said.

In Anchorage, the city logged 68 bed bug complaints in 2013, a decrease from the 84 in 2012. There was just one complaint in 2007 and 2008 combined, according to city data.

For Ken Perry, the general manager of Pied Piper Pest Control in Anchorage, the bugs have brought business. He has combatted bed bugs since 1987, but has only recently started to deal with them at high rates. He fields about five phone calls about bed bugs a day, he said.

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Bed bugs calling Alaska home at increasing rates

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