Manatee's toughest jobs: Behind the scenes with the bedbug exterminator

Imagine that it's as hot as a sauna in your house.

Around 140 degrees -- hot enough to melt candles and cosmetics, like the inside of a car with the windows rolled up on a sunny day.

Now imagine rearranging all the furniture in your house in that heat. For good measure, reorganize everything inside your closets and cabinets, too. Once you're finished, do it all over again.

Sound crazy? That's what the bedbug crew at Keller's Pest Control in Bradenton do nearly every day. But they're not redecorating, they're eradicating. Bedbugs.

They're a largely unseen menace, lurking in the dark crevices of places where

people normally feel the safest. Once the blinds are drawn, the lights switched off, and we're snug in our sheets or easy chairs, basking in the glow of the television, the bedbug's blood feast begins.

They can be no thicker than a credit card and as small as the tip of a blunt pencil. For those who have been unlucky enough to harbor them -- unwittingly inviting them into their home, carried on clothing, bedding, luggage or furniture -- it can become nothing short of a nightmare.

Rodney O'Quinn, owner of Keller's Pest Control, has seen it first hand. People often call in and break down on the telephone, crying as they describe how they can't sleep at night, or tell of children covered in welts -- allergic reactions caused by the tiny blood-eating insect's bites.

O'Quinn's company has treated a diverse array of local homes and edifices, from hotels and condos to offices and nursing homes. They can be found pretty much anywhere people congregate, and getting rid of them can be expensive and exhausting.

About four years ago, after trying conventional treatments for years with varying degrees of success, O'Quinn invested in a thermal-eradication solution. So far it has been a win-win scenario for both O'Quinn and his customers.

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Manatee's toughest jobs: Behind the scenes with the bedbug exterminator