They attacked the Nike flagship store in New York City. They invaded Google and Abercrombie & Fitch. They even tried to infest the Empire State Building. After decades of being on the brink of extinction, bed bugs are back, and they're finding better ways to travel undetected. <\/p>\n
While Chicago's bed bug problem is nothing compared to what New York has experienced over the last several years, it is fast becoming a persistent problem, particularly on Chicago's North Side. This growing problem placed Chicago at No. 2 on Orkin's list of Top 50 Bed Bug Cities. <\/p>\n
The areas hardest hit include Edgewater, Lakeview, Lincoln Park, Rogers Park, and Uptown. These areas have two things in common when it comes to the city's bed bug problem: plenty of apartments, condos, and hotels and more travelers and commuters than anywhere else in the city. <\/p>\n
How Are North Siders Getting Stuck With Bed Bugs? <\/p>\n
Hundreds of reports have been made over the last several years about sightings or all-out infestations in apartments, condos, hotels, and offices on Chicago's North Side. No matter where you live, bed bugs can make their way into these spaces via luggage, souvenirs, furniture, and even on the clothes the carrier is wearing. Bed bugs can be found in hotels, dorms, rooming houses, shelters, cruise ships, trains, taxis, and more while traveling, but once they've reached the interior of any space, they can spread like wildfire. <\/p>\n
In the city of Chicago, bed bugs have found yet another mode of transportation that hasn't really been on the radar until now. The cloth seats on CTA subway trains are perfect places for bed bugs to hide while they wait for a ride to their new home. They can make their way onto your wool coat, your hat, into a laptop bag, purse, shopping bag, etc. <\/p>\n
The bed bugs can hide in the crevices of your mattress or even inside the mattress until feeding time. They also hide in linens, in cracks and crevices in the floor, along baseboards, and under and behind dressers. For around five minutes every five to 10 days, bed bugs feed on their favorite food -- human blood -- before returning to their hiding places until they work up an appetite again. Feeding always takes place at night, typically an hour before dawn. <\/p>\n
What Are Bed Bugs? Are They Dangerous? <\/p>\n
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , bed bugs are small, flat, parasitic insects that feed solely on the blood of people and animals while they sleep. Bed bugs are reddish-brown in color, wingless, range from 1 mm to 7 mm (roughly the size of Lincoln's head on a penny), and can live several months without a blood meal. <\/p>\n
According to Chicago-based Safer Pest Control Project, bed bugs are not known disease carriers. However, bed bugs use saliva to numb the skin before feeding. Some people may have an allergic reaction to the saliva, resulting in swelling, itching, and redness, while most will have no reaction at all. If infection or scarring does occur, it is usually the result of scratching. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n