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Seattlest Pix 09Nov23
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What do you get when you cross first-class amenities with a blood-thirsty, third-world parasite? If you’re a downtown Seattle hotel you get bed bugs.
According to several hotel sources and a couple of pest control experts, the bed bug is back in downtown Seattle, nobody wants to admit it, and they’re really expensive to get rid of.
Pest control experts will readily tell you that as few as a couple of years ago bed bugs were an anomaly locally, but today they are something increasingly encountered in many major hotels downtown. "A lot of people would be surprised by the hotels we're finding bed bugs at these days. People don’t expect to see them at the higher end places," said Dean Henry with Terminix on a recent bed bug "extraction" downtown.
In 2004, our friends at the National Pest Management Association reported there had been a 500 percent increase in the number of bed bugs nationwide. This data combined with a small mountain of industry gossip locally has got Seattlest’s skin crawling, literally.
No longer unique to the hourly dives off Aurora Avenue, bed bugs have recently surfaced at some of the larger, upscale properties here. Unlike cockroaches, they don't need filth to thrive, just a warm source of blood. Pest experts point to the influx of international travelers coming to Seattle and cite India and Australia as notable countries of origin. Bed bugs were almost completely driven from the U.S. via DDT in the '40s and '50s, but more stringent chemical restrictions have presumably allowed the species to rebound.
Bed bugs are small, oval-shaped, generally pudgy and often orange to reddish colored depending on how much blood they’ve consumed. They like box springs, often hide behind head boards and base trim and can be really expensive to eradicate because they can lie dormant for up to 18 months.
With increased international travel and a weakened dollar, bed bugs may become yet another unexpected consequence of globalization and environmental regulations that is just now being felt regionally. Sleep tight.
Ladybug photograph courtesy of Grundlepuck at the Seattlest Flickr Pool.
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Thanks a lot Rachel Carson.
These things are a complete nightmare if they manage to 'hitchhike' into your home.