Mostly gone from America’s landscape until about ten years ago, tiny little vampires have crept back in while nobody was looking.  No…not the ghoulish ones you find lurking in the shadows on Halloween night.  These little vampires hide in your homes in all types of cracks, crevices, and furniture both big and small.  Walls, ceilings, carpet, draperies, and appliances are not off limits to these creatures.  They come out in the wee hours of the morning when humans are dead asleep. They slowly creep up on their sleeping victim, stab them with their mouth part, inject a numbing agent to hide their presence, and commence with their feasting of blood.  They are bed bugs…and they are alive and well throughout America.

DDT was a powerful and popular pesticide that was widely used in homes throughout the United States for controlling cockroaches and bed bugs.  It had an amazing kill on contact rate and residual kill rate as well so all creepy crawlers that crossed its path were doomed.  Deemed safe for a number of years, in 1972 it was banned by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Until recently, it seemed like we were stuck having to deal with bed bugs in America with no hope in sight of ever again having a chance of fully eradicating these bloodsuckers.  Thanks to researchers at Virginia Tech, it appears that bed bugs might not win the war after all say New York City pest control experts.  Thestar.com reported on October 21, 2011 that researchers at Virginia Tech “may have unlocked a secret that will help crush the bloodsucking pests for good.”  Scientists have uncovered a “genetic mechanism” bed bugs use to resist the insecticides that are meant to kill them!  Scientists are hoping that this new information “will be able to keep track of growing resistance and create new strategies for eradication.”

You may read the article here.

Time will tell if this new breakthrough will be the key to successfully eradicating America’s most hated pest.