In Search of a Bedbug Solution

As bedbugs proliferate once again in New York City and other major urban areas, it is tempting to pray for a technological miracle to zap the pests into extinction. Alas, there is none. Frustrated New Yorkers and other victims will have to rely on an array of techniques that can often be costly, cumbersome, time-consuming — and only partially effective.

After virtually disappearing from this country for decades, bedbugs may have been brought back by travelers from abroad. The bugs are showing up in all sorts of places — not just where people sleep, like hotels and residential units, but also in the occasional movie house or clothing store. A survey last year by the New York City health department found that 6.7 percent of adult New Yorkers — some 400,000 people — reported a problem with bedbugs that required an exterminator in the previous 12 months.

There are few sure-fire ways to turn the tide. Even the original magic bullet, DDT, would misfire if brought back today because bedbugs long ago became resistant to it on a large scale. Critics who blame environmentalists for disarming us against bedbugs might better blame the inevitable development of resistance, hastened by overuse of chemicals.

Some pest controllers are placing their hopes on resuscitating propoxur, a highly toxic chemical that was phased out of indoor uses because it could cause nervous-system damage in children. Ohio and Kentucky have asked the Environmental Protection Agency to allow professional exterminators to use it indoors, and other states may follow suit. The requests are based in part on laboratory tests by a Kentucky entomologist on small groups of bedbugs. Some of today’s leading pesticides could not kill even half of the bugs, while propoxur wiped them all out in two hours. The E.P.A. is studying whether there might be limited situations — a nursing home with no children present — where it could be used.

Propoxur would probably kill better than current pesticides, but nobody expects it could be an all-purpose solution the way DDT once was. Pesticides need to be supplemented with non-chemical options, like heat or steam treatments, vacuuming, tossing infested sheets or clothes into a hot washer or dryer, encasing mattresses to entomb the bugs, and sealing crevices. It is hard to know whether these tactics will be enough to reverse the rapid rise of infestations.

Bedbugs are not known to transmit any diseases, and their bite is almost never felt. But the bite triggers an allergic reaction — mostly itchy bumps or welts and, in rare cases, fatal shock. The primary damage, besides the potentially high cost of extermination, is emotional and psychological. Government and industry need to expedite the search for better solutions. The public’s tolerance for bedbugs is near zero.