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NEW YORK -- Bedbugs are sometimes called the vampires of the insect world -- hiding during the day and coming out at night to feast on human blood. Generations of children have been told: "Sleep tight. Don't let the bedbugs bite."
Well, bad news: Bedbug infestations are increasing. This is the time of year when they tend to be at their worst. And some scientists think the reviled pests might be capable of spreading an antibiotic-resistant infection called MRSA.
"They certainly are out there," said Christopher Hayes, a North Carolina State University assistant professor who has been bitten by bedbugs more than 50 times in the course of research. "And if you're unaware, if you're not on top of your game, it's easy to bring them into your home."
Bedbugs are reddish-brown bloodsuckers about the size of an apple seed.
They can hide in narrow crevices in furniture and lurk in clothes, linens and mattresses. They are hard to see but can be detected through the small dark excrement stains they leave.
The pests can be year-round problems but they have traditionally thrived in the summer. They tend to emerge at night, crawling onto people and using a beaklike body part to pierce human skin and suck blood for several minutes.
The bite itself is painless. Some people develop itchy red welts a day or so later, but others have no reaction.
That's a problem, because people unaware that they are repeatedly being bitten can quickly find themselves victims of an infestation.
Some good news about bedbugs is there hasn't been clear evidence that they have spread diseases from one person to another. The bugs' digestion and anatomy seem to prevent germs from being passed on efficiently, said Chow-Yang Lee, an entomologist at the University of California at Riverside.
But University of South Dakota researchers in 2023 published the results of an experiment -- using blood capsules with an artificial skin -- that demonstrated bedbugs could acquire MRSA during one feeding and spread it during a later one.
Bedbug populations in developed countries were decimated after World War II due to the widespread use of the pesticide DDT. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency banned the pesticide for most uses in 1972, citing evidence that it was harming animals and was a potential risk to people.
The best thing you can do is never get them in the first place, experts say. That means not bringing them into your home.
Travelers can pick them up in hotel rooms. So before you unpack for your stay, check the room for signs of bedbugs by pulling back the covers and bedsheets to look for bugs or fecal spots.
Do not place luggage on beds or on the floor near beds, and consider placing your bags in a light-colored trash bag or even in the bathtub. When you get home, open the luggage outside and take laundry right to the washing machine and dryer.
Sometimes, bedbugs enter homes by hitching a ride on secondhand furniture or other products. Visually inspect those items and treat them before you take them into your home, Hayes advised. Some experts advise vacuuming, steaming or heating furniture, and quarantining it in a garage or storage unit for a few days before bringing it inside the house.
If it's clothes, wash them and put them through the dryer for an hour. Shoes or other items? Consider putting them in a freezer for a week "to make sure that everything in there that could be alive is taken care of," Hayes said.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency offers do-it-yourself guidance for getting rid of the pests, but it's labor-intensive, involving sealing hiding spaces and treating infested items.
It also contains many warnings of what not to do.
"You can't just blast random chemicals and expect it's going to work because there's a fairly high likelihood that they'll be resistant to some of the first-line insecticides," Pietri said.