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Overnight, as it were, bedbugs have become a national obsession.  They’re infesting well known companies, luxury hotels, and homes of all kinds in cities across the U.S.

Once we see the dreaded first signs of bedbugs — angry welts on our bodies or little spots of blood on our sheets — our first instinct is to reach for the bug spray.  But that could be a big mistake.

The wrong pesticides, or the right ones in slightly wrong amounts, will do us more harm than the bedbugs ever could.  Bedbugs do not carry disease — but all pesticides have the potential to cause serious harm.

Now the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has weighed in with an online tool to help consumers find the pesticides most likely to kill  bedbugs.  But wait! Don’t rush out to buy these products.

Pesticides actually are the last step, not the first step, toward your goal of getting rid of these nighttime terrors.  And while the EPA tool suggests that certain brands of pesticide foggers (i.e., bug bombs) can rid “whole rooms” or even “whole homes” of bedbugs, many experts point out that these products don’t reach bedbugs in the tiny crevices in which they hide.  Another problem: Bedbugs are quickly becoming resistant to some of the pesticides used to control them.

So start here, with a joint statement by the CDC and EPA, which recommends “integrated pest management” for bedbugs. There are variations on this plan, but the usual IPM plan calls for:

• Inspect your mattress and bedroom to look for bedbugs
• If bedbugs are identified, start treatment.
• Bedbug treatment begins with removing room clutter where bedbugs can hide (don’t forget to inspect this stuff for bedbugs).
• Vacuum all areas where bedbugs are found. Put the vacuum bags in plastic bags and discard.
• Seal cracks and crevices.
• Use non-chemical pesticides such as diatomaceous earth.
• Finally, use recommended pesticides — but ONLY exactly as recommended on the label.

If you call in professionals for bedbug control, ask them to launch an IPM program.

Good luck — and sleep tight!

– Daniel J. DeNoon, Senior Medical Writer, WebMD