Bedbugs top agenda at national EPA summit

It's official: Cimex lectularius, better known as the lowly bedbug, has achieved the status of a national epidemic. And starting Tuesday, federal agencies will convene a major summit to address the itchy critter once thought of as little more than a scourge of third-rate motels.

The 2011 National Bedbug Summit will be held this week in Washington, and according to a statement Monday by the Environmental Protection Agency, a half-dozen governmental agencies will send representatives in response to "consumer concern about the rising incidence of bed bugs in the United States."

The meeting will be held at the (presumably bedbug-free) Georgetown University Hotel and Conference Center, and will be run by the Federal Bed Bug Workgroup. Panels of experts will discuss a broad range of "bed bug initiatives," including prevention and control, the state of bedbug knowledge, and state and local efforts to combat the bloodsucking insects.

The summit will be the second national bedbug meeting to take place in two years: An April 2009 Bedbug Summit helped lay out guidelines for a federal response to the infestation, and better defined the role of property owners in the event of a bedbug problem.

Major metropolitan areas, most notably New York City, have been hit by an epidemic of bedbugs that researchers say began around 1995. Before then, major bedbug infestations had been largely eradicated in the United States since the 1950's. Bedbugs live off of human blood, and successfully ridding a house of a bedbug infestation can take months and cost thousands of dollars.

ITK will be closely monitoring events at the bedbug conference, albeit from a safe distance.