Photographed by: Jeremy Glover, Eric Clajus
They come out at night – hungry for blood, then retreat – often to multiply inside your mattresses.
They are bed bugs, and they are infesting homes and apartment buildings throughout our area.
The problem is so bad, there was a town hall meeting in Bond Hill Monday night about the problem.
Bed bugs are about a quarter-inch long and emerge at night to feed on the blood of their sleeping victims.
And while their bites are generally painless, they can leave behind red, itchy welts.
Bed bugs are a growing problem and health professionals are scrambling to try to stop the infestation.
"I've seen a few, I've been bitten. My daughter's ate up," said April Collins.
Collins owns a home in Price Hill that she now shares with a growing number of bed bugs.
"I wake up all through the night, worried to death my blanket's touching the floor," said Collins. "My bed is scooted out away from the wall and curtains."
"It's gotten to the point where I'm sick of it," said Collins.
That's why Collins and a couple hundred others, creeped out by these nocturnal bloodsuckers, came to the special town hall meeting in Bond Hill Monday night.
"For many older adults, they are a 24-hour a day problem. Their homes are so infested they are visible during the day, crawling on the older adult, crawling on the walls," said one speaker.
City, county and state leaders answered questions, acknowledging that bed bugs are multiplying and moving in to more and more homes at an alarming rate.
"We get lots of calls," said Dale Grigsby, R.S., of the Cincinnati Health Department. "I probably got at least 10 today that I can remember."
The best remedy? Hire a professional. Getting rid of these tiny pests can take as long as two years.
"People are saying, 'I'm gonna spray my bed with insecticide and then sleep on it.' Well, that's probably the worst thing in the world you can do," said Grigsby.
"Some of the bed bugs will go into the mattress, they will put their eggs into the mattress," said Ken Hippner, of Command Pest Management. "So, we go out and kill what we can see – then go weeks or months later – and the eggs hatch and have new bed bugs emerging."
But hiring an exterminator can cost hundreds of dollars – and many at the town meeting were hoping the city would offer more help.
"That's what I want to know," said Collins. "Are they gonna come out and do this free, because I can't afford it and neither can these poor people."
One reason bed bugs are spreading – people put infested furniture out for the trash and others pick it up – taking the bugs home to their house.
This problem is so bad, right now, there is actually a bed bug task force.
They are planning an emergency meeting and hope to come back in December with more solutions.
