CDC

Growing numbers of bedbug outbreaks are prompting more people to use insecticides, sometimes with dire results.

People creeped-out by rising rates of bed bug infestations may be taking eradication too far, according to federal health officials alarmed by growing reports of pesticide misuse -- and poisonings.

Between 2006 and 2010, there were 129 reports of people who suffered mild to serious health harms when outdoor pesticides were used indoors, according to a health advisory issued this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. One woman died.

“Many people are somewhat desperate to find any solution,” said Bernadette Burden, a CDC spokeswoman. “This is something they’re not used to. Oftentimes, they’re tempted to use any insecticide that they can get their hands on.”

That was certainly true for Melissa Constantinou, 25, a personal chef in Lowell, Mass., who was plagued with bedbugs last year. Her apartment was treated four times and she says the potential for health problems never entered her mind.

“Oh my gosh, it’s so emotionally disturbing,” she said. “I was willing to do whatever it took. I didn’t think about the long-term effects at all.”

The problem is “an emerging national concern,” the health agencies said, citing data from the National Pesticide Information Center, where inquiries about bedbugs nearly doubled between 2007 and 2011. Nationwide, reports of bedbug infestations have been rising for years, the CDC says. Between January 2008 and April 2012, first-time service calls for bed bug treatment tripled, from about 100 to 300 requests a month, according to a survey conducted by Jeff White, technical director of the website BedBug Central.

Most of the problems arise when people use too much pesticide or apply it improperly, said David Stone, director of the NPIC, who monitors the data.

“A lot of them don’t understand that the label is the law,” said Stone. “This product should not be applied directly to the skin. That product should not be used on mattresses.”

Victims suffered typical symptoms of pesticide poisoning, including headache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, dizziness and muscle tremors. 

In Ohio, in 2010, a family that included two parents, four young children and a roommate all became ill after an uncertified pesticide company used malathion to spray an apartment five times over three days. The pesticide malathion was not registered for indoor use and the crew applied it so liberally that the beds and floor coverings were saturated, according to a recent CDC account.

The death occurred when a 65-year-old North Carolina woman with heart and kidney problems became ill after liberal pesticide use. She and her husband sprayed all the walls and baseboards in the house with one kind of insecticide, used a different insecticide on the mattress and box springs, and opened nine cans of insecticide fogger. Two days later, they reapplied insecticides to the mattresses and box springs and opened another nine cans of a different fogger. The woman applied a flea and bedbug pesticide to her arms, sores on her chest and her hair before covering it with a plastic cap.

Two days after the second application of the pesticides, the woman’s husband found her unresponsive. She was hospitalized for nine days before her death, the CDC report said.

“Outdoor pesticides should not be used indoors under any circumstances,” ATSDR officials warn. Consumers must make sure to read the product labels carefully to make sure they’re registered with the Environmental Protection Agency and that they’re certified for indoor use.

“More importantly, follow the guidance and make sure you’re using the right pesticide and that you’re treating the right pest,” said the CDC’s Burden, who noted that bedbugs often can resemble other critters at different stages in their life cycle.

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Having a case of bedbugs can cause people to feel so desperate they make irrational decisions that can cost them more than just money.

Sandy Rubenstein, a bedbug buster in Yarmouth Port, Mass., says she’s seen a woman washing herself with an ointment intended for horses, people sleeping in mosquito nets, and wrapping their beds in plastic and double-sided tape. She watched as folks threw out everything they owned and tried using hamsters as deterrents, hoping the bugs would bite the rodents instead of them.

When you’re on the outside looking in, it’s hard to imagine why people would spray themselves with poisonous pesticides. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports an elderly woman in North Carolina died after using large amounts of pesticides and coating her body with bug spray and flea powder. More than 100 people have made themselves sick using pesticides to kill bedbugs. Some people have been so anxious to get rid of bedbugs, they burned their houses down. It may take weeks or months to get rid of the pestilence, but victims say the psychological effects of the ordeal can last a lifetime.

Sandy Rubenstein

“You can kill the bugs in people’s beds, but you can’t kill the bugs in people’s heads,” says Rubenstein, who started the company PureHeat after spending 18 months (and $40,000)battling between 2007 and 2008. “It’s a paranoia that stays for life. You never get over having bedbugs.”

Annie Lynsen of Silver Spring, Md., has a current case of bedbugs in her apartment, and she’s doing her best to cope. She discovered the bedbugs after spending weeks thinking she and her husband were being bitten by mosquitos. Then, in mid-September, she saw a bedbug crawling up the mattress.

The apartment is in disarray while the couple waits for the exterminator to come every two weeks. They’ve laundered and bagged their clothes, pulled furniture two feet from walls and live in chaos. They can’t visit friends, can’t have guests, and feel nervous they’ll miss celebrating Thanksgiving with relatives.

“I know there are bedbugs in my bed, and I have to sleep there anyway because I don’t want to spread them elsewhere. That’s really the horrifying part,” says the 31-year-old marketer. “We have sleepless nights and nightmares. I feel like this is the night something is going to come out and bite me and I don’t know what’s going to happen to me in the next eight hours.”

Lynsen thought she did everything possible to avoid bedbugs, including encasing the mattress in a bedbug-proof cover, and keeping her luggage off the floor in hotel rooms while traveling this summer. But she acknowledges she forgot about the box spring, where she found a large infestation.

“We’re better now than when we first discovered them,” she says. “We couldn’t shake the feeling of being unclean and having this idea of things under the bed trying to get us. Now, I’m stronger because I know something is being done.”

Feelings of being out of control are what makes people suffer most, says Myrtle Means, a clinical psychologist with offices in the Detroit area.

“That causes the greatest distress,” she says. “Don’t focus on the what ifs, focus on what is. ‘I have bedbugs. What do I do to get rid of bedbugs? I can call an exterminator.’ You begin to feel helpless and hopeless and like the situation is unmanageable. Bedbugs are manageable.”

After she instructs clients to call an exterminator, she suggest they identify what is causing the greatest amounts of stress and anxiety such as not having the money to handle the situation, possibly having to move or throwing away their belongings. She also suggests reading the book, “Anxiety, Phobias and Panic,” and trying relaxation techniques such as deep breathing, meditation, and imagery, imaging themselves in a calming place such as on a beach or lying in a hammock.

Although she sees bedbugs daily, Rubenstein manages her own paranoia by being extra cautious. She tosses her clothes in the dryer when arriving home, pulls back the sheets and headboards in hotel rooms, and never puts her luggage on the floor. She warns people to stop bringing home used furniture unless it’s from a reputable dealer and certainly avoid taking items from a roadside. Check on elderly friends and relatives, who may be unaware of bedbugs. Taking precautions, she says, are much better than dealing with bedbugs.

“Your bed is your sanctuary; it’s where you go to relax,” she says. “When you get them, you think they are crawling on you all the time. You wonder where they are hiding and you can’t relax. It makes people suffer on their jobs and in their personal lives.”