A whopping 99% of U.S. pest management pros say they’ve been asked to get rid of bedbugs in the past year, says the 2011 Bugs Without Borders Survey conducted by the National Pest Management Association and the University of Kentucky.

While nine out of ten pest pros say they treated bedbugs in apartments, condominiums, or single-family homes in 2011 and 2010, reports of bedbug encounters have become more common in a many other places in the past year.

Where else have NPMA members been asked to get rid of bedbugs?

  • College dorms (54%, up from 35% a year ago)
  • Hotels/motels (80%, up from 67%)
  • Nursing homes (46%, up from 25%)
  • Office buildings (38%, up from 18%)
  • Schools and day care centers (36%, up from 10%)
  • Hospitals (31%, up from 12%)
  • Transportation (train/bus/taxi) (18% up from 9%)
  • Movie theaters (17%, up from 5%)

Survey respondents also report finding bedbugs in retail stores, laundromats, libraries, restaurants, and airplanes.

If you pick up bedbugs at one of those places and bring them home, it’s not going to be easy or cheap to get rid of them. Bedbugs continue to be the most difficult pest to treat, according to 73% of survey respondents.

The survey also found most companies look for bedbug infestations the old-fashioned way — by looking for dead bugs and their feces — but 43% of companies now use bedbug-sniffing dogs to locate the pest.

Bedbugs are the size and color of a flat apple seed, like to travel, and will hide in suitcases, boxes, and shoes to be near a food supply (humans). In addition to the mattress and headboard, bedbugs can be found behind baseboards, electrical switch plates, picture frames, wallpaper, upholstery, and in furniture crevices.

More information can be found at AllThingsBedBugs [http:///allthingsbedbugs.org], NPMA’s resource on everything bedbug-related.

Source: NPMA