The Charleston-Huntington area has jumped from 49th to 31st in pest control requests for bedbug infestations over the past year or so.
There have been reports of residential bedbug infestations in Calhoun, Roane and regional counties.
Bedbugs bite human beings, causing significant irritation and swelling.
The bedbug got its name because mattresses were a primary breeding ground, and then the nasty creatures came out and bit sleepers.
One Spencer resident told the Hur Herald they threw away about everything in the house that wasn't "hard," after trying to eliminate the bedbugs with sprays available from local retailers.
They said none of those products worked, that commercial pest control outfits are very expensive, the eradication process being complicated, including a "freezing process."
Bedbugs, in times past, were considered to be the plague of low-income, unkempt dwellings, when in fact a single bedbug entering any household can proliferate into thousands.
See HEALTH OFFICIALS CONCERNED ABOUT MISUSE OF PESTICIDES FOR BED BUG CONTROL
And SUNNY CAL JOURNAL - Grandpa Gunned Down Nasty Bedbugs
Bed bug infestation 'brought me to the brink of insanity' by Mary Sansom for the Charleston Gazette
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