Even More Bed Bug Infestations

The legendary bed bugs pests, once thought to have been eradicated, are making an unwelcome reappearance, worldwide, as these competent little travelers stow away in luggage and clothing. From pilots, to business travelers, bed bugs are being unknowingly spread abroad.

One passenger reports that bed bugs have gained access into planes, showing the pests are no longer just bed fellows. She claims bed bugs attacked her while travelling on a British Airways flight from L.A. to Bangalore.

A business executive for the Internet company Yahoo!'s media group, 28-year-old Zane Selkirk says she first noticed the bed bugs on her airline-provided blanket and on her hand, around three hours into the first leg of her flight, which was from L.A. to London's Heathrow Airport. She also said she had been attacked on a flight to Bangalore a few weeks earlier.

Selkirk said "During the first flight, I turned on my light to find bugs crawling on my blanket and a bedbug-blood-spattered shirt." When she left the 10-hour flight on the return journey from Bangalore to London, she found her body literally covered with 90 bug bites. "The worst part was the non-existent customer service throughout the ten-day ordeal."

Discontented with BA's initial response, Selkirk posted photos of her bites on the Internet.

A BA spokesman said that two aircraft were taken out and needed to be treated before returning back into service. The airline fumigated one of the aircraft on which it confirmed there had been an infestation and expressed regret to the woman for her ordeal.

A spokesman said "British Airways operates more than 250,000 flights every year, and reports of bed bugs onboard are extremely rare".

Officials in New York, where there are around 1.1 million students and 100,000 teachers, in 2010 confessed that the bed bug scourge had reached 'an unprecedented rate of spread'. They pledged $500,000 for public education on the situation.

A set of rules for coping with cases was set up in schools, along with the goal of better communication between parents and schools.

However, these measures seem to have failed because numerous homes are already infected. Private homes continue being the source of most infestations, as the bed bugs travel in bags and on the clothes of their hosts, continuing the spread.

As bed bugs are not believed to be carriers of disease, the damage is psychological rather than long term physical discomfort. The bugs are very difficult to eradicate as they can go an entire year without eating. Getting rid of them demands persistence.