Bed bugs might sound like an old-fashioned problem, but now they are back — and with a vengeance. Fifty years ago, the blood-sucking pests were nearly eradicated in the United States thanks in part to the use of pesticides like DDT. Today, they are creeping over sheets — and tormenting hapless sleepers — across the country. New York was recently declared America’s most bed-bug-infested city: Times Square movie theatre, the Empire State Building, and the offices of a major fashion magazine — not to mention the homes of 11,000 New Yorkers who filed official complaints about the vermin last year — have all housed these itchiest of bedfellows. And the Big Apple is not alone in its disturbed slumber. This summer, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a joint statement on the resurgence of bed bugs throughout the country. Wherever you live — whether that’s Los Angeles or Louisville — bed bugs may soon be coming to a mattress near you!

Read More: http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/news/100901_bedbugs