Health Bedbug infestations on the rise

A study conducted in the United States 2007 showed that bedbugs resistant to pyrethroid insecticides were rampant. Around that time, the number of consultations about bedbugs began to rise in Japan. Insecticide-resistant bedbugs with the same genetic sequence as those found in the United States were also detected in Japan. After Japan declared a COVID-19 state of emergency, the number of inbound tourists in April 2020 decreased by 99.9 per cent from a year earlier. But the Japan Pest Control Association received 22 inquiries about bedbugs that month, compared with 27 in the same month a year earlier. That means the rate of decline was not as steep as the drop in foreign tourist numbers. The association received 598 bedbug inquiries in fiscal 2021, on par with the pre-pandemic level in fiscal 2018. "While inbound tourists disappeared, we kept receiving inquiries," said Noriyuki Komatsu, a researcher at the association. "It is possible that bedbugs are not only brought into Japan but are also spreading in the country, infesting homes and other places."

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nice gaijin said:

I had been hearing of the increase in infestations elsewhere, I wonder what's leading to the rise

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Petaris said:

Probably their resistance to the pesticides/insecticides. The issue gets to be that you will usually want to preserve whatever they are infesting to eradication methods usually need to be non-destructive to their habitat.

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Petaris said:

It is interesting that they just assumed that bedbugs were foreigner related.

From what little I know they are very difficult to get rid of, hopefully some new method can be found to easily eliminate them and stop their spread.

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Officials in Seoul are contending with the country's biggest outbreak of the tiny, biting pests in 40 years. They've logged more than 180 infestations in the past three months. Prior to that, they say, there were just nine cases since 2014. The local media have dubbed the outbreak a "bindemic," a play on the Korean word for the insect, bindae. The nocturnal, bloodsucking creatures have a bite that triggers an allergic reaction in some people, causing intensely itchy welts. Bedbugs usually hide in cracks and gaps in furniture during the day. Their evasive skills, coupled with the female's ability to produce hundreds of eggs, means populations can easily explode.

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Japan saw an explosive growth in bedbug infestations during and after World War II. The bedbug population dwindled around 1970 after effective pesticides were developed and used. But complaints about bedbugs have increased in recent years. The Japan Pest Control Association, a group of exterminators and companies that deal with cockroaches, ticks, rats, bees, mosquitos and bedbugs, said it received 1,176 complaints about bedbugs in fiscal 2023, around 500 more than in the previous year. The figure for fiscal 2024 increased to 1,185. Industry observers said the recent rises have much to do with the steep increase in international visitors after the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2023, bedbug infestations spread around France and South Korea. Many hotel owners in Tokyo feared the bugs would enter Japan on the shoes and luggage of travelers from abroad and gain a foothold in the country. Asante's two bedbug-sniffing dogs checked about 4,000 hotel rooms, mainly at hotels, in fiscal 2024. The company this fiscal year appointed an additional handler to train a new sniffer dog to try to meet rising demand.

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