Here’s a story from WXYZ in Detroit, Michigan.

It’s the standard “bed bugs are real, and they’re in our area!” story that local news channels are turning out one by one.

It focuses on the Shapiro family, who apparently got bed bugs from daughter Mackenzie’s newly acquired secondhand bed frame.

And it cites Terminix and Orkin employees on the spread of bed bugs in the region.

Steve Simpson said,

“I would hate to have the bugs at my house. I wouldn’t want them, I would take any other bug besides a bed bug.”

Steve Simpson is the Manager for the Detroit branch of Terminix. He says 3 years ago – he’d only get about 3 calls each year for bed bug infestations. Today it’s a different story.

“Last year, it probably went to 3-4 phone calls a month, and now it’s up to about 3-4 phone calls a day.”

That’s:

2006: 3 bed bug calls a year
2007: 3-4 bed bug calls a month
2008: 3-4 bed bug calls a day

Likewise, Orkin claimed it now gets 20-50 calls a month in metro Detroit.

Worried, Detroit? You should be.

You can watch the video of WXYZ’s report here or read the transcript here.

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Neal Rubin writes in a Detroit News Op-Ed column today that

At Rose Pest Solutions in Troy [Michigan], where Sheperdigian reigns as vice president for technical services, the number of bedbug jobs has risen from one or two in 2001 to about 160 last year, with continued rapid growth expected in 2008.

The article goes beyond the standard “bed bugs are in our area now” articles which are popping up weekly, delving into the origins of the problem, as well as various ways to get rid of bed bugs.

Interestingly, Rubin cites Sheperdigian as challenging the theory that bed bugs came back due to increased travel:

One theory says that bedbugs have reemerged because Americans are traveling more to countries where they never quite went away. The problem is, Sheperdigian says, his research shows we were traveling more in the ’80s and ’90s.

“This isn’t a matter of reintroduction,” he says. “There’s something deeper happening that we don’t understand.”

Rubin also cites Sheperdigian’s opinion on Cryonite:

. . . Sheperdigian’s opinion of one of the trendy new methods of bedbug-whacking, an icy carbon dioxide spray that’s supposed to freeze them in their creepy little tracks. He says it mostly blows them around.

As far as I am concerned, the jury is still out on Cryonite, but I have not personally seen any effectiveness studies yet.

For good measure, the article also notes that, as far as treatment is concerned,

Rose Pest Solutions uses a combination of vacuums, steam and insecticides. Others favor bedbug-sniffing dogs or the equivalent of gigantic hair dryers.

None are foolproof.

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