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Published on: 8/9/2009
Last Visited: 8/9/2009
CUMBERLAND - Derrick Bender knows what a bedbug looks like.
And he said he'd feel guilty if he didn't share his knowledge, and his experience, with the community.
Bender, a faculty extension assistant with the University of Maryland Extension Office in Cumberland, stayed in a $300-per-night hotel room in Annapolis about six weeks ago after attending a meeting in Ocean City.
He found lodging that "was a pretty nice place."
But there was a surprise guest waiting for Bender and his wife in their hotel room.
A handful of bedbugs had infiltrated the room.
...
"Just because a motel (appears) clean and is expensive ... it does not mean that they don't have bedbugs," said Bender, who is going to conduct a free public information session Aug. 27 between 6 and 8 p.m. at the Allegany County Fairgrounds.
"That's why I think people should know where to look for them."
It so happened that Bender had learned about the creature about a month before his trip during a professional development session.
"If I wouldn't have been there, I would not have known" what it was, Bender said.
"It wasn't a terribly heavy infestation ... we found three (bugs)."
His goal, Bender said, is to educate people on what bedbugs look like and where to find them.
Traveling is one way people bring home bedbugs, Bender said.
Experts point to globalization as the reason why bedbugs - largely unheard of since a chemical known as DDT became available after World War II - are making a comeback.
"If you don't look, you could be bringing them home with you and you don't realize it," Bender said.
...
Bender said he's heard stories of a room being continually infested with bedbugs despite pesticide treatments.
Their hiding place?
The television remote control.
And while bedbugs are known to enter a home through electrical outlets, Bender said he's heard of them weaving their way through a closed zipper.
Bender's information session will review how to get rid of an infestation.
He and his wife checked their luggage, washed everything in hot water and placed it on the family dryer's high-heat cycle multiple times.
He thinks he has taken appropriate steps to prevent a problem in his own house.
"But I'm not going to brag about it yet," Bender said.
Bender said people interested in attending the Aug. 27 session should call his office at (301) 724-3320 or e-mail dbender@umd.edu.
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