Once again here is an great article for our Bed Bug Friday segment.

Entomologists call for eternal vigilance against a resurgent foe

What will? “Eternal vigilance,” according to a December 14 presentation by Michael Potter of the University of Kentucky in Lexington.

Headlines about the resurgence of bedbugs in the industrialized world have alarmed people about the fiercely itching bites and creepy stealth of the crevice-loving bugs. But as far as practical matters like recognizing a bedbug, “people are clueless,” Potter lamented.

So go Google photographs of the bugs and learn the signs of infestation. Pictures typically show the adults, reddish-brown and roughly as long as a pencil eraser is thick. The earlier stages are smaller and often paler.

Black smudges from bug excrement along mattress or couch seams may be easier to spot than the bugs themselves. And in spite of the name, bedbugs thrive in crevices that aren’t the least bedlike, such as the crannies of electronics. Again and again in the symposium, researchers warned against impulsive adoption of computer monitors (or comfy chairs or anything else) set out on a curb for free.