Bedbug resurgence: Are bed bug cases on rise?

Absolutely! There is a steep increase in number of bed bug cases recently, in both: US and rest of the world. Just two examples from two developed countries will be sufficient:
• According to National Pest Management Association, USA, pest control companies who were receiving one or two bed bug related calls per year are now receiving one or two bed bug related calls every week.
• According to Department of Medical Entomology, Australia, number of bed bug cases in Australia have risen by 5000% (50 times) in six years between 2000 and 2006.

And the real numbers could be way higher:

Please numbers are Please note that most of the reports are collected from pest control companies. There could be many more cases which are not reported either because bed bug victims either could not identify the bugs or decided to treat the bugs themselves (which in turn increased bed bug infestations).
And in developing countries even the pest control companies may not have maintained statistics.

Countries where bed bugs are found:

Since 1999, infestations have been reported in the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Australia, Canada, India, and the United States.

The reasons of resurgence:   

There are several reasons for the bed bug resurgence. All of them fall in threem ina categories as follows:

• Increased travel:

Bed bugs hide in our luggage, shoes and sometimes clothing items and enter our homes. And in other cases, we unknowingly carry them with us in our luggage, to hotels, motels, friend/relative’s homes, cruise ships, schools, day care, nursing homes, hospitals, apartment buildings and dormitories.

• Our mistakes:

o Acquiring secondhand beds, couches and furniture
o New Pest control Method: Instead of spraying the insecticides, many pest control companies use baits to kill other bugs like cockroaches. This method does not kill bed bugs as they eat only blood and are not attracted by the baits.
o Ban of strong insecticides: Due to environmental and health related issues U.S. Government has banned many strong insecticides like DDT.
o We usually avoid calling pest control companies for cost reasons until bed bug infestation is out of our control. This gives them enough time to grow in numbers and spread other places.

• Bed bug’s strengths:

o Bedbugs have grown resistant to the weaker insecticides.
o They grow very fast. A single female bed bug produces about 200 to 500 eggs in a life time. These eggs hatch in about two week’s time.
o Bed bugs grow very fast in human favorable conditions like warm temperatures.
o Bed bugs can live for a year or as much as eighteen months without feeding.
o Their body structure: Bed bugs have very flat body structure. They can easily hide in a crack where your credit card can fit.
In last few years average American house has grown in size offering many more places for bugs to hide. We also prefer huge beds with headboards, again offering many places to hide.
Bed bugs prefer wood and fabric. Our houses are made primarily of wood and our sofas, chairs, and couches are made up of soft fabric.
o The same flat body structure allows them to move from one apartment to another through cracks in the walls, or holes made for electric wires or heating or cooling systems.
o Insecticides do not impact bed bug eggs much, so they usually survive the first round of insecticides treatment. This requires a second round of insecticides treatment to kill newly hatched bed bugs. And we usually avoid it for cost reasons.