Ohio is among the states with serious bedbug infestations. With bedbugs on the rise, federal health and environmental agencies find they have another problem ..people who resort to dangerous outdoor pesticides and fly-by-night exterminators. The problem is so bad that the Environmental Protection Agency warns against the use of one of the chemicals Propoxur. The EPA considers it a carcinogen. 76 year old Dolores Stewart of Columbus has been fighting a stubborn bedbug infestation with off the shelf products and professional exterminators. But, she tells WOSU's Tom Borgerding that the bedbugs remain.
Stewart: I've had bedbugs for about a year. I can't seem to get rid of them but I don't see too many of them now. I've really been in a battle with them. I've tried everything and everybody to get help to get rid of them. But, I can't get rid of them.
Borgerding: What have you done to get rid of them?
Stewart: Well I've been to Lowe's and I've bought all kinds of stuff that says bedbugs on the can and bombs. I've used my hands. I've killed some when I find them, tried to get rid of them. Because I did that before when I was young. With my mother, we'd get bedbugs and it wasn't as hard to kill them then than it is now.
Borgerding: When did you first notice them? Do they get worse? Do they get better?
Stewart: They get worse. They get worse if you don't do something about them right away. Be vigilant and watch for them. Kill everyone you can and sometimes that helps and sometimes it doesn't. The more you kill it seems like the more they come.
Borgerding: Have you contacted a professional exterminator?
Stewart: Yes, I've had two exterminators in here. One had to keep coming back three of four times. It's a battle, I'm telling you, you don't want to get them if you don't have to. You never know where they're coming from. And they're territorial. They'll stay right in one place most of the time. I've got them in my two chairs in the living room and I've got a couch in there and they don't even get in the couch. But they would eventually.
Borgerding: So they spread pretty rapidly would you say?
Stewart: Yes they do. Yes
Borgerding: You know there's a debate as to whether or not Ohio should use this Propoxur chemical to fight bedbugs. The E-P-A has warned against it for indoor use. I'm wondering what your thoughts are.
Stewart: Well, I think that's what they used in my house.
Borgerding They did use Propoxur?
Stewart: Yes.
Borgerding: And yet you still have some infestation.
Stewart: Yes.
76 year old Dolores Stewart says the problems with bedbugs have taken a toll on her.
Bedbugs had been a common household pest for fcenturies. They all but vanished 60 years ago with the widespread use of DDT. But DDT was banned in 1972 as too toxic to wildlife, and bedbugs have proved resitant to other chemicals.