The EPA Gears Up for a Fight With Bedbugs

By Nikki Schwab, Washington Whispers

The Environmental Protection Agency has been busily preparing for a two-day meeting scheduled for the middle of the month on the topic of bedbugs. Yes, you read that right, bedbugs. It's become quite the issue. "It's been a growing problem and it's been a growing problem for a long time," EPA spokesperson Dale Kemery tells Whispers. The pesticides that killed the pests were taken off the shelves in the early 1970s, and the bedbug population has gotten bigger and bigger ever since. So what's so bad about these little buggers? Well, first, they bite. "They're tenacious too," Kemery says. And without being able to use certain pesticides, experts are unsure of how to handle the burgeoning problem. "A lot of questions you may be asking about this are unknowns at this point, and that's why the conference," says Kemery. Exterminators, hotel operators, and a broad spectrum of other interested parties are planning to attend. There's been so much interest, in fact, that the locale had to be changed from an office building in downtown D.C. to a hotel in nearby Crystal City, Va.

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