Pest-control companies report significant rise in cases related to these bloodsucking pests in recent years
BUG PROBLEM: Bloodstains and bedbug carcasses on infested cushions.
A posh hotel, a backpacker's hostel, a foreign worker dormitory and even your bed.
What might they have in common?
Bedbugs. And lots of them, it seems.
From student initiatives to trained dogs sniffing out the insects in posh hotels, those fighting the scourge of bedbugs say the problem appear to be worse now.
In the last five years, the number of phone calls to pest-control companies about bedbugs has doubled, to nearly 40 calls per month.
Other pest busters, reported an increase of about 30 per cent in bedbug operations.
Even a modest increase in cases, when multiplied by 240 pest control companies in United States, can mean a phenomenal spike in bedbug cases.
This can be attributed to an increase in international travel and greater public awareness of bedbugs.
The bugs, which are 4mm to 5mm in size and are usually difficult to spot with the naked eye, are hitchhikers that can be transported from overseas in luggage or on clothing.
Fortunately, although irritating, bedbugs do not carry diseases.
Hotels and foreign worker dormitories which see large numbers of foreigners come and go every day, are bedbug hotspots.
The situation is especially bad for foreign worker dormitories, where operators often pay little attention to workers' living conditions.
In rental apartment, where residents live in close proximity with one another and where hygiene standards are not as high, bedbug infestation can spread from unit to unit in a matter of days.
It is a big problem with rental apartment with many elderly residents the unintentional hosts of these bloodsucking insects.
Corridor and household clutter, common in one-room rental apartment, are optimal hiding places for bedbug.
Many old folks in rental apartment also have the habit of bringing home recycled furniture, which might be infested with bedbugs.
Just because you didn't see them on the exterior doesn't mean they don't exist.
WIDESPREAD
Bedbug cases are more common than they seem.
Cinemas, public buses - bedbugs really are everywhere.
You only need to have a pregnant bedbug, or a pair of mating bedbugs on you or in your bag for infestation to spread.
But until there is greater openness on the subject of bedbugs, any attempt to deal with the growing problem will be largely ineffective.
Many hotels and business don't like to admit or talk about their bedbug issue from fear of consumer backlash.