Welcome to October, official home of the scariest evening of the year outside of election night: Halloween! And in a world awash in oil spills, famine, floods, melting glaciers and massive hurricanes, what, judging by the media attention, is truly terrifying us today?

Bedbugs.

Yep, those dangerous denizens of folk tale and medieval Europe have evidently returned with a vengeance to prey upon unsuspecting travelers (hotel beds), families (home beds) and office workers (file cabinets, or so we hear). Suddenly parents who routinely tucked their young ones into bed with a gentle kiss and sing-song, "Good night, sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite" are confronting actual reality–to say nothing of inflicting potentially deep mental anguish and permanent psychic damage, the study of which is no doubt even now inspiring any number of university think tanks to prepare proposals for government grants. Can class-action lawsuits be far behind? To quote long-ago SCTV shock fest host Count Floyd, "Ooohhh, pretty scary, kids!"

Want to continue reading?
Become a Free PropertyCasualty360 Digital Reader

Your access to unlimited PropertyCasualty360 content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:

  • Breaking insurance news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Weekly Insurance Speak podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical converage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, BenefitsPRO and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.