Bed bugs (often misspelled as bedbugs) are small, oval-shaped, wingless insects that belong to the Cimicidae. The life cycle stages of a bed bug are egg, nymph, and adult. They are nocturnal insects and avoid sunlight. Infant bed bugs are so tiny and translucent that they can hardly be seen without a magnifying glass. Adults grow to 5 to 7 mm long (about the size of an apple seed), are darker and thus easier to see. The reason they are called bed bugs is that they hide in the crevices of mattresses, bed frames and box springs. Eggs are laid along the edges of or around buttons on the mattresses. Eggs can also be glued to rough surfaces.

Why are bed bugs so prolific?

Property that is clean and properly maintained does not mean it will be free of bed bugs, because bed bugs can go for months, even up to a year, without feeding. They can also wander in between walls, through electrical outlets or other holes through which wires and cables pass. A bed bug can crawl up to 100 feet (30 meters) in a night to find a meal. Left alone, a few bed bugs can create a colony of thousands within weeks.

Because they are small and difficult to see, they can often travel unobserved until they have developed into an infestation. Bed bugs might travel from a neighboring apartment to yours. Alternatively, you might go shopping for clothing at a store that has carpeted dressing rooms and bed bugs may infest clothing that you toss on the floor while trying on garments. If you travel on a business trip or vacation, then you might stay in a hotel with bed bugs in its mattresses, and these insects remain in the seams of your pajamas, leading to an infestation in your home or business. Bed bugs can inhabit almost any surface, and have even been found in a prosthetic leg!

Related: Bed bug benefits?

(Photo: Shutterstock)

Are bed bugs infectious?

Bed bugs feed on the blood of warm-blooded animals and insects, but they prefer human blood. They typically bite the upper body, and when they feed, they inject a tiny amount of saliva into the skin. Repeated exposure to bites over a period of several weeks or more may sensitize people to the saliva, with additional bites resulting in mild-to-intense allergic responses. According to the CDC, the best way to treat a bite is to avoid scratching the area, apply antiseptic creams or lotions, and take an antihistamine.

The good news is that bed bugs are not known to transmit any infectious diseases. However, they can cause mental health issues – the inability to sleep and hallucinating about bed bugs.

Is there insurance coverage?

Other than the existence of the bugs themselves, which is bothersome, they do not do much damage. They do not chew on furniture, rugs, walls, or mattresses, just humans. However, under a standard homeowners policy, damage from birds, vermin, rodents, or insects is excluded from the dwelling coverage. Personal property coverage is covered for named perils, and there is no named peril for bugs infesting the furniture. Insureds are not eligible for medical payments under the form.

However, bed bugs often are contracted when staying at a hotel, motel, inn, or from another public location. Since bed bugs can hide and live a long time without feeding, proving that they came from a specific place at any given time is difficult. However, if the claimant could prove that the bed bugs originated from, for example, the Fleabag Hotel, would there be coverage?

Related: How to accurately calculate repair, replacement costs

The CGL provides coverage for injury or damage for which the insured is legally liable. The injury has to be caused by an occurrence and take place in the coverage territory. The injury must also be reported immediately to the insured, and damages because of injury can be covered for care, loss of services, or death resulting from the injury. Coverage for property in the care, custody, or control of the insured is excluded, so the bugs getting into the suitcase sitting in a hotel room is excluded.

Medical payments coverage, however, is a separate issue. There is coverage for treatment for the claimant's bites if they occurred at the hotel. Medical payments are triggered by accidents on the premises that the insured hotel owns or rents, or because of the insured's operations. Most hotels do not intentionally have bed bugs, so their existence on the property is accidental. That means there is coverage for the claimant's treatment. 

Some property owners and business owners have failed to end bed bug infestations and as a result, there have been cases of bed bug lawsuits across the country. The largest verdict to date was awarded to a woman from Annapolis, Maryland in a bed bug lawsuit against her landlord. Ms. Faika Shaban was not informed at the time she leased an apartment that there was an open code violation for a bed bug infestation at the residence. After she reported the infestation, she was illegally evicted and her possessions tossed into the street. Ms. Shaban was awarded $800,000 in 2013.

(Photo: Shutterstock)

Bed bugs then and now

Bed bugs have preyed on humans for a very long time. Archaeologists believe that bed bugs have fed on humans for at least 3,500 years based on fossilized bed bugs that have been found at dig sites. By comparing mitochondrial markers (basically, DNA) in bed bug populations around the world, it is determined that they originated in caves in the Middle East where they fed on bats. The bed bugs likely didn't leave the caves; rather cave dwellers entered the caves and thus became their first victims. A little-known fact is that the Romans used to brew bed bugs and drink them as a cure for snakebites. The bugs were almost totally eradicated in the U.S. during the 1950's by the use of DDT; however, that pesticide was banned in 1972 due to the adverse health effects it caused in humans.

Today, bed bugs are the fastest growing pest control emergency in the developed world. It is estimated that one in five Americans have had bed bugs or know someone who has. This resurgence in the incidence of infestations has led to its increased focus by the EPA and individual state legislatures. As of July 26, 2017, laws addressing bed bugs have been adopted in 22 states and one territory. The laws address bed bug infestations in rental properties (Arizona, California, Florida, Nebraska and New Hampshire); hotels (Alabama, California, Kansas, Minnesota, Nevada, Ohio, South Dakota and West Virginia); institutional facilities (Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska and Wisconsin); schools (New York and Utah); railcars (Illinois); and migrant labor camps (Iowa, Nevada and Pennsylvania). The states of Arizona, Kansas and Texas list bed bugs as a public health nuisance. Rhode Island requires commercial pesticide applicators who use restricted pesticides to kill bed bugs to carry proper certification. The U.S. Virgin Islands classify bed bugs as vermin.

The federal government Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has issued guidelines that prohibit a landlord from charging tenants in subsidized housing for the cost of bed bug treatment.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) offers a list of frequently asked questions with answers on their website Bed Bugs FAQ . There are also additional resources available on the website, including a video on how to inspect a bed for bed bugs.

Related: Reality bites

Treatments that don't work

Bed bugs are difficult to kill. There is currently no effective 'over the counter' pesticide, and bug bombs or total release foggers designed to kill flying insects only scatter bed bugs.

Generally, it is an established fact that bed bugs will die in under ten minutes if exposed to temperatures above 115F (46C) degrees. This has led some individuals to attempt their own eradication of bed bugs by using chemicals and negligently setting their mattresses on fire. One man even set his rental car ablaze by dousing the bugs with alcohol and lighting a cigarette, causing additional damage to two other cars from the intense heat of the fire. Three additional incidents serve as a stern warning not to try killing bed bugs by spraying them with alcohol at or near an open flame.

In Ohio, a 13-year-old boy tried to kill a bed bug by dousing it with alcohol and lighting a match, resulting in an apartment blaze that displaced eight people and caused $300,000 in damage. In the same state, in a multi-family home a woman sprayed rubbing alcohol on the insects near a candle or incense, and the ensuing blaze sent at least three people to the hospital, displaced 10 people, and sustained $250,000 in damage. In Kentucky, an apartment renter doused her couch in alcohol attempting to kill bed bugs, subsequently dropped a cigarette on the sodden furniture, and started a fire that left 30 people homeless, four of whom were treated for smoke inhalation.

In 2006 and again in 2009, firefighters in New York City were called in to track down mysterious strong smells of accelerants in apartment houses. The firefighters reported finding mattresses soaked with gasoline or kerosene, and even children who'd been swabbed down with these compounds in attempts to thwart the bugs. No fires resulted, but they easily could have, given that gasoline fumes can be touched off by as little as turning on a light switch or dragging one's sock-covered feet across a carpet.

Even the experts can sometimes get it wrong. In May 2011, a two-family home in Cincinnati was destroyed after a heater being used by an exterminator to destroy bed bugs (by raising the home's temperature to 135 degrees) set a carpet on fire, resulting in a blaze that burned down the house.

While less dangerous, other treatments that do not work to kill bed bugs include placing your bedding in trash bags, using bug bombs, turning up the thermostat, using grills, propane heaters or other portable heat sources to raise the temperature inside a building, or turning off the heat inside a building.

What to do with bed bugs?

The best way to control bed bugs is not to bring them to your home, school or business. People are the number one transmitter of bed bugs. If you leave a potentially infested building, check your clothing, coat, luggage, purse, backpack or other bags because bed bugs are great hitchhikers. This also applies to children leaving schools and daycares. If you think you may have bed bugs, there is help. You may contact your county's Cooperative Extension Office to answer your questions and provide information. In addition, the National Pesticide Information Center offers information and additional resources on controlling bed bugs on their website: http://npic.orst.edu/pest/bedbug/control.html. They advise first off not to panic, as quick, rash decisions may lead to unneeded, costly and dangerous actions. Remember that you are not alone in this battle; many people have or have had bed bugs. 

Karen Soprrell, CPCU, is an editor with FC&S Online, the authority on insurance coverage interpretation and analysis for the P&C industry. It's the resource agents, brokers, risk managers, underwriters, and adjusters rely on to research commercial and personal lines coverage issues. She can be reached at [email protected].