According to WCCO: “Bedbugs are crawling back into Minneapolis mattresses to suck the blood of sleeping residents. The wingless, auburn-colored mites are frequently showing up in apartments near the University of Minnesota, hotels, houses and apartment high-rises.” Actually, bedbugs are insects. They have 6 legs and 3 body segments. Mites have 8 legs and are more closely related to spiders. Don’t WCCO or the Associated Press have any entomologists as copy editors? (I’m being a snob. I was an entomologist for the U of MN extension service a while back).

The Star Tribune also had an article yesterday about bedbugs, and why Minneapolis is seeing more of them after decades of near eradication. Experts blame it on an increase in travel abroad, which allows bedbugs to crawl into luggage and hitch a ride to Minneapolis. Also, DDT was a powerful pesticide that wiped out the bedbug population in America. Once it became illegal, the bedbug numbers bounced back.

Experts also stress that bedbugs are not a sign of uncleanliness. For more information on bedbugs, check out the University of Minnesota Extension fact sheet.

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