Already troubled by as
many as 55 bedbug cases a month, Los Angeles County would see an explosion of
the problem during the holiday season, a newspaper report said on Saturday.

“L.A.’s slow trickle of
bedbugs may turn into a flood,” the Los Angeles Times warned on its website.

Bedbugs have turned up in
the Golden Triangle retail district of Beverly Hills and inside homes and
apartments in more than two dozen local communities, the report said, quoting
health officials.

“It’s really all over the
county,” said Angelo J. Bellomo, director of environmental health for the Los
Angeles County

Department of Public Health.

Since public health
officials began tracking reports of bedbugs last spring, there has been an
increase in reports from tenants, property owners and businesses, the report
said.

Exterminators fear that
the number of reports might rocket because of increased travel and gift-giving,
said the report.

The pests are “very good
hitchhikers” that can be transported on luggage, clothing, beds, furniture and
other items, L.A. County Public Health Director Jonathan E. Fielding was quoted
as saying.

The bugs also hide out in
draperies, throw pillows and even electronics, and adults can live more than a
year without feeding, according to the report.

VietNamNet/Xinhuanet