Since October, complaints of the insects, which secret a anesthetic to keep people from feeling the pain and an anti-coagulant to make people bleed, have been found in hotels and motels along the Interstate 95 corridor, said Andy Rose, a soil scientist with the Halifax County Health Department.

Today, Rose gave a seminar for Roanoke Rapids employees on the bedbug, and told them, “They have always been with us and now they’re coming back with a vengeance.”

The creatures like to be 10 to 15 feet away from a bed, according to one documentary Rose showed. They can hide in nightstands, outlet covers and mattresses, even the skirting around beds.

They are a pest, Rose said, which have been documented as early as 2000 B.C., made a comeback around World War II but until now have not been a major problem.

True bugs, they can’t fly but will climb walls to reach the ceiling so they can drop on unsuspecting sleepers.

They are nocturnal but signs of their presence can be determined through black, tar like stains which include their feces, blood from their victims and shells they have outgrown.

“They can be a quarter of an inch long,” Rose said. “They are often confused with ticks.”

The female can lay five eggs per day continuously and if the infestation is large enough they will span out beyond their 10 to 15 feet comfort zone.

Their lifespan is 10 months but it has been documented they can live up to 18 months without food, which is solely blood.

“They affect people differently,” Rose explained. “Dermatologists have a hard time diagnosing it.”

Another documentary from National Geographic explained bedbugs sense the carbon dioxide people exhale and use heat sensors to find the meatiest parts of the body to feed upon.

That documentary said if someone is bitten 500 times in a night they can develop anemia.

Rose said while the bug carries 28 known diseases, they are incapable of transmitting them. “It’s a quality of life issue,” he said, explaining there is a condition caused Post Bedbug Stress Disorder.

While bedbugs are known to cause anemia, especially in children, they can cause insomnia and infections from over treatments by home pesticide applications with the wrong substance.

There are also economic issues, Rose said. The website Trip Advisor has comments from hotel guests who complain about bedbugs and there have been lawsuits.

The ease of international travel is one reason behind the problem, Rose said, and that means Roanoke Rapids being the midpoint between New York and Miami makes it ripe for infestation.

Cheap if they’re caught early, a full blown infestation of an entire building can cost $50,000 in treatment.

Rose said landlords who try to treat the problem themselves need a license to buy the proper chemicals. “Landlords and hotels need to partner up (with licensed pest control companies).”

Law enforcement, firefighters and EMS need to check themselves after going into buildings.

Thus far, Martin Exterminating has not seen a full blown infestation, said Marlon Cahoon, but he says it is an epidemic. It takes two people two to three hours to treat. “For the past three months it’s been hot and heavy.”

Cahoon said it’s just not hotels and motels along the I-95 corridor, but I-85 and I-40 as well. “It’s going to get worse.”