After gaining national attention in New York City with massive infestations, bedbugs have crawled their way into homes, hotels and apartments in Champaign-Urbana.

Awais Vaid, epidemiologist for the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District, said that in the past six to nine months there has been an increasing amount of bedbug reports, according to data his office collected from phone calls and surveys with local pest control agencies.

Cases have popped up on campus, including in fraternities, apartments and dorms, according to the Tenant Union.

Most landlord and tenant agreements will show that the tenant is responsible for acquiring services and paying for costs associated with getting rid of bedbugs.

Along with hiring pest control, tenants are then responsible for washing and drying all linen under high heat at once. The Tenant Union also recommends tenants buy a bedbug cover for their mattresses as well as pull the bed away from the wall and duct tape around the edges of the baseboards.

“Landlords would be better served taking care of bedbugs when they show up in one apartment, instead of waiting for the tenants to take care of the situation,” said Nancy Dietrich, housing counselor at the Tenant Union. “We would argue the landlord should pay for extermination.”

Bedbugs were almost eradicated in the United States due to the use of the pesticide DDT. In 1972, the Environmental Protection Agency banned DDT from most uses due to its harmful effects on wildlife and humans. After the ban, reports of bedbugs began emerging.

Since bedbugs can travel on luggage, pant legs and shoe laces, authorities believe that bedbugs began emerging in the United States due to immigration and high amounts of international travel.

The sanitation of a tenant or apartment has no bearing on the ability to get bedbugs, Dietrich said.

“They can spread in any way,” Dietrich said. “A maintenance worker checking your apartment with bedbugs on his pant leg can track them through all the apartments.”

Due to the difficulty in getting rid of bedbugs, Vaid recommends trying to prevent them before they become a problem by making sure everything is properly sanitized.

Bedbugs are parasitic insects that feed on human blood. They have a reddish-brown exoskeleton and can measure one-fourth an inch — about the length of a fingernail. Due to their size, bedbugs can easily hide in the cracks and crevices of bed frames, headboards, light sockets or in the seams of linen or mattresses.

Bedbugs do not transfer diseases, they are “mostly just a nuisance,” Vaid said.

Bedbugs will typically come out at night and feed, leaving small lesions on the surface of the skin where they bite. The size and appearance of the lesion depends on the immune response of the individual.

“Some people with a hyperactive immune response will get a much bigger lesion,” Vaid said. “Others will get a bite and won’t get anything.”

Due to the many places a bedbug can hide — including clothes or other furniture — the eradication of bedbugs can be incredibly difficult.

Local pest control services will charge between $200 and $1,200 to exterminate bedbugs, depending on the method used. For the lower service costs, pest control will spray the bed, bed frame, base boards and other furniture with a pesticide. For higher service costs, they will use a heat treatment that would bring the apartment up to 140 degrees, killing the insects instantly.