Bedbug Invasion Business Earns $258 Million Last Year

Bedbug invasion business is booming. It brought in $258 million last year to pay for Bed Bug extermination. Companies are helping customers with bedbug symptoms and informing them of nesting areas such as clothes, luggage, purses, and matresses.

The infestation has been so bad, that even the Victoria Secret New York City store had to be exterminated. The invasion of bedbugs has opened new avenues of business for many in the US. The bedbugs are pretty sturdy and they can remain alive for up to a year without feeding.

These days the bedbugs are everywhere: in college dorms, nursing homes, day care centers, libraries, funeral homes and even movie theaters. And mind you, it is very tough to get rid of them.

“We are on the threshold of a bedbug pandemic, not just in the United States, but around the world,” said Missy Henriksen, spokeswoman for the National Pest Management Association, an industry trade group to MSN. “They can go into clean and dirty properties alike. They are equal opportunity pests.”

If you’re an exterminator or make products that kill bedbugs, then it is time for you to make some quick bucks. Revenues from bedbug extermination hit $258 million in 2009. It was just $98 million in 2006, said the trade group. The group represents 7,000 pest control companies and it is expected that the revenues will rise more this year.

“It is absolutely out of control right now,” says Andy Carace, owner of Pest End Exterminators, based in Derry, N.H. “Bedbugs have been identified as the single most difficult pest to treat in our industry,” Henriksen noted.