If it were up to me, most photographs of bed bug infestations would be of well-ordered homes with no overt signs of infestation. Where the before and after pictures would be identical.
But it’s not up to me, and in fact we have our choice of photographs of advanced infestations. So advanced that we feel instinctively that only some degree of impairment of the occupants would allow bed bugs to get to that stage. We recoil. This is a problem, because we need to educate those who know nothing about bed bugs, the people who think it cannot happen to them. And these are not the images most suited for this purpose.
But these infestations unquestionably exist and challenge us.
We must help those who are living in neglect, unable to fend for themselves. But we must find them first. In multi-unit housing, we are really going to have to have a program of systematic inspection.
Entomologist Lou Sorkin recently uploaded photographs of a slipper infested with bed bugs. Caution: these images may be disturbing. Please do not click on the link below if you are distressed about bed bugs. You don’t need to see this.
If you feel you can, however, then I think perhaps you should see. This is a problem that can make you cry. But we can’t cry. We have to act. All of us.
Infested slipper, photographed by Lou Sorkin.
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