“Don’t let the bedbugs bite” is no longer as cute and sweet a saying as it used to be.

“It’s not an adage or a joke,” said John Shively, owner of Keystone Pest Management, based in Bloomsburg. “It’s real.”

The nocturnal blood-sucking creatures that feed on humans as they sleep have caused a national stir, which lately has been hitting home in the Central Susquehanna Valley.

Henry Linton, district manager of JC Ehrlich Inc., based in Shamokin, has been in the pest control business for 43 years.

One of his first jobs was to deal with bedbugs.

“In the last six to eight years, we’ve seen some warning signs that they are about to appear in vast numbers,” Linton said, “and that’s exactly what they’ve done.”

Valley exterminators have found the bugs in private homes, hotel and motels rooms, rental properties and college dorms.

“Anyplace where people congregate,” Linton said, is where bedbugs are appearing.

While new concepts such as furniture rentals may have increased the problem, Linton said more people are traveling now, going to other countries, staying at hotels, and unintentionally bringing the bugs back with them.

Bedbug infestations were very rare 25 years ago, Shively said. A decade ago, he said he would get a call about them maybe once every two to three years.

“Now, in the past two years especially, it’s been once a month,” he said. “This year, it seems like literally three times a week we get a call for it.”

The majority of them, he said, come from hotels. And the bugs don’t discriminate — they’re found at high- end and discount hotels alike.

“It’s a very panicky situation,” Linton said. “It’s a stigma.”

Jan Goshorn, co-owner of Phillips Motel in Shamokin Dam, said his cleaning staff has been told to be on guard.

“We’re making everyone aware that there is an issue out there,” he said. “It hasn’t hit us yet, but we are concerned like everybody else.”

While the state Department of Health has made an effort to supply the public with information about bedbugs and how to prevent infestations, the agency is not required to conduct inspections.

Even if state employees did, said Holli Senior,a department spokeswoman, an annual inspection wouldn’t do the job. In a hotel, for instance, an inspection could be completed one day, and the next day someone could check in and unknowingly bring the bugs with them.

“They’re easy to take with you,” she said.

Though bedbugs are “very high on the yuck factor,” Senior added, “they don’t carry communicable diseases, so it’s not something we track.”

Meanwhile, Shively expects the problem to get worse this winter, as people spend more time indoors to escape the cold, and visit family and friends during the holidays.

Even now, he guesses the problem is “twice as bad as news reports are making it out to be.”

Often, people don’t know the bugs are even living in their bed frames or nightstands, and once they do discover evidence, they live in a sort of denial at first. Once they finally come to terms with the truth, they try to handle it themselves and make the situation worse by using over-the-counter treatments such as flea bombs to get rid of them, Shively said.

The fact is, bedbugs hide in small cracks and crevices, where they survive these attacks, and then travel to other areas of the room and the house. People may also carry the bugs with them when they get out of bed and then sit down on their couch to have their morning cup of coffee before taking a shower and changing their clothes.

Shively said bedbugs tend to reside in bed frames, headboards, and baseboards, as well as outlets, wall hangings, and even TVs, VCRs and electronic clocks because they are attracted to what feels like body heat.

Reports have even been issued of people being bitten at movie theaters.

But such reports, experts say, should not cause life-altering alarm.

“People shouldn’t be afraid to go to movies because they’re going to get bedbugs,” Linton said.

A key is to keep everything laundered and clean as much as possible.

JC Ehrlich Inc. uses a bedbug-sniffing dog and a special heat treatment to get rid of the creatures.

The dog, Linton said, has been able to find bedbugs within 10 minutes of entering a room, while someone with a trained eye takes about 45 minutes.

Other exterminators, such as Keystone Pest Management, conduct a series of pesticide treatments in homes where bedbugs have been found, and encourage residents to clean and vacuum as much as possible to keep them at bay. A growth regulator inhibits eggs from hatching and sterilizes the female bedbugs, which can lay thousands of eggs at a time.

Shively said they recommend people dispose of their mattress and box springs once the bugs are found in them, and that they immediately launder all of their clothing and bedding.

The experts also advise that when traveling, leave clothing in the suitcase, and place the suitcase on the luggage stand provided, as far away from the bed as possible. Upon coming home, launder clothes immediately, they say, and put them on a hot cycle in the dryer.

Don’t let them bite

Bedbugs are reddish brown, oval and flat, about the size of an apple seed. During the day, they hide in the cracks and crevices of beds, box springs, headboards and bed frames. It’s a daunting task to eliminate bedbugs from your home.

Professional help is recommended.

It can be difficult to distinguish bedbug bites from other insect bites. In general, the sites of bedbug bites usually are:

— Red, often with a darker red spot in the middle.

— Itchy.

— Arranged in a rough line or in a cluster.

— Located on the face, neck, arms and hands.

Some people have no reaction at all to bedbug bites, while others experience an allergic reaction that can include severe itching, blisters or hives.

If you experience allergic reactions or severe skin reactions to your bedbug bites, see your doctor for professional treatment.

— Mayo Clinic