Bed bug attacks on the rise

New Zealand's leading pest control agency says bed bug attacks in Auckland are rising rapidly.

But as two holidaymakers in Rotorua discovered, the problem could also be spreading further out from the Super City.

"[I] went to lay on the bed and found something crawling around on the pillow," says David Smith. "[It] turned out when we popped this bug blood came out onto the pillow."

Mr Smith and friend Anthony Craig were taking a break in the North Island tourist hub, where they stayed at the Silver Oaks Geyserlands Hotel in Rotorua.

"More bugs appeared on the walls, coming up from the bed board, blankets, and throughout the night they were appearing on the ceiling and the walls and in the carpet as well," says Mr Smith.

Rentokil, the country's largest pest control agency, has seen a 63 percent increase in bud beg callouts in Auckland over spring and summer compared to last year. That has been increasing since 2000.

Bug eradicator Jon Thompson says it's partially because the insecticide DDT was banned in the late 1980s.

"With the arrival of cheap air travel and people moving around the world a lot more, backpackers, that has certainly contributed to it as well," he says.

Bed bugs are a tough species - eggs are immune to many chemicals and larvae can survive up to a year without food.

Heat chambers are the only effective way to kill bed bugs at every stage of the life cycle. Large heaters on the wall will bring the heat in a room up to about 60degC, and large fans will keep that temperature there for about an hour. It's not cheap, and the parasites are winning the battle.

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Bed bug attacks on the rise