More News on Ohio Bedbugs

Bed Bugs have become such a problem in Ohio — as CEI noted earlier this week — that the state is now using Medicaid funds to cover the costs of extermination and control in senior citizen homes, according to a news report today. It’s a tragedy that senior citizens—or anyone–are suffering the ravages of these pests, which carry no disease but still cause itchy, uncomfortable bites after they feed on people at night. And the creepy reality of bugs creates considerable psychological stress that should not be consider a “minor” problem.

Much of this problem stems from our overly stringent pesticide law — the Food Quality Protection Act — which has produced a host of bans on safe and effective products that could be used to control a growing band of annoying to dangerous pests. Unfortunately, this is the model that activists are pushing for revisions to the Toxic Substances Control Act, which could remove a host of other safe and valuable products on the market. It would be unwise for members of the new Congress to venture down that dangerous path. Instead, they should reform the pesticide law to make it more rational.

Image credit: Texas A&M Center for Urban and Structural Entomology.