Report on the bed-bug.

  • Great Britain. Ministry of Health.
Date:
1934
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the bed-bug. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    4/50 (page 4)
    summarising the present position, indicating the directions in which future work on the problem might most profitably be undertaken, and giving some guidance on the steps to be taken for dealing with Bed-bugs. | : 1. THE EXTENT OF BED-BUG INFESTATION IN THIS COUNTRY. As a result of a questionnaire addressed to the London County Council, the Councils of the City of London and of the Metropolitan and County Boroughs, it has been possible to form some opinion as to the extent of the problem. Estimates of the amount of infestation of houses provided under the various Housing Acts since that of 1919 vary greatly, some estimates being in the neighbourhood of 50 per cent. Virtually every urban authority is more or less troubled with this problem. It is estimated that in many areas practically ail the houses are to a greater or less degree infested with Bed-bugs. It is difficult to obtain evidence as to whether or not the Bed-bug population has actually increased in recent years. it has been suggested that the unusually hot weather of the past two years has had some effect in increasing the total amount of infestation. Whilst this is possible, we have had no actual evidence that the recent hot summers have been an important factor. The fact that the question of infestation by Bed-bugs has come into greater prominence recently is no doubt due largely to the greater attention which is now being paid to insanitary working-class houses. The removal of tenants of old and insanitary bug-infested houses to council houses with their modern conveniences and the spread of general education and knowledge of the value of cleanliness have stimulated the desire among tenants to rid their dwellings of Bed- bugs, and the infestation of council houses has certainly focussed the attention of Local Authorities on the subject. A Local Authority is bound, as landlord, to maintain a high standard of cleanliness in its houses, and the discovery that one of the evils which slum clearance schemes are designed to remove has spread to the new housing estates is distinctly disquieting. Quite apart from slum clearance schemes, an increasing amount of effort has been directed during the 15 years that have elapsed since the war towards improving the health and conditions of life of the poorer sections of the community, and the question of vermin and its eradication has come more and more into prominence. The view is sometimes expressed that Bed-bugs are one of the factors that create slums and that, when once they have obtained a foothold in an area, that area tends to become populated more and more by families who tolerate Bed-bugs and have acquired a certain degree of immunity towards them. To some extent this may be true, but we are convinced that by far the greater number of dwellers in infested houses suffer acutely from the presence of Bed- bugs and are genuinely anxious to get rid of them. i