One apartment building in Daugavpils has been completely taken over by bugs. To combat the pests, a call has been posted for everyone to fight them together. LRT+ was not allowed into the apartments, but the photographs show numerous hives of bugs.
"Bed bugs spread very quickly, which is why we have a situation where not just one apartment in a house is infested, but almost the whole house. And so the situation has become more complicated. In 30 houses we already have this situation, we only know about it from complaints," said Nataļja Rustkova, board member of Daugavpils Apartment and Communal Household Company Ltd (DDzKSU Ltd).
The residents of the house in question refused to talk about bed bugs on camera, but people they met on the streets of Daugavpils said that the news about bedbugs in Daugavpils had reached them too.
Ingrīda: "There are those monsters, yes. But how to poison them? We are not coping. Specifically at the workplace. We are trying all sorts of options, slowly this is going forward. At home, thank God, not yet."
Anželika: "It's dangerous for your health that they bite a lot, that they leave sores on your skin. But how to poison them, I don't know."
It's not easy to control bed bugs - all apartment owners need to work together, and possibly bring in specialists.
Edgars Andrjuščenko, Head of the 1st House Management District of DDzKSU Ltd, confirmed that bed bugs are often seen in common areas, but that each apartment cannot be checked without the owners' permission: "If we do not receive any complaints from the apartment owners, we cannot understand what is happening in that apartment."
The prevalence of bed bugs in Latvia is not widespread, but it does occur. The Health Inspectorate said that most of the cases are in hostels.
Voldemārs Spuņģis, an entomologist and associate professor of biology, said that the bed bug is a bloodsucker that finds its prey by sensing the heat emitted by the human body. However, bed bugs do not transmit diseases.
"Bed bugs are not a big deal from an insect point of view, from a parasite point of view. The thing about bed bugs is that they have six developmental stages from the moment they lay an egg, during each stage they suck blood so that they can move on to the next stage," Spuņģis said.
Bed bugs are difficult to get under control because they are fast-breeding, hardy, and highly resistant to chemicals.
One solution is to use special chemicals, clean beds, mattresses, and other furniture with hot steam, wash clothes at least +55 degrees and destroy the eggs.
