by Meranda Watling

When Angie's List member Graham Grossman's roommate returned from visiting friends in New York, she worried that she unknowingly brought back some unwelcome hitchhikers.

"The friend she traveled with had gotten bedbug bites, and she started freaking out that she had brought them back," says Grossman, a Washington, D.C., homeowner. They hired American Pest, a highly rated company in Fulton, Md., which used a bedbug-sniffing dog to ease their fears. Grossman says even though the search turned up nothing, it was worth the $250. "It was a small price to pay for peace of mind," he says.

In 2010, the district ranked fifth and sixth among the most bedbug-infested cities, according to studies by Orkin and Terminix. "Washington, D.C., is definitely a hotbed for bedbug activity," says Wayne White, an entomologist at American Pest.

The area's dense population and travelers from around the world contribute to the problem. White says pest-control experts offer numerous theories to explain the reappearance of bedbugs after a 50-year absence, including changed pest-control practices and increased international travel.

Despite the stigma often associated with bedbugs, they don't discriminate based on class or cleanliness, says Eddie Connor, manager at highly rated Connor's Pest Protection in Springfield, Va. In addition to various types of homes, his company treats hotels, theaters, hospitals and offices.

Bedbugs, which can live without feeding for months, can even hitchhike onto bookbags or library books that are carried into a home. "The best thing someone can do is be more proactive and more observant and know what to look for," Connor says, adding that his canine inspection starts at $150.

White says many people suffer no reaction to bites, but others call for an inspection as soon as they get an itchy bump. He advises customers to look near the seams of the mattress or behind the headboard for supporting evidence, including live insects or the skins they shed as they grow. Bedbugs also leave trickles of small black dots on bed linens after feeding.

Eradicating bedbugs often requires multiple rounds of treatment, and costs vary by the size of the home. Heat treatments, which kill bugs in one round by raising the home's temperature above 120 degrees, are the most effective and expensive. They start at about $1,000 to $1,200, while the less convenient multiple-round chemical treatments can be half as expensive, according to both White and Connor.

"Infestations can double in size in 16 days," White says, "so if it's a couple months before you figure out or admit you have a problem, it can go from a minor thing to a major thing.

If you think you have bedbugs:

- Monitor your sheets for blood markings from bedbug bites.

- Encase your mattress and box spring in a white, zippered cover.

- Buy inexpensive bed-leg traps at pest control supply stores.

- Wash your clothes and bed linens in hot water.

- Call a professional to remove them.