The BBC news website has a story about an alarming increase in the number of bed bug infestations but, as is usual with the BBC these days, all is not as it seems.

It starts out by warning us of a new global pandemic :

Vampire fiction may be all the rage. But the true bloodsuckers after twilight are not charismatic updates of Dracula but tiny insects living in our mattresses, headboards and pillows. Yes, bed-bugs are back and pest controllers are warning of a global pandemic.

and then goes on to give evidence of a huge increase in the number of bed bug infestations reported in London :

A study led by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine last year found the number of complaints about bed-bugs in the capital grew annually by an average of 28.5% between 2000-2006. And there’s no sign of the problem abating with Rentokil reporting the number of bed-bug call outs has gone up by 24% in the first half of the year.

Now, if you usually take the news at face value, that is a fairly alarming increase in infestations and you would be sure to be itching within weeks before being bitten to death in your own bedroom.

If you are like myself, however, you would be asking the question – yes increased from what to what?

Unfortunately, the article does not give any quantitative measure of the problem, just the percentage increase year on year.

Fortunately, a little searching soon reveals the true results of the study :

That graphic is from the quoted report itself and shows the monthly enquiry call rate from one London borough of around 200,000 people. The rate and trend are comparable across all the London boroughs surveyed and do indeed show an annual rate of increase of 28.5%.

The trouble is, of course, that the call enquiry rate increases from around 2 calls per month in 2000 to around 15 calls per month in 2006. From a population of 200,000 people I don’t think that can be classified as a potential pandemic by any means, especially as the calls were enquiries and not actual infestations.

Overall, yet another example of someone at the BBC making an article out of a non-story. In fact, it reads to me like a puff piece on behalf of Rentokil and probably originated from one of their press releases.

As an aside, one thought that did occur to me on reading the original article was how much of the increase is due to the decline of smoking in the home due to nicotine being a natural and very effective insecticide. Sadly, I cannot find any studies being done in this area, which is most likely due to the impossibility of finding funding for a study into the benefits of tobacco smoke.