In the quiet of night, she crawls from her hiding place toward the carbon dioxide

gas and warmth emanating from your body. When she reaches a patch of exposed flesh, she

uses her small, sharp beak to pierce your skin and slurp up six times her weight in

blood, leaving behind an itchy welt. After returning home to the underside of your mattress,

a series of up to seven males violently mate with her.

If this sounds like a bad nightmare, count yourself lucky--for tens of thousands

of people worldwide, it's a nightly reality. These tiny parasites, better known as bedbugs,

have spread through Los Angeles, New York and London over the past 20 years, infesting

the homes and hotels of rich and poor alike. They've crept into the cushions of movie

theater seats and executive offices, and hitched rides in library books and subway cars. In

the world of pests, bedbugs may be the greatest invaders in all of history.

Or, more specifically, the greatest re-invaders. Because bedbugs have actually

been harassing humans since the stone age. The problem worsened when we crowded into

towns and cities, and became terrible when we invented central heating, which helped

bedbugs thrive year-round virtually everywhere.

Until WWII, that is, when humans discovered a class of synthetic insecticides

that were ultimately strong enough to drive bedbugs from the US and Europe for a half-century.

However, not only are many of those chemicals, (DDT, for example) now banned, but hardy bedbug

individuals also survived and multiplied, meaning that now, bedbug populations are resistant

to many of our weapons against them. Meanwhile, increased global travel has made pretty much

any bed in the world just a short flight away, both for human jetsetters and their bedbug

stowaways. The one-two punch of insecticide resistance and global transport has allowed

bedbugs go from a bad dream to a modern reality - the ultimate comeback kid of the pest world.

Except that in a way, we've

brought them back, and this time around, they won't go down so easily. So sleep

tight, and don't let the bedbugs b-- actually, we\'92re kinda screwed.