Bed bugs and their eggs can hide in the spines of hardcover books, according to an article in the New York Times titled “A Dark and Itchy Night.” This finding raises concerns that the bugs may be getting transported from book borrower to book borrower. The article notes that bed bugs will crawl out of the books at night to feed, find a new home in a headboard, and soon readers are enjoying not only plot twists but post-bite welts.

As libraries are scrambling to deal with the problem, so are some book borrowers. Not wanting to spread the misery, considerate patrons sometimes call ahead to discuss with librarians how best to return lent materials from their bed bug-infested homes. Usually, a meeting is arranged so the patron can hand off the offending books or DVDs in Ziploc bags to an employee outside the library.

John Furman, the owner of Boot-a-Pest, a team of bed bug service professionals based on Long Island, said he has had hundreds of clients buy a portable heater called PackTite to kill bed bug life, baking any used or borrowed book as a preventive measure before taking it to bed.

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Source: New York Times