Go ahead. Scratch.

That’s the normal reaction when people talk about bedbugs.

People itch. They wriggle and writhe. It’s not a comfortable topic, according to Ralph Blumenthal of Atlantic Pest Solutions, who gives regular talks on the resurgent pests to public officials and property owners.

“I usually tell them, ‘If I don’t have you scratching by the end of my talk, I’m not doing my job,'” Blumenthal said.

It’s becoming a more common topic, as reports of the bugs continue to grow in the Twin Cities and central Maine.

“It’s more of a problem south of us, but we do get reports,” said Lewiston Code Enforcement Director Gil Arsenault. Now is a good time to be especially cautious of bringing used furniture into your home – whether it’s from a garage sale or spring cleanup discards.

“If you see a mattress and think it might work well for your camp, or you see something at a yard sale, be careful,” Arsenault said. “It pays to be a little savvy.”

Bedbugs are blood-sucking insects that, true to their name, infest beds and bedrooms. They hide in the seams of mattress and box springs, head boards, floor boards, bedroom furniture and piles of clothes. They come out at night to feed on human blood and disappear back into their hiding places at sunrise.

Victims might find themselves covered in itchy red welts the next morning. An infested mattress might look like it’s been sprinkled with pepper. That’s dried blood-waste left behind from previous meals, Blumenthal said.

The bugs themselves are apple-seed sized, about 3/16 of an inch across. They have six legs, unlike an eight-legged tick.

Nationally, bedbug infestations have been on the rise and some major U.S. cities – Las Vegas, New York, Boston – are havens for the pests. They’ve been creeping into Maine for the past five years and into Lewiston-Auburn since about 2006.

“To us, it’s a pest that’s always been around,” Blumenthal said. “They’ve never really disappeared, but they stayed under control. But that’s changed.”

Some blame the latest infestations on travel, especially international travel. The bugs are fast-moving and opportunistic and can move from a hotel bed to a piece of luggage just in time for a trip across country.

Once settled in, they’re tough to eradicate. Ken Hodgkins, of Bug Beaters in Lisbon, recalls an infestation at a children’s camp a few summers back. Camp owners moved the affected furniture into a field and covered it in black plastic.

“It had to get well above 130 degrees every day under that plastic, but we still had to come in and spray after a month,” he said. “They just hid out, waiting for the next meal.”

Companies around the country are experimenting with other commercial treatments – freezing the room and bedroom furniture with carbon dioxide or sealing it up and heating it with giant fans. Some companies have trained dogs to sniff out the mattress-loving pests.

“We find the best thing is liquid pesticides on the mattress, and everywhere else in the room,” Hodgkins said. “But sometimes, you just have to throw out the mattress and start over.”

Health officials in Lewiston and Auburn said most of the problems locally come in large, multi-family apartment buildings.

“If you get one unit infested, they can travel through the ventilation and spread – pretty quickly,” Blumenthal said. “It happens real quickly. You can have one unit, then two and three. They spread that easily.”

Don’t let the bedbugs bite

Tips to avoid bedbugs

• Inspect hotel rooms carefully when you travel. Look for flakes resembling black pepper in the mattress and box spring. Check the seams and headboard cracks for bugs that look like apple seeds.

• Empty out your luggage as soon as you get home; wash the clothes in hot water and dry them at the hottest setting. Inspect your luggage for bugs, especially along the seams.

• Be wary of secondhand furniture, especially mattresses and other bedroom furniture. Inspect everything carefully before taking it home, with special emphasis on seams and folds.

• If you find bugs, don’t get upset. While creepy, they don’t carry any known diseases. They’re attracted to clutter. Pick up piles of clothes, clean out rugs, have the drapes cleaned and put stuff away.

• You can try store-bought pesticides, but the bugs are usually too stubborn. A professional exterminator is probably the best bet. They’ll vacuum the bugs up and spray to eradicate any survivors.