Pest control companies are fighting bedbugs all over the country: in apartments, hotels, homes, daycares and even movie theatres.

"Bedbugs are pest No. 1 in the Western world right now," pest control expert Brett Johnston told CBC's Marketplace. He treats about 50 apartments a week, including Melody Seiling's in Vancouver.

It can take multiple visits from an exterminator to find all the bedbugs and eggs lurking in bedding and upholstery.
(CBC)

She knows all about the tiny, biting insects. Her mattress is marked with bloody spots where she crushed a bug when she rolled over.

"I was getting 12 to 20 bites a night. Yeah. Go to sleep with that thought. You just don't sleep," she said.

Chris Anderson of Vancouver's Tenants Rights Action Coalition said bedbug reports were rare until a year ago, but "now a day doesn't go by where we don't hear from somebody who has a bug infestation in their apartment."

An increase in international travel and more cautious use of chemical pesticides are blamed for the return of the pests. With chemicals such as DDT banned, stomping out bedbugs can take as many as four treatments, starting at $150 each. 

B.C. landlords are supposed to pay for the treatments, but not all do. Marketplace tried to talk with Seiling's landlord, but she would not be interviewed.