Feeling pretty safe about bedbugs? Don’t.

Clean doesn’t have anything to do with it. Neither does heat. The unfortunate fact is, bedbugs show up just about anywhere.

Yes, that means here.

“They’re out there. They’re doing well,” said Dave Hickok, a health and environmental investigator with King County.

Hickok’s job isn’t tracking bedbugs – that isn’t anyone’s job at Public Health – Seattle and King County. But he does field calls from people who discover bedbugs in their homes and want to know what to do.

Hickok tells them to call an exterminator.

Lately, the number of calls have been increasing.

You might hear more about bedbugs in New York and Chicago, but don’t fool yourself into thinking that means Seattle doesn’t have its share of the pests.

The only thing Seattle doesn’t have is a good method for tracking bedbug outbreaks.

Bedbugs aren’t usually a health hazard, so they’re not a priority for health officials to track – unlike mosquitoes, which can carry West Nile Virus.

It’s worth noting the health department does track how many reports of rats in toilets it receives.

“There really is no good reporting mechanism,” Hickok said. “We really don’t know what the extent of the problem is.”

There’s just the calls and e-mails the health department receives several times a week, reporting bedbug outbreaks in apartments, hotels, correctional institutions, theaters – even on buses.

Eradicated after World War II, bedbugs have made a comeback lately. Exterminators are reporting more bedbug jobs, and they’re seeking new methods for wiping the pests out.

Trained dogs are able to smell the bugs, which can help with early detection.

The problem got so bad this summer that the Environmental Protection Agency warned consumers not to use chemicals meant for the outside use inside their homes. The EPA also issued statements urging people not to trust exterminators that make unrealistic promises.

Bedbugs earned their name by feeding off human blood, often while people sleep. They’re about the size of a dot on an exclamation point and can survive in hot or cold climates.

Maybe their worst characteristic: they hitchhike from place to place. Travelers often bring them home in suitcases, and they can move from home to home on clothing.

New York battled a very public bedbug problem this summer, launching a $500,000 public-awareness campaign to warn residents to be vigilant against transferring the bugs. Bedbugs overwhelmed the city, showing up in apartments, hotels, theaters – even Abercrombie & Fitch and a Victoria’s Secret stores.

Think that won’t happen here? Think again.

“It wouldn’t surprise me, if they’re not already in those types of facilities here, they will be,” Hickok said.

For more information on getting rid of bed bugs, visit the health department website.