HARTFORD, Conn. -- Bedbugs are creating all sorts of chaos for homeowners, store owners, hotel operators and others. The recent comeback is being blamed on international travel and a lack of potent pesticides to wipe out the population.

So what do you do if they come to visit you? Channel 3 Eyewitness News reporter Jill Konopka asked the experts for some answers.

"I just noticed one day we were getting bites," said Melissa Sansano. "It's disgusting and it's embarrassing."

Fear and anxiety overwhelmed Sansano after she said she found bedbugs in her New Haven apartment. She said she knows exactly where they came from.

"My grandpa has bedbug issues," she said. "I believe one was possibly on his jacket pocket or his body and he brought it over."

After making contact with human skin, bedbugs can leave behind itchy, red bumps that blister. Blood and brown spots can also be seen on bed sheets.

"I have a son," Sansano said. "He's 8 years old and I worried about him and his health."

Dr. Gale Ridge, an entomologist, leads the state coalition against bedbugs.

"This year we've done well over 1,000 inquiries," Ridge said. "It's a big problem in Connecticut. It's a big problem in New England. It's a big problem in the USA. It's a pandemic."

A pandemic, she said, isn't necessarily worth the panic.

"Don't feel embarrassed. Lose the stigma," Ridge said.

So here's some advice: If you're worried they are in your house, inspect mattresses, box springs, headboards and chairs, and if you spot them, don't wait to call the exterminator or your landlord.

Meanwhile, protect your bed. Move it 4 to 6 feet from the wall, encase your mattress and box spring, vacuum the bed cracks and wash your sheets.

"If you react quickly, they're gone," Ridge said.

Another arguably better way to track down these unwelcome house guests is to call in the dogs to sniff out the problem.

Charlie Mastroberti and his daughter, Christie, run Quest Pest Control, in Avon.

"It's amazing in the last year how much the bedbugs have spread and how business has picked up," Charlie Mastroberti said.

Nationally certified dogs, like Ellie, a dog Mastroberti uses, have an amazing ability to sniff out live bedbugs.

"The dog will pick up on as little as one viable egg or one live insect," Charlie Mastroberti said. "They're about 95 percent accurate.Human inspection, where you can go in and inspect for hours, is about 50 percent accurate."

Once the dogs smell trouble, each room is stripped and cleared of clutter before experts come in with chemicals.

"Absolutely do not purchase pesticides to do a self-treatment," Ridge said.

But ,because bedbugs can travel on luggage and clothing, know this: Their enemy is high heat.

"A hot dryer for a half hour will kill them," Ridge said.

So with the holidays almost here, Ridge said don't cancel dinners or get-togethers because of bedbugs.

"You don't need to shut down your social life or your traveling plans for fear of having a problem with bedbugs," Ridge said.

If you're heading for a hotel, check the room, keep your luggage closed and away from floors and beds. "Pull back the sheets, the covers for the mattress and check for little black spots, or dirty marks along the seams, around the head board. Check the night stand and check around the picture frames," Ridge said.

Ridge wrote a homeowners guide to bedbugs. To read it, click here