Bedbugs -- an actual menace? or merely delusional parasitosis?

Wikipedia notes that DDT wiped out bedbugs in North America back in the 50's (good collateral damage!?! ;) But we fought back valiantly and in 1972, we wiped out DDT. For over thirty years, the bedbug menace recouped in the backwaters of the world (Europe) until it reached critical mass and began to spill into the US.

Sigh. I guess the good thing is that the bedbug registry might stack up some empirical data about infestation prevalence and then we'll be able to determine propagation rates and substantiate/invalidate any claims of critical mass. How did our doubts regarding technology (Nuclear bombs/energy, DDT, Agent Orange) transform into a fear of using the scientific method?