Bedbugs and cockroaches on the rise in UK: 'Has been an explosion'

Millions of bedbugs crawled out of mattresses and walls when exterminator Gareth Davies cleaned a home in Cardiff, Wales, the BBC reports.

Gareth Davies says it is the worst case of bed bugs he has seen in his 38 years in the business.

In full protective gear, the exterminator and his colleagues tackled the problem and vacuumed up millions of lice using a special vacuum cleaner.

Last week it was also reported that the British train company Southeastern had stopped a series of departures due to bed bugs in train carriages.

Last month, hundreds of thousands of cockroaches were also found in a home in Pontypridd, outside Cardiff.

Gareth Davies described the home with the cockroaches as looking like a scene from a Stephen King film. Using special equipment, the team vacuumed up hundreds of thousands of cockroaches.

- This residence was simply terrible. They poured out of the walls, he told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast.

In the past year, Gareth Davies and his colleagues have dealt with hundreds of cockroach cases, compared to a handful a year five years ago.

- It has been an explosion, he says.

According to the British Pest Control Association (BPCA), an increase in cockroaches has been reported from mainly parts of the UK's urban areas.

- Warmer weather can also be part of the picture. Higher temperatures can help cockroaches stay active and reproduce faster, Nathalie Bungay, technical director at the BPCA told the BBC.

In addition to the heat, hygiene, the design of the building and the way people move can be other reasons for the spread and multiplication of cockroaches.

Bedbugs can be found when buying used furniture or hitchhiking home from trips in suitcases. They like to hide in mattresses or walls.