BANGOR — Public health officials in Bangor say the city is seeing an increase in the number of bedbugs.

Bangor Public Health Director Patty Hamilton says the number of bedbug reports has increased in the last three years.

Hamilton told the Bangor Daily News bedbugs hide in cracks and crevices of beds, furniture, floors and even walls. They do not transmit disease, but their bites can cause small, itchy red bumps on the skin.

She says used or old furniture is one of the primary ways they are transmitted.

Hamilton says the problem has been prevalent this spring in a Bangor low-income housing development, but bedbugs are not a class issue. She says the city has seen them in high-end places as well.