The Environmental Protection Agency is convening a National Bed Bug Summit this week in Arlington, Va. to address what it considers a growing problem in the United States.

The meetings will focus on the bed bug problem in the housing and hospitality sectors, factors contributing to the problem and "the response of the public health community and government agencies," according to an EPA announcement.

The EPA called the two-day meeting because the United States is experiencing its biggest bed bug outbreak since World War II.

Few chemicals are available on the market to combat the small, reddish-brown insects. Pesticides that had almost eradicated the problem since the 1940s have been banned for use on mattresses.

The bugs are blood feeders and cannot be lured by baits and traps, so it is difficult to kill the many that often live in crevices of mattresses.