Bedbugs Are On The Rise!

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And In Case You Were Wondering.....

Here is all you need to know about these critters.....

Has anyone on here ever encounter these? For the past year I bring along a large plastic bag on my trips to keep my suitcase in when I am in hotels. I also check sheets and mattresses before I get into those beds. So far, nothing.

Where do these critters come from in the first place?

 
I have heard this

Makes me itch all over.

There was a show on Discovery Channel a few months ago about the infestations that are on the rise because homes and hotels are using more environmentally friendly targeted pesticides, which aren't effective on these little critters.

Funny thing is I just got a new rider on my homeowner's insurance on Wednesday in which it was stating that they will not cover cost of bedbug irradication.

Well I have to go sanitize my bedding now.
 
Apparently Toronto has a bad bed bug problem, it's quite widespread. I watched a show on the problem and these were the tips if you're checking into a hotel.

Never put your suitcase on the floor or the bed. Always put it at the farthest part of the room away from the bed on a table or suitcase holder.

Most but not all bedbugs spend their days NOT on the bed. They hide Up under the box spring sometimes, but mostly behind/backside of the headboard, behind/backside of that picture frame on the wall above the bed, on the back of the bedside tables and under the drawers of the bedside table. You should pull the drawers out and look underneath, behind any pictures on the wall near the bed etc.

Those are the places you should look when you first get into your room as well as under the mattress.
 
While Mostly Eradicated In the United States

Thanks to some very heavy duty pesticides such as DDT, bedbugs are still common in many other parts of the world. One school of thought is that due to the increased and cheap travel now possible, the little buggers are making a comeback to the United States.

Here in NYC the bedbug problem started with a few hotels, and homes, but now is really all over, up and down the social ladder.

There is also the increase in persons taking in furniture including mattresses from the street or purchasing from places such as Craigslist and so forth. Persons of earlier generations for the most part wouldn't pick up things off the street because "you never know where it's been"... Today I see all sorts of persons grab anything from the curb and take it home. Problem is bedbugs are so small and hide quite well, that you really won't know they have hitched a ride until too late.

Sadly once you have the little bastards in your home, or even apartment building, they are VERY hard to get shot of. Again since DDT is not on the table, and like many other type of vermin, bedbugs have grown resistant to common poisons. Persons have thrown out almost everything they owned, had all the rugs pulled up and thrown away, and so forth, and yet the things keep coming back.

Like roaches, bedbugs will move to another room or apartment (in larger buildings), to avoid pesticides. Problem is many persons keep their infestation a secret out of shame or reducing the value of their home/apartment. This means others living nearby cannot take steps to protect their homes, and thus the infestation moves about.

Here in NYC is very common for persons purchasing a co-op, condo or even house to now inquire if the place has ever been treated for bedbugs. Sellers, and or buildings that fail to disclose the fact have been hauled into court for damages or to void the sale.
 
Thrifting

A friend bought a chair at Goodwill for her bedroom. Shortly after she noticed bites and then saw bedbugs. I once bought a used chair and ottoman and soon after the cat and I began to itch. The chair was infested with fleas. I no longer bring home any upholstered pieces from anonymous donors.
 
Some of the blame goes to poor housekeeping depts.

Most of the finest 5 diamond hotels only change the bed pads and spreads when they are "wet soiled" Some wash once a year or maybe 2x if your are lucky.. I know first hand of a Major upper class hotel chain that tells housekeeping to wash spreads, blankets , bed pads as a last resort so they will last longer. If a pad is soiled turn it over never never change anything unless it is wet soiled.. Your drinking glasses are also rinsed out and dried with the towel you dried off with. This chain was featured on 60 min about a year ago. With hidded cams. Nothing has changed,...
 
Unfortunately bedbugs can also hitch a ride on clothing and be brought into the home that way.

I doubt that the ban on DDT has much if anything to do with the rise of bedbug infestations. DDT was useful but insects also had a way of acquiring a tolerance to it. A study from 2008 shows that practically all global bedbug populations tested are 100% resistant to DDT (DDT is not banned in many other nations). Modern substitutes (like organophosphates) work just fine, they are just more toxic to humans and pets than DDT was.

One reason for an upsurge in infestations may be that people have been abandoning bug bombs and other liquid pesticides to combat roaches, fleas, and ants, in favor of baited traps. Bedbugs aren't interested in these baits, so while the other insects might be controlled the bedbugs were more free to infest.

But DDT as a solution to the bedbug problem is a dead end.
 
Roach/Bug Bombs

Are banned, at least for consumer purchases (may be for professional as well, not sure), in NYS for awhile now. To many persons blowing up their homes or apartments from using the darn things improperly. Everything from small blasts to *Ka-BOOMS* so big they have leveled houses.

Bed bugs have been reported on NYC subways (seats on trains, benches in stations), chairs in restaurants (some of them very high end), in short any place anything warm blooded has been.....
 
I guess you really have to look before you sit anywhere!
Down here in roach land we still have insect bombs. It's truly the only way to remove a flea infestation from your home if you get one. Every couple of years you hear of somebody setting one off right next to their gas hot water heater. If the tank lights while the bomb is still going you definitely get a BOOM! Anywhere from blowing the garage door off the home to raising the roof and starting a fire. That's why each bomb states "Shut Off All Pilot Lights Before Setting This Off".
Down here roaches run the apartment buildings. If you have a home it is very easy to control the roaches. We've never been bothered by them.
 
In Apartment Buildings

Only way to control roaches and other vermin for that matter is to get a *real* professinal exterminator who will do a top to bottom treatment, regardless of where the critters were sighted.

All to often apartment owners or landlords respond to only their own (owners), or the person who makes the report (landlords), of vermin sighting. However in multi-unit buildings critters will scatter from one area to another. Also it is rare that they are in just one unit.

Usually tenants don't want to be bothered if they haven't "seen" anything, or " don't want anyone in my apartment...", or "I have pets.....". The result is the infestation simply moves about.

It also takes a huge education program with owners of apartments and residents learning how to make conditions unwelcome for vermin, so they won't set up housekeeping.

It does not matter how clean you keep your apartment, if those living around you are pigs, the building will attract vermin. Oh they might not find much to eat in your place, but that won't stop the occasional excursion party, and or perhaps nesting.
 
My family lived in about five different flats in San Francisco in the 60's, but fortunately not one of them had a roach problem.

I had some friends in high school who lived in Chinatown, however, and their flats most definitely had roach infestations. I think there was a restaurant or grocery store on the ground level, which I understand is more or less a guarantee of getting roaches.

I remember being quite curious about the roaches - I wanted to seem them all scurry for cover in the kitchen when the light was turned on, as they had described. But my friends thought I was nuts and wouldn't show me, lol.
 
Bedbugs are out of control in Vancouver - nearly all the buildings I work in, high end or low have had at least one incident of them. The latest thing are the bedbug sniffing beagles - we used this service in one building that had, as the exterminator called it, a "massive infestation". The dogs are incredible and VERY cool to watch.

 
I think most people would be happier with a plain white/beige spread that is laundered every time. Some of Harrah's hotels are now using a 3 sheet style with a sheet on the bed, the top sheet,then a white comforter, then a white sheet over the comforter. They also put a little narrow coverlet across the foot of the bed, that coordiantes with the drapes. It does look/smell Clean and neat. alr2903
 
That is waht the Holiday Inns here are doing now.

Three sheets to the bed a nice clean ironed white satin stripe top sheet and a forest green throw on the foot.. Nice and Clean.. Wonder if maybe they did not start doing it just for that reason.. but sure looks nice and clean.. Hilton needs a lesson from them in the worst way. they beez just down right NASTY!
 
I have avoided this thread for days, knowing it was going to be creepy and here I am, creeped out! My own fault.

I have a professional exterminator once every month from March to October and then December and February in the winter. Steve (gyrafoam) turned me onto bug-bombs a few years ago and I double-can fog the attic monthly. I have wasp & hornet spray, contact insecticide (spray in a room as you're walking out to kill flying bugs) and my beloved bug-bombs on hand always. I am always diligent about lawn insects and the exterminator sprays the outside perimeter every time they come. I nearly suffered a "spell" when I learned that Diazanon granules were off the market, and the works-like Diazanon substitute - doesn't.

I don't like bugs. I'm not Howard Hughes about it and I don't shoot paper-clips at butterflies, but I don't want bugs in my house.

Ugh, I have to shower now - and change the bedding!
 

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