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CDC
Growing numbers of bedbug outbreaks are prompting more people to use insecticides, sometimes with dire results.
People creeped-out by rising rates of bed bug infestations may be taking eradication too far, according to federal health officials alarmed by growing reports of pesticide misuse -- and poisonings.
Between 2006 and 2010, there were 129 reports of people who suffered mild to serious health harms when outdoor pesticides were used indoors, according to a health advisory issued this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. One woman died.
“Many people are somewhat desperate to find any solution,” said Bernadette Burden, a CDC spokeswoman. “This is something they’re not used to. Oftentimes, they’re tempted to use any insecticide that they can get their hands on.”
That was certainly true for Melissa Constantinou, 25, a personal chef in Lowell, Mass., who was plagued with bedbugs last year. Her apartment was treated four times and she says the potential for health problems never entered her mind.
“Oh my gosh, it’s so emotionally disturbing,” she said. “I was willing to do whatever it took. I didn’t think about the long-term effects at all.”
The problem is “an emerging national concern,” the health agencies said, citing data from the National Pesticide Information Center, where inquiries about bedbugs nearly doubled between 2007 and 2011. Nationwide, reports of bedbug infestations have been rising for years, the CDC says. Between January 2008 and April 2012, first-time service calls for bed bug treatment tripled, from about 100 to 300 requests a month, according to a survey conducted by Jeff White, technical director of the website BedBug Central.
Most of the problems arise when people use too much pesticide or apply it improperly, said David Stone, director of the NPIC, who monitors the data.
“A lot of them don’t understand that the label is the law,” said Stone. “This product should not be applied directly to the skin. That product should not be used on mattresses.”
Victims suffered typical symptoms of pesticide poisoning, including headache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, dizziness and muscle tremors.
In Ohio, in 2010, a family that included two parents, four young children and a roommate all became ill after an uncertified pesticide company used malathion to spray an apartment five times over three days. The pesticide malathion was not registered for indoor use and the crew applied it so liberally that the beds and floor coverings were saturated, according to a recent CDC account.
The death occurred when a 65-year-old North Carolina woman with heart and kidney problems became ill after liberal pesticide use. She and her husband sprayed all the walls and baseboards in the house with one kind of insecticide, used a different insecticide on the mattress and box springs, and opened nine cans of insecticide fogger. Two days later, they reapplied insecticides to the mattresses and box springs and opened another nine cans of a different fogger. The woman applied a flea and bedbug pesticide to her arms, sores on her chest and her hair before covering it with a plastic cap.
Two days after the second application of the pesticides, the woman’s husband found her unresponsive. She was hospitalized for nine days before her death, the CDC report said.
“Outdoor pesticides should not be used indoors under any circumstances,” ATSDR officials warn. Consumers must make sure to read the product labels carefully to make sure they’re registered with the Environmental Protection Agency and that they’re certified for indoor use.
“More importantly, follow the guidance and make sure you’re using the right pesticide and that you’re treating the right pest,” said the CDC’s Burden, who noted that bedbugs often can resemble other critters at different stages in their life cycle.
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Probably shouldn't set the mattress of fire either.
In Alaska Landlords and Hotels can treat for bed bugs themselves NO licenses, no records to keep all legal HERE. And they have no training.
That is scary!!
I place a large part of the blame on the EPA, as they have taken most of the pesticides that are effective for the treatment of bedbugs off of the market.
Enstrom, what is your proof?
Kryss...you kidding me....this dude is classic american. Blames the government that first of all protects his right to be stupid.
peace...
There is only one cure for bedbugs--extreme heat. Put the temperature over 120 degrees and nobody gets out alive. It's an expensive method, but it's the only full-proof method to kill not only the active adults but also their eggs. That or treating with diatomaceous earth as another non-chemical, natural method.
Re-treating over and over again with pesticides because it's cheaper is the biggest scam that pest removal services have going. They know what works. They know that a heat treatment is the only thing they can offer their customers to solve the problem. But they want your money, so like the bugs themselves, the pest control people will keep coming back.
And as a note to everyone: BUY A MATTRESS COVER. Spend $30-50, buy yourself a mattress cover, then if you get infected you don't have to throw out the entire mattress!
DDT, a highly effective treatment for bed bugs that was banned in 1972 thanks to the tree huggers. DDT is so effective that its effects lasted decades after the ban until recently.
Note:
DDT NO longer works!
We had a flea and bedbug infestation when I was in college. The slum lords around the campuses has old victorian triple decks and if the neighboring units has roaches, fleas, or bedbugs, you got them too.
Fleas are by far the most dangerous and probably second most difficult of the 3.
I had to load the bed up with an entire container of Ammens powder to keep them out. Dr Shoels shoe worked too, but just plain talc baby powder did not.
Finally they bug bombed the place, but I was out of there before then. had to throw out the mattresses, the couches, and some stereo equipment, because they got in there too.
Flatiron is more concerned with ranting about tree huggers than about the truth. DDT stopped working because it killed off all of the bedbugs it could and the ones it could not made more, DDT resistant bedbugs. It's call "evolution," something flatiron probably doesn't believe in either.
Years ago the bedbug scourge was all but wiped out. Then the EPA morons banned the chemical (Malathion and others) routinely used to eradicate the little buggers and today we have a resurgence of the pests with no real remedy because current approved treatments are useless against them.
The end result is a bedbug scourge that will only get much worse eventually infesting all areas of human habitation.
Wet Willy,
Did you read this part?
Apparently, malathion didn't work, even after five treatments and it made the entire family sick. Plus, if malathion was banned, how did the pest control guys get it? It's not banned, but:
So it's not banned and it doesn't work. Maybe you should read articles before you jump into your blame-the-government rants.
Hambone Johnson 1.11
If you choose to do a bit of research you will discover that the chemical malathion and others used to effectively rid us of bedbugs was banned by the EPA in the mid 90's under the Clinton administration.
Malathion still exists in a different formulation(s) certified only for outdoor use. A bit too quick with the criticism trigger, eh?.
But you just said yourself:
So is it or isn't it still around?
Besides, from what I've read, every chemical we've use in the past to eliminate bed bugs become ineffective over time. DDT and malathion both seem to fit that description.
Flatiron,
According to "Bed Bugs Bite Back Thanks to Evolution," from evolution.berkeley.edu: "However, with the widespread use of DDT in the 1950s and 60s, such mutations became much more common among bed bugs through the process of natural selection. Though DDT is rarely used today because of its environmental effects, these mutations have stuck around and are still present in modern bed bug populations."
CNNMoney also states, "It's not that DDT should come back. First off, most bedbugs are immune to that now, too."
Do you have any evidence that shows otherwise?
There is no cure for 'stupid'.
Calling the subjects of articles "stupid" is pretty much the most common comment these days and usually indicates the ignorance and insensitivity of the poster. Why don't you live with bedbugs for 6 months to a year and see how far you are willing to go to get rid of them? Desperation may cause people to do stupid things but it doesn't mean they are stupid people. Don't forget: a lack of an ability to be understanding often denotes "stupidity" itself ....
Can I buy you some coffee Caryn or send you a holiday candy basket? I admire your sensibility. =)
The way to get rid of bed bugs is to heat the house and cook them, but it's extremely expensive. So clearly the woman in the article wasn't really willing to do whatever it took. She was willing to do whatever it took that was fairly cheap, like insecticides.
Sure there's a cure - death. But this Caryn chick is so offended by your comment that she doesn't realize how friggin' stupid that woman was - she'd rather come down on your head. Then the next guy wants to send her a candygram. Meanwhile some idiot is dead by douching with outdoor pesticides and some people don't like you calling the idiot an idiot.
You really can't make this stuff up.
Caryn-3554252
Oops so sorry Caryn-355whatever. It's most likely because the idiots using poison on their own beds are on medical weed or something.
@oneguy you sound like you're a result of fetal alcohol syndrome because of a couple of idiots...
Whether or not it's fair to call the subjects of the article "stupid", could people please stop using the expression:
"there's no cure for stupid!"
It's trite, overused and shows a lack of creative thought and originality.
That is why we have Obama back in office
Mike,
What does that ridiculous comment have to do with anything?
You people who spout stupid political statements on every comment board are a lot like bed bugs:
Irritating and impossible to get rid of.
Use of pesticides contrary to the label can be a federal crime. Funny how some people are complaining about restrictions on pesticides when the article was about people getting SICK from using them improperly.
My family farmed. I remember my brother applying herbicide one year and then becoming violently ill, turned out he'd accidentally doused himself and got a lot of chemical on his clothes and skin.
Over the years a number of effective products have been taken off the shelves due to tightening regulations. While many are justly deserved to be pulled, some have been pulled because of pretty rare occurrences of a side effect.
With the danger of massive lawsuits, so many companies have "watered down" their products and are no where near as good as they once was.
people know this. They now look at the warnings as "nanny-state" over reaction and ignore the labels and warnings. Rather like ripping the tags off of pillows and furnature.... people scoff at the "law".
Well, I agree with a nober of those views, but some things are just harmful for the average person as well as the rare .001 %..
Trouble is that people don't trust the government labels.
What proof do you have that "some have been pulled because of pretty rare occurrences of a side effect," and what percentage of those pulled fits this description?
said the CDC’s Burden, who noted that bedbugs often can resemble other critters at different stages in their life cycle.
NEGATIVE. You WILL know a bedbug when you see one. No one mentioned DIATOMATIOUS EARTH the whole article. Ajax Spray Cleaner kills instantly--and it's less than $1.00 at WalMart
I am in control of the bugs, but they are not gone. Last but not least is 135 Fahrenheit for 8 hours.
A lot of people have trouble distinguishing between bedbugs and nymph-stage cockroaches. The roaches have much longer antennae, but for someone without much experience or someone with bad eyesight, it'd be easy to mix up.
DIATOMATIOUS EARTH should NEVER be used where it can became air born it will do the same thing to your lungs as coal dust!
Just heard that the other day from a health official.
@Randy, the dust can also get into your eyes so a second comment could be 'do not wear contacts when applying diatomaceous earth.
Let the cockroaches eat them. They'll both be around long after we're gone.
People with bedbugs are willing to do absolutely anything and everything to get rid of them. The paranoia becomes worse than the actual bites. When you read an article like this, these people sound foolish and irresponsible, but the truth is that when you combine severe sleep deprivation (you can't sleep - every itch or touch might be a bug about to bite you!) with the idea of being assaulted by an invisible, untouchable enemy (bugs only come out to feed, so they're extremely difficult to locate and even harder to eradicate), even the most rational people start to go a little crazy. It's been six months since I had my infestation cleared out, I'm still a bit paranoid - I still inspect every major itch to make sure it's not a bite, and finding an insect in my apartment sends me scrambling for a magnifying glass to make sure it's not a bedbug, back for round 2 with a new colony. That would be a nightmare.
The best thing you can do if you have an infestation is NOT PANIC. Call a local pest control operator. In the meantime, there are websites all over the web with people like me, who've survived one or more infestations and can give you some tips to make life bearable.
DO NOT use a fogger. DO NOT try to use pesticides yourself - bedbugs are resistant to all but the strongest pesticides (the ones that only licensed pest control operators can legally use), and you will only spread the infestation around. (Edit: Diatomaceous Earth does work, but is surprisingly dangerous for your lungs if applied improperly. I don't recommend trying to apply it yourself.)
DO NOT go sleep on a friend's couch: if you do, the bugs will spread through your walls looking for a new host and be much harder to root out later. If you live in an apartment building, they'll probably spread to your neighbor's apartment (a hungry bedbug can travel as far as 100 yards looking for food). Also, if you sleep on your friend's couch, you run the risk of bringing a hitchhiking bug along with you! Nothing ends a relationship faster than giving your buddy parasites.
DO sanitize and seal away your clothes. Pest control operators can't use their pesticides on clothes; you will have to sterilize them yourself. But one of the very few weaknesses bedbugs have is temperature - heating them to 115degF for an hour will kill them. At 160degF, it only takes 15 minutes. Running your clothes through a single (double if you really want to be careful) dryer cycle will kill anything living on them. Take them out of the dryer and but them in airtight bags until the infestation is gone.]
If you feel you need to, DO talk to a psychiatrist afterward. Living with bedbugs is a traumatic experience, and many people develop legitimate PTSD after their experience. This is nothing to be ashamed of. Take care of yourself.
It's true what you say. Never had bed bugs, but know and work for an agency who deals with people that have bed bug issues and it changes your life. If they can't get rid of those bugs after awhile you can get PTSD. Can happen to anyone without sleep and constantly getting bitten. Those things are from a nightmere horror movie if they ever became resistent to get rid of and spread even faster to everyone's home. You would have a society of irrated, angry, bleeding people with their skin scrapped and cut up from scratching. Kinda like you typical zombie movie without the eating of flesh...which the bugs would be doing. More like the movie the Crazy's. There was a movie though...Bug. Two people on meth living in a crap hole room smoking meth and getting eaten by bed bugs. Don't advocate anyone trying this as it doesn' t end up well. Needless to say these things are evil.Kill them... kill them all. Leave none to breathe another day!!
4 years ago bed bugs hitched a ride on our furniture from a furniture mover's truck. Bed bugs are easily the worse pest/ parasite you can imagine. I grew up with pets and fleas, but fleas have nothing on bed bugs. The bites hurt, then itch, and for your efforts, the bites start bleeding. I have scars on my legs from the bites and as another poster mentioned, bed bugs are nocturnal, which means when they are awake, you are awake as well, being eaten alive. Don't mock desperate people until you have walked a mile in their shoes.
I knew a woman in the 80's who contracted crabs from her boyfriend. She was so freaked out that she stood in the shower and sprayed herself down with Raid. Thankfully, she survived.
Until one has experienced bed bugs first hand it is hard to judge. Imagine waking up in the dark and putting your hand to your shoulder only to hear splat and your body is on fire. Then turning on the motel room lights to find yourself covered in your own blood with over an estimated 600 bed bug bites and live bugs still attached to your skin totally engorged with blood. This was my experience after staying at a Utah motel that advertised that John Wayne lived there while filming movies and staying in his room. I am scarred the rest of my life with hundreds and hundreds of bites on every part of my body and my face scarred requiring makeup to hide the tiny white spots. Imagine the motel acknowledging in court that they had bed bugs, and acknowledge that I was injured but using technicilities to have the lawsuit repetedly dismissed. That famous John Wayne room infested numerous other guests who documented it on the internet. As for desperation with pesticides and other means to control the pests. I had to destroy my entire house and all my clothing. It cost me over $17,000. If you have lots of money to spray or heat treat that is fine. Figure it will cost $6,000 to $10,000 average to eridicate the bed bugs with numerous treatmnts, and often it can be upwards of $60,000 to $100,000 to treat a large home over a year's time. People are desperate to rid themselves of these minature vampires and until you have woken up screaming at night from nightmares, you read this type of article and think the people must be "crazy." These people are often financially strapped, can't make payments to the pesticide companies (you have to pay cash up front), and are literally being eaten alive at night, every night, and wake up in the mornings with faces and bodies covered in open bleeding sores that take months to heal. Worse is the social stigma with friends and co-workers ostercizing you and even having relatives refuse to sit with you in a public restuarant for fear that the bugs will jump off of you and attack them. For some of those who have to endure these nightmares chemical poisoning seems a small price to pay if it eridicates the bed bugs. The proper word is not "crazy" but "desperation" for any solution that can end the nightmare of bedbugs. A distant cousin stayed at a New York City motel and woke up covered with over an estimated 3,000 bedbug bites. Another distant relative in Idaho brought home a new bed set only to discover hundreds of bed bugs in the headboard, and he instantly burned the furniture in his backyard. Another relative have a beautiful wedding in a Colorado Resort. Everyone in the wedding party including the bride and groom woke up covered with hundreds of bites. Desperation is the proper word.
Either you're a good writer/story-teller, or you've lived through hell. Sheesh!
Bed bugs only re-appeared AFTER we banned DDT. Sad, because they are almost impossible to eradicate.
Wrong!!!!! Bedbugs came back after chlorpyrifos (Dursban) was banned from indoor use in 2000. DDT had been banned in 1970. Also, the story reads, "The pesticide malathion was not registered for indoor use...." This is also not accurate. Malathion is no longer registered for indoor use. Used carefully as crack and crevice treatments, both malathion and chlorpyrifos are not particularly dangerous.
The bedbugs were DDT-resistant anyways. Even if we hadn't banned DDT they would still appear.
If you have bedbugs, you can't save your bed. Dump it, then systematically search every piece of furniture for the bugs. Bag all your clothes, call pest control.
Odd. Growing up I thought "bedbugs" were a dark ages myth long extinct or at least non-existent in N.America. What changed? The banning of DDT and the influx of 3rd world nationals in the 70s and 80s. No bedbugs were not DDT resistant. It works and a more sensible approach to the environmental harm it does is strict control of its application just as with all other insecticides.
If this is the fault of "3rd world nationals" as you put it, then why haven't we seen outbreaks at the locus where "3rd world nationals" live? In NYC, the outbreak is pretty much in the White upper class neighborhoods, and not as much in the outer boroughs where immigrants and minorities live. Furthermore, I haven't heard of an outbreak or epidemic of bed bugs in any 3rd world country. You'd also think there'd be a bed bug epidemic on the transportation that "3rd world nationals" take, including planes.
And the bedbugs were DDT resistant. This is natural evolution.
Let me introduce you to my friend...Buster the Body Crab. Uhh Buster...Uhh Buster I think you left some of your friends. Hey Buster...Hey Buster
Cheech and Chong?
.
I'm almost sure I've been suffering a battle with those critters for almost a year. Tried diatomaceous earth which seemed to work for a while. Think my wife was transporting them from when she stayed at her parents'. How do you know, other than itchy morning bites, that it is in fact bed bugs?!!
No doubt you have them. Good luck.
Arrow - there are a number of things that could cause that other than bedbugs, such as scabies, fleas, or even an allergic reaction to something. Like I said above, don't panic.
Apart from bites, the two main signs left by bedbugs are:
1. Bloodstains on your sheets/pillows/headboard. These will be tiny, dark brown-red spots. The bugs are swollen after feeding and often can't fit back into their hiding spots, so they crap out much of their meal to slim down before hiding again. For some reason, the spots on my sheets always came clustered in little triangles. The bugs find you by tracking the carbon dioxide you exhale, so there will be more spots near the head of your bed than the foot.
2. Cast-off skins. As bedbugs grow from babies to adults, they shed their skin. They molt a total of five times before adulthood, getting larger each molting. You will find the empty shells behind afterwards, generally near good hiding spots or, again, your bedding and pillows. They're a light brown, the color of bread crust, usually. The smallest are around one-half to one millimeter (think flea or tiny ant), and the largest are around four millimeters (half a thumbnail, or a big ant).
Do a detailed search around your bedroom. Check your bedding, headboard, box spring, and the carpet under your bed especially thoroughly. Look into anything with crevices.
I would also recommend calling a pest control expert. Often, they'll do the initial inspection for free. In many metro areas, you can even pay $100 to $150 and get them to bring a trained bedbug-sniffing dog (if you have an especially-bad infestation, you can smell them yourself. They smell like raspberries). If you don't want to go for that, there are also monitoring tools and lures/traps that you can find online for pretty cheap.
The internet has lots of info and pictures to get you started on identification.
For those who at the least, need a good nights sleep and don't have much money, you can:
Look around the seams of your bedding, mattress and boxsprings, as bedbugs often hide there and have their babies tucked in the seams.
1. If you can afford it: Home Depot has a fairly inexpensive spray for bedbugs that worked wonderfully for me.
2. If you can afford vinyl mattress covers, cover your mattresses and SEAL them with duck tape. (I went to a furniture store and bought a plasic mattress cover for $5) Pillows must be covered and sealed also.
3. If you have a wooden headboard on your bed, look at the back of the headboard as the bugs sometimes make their nest there. (I found their nest and sprayed and demolished it, so I think that made a huge difference.)
4. Bedbugs get stuck in greasy susbstances (and will die of suffocation,) so I smeared petroleum jelly on the legs of my bed so that the bugs couldn't get thru the jelly barrier. I also smeared the petroleum jelly in all of the cracks in my bed's headboard.) Some people put the legs of their bed in a bowl of water to prevent the bugs from climbing up onto their mattresses.
5. For the first few nights I smeared myself with petroleum jelly, just in case I missed a bug.
6.. All bedding must be washed and dried in a hot dryer. I used plastic garbage bags to put unused clothing and unused blankets in, and I sealed the bags with ducktape.
Getting to the root of the problem: I had bought some used furniture a few months prior to the infestation, so I sprayed those chairs throughly on two occassions, but the second application was done just to make me feel more secure.
I sprayed around my book shelves, in my bedroom drawers, and in corners and closets.
It has been over 6 months and I haven't seen any bugs nor been bitten, so I consider myself very fortunate to maybe have stopped the infestation before it had spread too much. This is a horrible plague that is not being dealt with because it is terribly expensive to get rid of for many poorer people. For those who travel, they need to tear all of the bedding off of their motel beds and see if there is any evidence of bedbugs, and they should use the little stands that motels have to set your luggage on so that if there are bugs, they are less likely to enter into your luggage. Hanging your clothing up is also a good idea. When people get home from a trip, leave luggage in the garage and wash everything before bringing it into your home.
My feeling is that every community should have several sauna type structures available to the public, so that people can take their household items and place them in a unit that will heat their things up to a point where the bugs will die. This is especially crucial for poorer people who may move more often and have few resources to deal with this epidemic and so they end up spreading them everywhere. Volunteers are also needed to help the elderly and disabled to rid their homes of these creatures. If left unchecked, bedbugs can do what they did here in Portland, Oregon, part of a hospital had to be shut down because of an infestation. Just think of how many people go sit in a Drs waiting room with you that may be there because of bedbug sores, and end up spreading their bugs to other patients--not a good thought! BTW people are not reporting these bugs because landlords will often give them notice to move so that they (landlords) won't have to have them exterminated. Well, good luck everyone.
Does anyone else feel itchy?
Or is it just me?
If you keep your house clean to start with it helps.
No, it doesn't. Bedbugs eat only blood, not trash. In fact, trash attracts roaches, which are a bedbug's natural predator (among others).
Cleaning up your house will make it harder for them to find places to hide, but it has nothing to do with getting infested in the first place nor with how fast your infestation will grow.
A clean house is by no means any assurance that you cannot get an infestation. Bed bugs, ants, lice, squirrels, the list goes on. No critter is going to be put off by a clean home. That's a complete myth!
Ya, but a real clean home doesn't hurt matters any.
Moreover, if it's a myth. It's a REAL GOOD one.
I think Immigrants can be thanked for the Explosion of Bed Bugs throughout the country. I read that you can bring them home from a movie theatre or crowded bus. Isn't that great??
Life sux, then you die :D
I just got finished treating 3 bedbug infestations today. (I'm certified to do it) Fun times. Never never never spray pesticides on your mattress. We use steam treatments on them to kill any eggs or adults that happen to be on them and then seal the mattress and box springs in mattress covers to seal in any survivors. Only the box spring,frame, carpet under bed and the surrounding furniture should be treated with pesticides, and then only sparingly. You don't want that stuff continually getting on your skin. It can kill YOU TOO.
Steam and diatomaceous earth. That is what we used. The DE is like baking flour but to bugs it is like razors. Kills them. Great deterrent for all insect infestations. Because it is microscopically abrasive my source recommended wearing goggles and masks. But DE is used in animal feed so it is safe. We had a terrible infestation that spread into 4 rooms. Once we used DE, our bedbug problem was gone in 2 months and 4 years later never a return.
Yeah we use a wettable powder insecticide in the electrical outlets and crevices whose base in DE. Only thing I don't like about the stuff is when a customer pre-treats something I have to steam treat. The steamer kicks up the dust, so I have to use a respirator to keep from inhaling it. It does work, but for a more severe infestation (I've seen stuff that'd make a preacher cuss) you have to get really aggressive.
Your source was quite right to recommend goggles and masks. It's not just like razors to bugs - it's like razors to your lungs as well. And since it's a fine powder, it's easily carried into the air where you can inhale it. If you use DE, be extremely careful and FOLLOW ALL SAFETY WARNINGS.
Edit: Feel free to tell me to shut up btw, John. I'm not a professional and you are, so I'll bow out if you don't want me giving any more advice.
It was good advice. Why the hostile commentary?
That's also excellent advice and is 100% true. I previously gave it a vote. If you really aren't in the business then you've been doing some reading.
I think a lot of exterminators offer free inspections and there was a commercial on t.v. that had a line something like"You wouldn't try to do your own dental work because you'd hire a dentist..." and I think extermination is also one of those things best left to a professional. I have not had the pleasure of having a bed bug infestation so who knows what I'd do, I might just soak an old tire in gas put it on my bed and then light that sucker up, scorched earth on those little jerks.
Stayed in the Days Inn, Seattle at SeaTac Airport 19015 International Blvd. Complained of running water noise in room and was moved to another room a few doors down (room #322).
Was up late going over notes and listening to "guests" stomping upstairs, finally turned off the light at 2:00 a.m. and the "dinner bell" rang!
Things immediately began crawling over my chest. I caught one and turned on the light, Motherfrickin BEDBUGS. Looked at the sheets and more were fleeing from the light. Was able to kill two and take the carcasses down to the desk clerk.
Was moved to another room at 2:30 a.m. itching and scratching all the way.
Couldn't sleep, couldn't turn off the lights, couldn't stop scratching.
To add insult to injury, the employees refused to sign their own Incident Investigation Report, gutless wonders.
Never ever stay at this joint! NEVER!!!!!
Moving to another room probably did not make much of a difference - your luggage and clothing were probably picking up the critters and eggs while the lights were out.
Many years ago (late 1890's) my great-grandfather was working a traveling job in Kentucky. He got a room in a small town - a simple bed, wooden floor, etc. He noticed there were bedbugs in the room. So he went down to the grocery store and bought a jug of molasses. He poured a large ring on the floor, put all his luggage inside and slept on his coat. The bedbugs couldn't pass through the molasses barrier.
I had a terrible infestation due to a weekend guest and it was the worst experience in the world. I did a lot of research and came across several sites and I followed the advice I found on a blog to use Diatomaceous Earth. It is organic, safe (but you should use goggles and not inhale) and it ERADICATED the problem. No chemicals and no temporary measures. It is fairly cheap too. No wonder pest companies don't use it. It would put them out of business. This site doesn't sell anything. Just good advice. www.thisbebutablog.blogspot.com search for bedbugs as a keyword.
"Safe"! No insecticide should ever be called safe. Inhaled, diatomaceous earth can cause serous respiratory problems. Pest control companies do use diatomaceous earth as a crack and crevice treatment.
They hide in books, furniture, picture frames, electronic equipment. The tiny babies, instars, are very hard to see. They aren't just in bed folks.
Bedbugs became resistant to DDT by the 1950s. Fortunately the organo-phosphorous (malathion, chorpyrifos, diazinon, etc.) insecticides had been developed by then. Until chlorpyrifos (Dursban) was removed from indoor use in 2000, it was the treatment of choice. A single treatment of chlorpyrifos would typically exterminate a moderate bedbug infestation. Initially, the replacement pyrethroid insecticides worked adequately. However, like DDT, bedbugs quickly became resistant to the pyrethroids. Unlike DDT and the pyrethroids, it is difficult for insects to evolve a high level of resistance to organo-phosphorous insecticides.
Malathion used to be labelled for indoor use. As such the story is not quite accurate with the statement of, "The pesticide malathion was not registered for indoor use...." It would be more accurate to write that malathion is no longer registered for indoor use. Indoor formulations of malathion used to contain solvents and emulsifiers which were of low odor and irritation. It is likely that the adverse effects from the agricultural version was because of the solvents and not the insecticide itself. Highly purified malathion is used directly on the scalp and skin for the control of lice and scabies.
One thing, for the control of bedbugs which has not been mentioned in the posts that I have read, is the need to reduce clutter to a minimum. Even the best most professional treatment will fail if the home/bedroom is too cluttered to adequately treat.
Heres a cure. Burn your house down and move to the forest naked.
Illegal Immigrants are spreading bed bugs all over the USA.
And you're concerned because the bedbugs are killing your lice?
No worries, I don't think there are that many bedbugs.
Please don't start that crap about illegals. That is just plain ignorant and a lie of the devil!
Rule of thumb: chemicals that destroy creatures generally are not very good for you.
I had the pleasure of treating a hotel today over 100 rooms. I work for a big exterminating company,and this problem is growing almost faster than the industry can keep up.Even if the homeowner and the professional company do everything right you are looking at multiple treatments no matter what. I know it is an expensive treatment guys but worth it,It is the most time consuming treatment to do with multiple call backs almost certain. The chemicals are expensive,licensing, training is astronomical,gas , equipment ,empoyees.yes its expensive on our end,very. Diatomaceous earth does work when dusted into walls - but most likely we are gonna need to use it in conjunction with other products. we do use it though.
Wow, sounds healthy.
I'd rather have bed bugs than breathe that crap. Sometimes the cure is worse than the symptoms.