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Letters
Wednesday, October 25, 2006 12:00 AM

Bugs in your bed

Itchy welts? Drops of blood in the sheets? Bedbug infestations are on the rise -- and they're coming to a mattress near you.

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Wednesday, October 25, 2006 09:32 AM

Not the most thoroughly researched article

There were some gaps in this article besides the obvious one about "what to do if you have them." Readers of Salon need to know that you can have bedbugs and still have a bed that is more or less pristine upon inspection.

Bed bugs can live on any furniture (though they love wood, they have been known to infest metal) and hide in the sneakiest places (like the little spaces in the heads of screws). They can live behind electrical plates and in light fixtures (as the other poster mentioned).

They can (contrary to the article) move around buildings without human assistance, especially by walking from one room or apartment to another along pipes. All of this is documented information, and all available on the net, but you do have to do some reading.

I am always glad to see articles on bed bugs, because people need to know about them, now. But they're a lot more complex than you might think. People suffer for months longer than they need to because they can't find the things.

Anyone who does want to learn more should check out the blog Bedbugger: http://bedbugger.wordpress.com.

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