I stayed in a Miami hotel in April of this year and found my legs covered with red welts the following morning---which itched and bled over the next two weeks of my vacation in Brazil. It was nice showing them off on the beach.

Shortly afterward I read an article about the bedbug reinfestation. Damn you, insects!

Haven't you noticed? It's the page hits, stupid. Take a look around. Where there used to be interesting, well-reasoned and introspective features are now tabloid fear-mongering, base-instinct prodding dreck.

I kept waiting for the "what to do" part of that article, too, but quickly realized that it was neo-salon.com I was reading, not Salon.com

salon.com is dead. Love live salon.com

Yeah, he was just being nice. Pick the place up once in a while, geez.

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.

...for giving me yet another reason not to sleep at night. You do realize I'm now going to leave my desk and tear apart my house looking for the little bastards? Despite the mountain of work that pays the bills and allows me to run a home-based business, I've got a case of the creepy-crawlies that won't go away.

The part about poor hygeine not increasing bedbugs?

Yeah, he was just being nice. Pick the place up once in a while, geez.

-- Anonymous

PermalinkWednesday, October 25, 2006 12:29:17 PM

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have to disagree with this letter and reinforce the authors statement. I have just gone through a battle with these tenacious little fucks and it wasn't fun, at all. I keep my apartment (in Queens NY) very clean, no clutter on the floor, I take my garbage and recycling out every week and do the dishes after every meal (which isn't much since we New Yorkers eat out...a lot). During my extermination process, I met a lot of people who have dealt with bedbugs and many others also keep their apartments clean. My problem? When I moved in to the apartment, the landlord had installed an air conditioner that replaced the original. The new unit was a little smaller than the opening, allowing birds to nest in the wall. It wasn't long until the bugs that were carried by the birds found their way to my parents antique wooden bed, behind every frame on the wall and inside the wall outlets. needless to say, I freaked out and tossed a lot of things in the trash...including the bed frame and mattress. I got an exterminator, replaced the air conditioner unit with a screen to prevent further birds nests and bought a metal bed frame and new mattress. I spray the bedroom down with bed bug spray about twice a week and keep a close eye out for the little assholes. I am now 2 months bug free...and counting.

in South Africa. Maybe it was some kind of African subspecies, because everyone there said what they did to me was what they do. They made a perfect circle of bites on my stomach. Very occult, very creepy. They itched forever.

It's time to re-evaluate the ban on DDT and get rid of these pests.

Related to the Stink Bug, once you have an infestation, that smell will never leave your mind.

It has nothing to do with cleanliness, and everything to do with BLOOD, ACCESS and modern insecticides which are marginally effective against this bug.

Mine were hiding in the cracks between a mirror behind my bed and the molding, as well as cracks in the wood flooring. I am highly reactive to the bites, with them literally giving me a headache from the itchiness and discomfort.

How did they get there? Pigeons in NYC nest on or about Air Conditioners and carry bed bugs to new and interesting destinations.

I wouldn't wish an infestation on anyone... it's horrific... I slept with the lights on, and could still feel them crawling on my scalp.

How did I solve it? I used "flea bombs" double the recommended dose, and that seemed to put them on the run for awhile, and then I just moved out.

I love this part of the story:

"Then, of course, we have a lot of immigrants coming in, and that's kind of a sensitive issue, because some pest control companies will say that they notice certain immigrant groups' houses or apartments are infested with bedbugs. I've heard of several cases where larger numbers of migrant farmworkers are sharing an apartment, and it's just loaded with bedbugs. So that could be another source, just people coming in from other countries bringing bedbugs with them."

Why do facts like this have to be "sensitive"? So what if it hurts the illegal immigrants' feelings? IT'S TRUE. They're not here legally, they are mooching off of our country, and on top of all this, they bring the cooties with them and infect our country with their third-world bugs. It's disgusting. Something needs to be done about immigration in this country because it's getting out of control and worst of all, we're getting all the wrong kinds of immigrants here (third world, low class, no-speak-English, no-education losers who sneak over the border and pay no taxes). No wonder America is no longer competitive with the rest of the civilized world!