Bedbugs!

Duck and cover!

I actually ran into two different friends over the past weekend that were both dealing with bedbug issues at home. The bites on their arms definitely were not caused by the media.

There's a difference between knowing someone who has had an issue with bedbugs and a full blown epidemic that the media sold us that summer.

I know someone, who knows someone, who knows someone, who knows Kevin Bacon. Maybe he has bedbugs.

Anyone who has ever experienced bedbugs will tell you that it's only ovreblown if you haven't encountered them. They will drive you *insane*. The only solution is to virtually boil/bake every fabric surface that's affected.

...Or just call an exterminator.

Do you know how many Flash Passes you could buy with what an exterminator will charge? :)

LostKause said:

...Or just call an exterminator.

Yeah... you let me know how that works out when you have bedbugs. A good majority of exterminators don't properly handle them and have to return several times.

I don't think bedbugs have reached any sort of epidemic whatsoever. I think it is something that has been around for a while, but because we have so many more ways of getting it out there in the public eye in a rapid fire way, we tend to sensationalize stuff like this. I get that.

However, watch the episode of Infested on Animal Planet with the bedbugs, and you will never look at them the same way again. They are a PAIN IN THE A$$, and not that easy to get rid of. Be vigilant.

And now I had to check my mattress and springs for bedbugs because I'm skeeved out! Lol

bunky666 said:

And now I had to check my mattress and springs for bedbugs because I'm skeeved out! Lol

Trust me bunky, looking for bed bugs is a waste of your time. Those little boogers hide well and they can hide anywhere (walls, books, floorboards, television sets <they like the warmth>, etc etc..)

You want to look for their calling cards - brown blood spots (from your dried blood), their little black droppings, and the casings and eggs they leave behind.

And their bites, often passed off as spider bites while sleeping, have a distinctive look which sets them apart from other insect bites. Bed bug bites usually come in a small cluster. This is because they usually have to re-insert their proboscis after you move around or scratch while asleep.

(haha - bed bug calling cards. Could you imagine?)

At least they'd be courteous.

CoasterDemon said:
And their bites, often passed off as spider bites while sleeping, have a distinctive look which sets them apart from other insect bites.

Who in the heck lives somewhere where they wake up with marks on them and says "no big deal, just spider bites"

If I wake up with bite marks I am thinking something is wrong and that vampires maybe are for real.

Treating for bedbugs is not as simple as calling an
exterminator. They may be able to treat your house but if you got them from a
neighbor they will come back. The expectation is that it will take a good
exterminator an average of 3 visits at $400 each to treat your home. Sometimes
more visits are required. If you live in an apartment the rule is any unit
touching any part of the infected unit also needs treated to be effective.
Picture a Rubiks Cube and you are the piece in the middle. All the outside boxes
are neighboring units that would all need treated.

I think maybe people are not sure what an “epidemic”
actually is. An epidemic is when something occurs at a substantially greater
rate than what is expected over a period of time. Outbreaks and epidemics in
the science community are interchangeable but we usually think outbreaks are
less serious. Because of the rapid increase in substantiated claims this is in
fact an epidemic.

Here
is a link to a website the users provide the content for so claims may or may
not be valid but it is helpful. Remember that this is generally only
public places, hotels, apartments, etc. The outbreak in homes, trailers, convalescence
homes and even animal clinics is exponentially worse. Not all doom and gloom,
just educate yourself and don’t be naïve about it.

Shades said:
Who in the heck lives somewhere where they wake up with marks on them and says "no big deal, just spider bites"

People react differently to them and some don't react at all.

Mine looked like mosquito bites in the morning. I just had a couple, not too unusual. It was summer. This was part of a two night stay at a Hilton. The second morning I had about a dozen of them and realized it was bedbugs and brought it up with management. The bites from the day before had swollen up to something that looked like a spider bite and were much more itchy than a mosquito bite. One cluster of bites actually swelled up to something that looked more like a bee sting and became painful.

The itchy part lasted about two weeks, but it took a good month for them to go away.

CoasterDemon said:

Trust me bunky, looking for bed bugs is a waste of your time.

Trust me, this is completely untrue.

Gonch, actually, I trust a hybrid opinion of the two! Lol

I know bedbugs may not show up on an examination depending on what stage they're in or if a place is in the process of getting rid of them. However, an actual live bedbug is pretty big...it is definitely noticeable at a certain point.

And I'm SO out of this discussion now. I'm itching all over and just in general getting the willies. Lol

I've got to share this true bedbug story that just happened today.

After buying a new set, we tried donating our previous sofa and chair to a homeless shelter thinking someone could still find some use for it. Our donation was rejected. The reason being fear of bedbugs! Seriously. So instead we donated the cardboard boxes the new furniture came in.

Because the boxes couldn't possibly have bedbugs by that logic. Ridiculous.

And on reading that again, it sounded snotty towards you, sws. I actually meant the donation place's logic was ridiculous.