Bed Bugs, how a little knowledge saved thousands.

[MossRoad]

I'm reading quite a bit and there's also a lot of mention of bed bugs becoming resistant to pesticides, and having a great success with inbreeding. So if one pregnant bedbug is left, she can reproduce and mate with her own offspring, and they with theirs, and so on.

Also, we tend to associate bedbugs with filth, but they don't eat filth. They eat blood exclusively. Doesn't matter if the house is dirty or clean, there can still be bedbugs.

 

[JRobyn]

The only thing worse is head lice. The little kids get them at school, they're not noticed until there's a good infestation taking hold and then parents are lax about THOROUGHLY treating them, so it just cycles over and over.

 

[goeduck]

Seems as if they can make a pill that I give my dog once a month that rids her of fleas and worms, they could make a bed bug pill you take for a few months or a year.

 

[MossRoad]

The only thing worse is head lice. The little kids get them at school, they're not noticed until there's a good infestation taking hold and then parents are lax about THOROUGHLY treating them, so it just cycles over and over.

Yeah, we had one family at my kids' grade school that would not treat their kids' head lice very well and they kept coming back to school. Finally, the principle would pull them into her office before shcool every day and inspect them personally, and, unfortunately, had to send them home on many occasions. It's hard on kids when their parents won't take care of them. Those kids were teased almost mercilessly once it got out they had lice so often. Kids can be almost as cruel as PTA moms.

 

[two_bit_score]

Yeah, we had one family at my kids' grade school that would not treat their kids' head lice very well and they kept coming back to school. Finally, the principle would pull them into her office before shcool every day and inspect them personally, and, unfortunately, had to send them home on many occasions. It's hard on kids when their parents won't take care of them. Those kids were teased almost mercilessly once it got out they had lice so often. Kids can be almost as cruel as PTA moms.

And THAT is pretty cruel.

 

[teg]

...make a pill that I give my dog once a month that rids her of fleas and worms...

So, we rear (raise) caterpillars and if the workers don't wash their hands (and they have a cat or dog at home) the residue from their pet's flee treatments will kill our worms!

 

[jerrybob]

Is it true bedbugs give birth in the spring?

 

[Ford850]

Is it true bedbugs give birth in the spring?

If that's true, a waterbed or memory foam mattress would stop their life cycle. :thumbsup:

 

[MossRoad]

From what I've read, they only lay about one egg per day, it takes about 10 days to hatch and 5-6 weeks to become an adult.

 

[teg]

Is it true bedbugs give birth in the spring?

Nope, we breed them year round. (not me personally, another guy has that fun... keeping a Bed Bug colony alive).

More tidbits:
"...When the controversial pesticide DDT was banned in 1972, most bed bugs were already resistant to it, Schal says, and today's populations are even more widely resistant..."

"By every metric that we use, it's getting worse and worse," says Coby Schal, an entomologist at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. Health authorities and pest control operators are regularly flooded with calls, and the epidemic may not have yet peaked. And because bedbugs are indoor pests, there are no high or low seasons throughout the year, he adds, only continual bombardment. "It's just the beginning of the problem in the U.S.," Schal says. This is from May 27, 2011

Tidbits from here: Top 10 Myths about Bedbugs - Scientific American

 

[BrokeFarmerJohn]

Just an update I brought bed bugs home even after going threw all that effort.

I’m in the process of cleaning and bagging all cloths and fabric, getting rid of any cardboard and things they can hide.

Picked up some bug interceptors off amazon and placed them under furniture and bed legs, bought mattress covers for mattresses that can’t be opened for one year.

It’s pretty much a disaster, found like 10 bites on my chest a few days after this post and started ordering stuff and prepping the house.

Once the house is prepped I will have a exterminator spray the house and have him come back to spray again in 4 weeks if I find any more bites or bugs in the house.

So far I have not found a bug in the house but I’m getting bit, deff bed bug bites, look like mosquito bits but clustered or in a line.

Only thing I can think is a few dropped off in the car and hitched a ride again.

Wish me luck! I won’t be going to Christmas if I get more bites, not even gonna take the chance to spread them.

 

[teg]

I wondered about the car ride... any plans to exterminate the car?

 

[goeduck]

I think we will all be wearing bed bug collars before long

 

[BrokeFarmerJohn]

I pulled the mats out of the car, vacuumed the car and put rubbing alcohol on the trim and bottom of seats but I guess that wasn’t enough either.

I talked with the exterminator today, he suggests ALL the beds in the house be covered with a mattress cover, I already bought a cover for my bed but guess I will have to buy them for the rest of the beds (I live alone but have two spare beds in spare bedrooms).

So I installed my mattress cover (mattress and boxspring ($25)) after spraying the whole thing down with rubbing alcohol which is a contact killer , installed 4 of the bug intercepters on each leg ($33 for 12). Pulled all the bedding and pillows, put those in plastic bags to transport them to get washed and installed new bedding (most important is bed doesn’t touch walls or other furniture and bedding doesn’t touch the floor). Bed is now as bed bug proof as it gets. Thanks to the intercepters I can not only catch the bugs but can see if they are climbing up or down on the bed. the grippy tape lets them climb in but they can’t climb out.

So now it’s wash and heat dry all fabric in the house, bag it all in thick plastic bags, throw out any and all cardboard because bedbugs can live in it and just get rid of clutter or any places they can hide, thankfully I’m more of a minimalist than hoarder so the getting rid of clutter won’t be too bad. Still a bunch of work before the house is ready for the exterminator.

Btw I’ll have over $100 in mattress covers, bug intercepters and misc like rubbing alcohol, utility of running washer and dryer non stop etc, exterminator will cost $400 for two sprays spread out 3-4 weeks. So I’ll have close to $600 in this plus time because of one 3h visit lmao. And that’s ordering stuff off amazon and knowing a owner of a termite and pest control company.

As for the car, about all I can do right now is clean EVERYTHING out of the car (clutter), vacuum again and spray pretty heavy with rubbing alcohol until I’m ready for the exterminator to hit it and the house, I have thought even about driving my truck into work for awhile. Who knows how much time I’ll lose on this earth from being around so many chemicals now.

 

[BrokeFarmerJohn]

Since the original bites on my chest I have had two more on my right hand.

Bed bugs feed every 5-10 days, one fertilized female can lay 5-7 eggs a day, takes about a week to hatch and they are fully grown within 5 weeks. Left unchecked, they can multiply fast.

Larvae can’t develop or molt into diff cycles to adulthood unless they get blood, now to slow there population I have to keep my blood out of their reach lol.

Bed bugs can go dormant for up to 10 months so starving them out is a long game. Which is why mattress covers need to be on the mattress for a year to be safe.

 

[Ford850]

What about upholstered furniture and carpets? I've read that sub zero temps for hours will also kill them. A new chest freezer might be a good investment that you could cycle clothing, boots, etc, through it every few days. Then you could either use or sell the freezer.

 

[sixdogs]

Have to mentioned anything to your grandmother, where you got them? How is your dad doing with his situation?

 

[Redlands Okie]

I am pretty sure that cold from a freezer does not kill bed bugs

Well I went back to reading and seems I was wrong. Proper freezing may kill them.

Can You Kill Bed Bugs in the Freezer - BedBugs.net

 

[Ford850]

I am pretty sure that cold from a freezer does not kill bed bugs

Temperatures zero degrees or below, for 4 days, kills them and their eggs. A freezer set to those temperatures will kill them. My chest freezer set at "normal" or mid range, holds the temperature at zero, and goes well below that when set to the colder settings.

 

[jerrybob]

The Bedbugs have been around for a long time.....even in the ole West!

the bedbugs band - Bing video