Big Bad Bed Bug Secret? (Gas vs. electric cooking)

HiTech RedNeck's scientific brain | March 22, 2017 | HiTech RedNeck

[HiTech RedNeck]

I have a buddy in rural Illinois who is living with and helping out his elderly mom, and he likes to cook. He cooks up a storm. They both enjoy the food.

The house they are in has begun to display a very bad bedbug infestation.

Both my buddy's mom and my buddy are freaking out. They don't have a lot of money but they are about to call Orkin.

I stopped to think about the science of bedbugs. Both my buddy and I did a lot of online research after discovering the infestation. But I think I have a scientific theory my buddy doesn't have.

According to a scientific paper I found that describes a study researching the repellent effect of DEET (as in Off! spray) upon bedbugs, the effect of DEET is balanced against the attractive effect of carbon dioxide. The conclusion was, as best I understood the implications, that 10% DEET would counterbalance the concentration of carbon dioxide in breath.

So that's good news for bedbug sufferers who have to survive it somehow. 10% DEET or more (and the sprays get a lot more concentrated than that) and the bedbugs are repelled from a person in spite of the attractive effect of that person's breath. A pain, but better than getting eaten up.

But then I started thinking about that carbon dioxide. And the way my buddy likes to cook on the gas stove in the place. And my brain went BINGO. What is the nominal "wattage" of a person? 80 watts at rest. What is the nominal "wattage" of a gas stove burner? 2800 plus (10,000 btu). And of a gas oven? Not sure, but it definitely is a lot. My conclusion is that if a bedbug smells carbon dioxide and it's lurking outside of an old, drafty house (and been dining on the blood of wildlife up to that point) it is going to think one gas stove burner smells like 2800/80 or 35 people. Might that seem better prospects to the bedbug than squirrels and raccoons and the like?

I've been urging my buddy to look into having the gas stove replaced with an electric one (with the appropriate wiring being done if necessary). I know he isn't a gas-only cooking snob; he used my own electric stove contentedly for years.

But what would FRee scientists think of this theory? I tried Googling gas stoves and bedbugs just for grins, and haven't seen a word about it.

I wonder if pestilences freak people out so much that they forget to reason? To the benefit of the business of exterminators? I'm suggesting to my buddy and his mom that they replace the stove as well as (if they must, and vacuuming and local spraying does not do enough) getting the house treated, so that the bedbug population isn't inadvertently replenished from the great outdoors in that drafty house.

[nopardons]

I think it has had that effect on everyone. ;^)

[Celerity]

I’m under the impression that the Swedes, Norwegians, Finnish and basically all of the North up there have the cleanest houses in the world.

Maybe you could look into that.

[nopardons]

Not since they welcomed, with open arms, the RAPEFUGEES, they don't.

Why don't you trot off to Malmo and check it all out?

[Aliska]

I love pelicans, never saw them here before so was thrilled. I got more photos of a small flock of them, about 10 or so. When I went down closer to the river's edge, I left my car unlocked and windows down, and somebody stole my purse off the front seat floor of my car. I didn't notice until I'd driven down further to photograph some other birds, stopped at the police station to report it, then home and cancelling cards (only have a couple). They wrote 2 bad checks, too.

It really shook me up, was a Friday night I think, no money, but I got by with cashing one check from a new book. I cancelled my debit card via an 800# and transferred most of my money into an account where it won't auto transfer to cover auto drafts.

It was a hard lesson; I don't even carry a purse any more. But it was my own fault. I'm just lucky they didn't grab my backpack sitting on the front seat with some expensive lenses in it.

Was in August 2008, my how time flies.

[grame]

Thank you. Having only seen 10, I hope it is just a bump in the road.

[DouglasKC]

I dont’ think that’s the solution. IF they’re in a house the best long term solution is to hire a company that will seal up the house and raise the temperature to a level in which bedbugs can’t survive. It’s not all that high. The opposite works as well but it would only work in the winter and you would have to worry about pipes freezing etc.

[pax_et_bonum]

[nopardons]

Now you have me thinking about fleas! LOL

[Flaming Conservative]

:-)

[nopardons]

:-)