Posted on 03/22/2017 8:03:33 PM PDT by 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.
That thought has crossed my mind many times.
I have a rednecky habit of keeping my travel clothes, etc. in plastic bags.
This might have saved me from bed bugs. The bugs eat blood but they don’t chew plastic.
Yeah, bedbugs are introduced somehow and they can’t get at sleeping humans and can’t breed and lay eggs before they starve. Bedbugs introduced to a place where they can crawl up easily to feed on sleeping humans can then breed and lay eggs. But many seem to pick them up from hotels, and the beds have legs. Maybe hotels are not where they feed and breed, but are dropped off by folks infested from home. They can go pretty long without feeding.
Freegards
Bedbugs live in the wild and infest raccoons and such?
The diatomaceous earth can be deadly for most to breathe. Have to use it very carefully and wisely. Acts like cement in the lungs.
One study suggested that bed bugs used to be bat bugs. Bats don’t have a lot of fur, so that is plausible.
We used diatomaceous earth to get rid of a huge flea infestation due to skunks setting up under the house. We don’t have carpets, which made it easier. But fleas can live a long time without eating and are damnably hard to kill, so finally we had to use the propane torch outside.
But are they infesting bats now? We have tons of bats around, and skunks, squirrels, raccoons, foxes, etc and have never seen a bedbug but did have a skunk flea problem as above.
Smart and reasonable. Also, doing all laundry and drying it right after you get home from staying in a risky place. I often wonder about my shoes, and spray them with Lysol. Same with luggage/travel bags. Probably futile, but what the heck.
FReegards
American lotteries haven't been around all that long; but bedbugs have. ;^)
One reference says they can live on cats and dogs, though they will prefer people.
It would be more complicated than just coming in from the wild. Something in the wild might get an infestation of them, and then serve as a source of the bugs to people.
2 months to a year.
I don’t think you’ll find bedbugs in the great outdoors; I never have, anyway. Now ticks and chiggers are outdoorsy critters. But bedbugs are like liberals, preferring to mooch in an more populated setting.
They typically get passed by humans in luggage, transported bedroom to bedroom, hotel to home and home to hotel, college dorm to apartment, etc.
Their favored hiding spot is behind wood trim...baseboards in particular.
If you can hit the bugs directly, a lot of common household chemicals will slay them.
It’s the bugs we can’t directly slay that are causing the problems. Most modern insecticides might be a joke to them. They are only looking to eat blood, so they won’t be eating other things that aren’t blood but which might have insecticides on them.
Yeah, that’s my experience. Fleas from wild animals also. But the thing about bats maybe being a possible carrier is interesting. I wonder if the nymphs cling to bat fur or something.
Freegards
Interesting. That sounds like a great idea. Because as you know, one day you never had them and the next you are the unlucky recipient. The bed bugs don’t discriminate against wealth as plenty of wealthy people get them too which I was a bit surprised to hear that when I first heard it.
Well I take it a lot of contact poisons doesn’t work on them very well. Like praying spectracide or whatever around a clean bed/sleeping area.
Freegards
If your friend can possibly afford it, call the exterminator asap - they multiply quickly making it that much harder to rid one's home of them.
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