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.
The ONLY way that people get them, when they are normal people, who keep things clean, is when they come in through something brought into the home or hotel, by people who have them and aren't "clean".
I thought you had a big hang up about that. This confirms it.
The bedbug idea of unclean isn’t always what people would call slovenly.
Suppose every time nopardons had a bad cold, people would say eww! nopardons is unclean!
No. nopardons simply does not live within an impractical bubble.
http://www.domyownpestcontrol.com/bed-bug-kits-c-39_97.html
Orkin chem without the Orkin cost. Swear by these guys. One of my animals picked up fleas at the groomer. Before we knew it our house was infested. Tried every OTC product out there. Finally bought some precor from these guys. Knocked down the adults. Stopped the larvae from transitioning and kept the eggs from hatching. One treatment.
Make sure to read everything on their site related to bed bugs. It tells you how to apply, where to apply and all the other things you need to do. I recommend them without hesitation.
Sorry, Hi Tech but nopardons is a dirty dirty girl. ;-) In the good way of course. LOL
LOL...oh come on.....! ;^)
My family, for many generations, have had gas stoves and NEVER has anyone of my immediate family members had ANY bedbugs; NOT EVER! And FYI....I live in the middle of the woods.
Me too. I don’t even know that bedbugs are in the woods. They’re picked up when you visit places where other people either have an infestation or from public spaces that have been infested by people who have picked them up from another public place, or have them at home.
Sounds awful, but the uptick is probably due to illegal immigrants flooding the borders, bringing them in, just like they have brought all the diseases with them that we got rid of decades ago.
Just plain no.....
Doesn’t explain bed bug infestations in hotels and other city dwelling high rises
People,who,travel that rrally worrying about bedbugs leave all clothes is zipped up travel bags/suitcases. They bring sleeping bags they sleep in on top of the bed that zip up so that only their heads are exposed during the night. They check undersides of matresses before even accepting the rooms.
And I might be wrong, but I've always been under the impression that bedbugs were not something that mostly bedeviled rural or exurban places; rather that they were a thing more common in big cities; especially places where immigrants gathered.
My parents were raised in the rural south, and though they never had bedbugs, when we were little, at bedtime, my dad would say, “Night night, sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite”. Thankfully, we had no idea what a bedbug was.
The "sleep tight" part, comes from when there were no bed springs and instead, ropes, which had to be retied tied, often every day, when a bed was made, is what kept the mattresses from sagging...though I have heard that there is a different explanation of the word "tight" in this 100s of years old little good night wish. :-)
Like you, I had no idea what a bedbugs was back then either.
I’m a senior citizen, but I’m sure that expression is pretty old.
It’s possible to get the species that feed on bats. The common bed bugs feed primarily on humans and won’t come from surrounding wildlife.
Bedbug bites are very painful AND the pain lasts for days
after the bites are delivered.
I cook with electricity & refuse to have gas anything in
the house. I can smell it in any building. We have never
had bedbugs, but stayed in a motel once that had them.
That’s where I got a hard lesson about bedbug bites.
I use natural stuff for pest control. DIATOMACEOUS EARTH
is good on a lot of different pests, but you MUST be very
careful with it and be sure no one rubs it into their eyes.
I place it out of the reach of any human being. The bugs
crawl through an inch strip of it and are suffocated. I’ve
used it on window sills where I know children won’t be
playing. I’ve dissolved a tablespoon in a little milk &
fed it to the dog for worm control, even took it a few
times myself.
I have to think it would kill bedbugs if it is shaken
onto the mattress where no human being can get it on
themselves (maybe between the mattress & springs).
DIATOMACEOUS EARTH is the prehistoric skeletons of little
sea creatures. They are very white and cut the innards of
bugs when they crawl through the “powder”. It’s great if
you KEEP IT OUT OF YOUR EYES; as it also cuts the eyeball
the same way it cuts bugs to death.
I use it under the kitchen sink for roaches & NEVER see a
roach in the house. (I use FOOD GRADE D.E.)
It’s little shards of glass to the average gut.
I have a totally electric house and experienced a bed bug problem. It started when my step son brought them in some items he got from a friend. The boxes were infested with bugs when he opened them then didn’t act immediately to get rid of them. A national pest control company wanted $2500, I have almost completely eradicated them myself, now occasionally see 1 or 2, when I do I retreat immediately with a product from Bayer named TEMPRID SC. Very inexpensive on Amazon, and it works.
I've wondered why there isn't a black market for that as well.
Your first idea sounds like it has a lot of potential.
I don’t know the history, but most of the top DIY pest control guys are here in the Atlanta area. Very useful. I once had an issue with pantry moths. The pheromone glue traps those guys sell work great. Recommended, those guys know what they’re doing.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.